Quinindé, hogar de mis amiguitos negros

Looking at all these pictures of Ecuador and reflecting on our trip has got me seriously missing the country and wanting so much to go back!!
Day 3 we traveled to Quininde from Quito which took about 4-5 hours down a winding canyon, full of beautiful green banana trees and tall waterfalls. I really felt like I was in a different world. I liked this world. :)
On the way there I had to stop and use the bathroom, of course. We found this guy right outside the restroom.

We all stopped for a photo op. After we all got attacked by red ants, we were back on the road!

Ben's church from June to November of 1997.

The Church is still true...even in the middle of the world!!

Melissa, Chuck and Ben walking the streets of Quininde.

Ben and Chuck lived on the 2nd floor of the yellow house for the first 5 months and then moved to the orange one.


Quininde is a very poor city. Their homes were very simple.




On the mission, Ben would cross over a bridge everyday that went over the Rio Blanco.

He said he always wanted to jump in it to cool off. Quininde is really hot and muggy. He wasn't so interested this time!! It was pretty dirty. This is where Ben's Mamita would wash their clothes. Take them down to the river and wash them on a rock!!

How cool is this? A woman carrying her bucket of laundry on top of her head??? These people are so AWESOME!

My favorite thing about this city, were the kids. They were so friendly with us and talked to us. I thought they were so cute!!!
This little guy was grilling plantains, which I love BTW!!

Right after I took this pic, the girl in the orange shirt stuck her tongue out at me! So, I did it back to her! Hey, I've never been the kind to walk away from a fight!!! She laughed at me!

These kids were on their way home from school. So cute!! Look how stylin' and handsome those boys were.
I love that as soon as I started taking the pictures, all the girls wanted to come over and have their picture take too! See them runnin' over!?


This little one was shy...

But hands down, these 3 little boys were my FAVORITE!! They were outside playing with this log and Ben pulled over to talk to them. We got them on video and I love playing it over and over 'cause their little voices are so cute. They were friendly and very happy. I love these little boys and that's why I entitled this blog post as "Quininde, home of my little black buddies.":)

They were proof to me that you can be happy with whatever God gives you. Even if it's just a little. I will never forget their cute faces.
As you leave the city, there is a giant statue of Jesus. These people are pretty hard core Catholic. I thought it looked cool against the sunset. (BTW, the sun sets faithfully at 6pm every night in Ecuador.)

It was time to head to our hotel for the evening but Melissa and I demanded that Ben and Chuck take us to Silencio!!! Why?? Because they told us the most hilarious story of them walking through the jungle of Silencio in the pitch darkness and being attacked by dogs. The only light they had was from Ben's little glow in the dark watch!! Then to top it off, Charlie meets a donkey face to face out of nowhere!!! The way they told the story had us all cracking up pretty bad!!!
Chuck and Ben standing just outside of the jungle of Silencio. The jungle was super thick. I can't imagine what it would be like in pitch darkness! Scary...

The jungle was mostly full of banana plants Just a fun little factoid ('cause I'm married to man with a brain full of factoids): The banana plant is not a tree, but the world's largest perennial and grows up to 25 feet, developing massive banana leaves that can extend 9 feet in the air. Did you know that bananas grow up? And that they start from a flower?? They're amazing. Ecuador is the largest exporter of bananas in the world. Check your Dole sticker...it mostly likely says Ecuador. If it says Mexico, don't buy them!!! :)

The schools in Ecuador are not big enough to occupy all the kids at one time so some kids go to school in the morning and the others go in the afternoon. These girls were on their way home from school.

After goofing around for a while, we decided to head to the hotel. We were all pooped. We ended up staying at an incredible resort in the middle of the rainforest. More later!!!

xoxo

Before you get rid of that...

Ben and I found this darling headboard at a consignment store in Layton for way cheap and had to have it! We thought it would be cute hung up on the wall instead of mounted on the bed. It was originally painted red and was way cute but didn't really go with the vision of my bedroom so Ben painted it Laurel Mist by Behr and it turned out perfect! I just think it's adorable.

We found the hooks at Anthropologie(can't go wrong there)!



PS: More Ecuador pictures to come!

Segundo Día de Ecuador...

Sunday morning we went to church in Quito to a ward that Ben served in. It was probably one of the most spritual meetings I've ever attended. The sisters there were so sweet. They all came up to me and greeted me with a kiss on the cheek. They just radiated this amazing spirit and I was holding back my tears the entire meeting. It's amazing to me that even though I couldn't understand the language, I was so touched. I already loved the people of Ecuador and could see why Ben loves them so much too.
After sacrament meeting, we talked to the Bishop and the Elders that were there serving. They seemed excited to talk with Ben. We snapped a few pictures outside the church.


Later that day we went to the Quito Zoo. All animals there are native to Ecuador and/or South America.

Here's just a little of what we saw...

Time for dinner...

Jaguar

Giant Galapagos Tortoise...

Riding Jorge, the Giant Galapagos Turtle...


While everyone was checking out the animals, I was slightly distracted by the flowers everywhere! So pretty and so different than anything we have here.

Lazy Ocelot...

Spectacled bears are the only surviving species of bear native to South America.

I think that they're weird looking. I think the mouth and eyes look almost human...

That evening we hooked up with Chuck and Melissa took a taxi (a very squished taxi) to Plaza de la Independencia, located in the heart of Old Quito.


Carondelet Palace, Ecuador's "White House"


Hotel Plaza Grande

Side entrance to La Catedral (the cathedral)

Goofin' around...

At the cathedral doors, which were really cool. You can't see by these pictures, but they have Peter holding the keys of the priesthood. Cool...





Ben proves that he can still hold Chuck like a baby...

Wild Hydrangeas were everywhere...heaven!

Back by popular demand!!

I guess I didn't realize that there were people actually reading my blog until I stopped posting. So, due to a few requests (some by my own husband) I thought I better pick this hobby up again.

The biggest and best thing that's happened lately is we went to Ecuador! Finally we got to go back to Ben's mission and it was perfect. We loved it and I don't remember ever seeing Ben that happy...honestly. It was like he was home. It was amazing for me to hear him speaking nothing but Spanish (some thought he was a native or a Mexican). It was also a lot of fun hanging with Chuck (Ben's BFF and our college buddy) and his wife Melissa. Chuck still makes us laugh harder than anyone!! Another fun thing is that Ben's sister Anne got to come too. Thank goodness I had two gringo girls with me that also spoke only English 'cause Chuck and Ben were all Spanish all the time. It was like having the TV stationed to Telemundo constantly...and I loved it. ;) Ben and Charlie lived in the same house for 12 months but were never comps. Then after the mission, Ben talked Chuck into coming to school in Salt Lake and that's where we all met up.

We were in Ecuador for 10 amazing days and the trip was so incredible that I really can't fit everything I felt and heard on this little post :) So, I'm going to try to break this into days so that it's not quite so overwhelming.

Day One

We spent the day just kind of checking out the city, Quito. We were wiped out after our red eye flight but I was also so excited to see everything. We walked to El Jardin (the garden), which is a total American mall. Finally Chuck and Melissa got to Quito in the evening and we were so excited to see them. We walked back over to the mall and had a delicious dinner at Crepes and Waffles, a delicious South American resturant. I finally got to taste manjar, a yummy caramel sauce. I have wanted to try it since I read the recipe for it in the Worldwide Ward Cookbook, 3 years ago.

Earlier in the day, we took the Teleferico, which is a gondola lift.. It runs up the east side of the Pichincha Volcano and gives an amazing lookout of the city of Quito. It is one of the highest aerial lifts in the world, rising from 8,850 feet to 13,400 feet. And you travel to that height in about 8 minutes! Just to give you an idea of how high we were, Salt Lake City's elevation sits around 4,200 feet!!

It was cold and we were right in the the middle of the clouds.



Ben overlooking the city he loves!!



So far Ecuador was looking and tasting good!!

Sassy Style & Stenciling

Ben and I are in the middle of revamping the master bedroom...ya know, the so called honeymoon suite!! Enough with the white walls already! I hate white walls more than anything! Probably because I am surrounded by them all day and they're just...well ya know...sterile and cold and blah...
So today I'm watching Studio 5 and fell in love with this gal and her ideas for stenciling. At first, I thought of stenciled geese which seemed to be everywhere I turned growing up in the 80's but this super cute woman shared her ideas and I fell in love. There are so many choices, something for everyone! And now I all of a sudden have an urge to stencil the whole dang house!!! You must check her out! AND...she's having a fabulous giveaway!

http://sassystyleredesign.blogspot.com/2011/03/living-in-pottery-barn-room-50-giveaway.html


xoxo,
Ashlee

Deck the Halls

I can't believe that the Christmas Season is upon us once again! Seems like just a couple of weeks ago we were rummaging through the pumpkin patch and now we all of a sudden have visions of sugarplums. I spent the day today running around shopping for Christmas and planning my Christmas party for my Laurel girls next week and sipping peppermint tea in between. ;) It's always fun putting up Christmas and reuniting with all your fun decor that maybe you've forgotten about. Here are some of my favorites...

My wooden advent tree, made by my father in law and painted so carefully and perfectly by my brother in law, Jon. Such a fun a little treasure that I really love.





These blue teardrop ornaments used to hang on Ben's parents' tree and were his favorite ornaments as a child. I think they're beautiful.


This handcrafted, beautiful wooden nativity was made especially for Ben from a friend in Ecuador. The detail is amazing.














My mom made me this adorable Christmas runner for my coffee table. I love when she sews me up somethin' cute!! And I love love the vintage glitter Santa Claus she gave me! (Tiny Christmas tree courtesy of Costco. Too cute...go get your own!)




And just for fun, I'm throwing in a picture of our first Christmas tree. I loved our little tree and we named him Linus. We strapped him on top of Ben's Montero and headed to our tiny apartment where we decorated him with what looks like maybe 15 ornaments.


We're already enjoying the Christmas season. We had our neighborhood Christmas party last week. In lieu of neighbor gifts, we all bring canned good to donate and a plate of cookies to share. We talk and laugh and it's so much fun. This year, was the first year that I looked around and realized how very blessed I am to have amazing friends and to live in a great area surrounded by people that I love.

I got to go to Festival of Trees last week with my Young Women. How can you not love FOT and everything it means and does for PCMC. Such an awesome thing. I'm proud to say that the Sorensen's did a tree for over 30 years!


Wishing you a wonderful holiday season with lots of big mugs of steaming hot cocoa and GIANT marshmallows (the way Ben prefers)!!

xoxo