North of Chile....

Goodbye blogging world!! Rob, Amanda, Matt and I are headed north to the 3rd Region of Chile and the Atacama dessert, into the province of Copiapo, Chile. Here we'll be visiting the beach and getting to see the highest volcano in the WORLD!! It will be great to spend some days out of the city! Here is a borrowed picture, since we don't have any of our own yet, BUT, hopefully in a few days we will have some great photos to share!!!

The volcano is called Ojos del Salado. Isn't it huge!

Easter 2007

This Easter, Matt and I had a great lunch with our Pastor Sam Mateer, and his wife Lois at their house here in Chile. It was the next best place we could have been since we couldn't be with my family in Virginia, one of my favorite traditions. A wonderful difference though, was a beautiful warm day, instead of the usually rainy or cold Easter Sundays of the east coast.

So Behind!

So I think now I am only about 3 weeks behind in blogging. I am determined to post all the blogs I had envisioned when I began the website before getting into the new stuff, and what fun new stuff it is..... Soon to come.... pictures and video from Iguazu Falls ....some sonogram photos, AND our visit in Chile with Matt's brother and sister-in-law, Rob and Amanda, but for now.... here are some pictures from Matt's birthday which was April 10th. It was great fun, having dessert and coffee at the Lopez house, some great friends of ours who have known Matt for 6 years!! (and employed him as their children's youth director for 1/2 of that time!)


Here we are enjoying the desserts at Matt's Birthday Dessert Celebration! mmmmmm!



Ana Lopez and Alix Kaye working on getting Matt's birthday cake ready....



























Matt spends birthday time with friends...

1/2 Cheese, 1/2 Pepperoni

Assumptions..... When you ask for a pizza that is 1/2 cheese, 1/2 pepperoni, do not assume you will get what you were picturing. You may just, maybe, get a pizza that has pepperoni all over the outside half and cheese all over the inside half, leaving you with pieces that are 1/2 and 1/2. :-)

Fun Times with Friends in Chile....

Here are some fun pictures of some of our friends in Chile. Jamie and Lexie Mullins were married this past summer like Matt and I and (this is exciting!) live in California. Not just California, but outside of San Francisco, as we are planning to. They have been in Chile since shortly after their wedding also and we get to spend alot of time together. We're excited to get to go back to the states and live near our friends!


Dawn and Christian Moreno are some of our Chilean friends. Dawn is the youngest daughter of our Pastor here and her husband Christian is from Chile. We love visiting them at their house and playing with their fantastic kids, Dante (who just turned 3) and Kailah (4 months). We all have a great time together! This picture is of Christian and his beautiful new daughter.

Dawn working hard in the kitchen for everyone as we got together at the Moreno house to celebrate....well, friendship (and the day before Easter). We had a great time enjoying once (the Chilean meal eaten in the evening) with some interesting marisco empanadas. That would be empanadas filled with seafood which occasionally involves running across things like.....

And yes, that really was inside. Viva Chile!!





We couldn't be practicing with a sweeter little girl. Even while waiting to be fed she is the picture of happiness.


















Here is Dante enjoying an evening stroll with Mommy and Daddy and little sis, the Mullins and the Beardsleys, and some little friends we found along the side of the road...




Very frightening reality off the beaten path in Santiago. These "little guys" (think roughly the size of your hand) often get into houses, garages and love to live in yards, especially where there is dry grass or dirt (so they are more often found on the side of the road or out in the wilderness). We don't see them in our second floor apartment. If we did, you all would see me, BACK in the States!

One more picture because I am so beautiful!!!

Catching Up....

These are some of the pictures from our trip to Parga, Chile. The house that we stayed in with Aaron and Sarah was beautiful and we had a great time checking out the mountains, beaches and forests (all in the same place!!!) The beaches were so beautiful that we even decided to drive on them.... hehehe! Push hard Sarah!! This was slightly before Aaron and Matt were helped by a group of Chilean men working on the beach (not that Sarah and I couldn't cut it!)

In Action in Argentina....

Oh how I wish I could post some pictures right now! But alas.... I am in Buenos Aires with no way to download our awesome pictures. Matt and I will be here until Saturday and have been in Argentina since early early Tuesday morning. What a great vacation!!! We were able to see Iguazu Falls, which border Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. These waterfalls are absolutely breathtaking. I think they are considered one of the wonders of the modern world. (even if I find that not to be true, I will not be correcting the error because they should be ;-) Fortunately for our bank account (but unfortunately for us) this will probably be our last venture out of Chile for the remainder of our stay (we have had to leave every 90 days because we are only on tourist Visas) but we have really enjoyed our explorations of South America. Can't wait to return home to post some great pictures from the world's most up-and-coming photographer!! And now we're off to an Argentine dinner with our friend and host Julie Buell. Think lots of red meat.....