~Sarah's 8th grade trip to Uruguay...part 1~

As I said last post, Jesus gave us a safe trip to and from Uruguay.

Every 3 months we have to leave Argentina and go to Uruguay, to renew our Argentina visas. 

So, since it was our time to go to Uruguay anyway, we decided to make this Sarah's 8th grade trip too!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Instead of going to the capital of Uruguay which is Montevideo, 

(which includes: 

a 10 minute taxi ride from our house to the train station, 

a 45 min. train ride, 

a 30 minute walk to the boat,  

a 2 hour boat ride, 

a 3 hour bus ride, 

then a 45 minute taxi ride to Montevideo...

which WEARS this Mommy OUT!!!!)!

We skipped the 3 hour bus ride and the last 45 min. taxi ride...and went to the small antique town of Colonia!
This made the trip a lot less stressful!   :-) :-) :-)

Colonia is just a laid back little town, but a perfect place for us to "chill-lax!"  :-)  (That's the words "CHILL" AND "RELAX" put together! :-)

Here's LOTS of pics to enjoy!

~Abigail and Mary right before we left our house.~

 ~And some of our children, once we arrived in Colonia.~

 ~Jesus helped Phillip find us a fun old house to rent in Colonia thru Trip Adviser. 
The whole house for 8 of us, cost about what just ONE ROOM would cost in Motel 6! :-) 
However, Trip Adviser failed to give us the ADDRESS of where the house was located. :-(
So, we had to wait in the terminal while Phillip tried to locate the address with the VERY SLOW Wifi there.
He finally found a phone number, bought an Uruguay phone card to use the pay phone there, but there was no answer, for the lady was WAITING AT HER RENTAL HOUSE FOR US!!! :-(
We never could find the address, but Thankfully Phillip had taken a picture of the map, so he more-or-less knew the cross-roads.
So, we took off walking, and PRAYING that we'd find our rental house.
Finally we got to a corner near there, and were standing there trying to figure out where the house might be...when Kimberly said,
"Daddy, that lady is calling us!"
THANK THE LORD, there stood the lady in front of the house.  :-)
We apologized to her for being 45 minutes late, but told her that Trip adviser never gave us the address.
She was JUST FIXIN' to leave, to go out of town for 3 days, so THANK THE LORD we met up with her!!!! 
(Our lives are NEVER DULL! :-)

 ~This little Abigail cracks us up!~

 ~Since we were starved, after we got settled in, we walked and found some lunch/supper.~

 ~We found this pizza...sold by the meter... which we enjoyed!~

 ~We took a walk by the river, and found this old train car by the old train tracks.~

 ~An old building, and a Beautiful Cherry tree, near the old train station.

 ~This old sign says the name of the town,..."Colonia:... for the used-to-be train passengers to know what city they were entering.

 ~Pretty trees by the river.~

 ~Mommy and her 2 older girls by the river!~

 ~Colonia is filled with old buildings, cars, old walls, and lampposts.  So cute! ~

 ~The streets are lined with fun trees.~

 ~We found a nice little beach for the kids to dip their feet into the water and play in the sand.
It was still Fall/Winter, so was a bit too chilly to swim.~

 ~Abigail loved the sand.  ~

~She started digging her hands into it...~

  ~AND THEN SHE TOOK A BITE OF THE SAND!!!~

 ~My sweetheart!~

 ~Our very silly, very LOVED Abigail!~

 ~Our family at the beach.  A local dog decided to hang out with us! :-) ~

 ~It's our desire to show Jesus' love as a family where ever we go, and with whomever we meet!!

Since there are 8 of us, 

and we are Christians, 

and we are Americans, 

WE STAND OUT! :-)

There had been a couple sitting close to our family at the beach, with whom we had been chatting.
Phillip had not noticed that they had left.
A few minutes later, he looked up at the bridge and saw a couple walking past, and thought it was that couple leaving.
So, he yelled out a friendly, "Chau, Adios!" (Goodbye!)
The guy responded with a "Hi!" in English and then the couple turned around,
and started coming down the stairs to chat with us.
It turned out to be a different couple!!!!

Coincidence? 
NO!!!!
It was a God-appointment!

Daniel and his wife are Mormon, were also visiting Colonia from another city in Uruguay, and are expecting their first child.
They told us that they had noticed us, and thought that we were such a nice family.
We enjoyed telling them that Life was SUCH A BLESSING when one had GOD and a family!
We assured them that Children truly are a HERITAGE FROM THE LORD! :-)
They were a dear couple!~

 ~Daniel took these pictures of our family.

 ~We were THRILLED that there was a fire place in our rental house!
We love fireplaces and since it was Chilly, it was so FUN!
Here's Daddy making the first fire in the fire place.~

 ~And Elijah enjoying the fire.~

 ~Mary and Elijah in their night clothes enjoying the fire place.~

 ~The kids gathered around the fireplace, looking at pics on Sarah's Samsung.~

 ~Phillip had turned the lights down so our NIGHT OWL Abigail would start getting tired, so he was trying to find some light to read the Bible for family devotions.  :-) ~

 ~Our cute breakfast table in our rental house.~

 ~The night before we bought a yummy tart for our breakfast the next morning.
 (1/4 of the tart was spinach and cheese, 1/4 bacon, cheese, and egg, 1/4 alcelga (swiss chard), and 1/4 was leek (onion) and cheese)
This tart, a fruit salad, and my hot tea, made for a great breakfast in our little rental house.~

 ~Abigail and Sarah.~

 ~Abigail, Sarah, and Mary inside our rental house.~

 ~The fire place, with a NEAT electric hot water pot.
We have one of those electric water heaters here in Bs. As. and USE IT ALL THE TIME to heat water rapidly for hot teas, mate, instant coffee, etc.~

 ~We found these little hand-painted flowered masks, so had fun with them.~

 ~Abigail looking at Mary. :-)~

 ~While walking down by the river before lunch, a young man spoke to me in perfect English.
He asked me, "Are you from the States?"
And I said, "Yes!"
He said, "I figured so!"...and then was going to keep talking, ...
but my family was moving on,
so feeling rather rude, I moved on too.
I then told my family that I felt like I had cut the young man off, so we prayed that we would see him again, so we could be friendly to him.....~

 ~We walked up the road and got settled in a restaurant and got ready to order, WHEN....~

 ~our kids looked over and THERE SAT the young man all alone at a table.
So, Phillip went over and invited him to join our family for lunch.
Kendrick is a young man from a large family in Utah, who had been teaching English for the last 3 months in Brazil.
He was seeing some of Argentina, and today was in this little town of Colonia, before he flies back to the USA soon.
God gave us a nice visit with him.~

 ~And since we were here celebrating Sarah's 8th grade graduation, ....
Kimberly, Sarah and I went out for tea/coffee together, while the kids played at the river.~

 ~Here's the outside of "Deli de las Rosas" (Deli of the roses) ...the cute little place where we had our tea.~

 

 ~And here is the inside.~

 ~Kimberly, Abigail, and Sarah.~

 ~Kimberly and I shared this fun Uruguayan dessert, which had a layer of filo type dough, and then a layer of caramel, etc. and then merengue on top.~

 ~Sarah got a yummy apple tart, and gave us both a bite.~

 ~Kimberly got coffee, and Sarah and I both got our own little pot of tea.~

 ~Fun times with 3 of my girls.~

  ~The beautiful view as we walked down to the river to find Phillip and the kids.~

 ~This is the boat (or similar to the boat) that we took to Urugauy.~

 ~The pretty light house in old town Colonia.~

 ~Then we came home and enjoyed the cozy fire place in our rental home.~

 ~And the kids enjoyed wearing their new warm house shoes.~

 ~Abigail...emptying the diaper bag. :-) ~

 ~The next morning...

 ~For Sarah's 8th grade gift we bought her this floral set that she really wanted...for the special tea called Yerba Mate.  (Herbal tea)
The tall bag in the back is to carry everything.
The thermos is for the hot water.
The little round can with the hole is for the tea herbs.
And the little cup with a straw is where you put your mate herbs and hot water to drink the Mate.

 ~Our breakfast of hot tea, whole wheat rolls, cheese rolls, cheese, and a fresh fruit salad.~

 ~The neat old truck parked in the garage of our rental home.~

 ~Sarah and Noah being together.~

 ~On Thursday we bought the supplies which included pre-made crusts and made pizza for lunch in our rental house.~

 ~Isn't this a tiny cute little 2 burner electric stove that was in the rental house?~

 ~Our pizza All ready to enjoy!~

 ~The kids on top of the roof-porch of our rental house.~

 ~There were these tall fun doors in our rental house.~

 ~The bedroom doors were neat.  Inside, They had another little door attached by the windows, that you could shut for privacy, or open for light.~

 ~The old church in Colonia.~

 ~The family with these pretty white flowers.~

 ~A closer shot....~

 And then when I ZOOMED up to get just Abigail....
LOOK ....AT THE PHOTO BOMB IN THE RIGHT HAND CORNER!!! :-) ~

Part 2 coming up!
 ~HEATHER~