My $53 dollar haircut!

That's right! I have been itching to get my haircut so I went to this fancy place in the mall. I was a little nervous as I don't have the typical hair cut of Ecuador. There was a man who spoke English so I told him to basically cut it the same style - just a trim. He explained this to the hairdresser, told me it would be $33 and off we went! Danni and Emma are with me and they are pretty good at first but then Emma got ants in her pants and was making the chairs go up and snooping all over so of course Danni had to start up. He blow drys my hair and then starts talking to me in Spanish - I have a blank look on my face so he starts to gesture like can he style my hair. I say Si, please style my hair. He had a really hard time trying to style it. He had to spray water on it a few times and try again! Finally he put some hair spray in and looked at me. It was fine...not his best work I am sure but the haircut was perfect and it was time to get Emma and Danni out of there. The extra style he did cost me $20!! I was going to bring Hayden home sushi for lunch but I didn't even have enough to get Taco Bell!!

We leave tomorrow for Papallacta so I started to gather our clothes. Danni was curious about his swim suit. Not sure he has ever wore one before. I did get him to put it on but he started to cry and took it off. He thought the goggles were fun! Emma put her suit on to see if he would put his back on. He did but again started to cry and took it off! He loves showers so I am thinking once he sees the pools of water he will put that suit right on no problem!!!

We are not going to take our computers with - we are going be "unplugged" until Monday afternoon. We are not sure if there is even internet there but we are all taking a break from computers!!! Look for our next update on Monday night!

Have a great weekend!! Chow!!

Mari and Hayden who is sitting next to me whining as to why I don't include his name.

PS Hayden says I love my wife!

Rain, pajamas and movies!

Today it rained ALL day. I did get Emma and Danni dressed and we ran to Megamaxi. Once we were back home Emma decided that since it was so rainy and dreary out that she wanted her pajamas back on. Monkey see monkey do.....Danni had to put his pajamas back on too. He did ask and was a bit concerned at first. "No dormir" (which means sleep) he kept saying - he wanted the pajamas on but not to go to bed! Then several times he would come to me and tell me it was okay to not wear clothes but be in pajamas! It was pretty cute!!

Finally around 4 PM the rain ended and the sun peaked out. Hayden and I wanted to go for a walk. Danni likes to walk and does not complain....we all know what Emma does when we have to walk! So we have to bribe her to go out - she could get some new movies if she came for a walk. There are little movie stores here that sell DVD copies for real cheap!! There is a store on our block that Hayden and Emma have become regular customers but Emma is running out of kid movies there so she saw another store about a mile away. So with promise of new movies we headed out. Tonight she put her first choice in.....it didn't work at all. Second choice was not a copy of a DVD but someone sitting in a movie theatre recording the movie as it played! It was shaky and a head popped up! It was Justin Beiber too! It was hilarious to see how upset she got! We had already explained to her about the possibility of getting movies like these..we paid $1.50 so what do you expect!! Her 3rd movie did work just fine so she isn't as upset any more but she definitely isn't going back to that store! She went on and on complaining about it. The one on the block here has much better quality and he says that he "guarantees" they are good!! Hayden also got him and I three movies so it will be interesting to see if they are ok!! Oh well - it was a fun adventure for Emma to share!!

My sister and her hubby are so awesome - they were able to get a couple of movies on YouTube for me. Enjoy!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v1Xb0O-vLY Easter Sunday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCAsa5uPATc Mr Bubbles

I know you have heard this before but I really love the clouds and the mountains here. I truly could sit and watch them all day. Today no pictures of the kids but the view as the rain clouds were leaving was just awesome.

Have a great night!

Mari

Beautiful Day!!

Not only did we wake to beautiful blue skies we also had a beautiful day in court! The judge did not request any additional information! We just wait now for his decision which can take up to 15 working days. Our attorneys were so excited when he said "we are done" in lieu of a usual order for another social and psychological exam. We didn't understand what was going on until after he left the room! It was a great day! The whole appointment took about 10 minutes. I was asked to state my full name, then if I understood what it means to adopt Danni and lastly if I had any biological children. He then asked Hayden the same three questions and if where we live has schools that teaches Spanish. That's it! To be honest he was a very nice elderly man. We did have drama, the electricity went out so the computer shut down while the minutes were being recorded. Luckily, this only lasted 15 seconds and the document did save!! We would of just had to start over but it was a tense moment!! The whole room went "Ahhhhh!". By the way I thought we would be in some big court room - ya know like we see on TV - well we were just in a small office attached to the judges chambers. Nothing fancy. We all sat in a circle and the judge stood before us. It really was very informal.

We went to lunch at Emma's new favorite restaurant - Crepes and Waffles! She discovered that they serve ice cream with their waffles. In addition to the huge pile of cream on top and of course chocolate sprinkles!! In the cab on the way home Danni fell asleep so he, Emma and I all crawled into bed for a little nap! Hayden worked. It was nice except that I woke to some huge thunder. We have had some big afternoon storms lately. It was time to get up any way as the Spanish/English teacher was coming.

We are all already looking forward to the weekend as we go to a resort for three nights. Keep your fingers crossed, and us in your prayers as we are hoping the judge will issue his final ruling in less than three weeks.

Chow!

P.S. The two ladies pictured are our lawyers (Abogado en Espanol).

Hair cuts!

This morning Danni and Emma got their hair cut at the little shop down the street. Emma looked so mature when her's was done. It was very beautiful!! I tried to do it tonight after her shower but she does not have patience for me to try to style her hair. Danni had fun! He sat still and would giggle now and then but he did great! They both look awesome for court tomorrow!! After hair cuts we walked down to this little coffee shop and shared a sweet treat. It was really, really awesome!! It was kind of my trick to get Emma to walk all the way to Megamaxi!! We were half way there so why not continue on. We didn't need anything but I enjoyed the walk. It was gorgeous out! We also ate watermelon outside, played ball and sidewalk chalk before it was time for lunch. Today the Spanish/English tutor came - again both kids did great!

Tomorrow is the big day. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers that this goes without incident. We were told this judge likes to order additional social worker and psychologist visits with some one from the government. They currently have reports from the orphanage. So pray he feels we have already bonded with Danni and that we are a great family for him. We fell in love with him before we even got here. He is our son.

Hayden feels bad that he isn't mentioned in this blog but he did spend the day working! He also thinks he is going to win at Scrabble tonight...but I doubt it!!

Buenas noches! Mari

Easter Sunday

What a beautiful Easter Sunday we had! We woke up again to beautiful blue sky's! The kids were up before 8 AM - Emma was looking for her Easter egg hunt! Danni had no clue but once he figured out he was looking for chocolate it was all good!!! Easter here isn't about bunnies and chocolate so you don't find much in the store for Easter candy. That is a good thing actually! Check out the baskets they had - they hold only a few pieces of candy. I think this is the size of basket that we should always use!! They searched for their candy and then of course had to eat one. Just one!! We had a big breakfast and leisurely morning. We thought about going to Old Town and go to church - there are 7 Catholic churches on one street - but after Friday and all the people that were there we figured it would be crazy. So we relaxed and enjoyed our coffee while the kids played. We headed to Parque Carolina (this is becoming our usual Sunday outing) and Danni kept chanting "Carolina - caballo's" which means horses all the way there! The park was extra busy today and the wait to ride a horse was too long so we skipped it. There is always so much going on in the park. There are lots of street performers that will just start up there act anywhere - like at traffic lights! Well, there was a guy setting up his performance in the park skating ramp. There were quite a few people waiting to watch him so we sat down. I barley understood anything that he said but he was still quite funny. The funniest part is that he kept messing with Hayden! The first time it was because he asked the crowd to clap and Hayden didn't. So he became a target! It was pretty funny! We strolled through the park all afternoon. Typically we get rained out after a couple of hours but not today. The sun was nice and hot! When we started to head home we couldn't find a cab so we just kept walking and walked all the way home. Now it isn't that far but when you are 3 years old with short little legs it is a pretty long walk! Danni walked all the way home even up the big hill! We must of walked over 3 miles!! It was a great Sunday. Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter Sunday.

Tomorrow - Emma and Danni both need a haircut. Emma's hair grows like a weed in warm weather and Danni needs a trim. Need to look good for court on Tuesday! Keep us in your thoughts and prayers that all goes well on Tuesday. That is all for tonight! Mari

PS...I know the links to the videos I gave a week ago don't work. We have a horrible time trying to load anything. Even the pictures on the blog take an hour plus to load each night. My sister Nan is helping us get the videos onto YouTube. I will send out links once we get them all set up. Thanks Nan and Tom!!

Quito Zoo

Today we visited Quito Zoo and the best part was it was SUNNY - very sunny!!! It was a gorgeous morning to spend walking through a zoo and the animals were quite active which made it even more fun. The zoo is about an hour from our house but with traffic it took about 90 minutes. The zoo has lots of acres of land but most of it is undeveloped. It definitely isn't as big as the MN zoo. It is closer to the size of the Madison zoo. Emma is an animal lover so she was so excited. Danni loves animals too. He even walked through the whole zoo! It was a lot of fun! A great day in the sun with the family!

Last night at 4 AM Hayden and I woke up to a very large noise coming from outside. We realized that the electricity was out for several blocks and we believe the noise was a generator. It was so loud that you would of thought it was right there in our room. By 4:30 AM Danni was up then Emma got up. So I crawled into bed with Emma (Danni sleeps in her room on a twin bed) and we all laid there listening to this noise go on and on. Around 6 AM the lights came on and 5 minutes later the noise ended. We fell back asleep but that sure makes for a tired family. So I am too tired to write more tonight. I have lots of pictures to share.

Happy Easter everyone!

Mari

Viernes Santo

Good Friday. Today we went down to Centro Historico to see what was going on. There are 7 Catholic churches on one street there so we figured there would be something going on. We got in the cab and told him where we wanted to go and he said no - it is closed for procession....but we can walk in. On the way there was no traffic, no people walking around, no stores open!! When we got there is was busy, busy, busy!! People all over the place. We walked up a few blocks (up a huge hill that is) and ran into the procession. There were so many people. We believe they were saying the rosary as they walked - most likely doing the stations of the cross too. We watched for a bit and then walked at least 6 blocks (up and down huge hills!) to get to the end of the procession. There was also a huge statue of the Virgin Mary that passed by. It was beautiful - full of roses and people were throwing more flowers at it. We decided to get lunch and we found a beautiful restaurant that was in the Arch Bishops residence. Part of his home was made into shops and restaurants. We were on the 3rd floor of an open air courtyard. It was beautiful and delicious. It took at least 2 hours for lunch and when we came out and walked towards the Presidential Palace and here come the procession again!!! We believe the Virgin Mary was being taken to the Cathedral which is right next to the Presidential Palace. It was amazing how many people were there. It started to sprinkle and Danni was falling asleep in my arms as we walked so we went to find a cab. There were blocks and blocks and blocks of people walking behind the Virgin Mary. Hayden thinks there were 100,000 people walking in the procession and another 100,000 just there watching. It was amazing and beautiful. It was a fabulous Friday afternoon. Tonight we are home resting up as tomorrow we are going to the zoo!!!

Emma and Danni also colored Easter eggs tonight. Danni kind of gave us weird looks when we told him to color and put stickers on eggs but he eventually went at it. It think one of his eggs has at least a dozen stickers on it! It wasn't the same as dying them at home but I think Emma enjoyed it. She is looking forward to me hiding chocolate on Sunday! Again, not the same as at Brian and Janet's but she is exctied for it. Hasta manana! Mari

PS...I also beat Hayden in Scrabble tonight by 100 points!! Don't tell him I told you!! :)

Almost the weekend!!

Well...I am being forced to write this but Hayden did again beat me bad at Scrabble! I guess I need to stop bragging about my wins!

Another quiet day. We took a leisurely stoll to Megamaxi this morning to get us groceries. I talked Emma into walking because there is a tiger painted VW Bug on the way. It sits out front an internet cafe. Her and I play the slug bug game all the time - when you see a VW Bug you get to hit the other person and say "Slug Bug". She wins all the time at home but there I am driving!! So we are playing here but you need to say the color of the slug bug in Spanish. Yeah, I am winning here!!! So we walk to this car and I take some pics of Emma posing by it and then Danni wants to pose too and I take his picture. It was sunny out and I had my sun glasses on so I didn't realize that it was in black and white. Hayden had changed the settings on the camera so I could take some night shots. So I guess we will have to walk again because you need to see the colors on this car! I so miss my walks that I would walk every day to Megamaxi but she just complains and complains. Danni doesn't say a word he just walks along.

Other than our walk to Megamaxi we stayed home. We had the Spanish/English tutor this afternoon. Tomorrow Hayden is only working until noon so we will all head out. We are going to try to find a few museums to check out.

Today at Megamaxi we bought white eggs. Typically eggs here are brown....I haven't seen white eggs until this week. Maybe it has something to do with Easter. So we bought white eggs and Danni kept saying NO, NO - he wanted the brown ones like he is used to. Emma wants to color Easter eggs but they don't have Easter egg dye kits here so we are going to try to color them with markers and stickers. It will be fun as I am sure Danni has never done this before.

I am looking forward to the weekend. Hayden works too hard and we get bored with out him! :) We are going to the zoo on Saturday which should be really fun. Just hope it is clear and not rainy as Emma has lost her rain jacket - I think it was left in a cab. We looked for a light weight jacket here and their coats are like winter coats! She has a warm coat here - just needs something lightweight to wear when it is raining. We will keep looking. Maybe I will just give her a garbage bag to wear! Just kidding. :)

Enjoy the weekend!! Mari

Good news...bad news (not really!)

The bad news...Hayden beat me bad last night in scrabble! The stars must of been aligned just right to shine on him! Good news....we played a pre-dinner game and I am back as the winner!!!! Oh yeah!!

Today was a quiet day. We woke up to cloudy skies and a bit cooler. We did play outside a bit and enjoyed some fresh air. Emma remembered that we brought side walk chalk. It was a big hit with Danni. He is also quite good at kicking the ball. The janitor came out and scooped the doggie dodo for us too. :) So we had lots of room to play! Of course, my battery was dead on the camera!! I cant believe I did that twice now. We have noticed that battery life here is much shorter than home. Must be an altitude thing. Anyway, next time you can see the chalk artistry of Emma and Danni!! :) Other than that we didn't do anything special. We played and did work on our English/Spanish homework for an hour. Emma of course watched TV and Danni played with the iPod a bit too.

We do have some good news to share but I hate to jinx it....the last two nights Danni has slept through the night!! He is going to bed with Emma around 8:30 PM and they are both sleeping 11 to 12 hours. To me that means he is feeling safe and loved here. Lets just hope this keeps up!

At the dinner table tonight Emma started to sing a Justin Beiber song and guess who started to repeat it! We of course all laughed so he kept signing it. If he only knew who Justin was!! He is very popular here - you can buy his poster in the park even!! Same with Miley Circus - she is coming here in concert. Crazy kids!!

Emma and Danni watch a movie every night before bed. They are always so into it. I took the above picture and neither of them even blinked!! Not much else. We need to get out of the house tomorrow. I hope it is nice. Not sure what we will do...maybe the park. Later! Mari

One more week!

One more week until our court date! So looking forward to that day!!


We had a quiet day. Went to the mall to play in the arcade and then to Megamaxi!! Our week days are kind of quiet and boring. The Spanish/English teacher came today too. She really is doing a great job with Danni and Emma. I have been working with Danni on learning English but he typically gets antsy or says "NO" and then makes a face at me. With her he sits still and is very engaged. Emma is doing great too except the woman speaks Spanish so quickly that Emma says "huh" a lot!! :)


Again I am including some cloud photos. I love the way the clouds come past our window. We are two miles in the air so at times we are completely engulfed in a cloud to the point where you cant even see the building next door. Then 20 minutes later all is clear! Then at night we love to watch the other side of the mountain light up. Until a cloud passes through and all is dark. Then it passes and we again have lights all over! Like a huge Christmas tree!!


Not much else to say today. Hayden is calling for a rematch in Scrabble. I have beat him BAD for the past 4 or 5 games. So I am cutting it short tonight so I can go beat him agian!! More tomorrow! Mari

Changing of the Guard

Today Emma, Danni and I went to the Presidential Palace to watch the changing of guard. Every Monday they make it a big elaborate ceremony with all the guards and horses. The cabby dropped us off about a block away and it was just crazy! There were lots of people, security, police, army personnel carrying huge weapons and a procession coming through going towards the Presidential Palace (the pres doesn't live here just works here). People were chanting, cheering, holding up signs --- I was clueless of what they said but I was thinking it was some type of political rally going on. Needless to say I was a bit nervous!! What did I get my kids into!! I did figure out a few signs and they were pro the president and the crowd seemed in control so we manuvered our way through this crowd away from the palace. I believe the President - or someone important was in this procession. He spoke a few words, people cheered, and then he disappeared. Most of the crowd then left. It still wasn't 11 AM so I was thinking that the changing of the guard was still going to take place which it did. It was very cool even though we couldn't see everything that was going on. We did have a great view of the horses so Emma and Danni both enjoyed that. They were beautfiul horses. The President or who ever it was came back out and waved at the crowd and they cheered. It was still pretty busy and Danni got crabby so we found a cab and went home. Emma by the way is pretty good at hailing a cab! :) Today we also had our English/Spanish teacher come for Emma and Danni's lesson. She came last Friday for the first time and will come 3 times a week. She works 45 minutes with Emma and 45 minutes with Danni. She is an English teacher for 1st graders and is great!! We tried to get a tutor when we first got here but they never showed up when they were suppose to. She is our 3rd try but I am glad we kept trying as we really like her! Emma's Spanish is really coming along. She says she doesn't know anything but when she needs to speak in Spanish she can do it. Danni too - he is so smart but would rather point and grunt instead of using his words. He knows some words in English - just finds it easier not to use them or to use his Spanish babble - I say babble because he doesn't always use the entire Spanish word - just part of it. So we have started not to answer to the points and grunts - he gets a little ticked off at times but eventually he talks using the proper word in English or Spanish. That's it for today. Later! Mari