January Picture Round-up

Swing Pile!

 The month of January was spent at Lago Angostura. I am doing one long blog of all the highlights and low lights!!

May I have this dance?

I think Ruth and Paula were the instructors.

 January was FULL of last minute paperwork having to do with becoming citizens of Bolivia and our first adoption check up. One of the bummer things at the beginning of the year, was that neither Rudi nor I had our drivers licenses for two weeks, due to a step in the paperwork process. This meant lots of public transportation. One morning we headed out to catch a truffi at 5:30 a.m. As we were walking out to the road I smelled something that smelled really sweet, it was the cactus that only open their blooms when it is overcast, a rarity in Cochabamba, and before the sun come up for the day. The next morning Rudi and Myles went out early to take some pictures for me of the blooms. They are really beautiful and smell amazing! So I guess our lack of transportation allowed us to "stop and smell the cactus"!

Cactus Blooms

Stunning!

I really like these cactus flowers!!!

 In January we also had many visitors, but some of our favorites were from Peru. This family made us a huge lunch of Peruvian food. It was SUPER delicious!! We hope to visit this family in Lima sometime. Definitely new friends for life!

Enjoying our new friends and food from Peru!

Rudi and Myles showing our friends how to play the violin!

Daddy and David enjoying the lake!

Daddy time!

 During the month of January, Clancy turned 13!

Happy Birthday, Clancy!

Time for extra art projects!

 We also faced a lot of sickness in the month of January. Peter and Emily got some kind of nasty sickness in their mouths, along with fevers, sore throats, and the general "mal estar"!

Essential oils to the rescue,,,

Myles keeping a sick Emily company!

 Another unusual thing we experienced was washing ALL our clothes and bedding by hand. Each day it took about an hour and a half. I had lots of help and it wasn't as bad as it sounds. Thankfully, the weather was mostly sunny, so that helped to get things dry.

Rudi on clothes washing duty!

 We did have one HUGE storm that dumped a couple of inches in less than an hour. Our yard looked like a lake with a river running through one side.

Our yard covered in water.

Chow time in the cozy cabin

Myles having an early morning
quiet time out by the lake.

Boys bedroom for the month of January!

 I mentioned that the month was full of paperwork. Our kids got really good at waiting in public buildings.

Waiting for Carnets at SEGIP

 I didn't think to take a picture of the lines, but they serve about 1,000 people a day starting at 7 a.m. Needless to say there are LOTS of people and LONG lines!

You can tell they came prepared!

Waiting in line at SEGIP

Picnic time again!

Another wash morning. Most of the children and Rudi took turns
helping me. 

Music practice!

Futbol is in the blood for this guy!

Ruth taking Adriana for a spin out on the lake!

Too cute!

Paula on another adventure

Lunch outside

This random picture is of me blow drying my
hair with the worlds largest blow dryer!

Saying goodbye to friends.

The whole gang filling up the cabin!

Emily finally got her braces taken off after four years. The picture below is the "before" picture and the picture below is right "after" she got them off.

Last picture with braces. Hooray!

First picture right after!
Coffee break with our friend Danyelle Graves!

The end of January found us packing everything up for our six month trip to the States. We had to pack not only for our travels, but also for our return in August. Kirsten and Amber, the ladies that are renting our "old" house, graciously allowed us to store our things for our return in a room in the house. They also hosted us our last day in Bolivia and fed us a delicious dinner. Thank you, Amber and Kirsten!

Group picture with Kirsten and Amber right before leaving
for the Cochabamba airport!

A large group came to see us off. The picture below is some of the ones we got to stand still for a picture! We have so many lovely friends in Cochabamba. We are going to miss them while we are in the States. Our family is ready for a break from Bolivia, though! We also are looking forward to introducing our adopted children to their family in the U.S. and allowing them to pick up some English!!!

Some of our friends at the airport to see us off!