We've had a quiet couple of weeks since halloween but we wanted to post to say hello.
Here's a picture of one of chris' birthday presents ~ it's a wall hanging from the crafts market of what else.. fish. It's actually kind of different than a lot of the stuff you see and it's really beautifully done.

I've decided it's time to start taking private spanish lessons ~ I have 'survival' spanish and can get by but I need to be able to speak a little more since basically no one in the neighborhood where we live speaks English at the stores, banks, taxis, etc. and it's such a great opportunity to learn.

I don't know if we mentioned this, but the largest park in Quito is behind our house and Chris and i go for walks there as often as we can ~ it's really magical. you walk up a huge hill to get in there and then you're in this eucalyptus tree filled park and the air is wonderful and smells so good ~ we'll post some pictures from the park soon. We've been looking for some cool fungus since it's been raining a bit but there aren't as many mushrooms as you would think in the woods.

We're thrilled to be here in ecuador and appreciate the beautiful views from our terrace each evening. It's really cool to watch the clouds come in and cover the mountains and even surround us since we're up so high.
here's a sample:
We'll post more soon and hope everyone is well and happy ~ and thanks again for all the comments posted .... oh, and T.J. was right ~ chris was a shrimp for halloween. I told him he should have carried around a jar of cocktail sauce so people would know what he was...