This is for the birds...

 No, literally, we have had our windows open the entire 2 weeks we were here and never had a bird inside, then all of a sudden today, these guys show up!  It was kinda cool, but I wanted to make sure they flew back out and not further into the house!  That would have been creepy.

 Since we are on the subject of birds, here are the quail eggs that they say Luisa likes to eat! 

 they are cute little bite size things, we saw someone eating them from a street vendor too, so they must be popular.

 Yes, she likes them!

But what is for the birds is being separated from the rest of our family!

 

They are giving their sad faces.  We really did cry too much today, we are hoping tomorrow is better and that by Monday we will be able to actually talk to and see Ryan via skype and things should get better by then.  We know that each day is a gift and we are going to try to enjoy our time here.  We think we are going to try to go to the club tomorrow as they take a bus to the 'country' and there is a lake and water sports, fishing, kayaking for us to do.  We are not going to be here at this apartment much longer so we decided to try to take advantage of the club while we can, plus we will be gone all day and hopefully that will get our mind off the fact that we miss the rest of the family so much!  Of course it did not help that I have such a sweet husband and eldest son.  We found notes all around the house for us today!  Here are a few...

 We watched a movie in Spanish!  Wishing I took more movies along!

The night ended with the lady who owns the apartment stopping by to give us the receipt for paying rent and a (still warm) spice cake.  I cried again.  They are just too darn sweet here!  She just wanted to check on us and said I could call her at anytime for anything! 



"Thank you Lord for loving us and giving me encouragement when I needed it the most!  Please help us to enjoy our time in Colombia and bring us back together again...SOON!"

*UPDATE* Ryan, the kids and Mary Ellen are staying in the same hotel that we stayed at in Bogota.  They are being treated well, they got 2 rooms and all meals (Ryan got a steak!) paid for by the airline.  They should leave Bogota tomorrow morning at 10:30 and should arrive in Chicago at 5:25pm.  Thanks for praying.

Sad...

We are all very sad to be separated from each other! This is the part we all have been dreading, pretty much from the beginning. But we know that we are here for a very good reason, and trust God to help us through! Will post more later, just wanted to give a quick update. Ryan, Dylan, Easton, Anaya and Mary Ellen are all stuck in Bogota. Their flight out of Bucaramanga was canceled this morning, so they missed their flight out of Bogota. Last I heard, they were flying out tomorrow morning! We are really bummed we couldn't have spent this day together!

Lots of tears were shed this morning when 1/2 of the family left!  It is just not right!

Luis was wondering what was going on!

Here are a few happier shots we got last night before they left!

Please pray this process goes fast so we can be together again! 

Chichamocha Canyon...

Yes, he is on cloud 9 that she wanted to sit on his lap!

We headed out in Alvaro's van this morning at around 9am

We stopped at a 'toll road' of sorts and the boys bought some fried ants to take home for their cousins to eat!

We were told there was a zoo, but in fact there were only goats!  Good thing my kids LOVE goats!!!

I do not know what I will do with my other half leaving soon!  Dreading it!

Love this cheese-ball, so glad he is staying with me!

Will miss this one!

There was this weird big huge monument thing that was on a steep curve, these pictures show a tad bit of the depth, it was freakishly high!

The flowers were gorgeous!

This is the park on the top of the mountain, the monument is the weird thing at the top of the hill.

 

Cool tree

We tried...but to no avail to get everyone looking and smiling at the same time.

The view was amazing!

Back to the weird monument with the weird kids!

Mary Ellen and I enjoying some Colombian coffee.

These trees were so awesome.

There were several of these truck wash places, which we found kind of strange, in the middle of pretty much nowhere, on the curvy mountain roads.

Passing on double yellow lines!  And guess what, we were right behind doing the same thing!  Aye!

It was about an hour and a half drive up the mountain, we did a lot of walking around then drove back down the mountain and we were all very sleepy on the way back home!

There was a cable car that you could ride across the canyon, which would be amazing I am sure, but we decided to just take in the view from the top of the mountain!  What an absolutely beautiful creation, we have an amazing God!  So glad we had the opportunity to see more of this beautiful country today.