Bro. Alberto is a pastor in Medellin that Phillip met. He invited us to go to his house and meet his family. Here we are visiting together. They LOVED Elijah. =) If you know anything about this culture...spending time just visiting and be together means the WORLD to these people.~
~Poor Noah was soooo sick with his ear infection that he was miserable. I wanted to leave and take him back to the hotel...but Alberto's wife was in the middle of making a nice meal for our family, so I couldn't. We gave Noah medicine and prayed that God would touch him and he got to feeling better, Praise the Lord. (Later, after visiting with them and eating the delicious meal that she made us, I took Noah back to our hotel room.)
~Bro. Alberto and his family. (minus his 13 year old son that had gone out for a few minutes.) We had a really nice day visiting with them.~
~Phillip with Alberto and another Medellin pastor that he met.~
~A view of a little of Medellin that I took from our hotel room that was on the 10th floor.~
~Later on on New Year's Night we walked around as a family. This was one of the main streets of Medellin and they decorated it with lots of Christmas lights. (Like I mentioned before since Dec./Jan. are like Spring here in Colombia, Colombians use a lot of flowers, trees, butterflies, etc. to decorate for Christmas.)
Since this was New Year's night they closed off the street to cars so that people could walk up and down it. There was a lot of people selling all kinds of yummy food and drinks, playing instruments for money, etc. Poor Noah was still not feeling well, but he enjoyed riding around in Elijah's stroller. We walked around buying some of the food, listening to those who were playing, etc. Our family (and especially Elijah) got so many STARES, and GAWKS because of our different skin color, eye and hair color and our English. So...I told my family that I was about to make a place beside all of the salesmen, and just stand there with a hat out, so we could make a little money off of them staring at us, listening to our English and touching Elijah. HA! We had a fun evening together as a family.~
~On that same road...they had this fake tree that they had made and put lights all over.~
~Our last full day in Medellin was Friday, Jan. 2nd. Here, Elijah says that his shoe is delicious.~
~We took our kids to an interactive museum. They got in for free and Phillip and I were a great price. Phillip and the kids fixin to enter the place that shook similar to an earthquake.~
~A place that blew lots of wind, maybe sort of like hurricane winds. Notice poor Noah holding his ears.~
~Kimberly and Sarah "climbing the wall." =)~
~A gyroscope, that spun and pushed you around.~
~Some little swings that the kids were trying out.~
~A bicycle that you ride and see how fast you can get the attached rope to go. The faster you peddle the faster it goes around.~
~A little "house" that Phillip built for our kids to play in.~
~Our girls and Phillip had fun trying to get some good pics of some of the pretty fish without using flash. I think this was a picture of the Purana's.~
~Large catfish.~
~A silhouette pic of Phillip, Elijah and I. =) In the aquarium we were not allowed to use the flash.~
~This is a merry-go-round that you have to peddle to make it go around. =)~
~This is a "bus" called a "Chiva". I think that they are neat. We wanted to pay to ride one, but then realized that they play their typical music very LOUDLY, and it wouldn't be the quiet relaxing ride we were wanting so we didn't do it.~
~Colombians are geniuses when it comes to thinking of ideas to make a little money. Some guy strapped this little man to this dog, and let it walk around. It would walk when he said to walk, sit when he said sit, etc. When People wanted to take pictures of the dog and the little man, he would ask them for some change. =) He named the dog and the man "Uribe" which is the president of Colombia.~
~Medellin as I mentioned is much warmer than Bogota. Our hotel room did NOT have air conditioning so it was quite warm at nights. I let Elijah sleep in just his diaper, and he looked so cute, I just had to take a pic. =) 
The Lord really gave us some much needed restful days in Medellin. We came away with lots of fun memories! The long 9-11 hour bus ride is always stressful and tiring, but with our dramamine it was a lot better this time. (Phillip had priced plane tickets for our family to fly to give us an easier trip and give us more time in Medellin, but they were too pricey!) While there in Medellin we found an artist that drew cartoon pics of our kids for a CHEAP price. I'll post those pics soon.
