June Newsletter

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Casa Elizabeth's First Birthday Party

Here is beautiful Miriam who is living at Casa Elizabeth.  The Inca Link family came to have lunch together, share words of affirmation with Miriam, pray for her, and eat delicious chocolate cake that Dani had made.  It is so nice to be a part of a small team where everyone is involved in all the different ministries. 

Blowing out the candles!

Opening gifts

Such a fun day to celebrate the life of Miriam.  We thank God for the privilege to be a part of her life during her pregnancy and after her baby boy is born.  Feliz Cumpleaños Miriam!  Te queremos (We love you).

Team Jensen vs. Team Bryans

To celebrate Matt's birthday we had a family sports day.  Here is Team Jensen with Matt the cumpleañero, Nick, Marlo and Mikala.

Team Bryans - Jordan, Renae, Luke and Casey
We are missing one important team member, but she was unable to attend due to Marina's birthday party.

I love the team jersey.  Guess what birthday Matt is celebrating? 
The competition began with basketball at the Jensen's house - they won.
Next event was soccer at our park - we won.
Last event was bowling - it was close but Team Jensen won by 2 points. 
After all the friendly competition, we celebrated with a delicious dinner and birthday cake. 

What a fun birthday party with our great friends who are our family here in Quito.  Feliz Cumpleaños Matt!

Back to Santos Pamba

Jordan's class had the privilege to go back to Santos Pamba to celebrate Valentine's Day with all of their amiguitos.  Remember Enoch?  Jordan and Enoch have a special friendship.

Coloring their Valentine bear

Enjoying Oreos and milk

Worshipping together and learning about Jesus

Here is my dear friend and Jordan's teacher, Kim Flores.  She started this school and loves each student and teacher at Santos Pamba deeply.  Her husband, Pablo received a scholarship to study music in the States so they will be moving from Ecuador this summer.  Kim has made an eternal impact at this school and at Alliance Academy.  She will be greatly missed.

I love this picture.  Enoch had already left school and said his goodbye to Jordan.  A few minutes went by and Enoch came running into the school for one more abrazo (hug) from Jordan. 

A Pirate's Life for Me

When studying the letter "P" in Molly's preschool class, they had a pirate day.  This was the cutest group of pirates!

Mia Belen y Molly

They were in preschool together last year and are now together in Pre-K at Alliance Academy.  Such sweet friends.  Mia Belen helps Molly to speak Spanish and Molly helps Mia Belen to speak English.

These pirates are not early morning pirates.

Aaargh!  Thank you Jordan for letting your little sister borrow your old pirate costume.

Monkey Island

The kids got a whole week out of school from Carnanval and then teacher conferences.  After Carnaval holidays were over, our family headed to the jungles of Ecuador and stayed overnight at Monkey Island.

Here is Jordan feeding our monkey friend his breakfast.  Monkey Island is such a fun place and because we went after Carnaval holidays, our family had the resort all to ourselves. 

Besides our 3 monkeys, we found monkeys all throughout this fun place nestled in the jungle.

We did lots of exploring and one of our favorites was skipping rocks in the river.

Best buddies!  One of the greatest things about living in Ecuador with young kids is that they feel like they are living an adventure book - climbing volcanoes, ziplining through the cloud forest, swimming in water falls, feeding monkeys in the jungle, riding in a canoe down the Amazon River, surfing waves at the beach, exploring in the rain forests and having butterflies all over you.  All of these fun activities in the small country of Ecuador.  Don't you want to come visit us?  Another huge bonus, traveling is very inexpensive here (once you buy the expensive plane tickets to get here).

On one of our explorations, it started raining.  Molly found her a great umbrella!

This huge tree was close to our cabin.  One of Casey's favorites on this trip was this tree.

 

One of Casey's least favorite things when we travel - the "widow maker".  It kind of scares me, too but it is worth it to have a hot shower.  I am not a fan of cold showers no matter how hot it is outside.

During our meals, we were not completely alone.  Luke's favorite part of the trip was his new friend he made with the cuchucho.

We all took a turn holding the boa that was found at Monkey Island.  Lucky for me, he told us that they found it on the property when we were leaving.  My mind just never went there thinking one of these could be out there lurking where we were exploring.

That was about as close as Molly wanted to get to the snake - smart girl!

I can't believe I even took my turn.  When I held it, Molly decided to touch it.

Fun, fun family outing at Monkey Island!  The water was freezing but Luke, Jordan and Molly do not pass up an opportunity to go swimming.

Que Viva Carnaval!

Carnaval is a favorite holiday for my kids here in Ecuador.  Basically it is one big water fight and spray foam fight.  What is not to love?  For Carnaval this year, we had a couple of families over to have a big water fight in our park.  It was raining and cold but so much fun.

Armed and ready to go to the park.  Here is the before picture...

And here is the after picture...wet and cold and everyone still happy!

Jordan prepared for battle - water gun in one hand, spray foam in the other and helmet (not sure what the helmet was for but he was ready)

Que viva Carnaval!!  The line of kids are waiting to get their water guns refilled and for Marlo to give them water balloons.

Here is our neighbor Juan Martin - how precious and mischievous is that face?

Juan Martin's target was always Casey!

The two oldest girls, Mikala and Maddy were after me.

Eric got them back with a perfect water balloon launch.

Things got a little intense...

but was so much fun!!