Sebastiao's 8th Birthday

We celebrated Sebastiao's 8th Birthday last Tuesday and what a night it was. He has a couple of his good friends come out to dinner with us at his favorite restaurant. They had "Lego Races" while we waited for the food and then climbed all over the Indigenous statues afterward. This was, however, the first time that the boys had noticed that most of the statues were naked... they got off very quickly after that!



We went back home for cake, candy and cookies!

and then of course PRESENTS! Thanks to all of you who helped to make it a great day. Sebastiao was up until 2:30Am putting together Lego sets. Its always nice when your friends envy you a little on your birthday!

Nothing Like Time With Friends

We were very honored this summer to have some very good friends visit us here in EC. The Garvelli family: Joe, Blake, Tony, Allie and Garret spent 2 weeks with us here. Along with having a great time exploring and seeing the sites, they also helped us catalog, inventory sort through TONS of medicines for Joe's upcoming jungle trip. Thanks to the Garvellis Joe was able to take all the medicines he needed to a jungle community a few weeks ago (blog entry to come if I can ever get Joe home for a few minutes)


Working hard on the medicines:



Both families enjoying the Hola Vida waterfall where you hike right up to the waterfall and then swim underneath it!



Exploring the Casa del Arbol (tree house) and caves there:


Another waterfall, Pailon del Diablo.




Monkeys up close and personal from our canoe at La Casa del Suizo.

Great Pleasure

Sorry I didn't get a post up this morning, but I spent the night vomiting and most of today in bed with my wonderful husband taking care of things around the house. So, here it is (just a little late).


One of the greatest parts of our job here is working with medical residents and interns. Obviously Joe gets to know them better than I do, but that is why we try to have them over as much as possible. This was an amazing group of residents and it was wonderful getting to know them, even if only for a short time. Its wonderful to find things in common such as children. Ruth (on the left) has a 2 year old son and Veronica (on the right) has a little girl on the way.

How We Spent Our Fourth of July

We spent our 4th of July with the missionary community which included, Americans, Canadians and few Germans and a few Ecuadorians. Everyone made patriotic desserts and we all enjoyed that it wasn't 100 degrees like back in the states.

Fathers Day

We spent Father's Day like many other important days- with Joe on-call. The kids enjoyed making him gifts and baking his favorite dessert just for the day. We have a prize for anyone who can make out what their "Bean Signs" say...... any takers?

Snakes and Fangs and Swollen Hands

When patients come into the hospital with snake bites, they very often bring the snake along! Even more fun huh?

Last Week of School

Sebastiao's last week of school was jam packed. He had Backwards Day- which he interpreted as Upside Down Day, and had an awards ceremony where he won an award for Patients as well as a Presidential Physical Education Award. Now Sebastiao constantly reminds us how "Patient"he is because he "has an award to prove it!"

End of School

OK, I know its August and most of you are getting ready to start school, but I am just now getting around to posting end of school pictures- lets just say I have adapted very well to the laid back South American lifestyle- or at least thats what I am calling it.


First up is Isabella finishing up at Preschool. Here she is with her class and Teacher Mrs. Sharon. Bella wanted to wear her special dress Grandma made for her for her special day. She will be starting school this September at CELE, a local Ecuadorian school affiliated with a Church here in Shell.

Earthquakes and Face Book

Some of you may have heard that Ecuador experienced an earthquake early this morning. According to many news reports it registered about 6.9 and according to all the maps was very close to us- we however were oblivious to it- completely. This morning while checking my Face Book a friend wrote to check on us and make sure we were alright. Thanks Alica because without you I never would have checked online news. So, thankfully, we all blissfully slept through it all and there appears to be no damage within the country.


Here is the story on Fox News