We spent a lovely Sunday afternoon with our Ecuador family this past weekend. Monica needed help with her english course and the kids played. Monica made us a dessert from guavaja, sugar and egg whites. I love tasting the different foods here! We just love this family so much! Really, really hoping it works out for them to visit us in the USA! Today, we were showing them photos and videos from winter. And photos of our house. Oddly enough, the one thing Monica wanted to take a picture of was of our pantry in our basement. It was really funny to tell them about the ready made chicken stock, etc. It's so different to them!! Conor was telling Monica and Gustavo about some of the food we make like bacon-wrapped dates. LOL!

I had to take another cooking class at La Warmi. We made locra de papa (a thick potato soup) that was amazing and I will be remaking it for my family this weekend. The simplest ingredients made into the best potato soup ever! For the next course, we made shrimp with garlic, hot peppers, and parsley with twice-fried plantains. So simple, fresh and amazing. And for dessert, a sweet quinoa made with spices (cinnamon, clove, sweet pepper), three types of milk (regular, evaporated and condensed), raisins, finished with lime zest. It was really good! 

One day, we made marmalade from carrots and beets and naranjillas. And sugar, lots of sugar. It was really delicious! 

Bonus, we accidentally found out that Holly and Greta are no longer allergic to gluten (or they never were?). And life here has been much more convenient since! It has also been so incredibly amusing to watch them discover all things gluten. 

This past weekend we were in 4 different apartments in 4 days! Not ideal, but that's just how it worked out! Focusing on gratitude for spending half of our time here in the best apartment of them all. And I'm grateful we packed really light all things considered. Here's a photo of everything we were moving. The two red bags are groceries, a pot and laundry we were too lazy to fit into our backpacks. 

Another day at the beach! Everyone rents big umbrellas at the beach, which was a relief because the sun is strong and hot! Another thing about the beach is there are constantly people walking along the beach selling all sorts of goods - plantain chips, ice cream, beer, hair braiding, water, a hot meal, empanadas... the list goes on! When we go back, I totally want to fulfill my childhood dream of getting my hair braided on the beach in Mexico like so many of my friends, but through Holly and Greta. They may hate it. We didn't buy much from the walking vendors, but I did buy sliced green mango with salt and lime juice and that was so good, so refreshing! The only thing that would've made it better was if it was cold. Definitely buying that again when I get the chance!

Holly and Greta loved playing in the water, in the sand, and looking for shells (lots and lots of shells!). Maeve was very, very happy in the water and playing on the beach. On this day, she fell asleep almost immediately once I put her in the ergo to go! 

I'm excited to return to the beach and a little nervous too about logistics. Conor will still be working for a week and a half at the beach (didn't take that sabbatical after all, saving it for later). I'm not sure how I'll protect our belongings from being stolen, and swim in the water with my children, and have money to buy green mangoes, and have keys to return to our apartment. Never mind taking photos. It may be time to buy a fanny pack that can come in the ocean with me! Or we may have Conor do an alternate work schedule where he comes with us to the beach for a little while during the day. Our white skin can handle only so much of the Ecuadorian sun anyways. We will figure it out, I hope!

And just to tug at the heart strings, here's Greta in the same swimming suit Maeve is wearing at a pool in California and at Bonavista Lake in Calgary!