Ecuador Part 3

Here's some more Ecuador pictures!=) There kinda random, but all of them are from Banos.

Our hotel in Banos. Btw, we stopped in Banos on the way back from Shell/the jungle.

Our hotel and the waterfall in Banos.

A terrible picture of me by the waterfall.

They had like 14 stalls right in a row that sold exactly the same thing.

A house in Banos. Notice the slide.
A cute fruit bear in Banos.

An awesome flower in Banos. I think my dad took this picture.They had a nice hot tub.
Some of the cool view from the hotel.

Cousins Playin' Pool

The gorgeous waterfall.

I love this one. With the mountains behind I think it looks really cool. Actually it was really cool, temp-wise and otherwise.=)

The view from up by the waterfall. I love panoramas!

A very pretty cathedral.

Kidnapped!

Well Zeke insisted that I post this, and I suppose I should.... We have 2 youth groups in our church, Senior Youth(all the kids that have been confirmed) and Junior Youth(about 5th grade till conformation). Well, we(the people in SY) were trying to figure out a good way to welcome the huge class that got confirmed this year into the SY. Somebody came up w/ the idea that we should kidnap them one sunday and drag them to church in their PJs. Great idea right? Well it worked for a few of them, but some of them decided to get up early and get ready for church......before 7:30(church is at 9). The girls got the girls and the guys got the guys. It wasn't as fun as it could have been, but Zeke did have to come to church in his "PJs"- sweats & a T-shirt. None of the kids had fun pajamas either. Very disappointing.

Shall We Dance!

Hey everyone! A lot of you know about the dances, but I thought I'd let you know anyways.=) I know it's awhile away, but it's super fun! There's going to be a Christmas Ball here in Rolla at Redeemer. Hope you can make it!

Here's the link:
Christmas Ball Flier

BTW, it's the 19th, not the 12th.

Becky

She's GONE!!!!!!!!! She was my personal fashion adviser, hair dresser(for special events), counselor, good friend, and most importantly, my SISTER! I am really gonna miss her! Yeah, I guess it's good that she's going to college and getting to learn all about nursing and life w/out her family *sniff* *sniff*.........I kinda want to be selfish and keep her all to myself and make her stay till I'm ready to go to college. Whoa, one scary thought at a time..... Of course I know I can't keep her here forever...... I am really going to miss her though....=< Becky, I'll try to remember to pray for you, but as you know I'm really bad about remembering that kind of thing. I think writing it on my mirror in big letters might help.=) Anyways I'll finish saying farewell w/ the line I used to give Andy when he was going to public school......Don't smoke, don't do drugs! Love ya!!!=D

Ecuador Part 2

Here are some pictures that were taken while we were in Ecuador. Not sure who all of them were taken by, but o well. Since there's so many pictures, I'll do it chronologically in a few different posts....I'll be putting pictures from every stop we made in Ecuador, so there's going to be a LOT of pictures. You definitely don't need to feel like you have to look at all of them!=)

At the airport in St. Louis. Jan Bloom was so kind as to drive us up in the van the Hickles were nice enough to let us borrow.=)

Elizabeth got to ride in the luggage cart in Miami.
Waiting to be picked up at the hotel in Miami.

We had to wear the masks on the way to Ecuador. Silly Swine Flu.

Nate Saint's house in Shell.
The little plane we flew into the jungle in.

The 5 from our family who went in plus the spiritual leader, his daughter, and another guy from the village. Forgot the names....

A few of the little kids in the jungle.

Uncle Brad was so good w/ the kids.
The beginning of the tour we never got to finish on account of rain.
You can see the super high volleyball net. I guess they play w/ a soccer ball and the rules are a bit different...=) Not much spiking on that net that's for sure!=)
A tree. In the jungle. It's big.

We got to go down to the river...

Zeke, Isaac, & Me in a hand-made canoe.

This is a lemon tree. I guess the jungle makes stuff big(well, except for the people...).

We gave them some balloons!=) The girl w/ the baby was probably only 10 or so.

Fun w/ Horses

**WARNING** All about HORSES!

Well since I've gotten back, I've gotten to ride once and just be around horses twice. I went on a Thursday and got to brush both stallions(their manes and tails needed it bad!) and ride a mare named Little Lady that I'm kinda helping train. I foxtrotted for the first time on her! Oh, the foxtrot is a gait specific to Missouri Foxtrotters where the front legs walk while the back legs trot. It's super smoooooooooooth and really fun to ride. I love horses!!! Then Tracy, the lady I work w/, mentioned that the vet would be coming over the next day, Friday, to give a bunch of horses their shots and also to geld one of her colts. Well this sounded like a great opportunity to see if I might be able to handle being a vet in the future. So I went over Friday and got to watch him(the vet) give the horses their shots, do some random checking on some stuff, and I got to watch the whole process of cutting the colt. It was very interesting, but I will spare you the details because, according to my family, not everyone wants to hear about that kind of stuff.......If you do happen to be interested in that stuff let me know and I'll give you the gory details.=) It actually wasn't that gross. Unfortunately, I didn't think to bring the camera....=( O well, perhaps another time.=)

Ecuador!!<3 Part 1

For anyone who didn't know before, my all the family on my mom's side(except for Uncle Chee) got to spend 2 weeks in Ecuador for a family reunion!=) It was a ton of fun, though traveling almost constantly wears you out. Jane Bloom graciously drove us to the St. Louis airport so we wouldn't have to leave the Hickle's van there.=) After being delayed a couple hours in St. Louis, we flew to Miami, met my grandparents and my mom's older sisters and her 2 boys, and flew to Ecuador the next morning. The Rogers met at at the airport in Quito and we split up and stayed at the Senior & Junior Rogers' houses. O, btw, the Rogers are a missionary family in Ecuador. They fly into the jungle in little planes and preach the Gospel as well as setting up schools for the Waorani natives there. We got to go into the jungle and see one of the villages, but because of our super busy schedule and other stuff, we could only stay for the afternoon.=( I really wanted to stay longer and actually help out w/ something instead of just going to gawk, but I guess I'll have to do that another time. Actually, we might have been able to help out w/ something as it was community workday, but it rained while we were there so everyone had to stop working for awhile. We thought we might get stuck overnight and I wouldn't really have minded..........but, after raining about 45 min., it stopped. and the air cleared enough for the pilots to get through. My Dad just commented that it was a LOT of rain for the short time period. Aparently this happens often, but Dan Rogers(the son who went in w/ us) said he's never gotten stuck for longer a day.

We stayed at the Roger's a day or 2(I don't remember) and saw the equator and went on the cable cars up the mountain, then we went to Cuenca(which I thought was spelled Quenca for the longest time....) and did some stuff......then we got a bus and drove to a resort in the middle of nowhere in this big bus on some really small roads around some very sharp turns and through some super tight places, like only and inch to spare on each side. Seriously! We made it to the resort alive and we were all very thankful that we had such a good bus driver!=)

At the resort we played lots of pool, ping pong and of course euchre. For those of you who haven't heard of that game it's super fun and it's pretty much a Douglass family game.=) According to my cousin Nick, I'm really good, but I think I just get lucky, like in pool.=D There was also a zip-line over a pond at the resort, which was a big hit. Of course it turned into a competition of who could do the coolest most creative thing and I'm not sure who won. O, it was kinda like a swing seat, so there were more options. I was the first to try 'superman'(or woman) and that got me lots of points even though I didn't put it far enough down on my body so I had to bail before I hit the dock.......O yeah, we were doing all of this in our clothes w/ life jackets over. Even though it's Ecuador, I suppose they do have some rules.=) I can't remember all the other cool things everyone did except for one. Zach(my cousin, about 12) would lean back and dip his head in the water while holding on w/ his hands. Being that it was a competition, I had to do him one better by dipping my head back, hold on w/ my feet and sticking my hands and arms in the water too. Unfortunately, I couldn't get back up, so I had to bail before I hit the dock w/ the back of my head. Everyone thought that was really funny of course, but it wasn't too bad. The water was pretty nice temp-wise, but the wind was cold when you got out...brr.....also at the resort, they had a concrete slide that went down the mountain a little and was super fast! The ending was a bit dangerous the first time, but then you learned real fast how to stop. You definitely have to wear shoes though, the ground is a bit rocky and hurts when you fly off the slide and land w/ bare feet. O, there was a swing too. It went off the mountain. Apparently, when my cousins went last time, there was a bigger swing that went off a cliff and was a lot higher up. I gathered that either they took the tree out, the tree broke, or the swing broke or something......... Wow, this is getting really long! Congrats if you made it all the way to the bottom!! I think I'll save the rest for another time. Of course I'll probably forget...... O well. Good night.=)