It's been a while

It's been a week since I've written and I feel like I have missed a bunch.  Cal has been not feeling so well again, but we think we've figured it all out and he is bouncing back.

Since my Thanksgiving post we enjoyed the rest of our visit with Danny's sister, Shari, and her husband, John.  After that we flew back to Quito to address Cal's digestive troubles.  We met with a great gastro doctor and we are headed to Santiago tomorrow morning as planned.

Here is a little recap of our visit with Shari and John last week and some photos:

When we all arrived at the Rio Muchacho farm we were welcomed back by lots of familiar faces.  Some old friends had moved on to new travels but still happily working at the farm were the core staff and interns.  We were bummed though that Kelsey, (one of the interns who we think we’ve convinced to move to Colorado after her time in Ecuador!) was only around for one day that week because she was meeting a friend in Quito.  Shari and John got a tour of the farm from an intern named Andrea as well as a wannabe intern named Harper. 

Over the next few days Shari and John got to see most of things we did during our 6 weeks at Rio Muchacho.  (And also some we didn't.  The bees were new and their time at the farm led to lots of excitement.)

Shari helps gather honey from the comb

Fresh honeycomb

Cal shows off his table manners while enjoying the honey at breakfast

Shari climbs Arbol Gigante

John was next

Then Danny (who we thought was afraid of heights) and I head up.  

After three days at the farm we headed back to Canoa for a couple days on the beach.  Shari and John took a surfing lesson and the kids were really happy to be back splashing in the waves.  We all stayed at our favorite hostel, Amalur.  One night Cal and Harper got to have dinner with just Shari and John while Danny and I went for a walk on the beach.  It was literally the longest time we had been away from the kids together since we set out on this trip in September and we all enjoyed it immensely.  (Cal still talks about this meal saying, “Uncle John let me dip my French fries in chocolate!”)

Looking back, we had a really nice visit with Shari and John.  While we didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving in the traditional sense, we felt thankful to be with family after such a long time away. 

Bedtime stories with Aunt Shari