Weekend Wrap Up ~ Staycation Edition

Good morning!  Here is a re-cap of our weekend:

Friday, the four of us went to the Hilton Bogota . We have stayed here a few times in the past 2 years, and it is always a nice place to escape for a staycation.

The Hilton is the black building in the center of this photo.

One of our favorite things about staying there is going to the executive lounge.  We eat our meals and snacks there and the people remember us from stay to stay!

Another favorite thing is swimming in the heated pool.  Here are the girls Friday afternoon swimming before Avery and I went to our marriage conference.

I laughted at the girls because they had a whole room to themselves, yet they put their duffle bags right in between their beds where they would walk!

Don't they look nice??  My parents were looking good for their 50th wedding anniversary dinner Friday night.

Saturday, we headed to our marriage retreat again.  I didn't get any pictures of Avery and I, but I did get a photo of these empenadas!  We had these for a mid-morning snack during the conference.

The speakers for the conference are from St. Louis.  They gave each couple a copy of this book by Tim Keller.  The conference was great and we enjoyed the speakers.  We were able to even share lunch with them Sunday.

We attended United Church of Bogota Sunday and this is a picture that was taken yesterday during service.  

After lunch, we went to some friends apartment for a gender reveal party.

Baby #1, due in April (and they are adopting this baby) is a girl!

Baby #2, due in July, is also a girl!

It was a great weekend with a change of scenery and being with friends here.  Now, back to reality with the girls in school and we are hosting our MTW team meeting today.

Friday Favorites

It is always good to think on some favorite things of the week, especially the past 2 weeks!

Today is my parent's 50th Wedding Anniversary!  50 Years!  Happy Golden Anniversary Mom & Dad! Love y'all!

 Avery returned back to Bogota from Memphis!  It was good to have him home and to receive the goodies he brought.  My friend, Ashley, (thank you for praying for her Wednesday!) sent me these boots.  Here I am trying them on with my Santa pajamas :)

I think I can hands down say my favorite part about living in Bogota are the cheap fruits and vegetables. I bought these items for $2.75!   

I tried a few new receipes this week.  One was for zuchinni fritters.  Here they were before I put them in the oven.  They weren't as crispy as a I thought they would be, but they were good.

For the first time here, I spotted powdered donuts!  I just bought them yesterday, so the girls haven't tried them as of yet, but they look to be okay.  I'm sure this is a strange treat to Colombians! 

Tuesday, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth after spending one year on the International Space Station.  About 5 years ago, I became a space fan, although I haven't followed the updates as closely these past 2 years. I really did enjoy watching some live NASA coverage of his return to Earth though.

This is my friend Rachelle.  I haven't seen her in over 2 years, but yeseterday was her birthday and we spent the day texting.  It was so fun to re-connect with this dear friend and I look forward to seeing her in 2017! 

We are off for our stay-cation this weekend, so I will try to report back on Monday.

Happy Weekend!

Spirit Week

Last week was Spirit Week at the girls' school so they had a different theme for each day of the week.

Monday

Professional Day

Tuesday

Topsy Turvy Day

Wednesday

Character Day

Thursday

Throwback Thursday

Brook and her friend, Mariale

Brook's class had a health fair at school and Brook did a presentation on Leukemia.

This is kind of blurry, but this is Brook telling her teacher about her presentation (her teacher was dressed up too!).

Brook is at the very end on the right, but this is the room where the health posters were at the school.

Brook and her friend, Abby, who did a presentation on brain tumors.

Friday

Friday was a big event at the school.  They called it "Celebramos Colombia" and "Dia de Idioma", where they celebrated Colombia and Spanish speaking countries.  Brook's class represented Guatemala and Isabella's class did Chile, although she did not have to dress up. The younger grades looked very cute in their outfits.  It was a long, hot day, but there was cuteness in the little kids!

Brook stood outside the door to the Guatemala room.

These are some of Isabella's classmates doing their impression of a band from Chile.

Isabella in her Colombian shirt eating an arepa for lunch!

Brook playing a game at the school festival.  

A view of my girls waiting on our ride home.

Isabella bought this Memphis t-shirt for her friend, Sarah, who was wearing her shirt that afternoon.  It was ironic Isabella was wearing Colombia and her Colombian friend was wearing Memphis!

And here is one more photo of Brook that a friend took and sent to me.  Poor Brook came home with a sunburned face and back :(.

Prayer

Today I ask for prayers for my sweet friends, the Janovichs.  Today marks the 3 year anniversary William Janovich went to be with Jesus.  That leaves heartbreak and hard days for this family.  His wife, Ashley, and their 3 kids have become so precious and such good friends to us.  Pray for Ashley, Maylen, Adaline, and Pearce.  Pray for Ashley as she grieves and leads her family.  Pray for her to find Godly love from another man one day.  Pray for her girls as the realization of not having an earthly daddy will be harder as they grow up through these teenage and adult years.  Pray for Pearce. Pearce was only 7 months when his daddy died, so he will not have memories outside of photos.  Pray for him to know how loved he was and more importantly, how loved he is by his Heavenly Father.  I pray for Godly men to speak into Pearce's life as he grows older.  I just love these people.  Will you pray for their hurting hearts today?

Pearce last year on Father's Day

That smile is so hard not to say no to a big cookie for breakfast!

Brook with the Janovich kids our first day in Memphis in December

Ashley and I at the Peabody

The cutest little batman, with Brook by his side!

Maylen and Brook

Me and Maylen

Avery with Adaline and Maylen last Sunday at church

Welcome March!

Welcome to March!  

Here is a look ahead to our March 2016:

~ March 1st

Avery's home!  He arrived at home after midnight.  I had unpacked a suitcase by 5am :).

~ Work on renewing our Colombian visas

These expire in less than 2 weeks and we need to take a trip to the immigration office here. The website is not so clear and the experience seems to be a little different for everyone, so we will start on this today and see what happens for our story!

~ Marriage Retreat & Staycation

United Church of Bogota, the english speaking church, hosts its 2nd marriage retreat this weekend.  It was great last year and we will attend this year, but we are making a staycation of the weekend.  We have a hotel room for Friday and Saturday night and the girls will stay there and we can walk about 10 blocks and be at the church. The marriage retreat falls on my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary!

~ Miami

The girls and I are getting away to Miami for 3 nights, so a quick, but much needed get-a-way.  The highlight will be seeing my brother, sister-in-law and their 2 girls,  Of course, Target and Chick-Fil-A will be a close second :).  

~ Spring Break

The girls have holy week off from school and we will go to Cartagena for a few nights.  This will be our first family vacation in Colomiba.  We have heard so much about this city, so we are happy to visit there while we are still living in Colombia.

~ Easter

Honestly, last year Easter was one of our hardest holidays here.  Now that we know a little of what to expect, we can be more prepared for it this year.