The BEACH!

So we're back from the beach and I leave TOMORROW to go home. Woaaah. I have to admit that it will be nice to get home. It will be nice to get back into the routine of things, and see the sweet boys that I nanny. I missed them. I'm excited to see my friends, and I have a feeling this semester will be a pretty good semester. I have only early childhood education classes and a photography class. I would consider those "fun" classes. I'm glad I don't have to take another general education class. Those are usually some of my least favorite.

This is not to say I won't miss my family. I know I will. I will miss having my sisters to talk to, vent to, and confide in. And I will miss watching my little brothers grow into young men. I will miss having my parents around to talk to, ask for wisdom and guidance and play games with.

As I said when I wrote about arriving in Ecuador, no matter where I go, or what I do, I will  always miss someone. But, I've realized that this just means that I have been blessed immensely. This means that I have people who love me all around the world. I have people who love me in Colorado Springs, Chicago, Quito... and many other places.

Anyway, the beach was great! It always is. This is the first time that I saw my parent's condo that they bought last spring. Before we moved to Colorado in 2006 my parents had bought a condo with 5 other families at the same resort that this condo is at.

I realized as I took pictures that there really is no way to capture how relaxing, wondrous, and beautiful the beach in Ecuador is. It has to be one of my favorite places to go!

The sunsets at the beach are AMAZING. 

So gorgeous

Thankfully my sister Julianna was very willing to be my model pretty much whenever I asked. That's her silhouette.  

view from our apartment

The girls looking at the pictures they took

None of us did this, but there were a lot of people on the beach who did

this is a strange crab like creature my siblings found

We lounged around on the beach 

and we tanned by the pools

these are a couple of the pools at the resort, and you can see my family swimming in one of them :) 

There were some GORGEOUS flowers there

And everything was so brightly colored

This guys is really starting to lose his teeth. 

We played lots of keepaway

It's a good way to let out any aggression you have towards any of your siblings ;) 

I miss you

I wrote "I love you" in the sand and Micah automatically goes: I'll write David for you. That was not my plan, but thank you, Micah ;) 

Best friends

I also did a photo shoot of my parents, since they don't have very many pictures of themselves together. 

Once I edit them I'll probably put more up, and I'll crop the guy in the speedo out of this ;) 

boogie boarding

One of the few pictures of me. Like my tan line?

The family in front of our apartment building. This was the second picture, and right before it was taken my mom said to do something different. So I thought she meant to make a funny face. I think Katelyn thought that too. 

This is my first blog post that I have done on my own computer since I arrived in Ecuador... YES! my computer is fixed :) They had told me that they retrieved 100% off of my computer (I was only really worried about my pictures) but I have only been able to find pictures from 2011, and it looks like some of them have been corrupted and so they won't open. So it looks like I only have a little bit from my old hard drive. Everything is really disorganized, so maybe I'll still be able to find it.... Things could be worse though. I got some of my old photos, music, and documents off of my old hard drive, and my computer was fixed for free.

I've learned my lesson though... I NEED to buy an external hard drive. No more excuses.

I also hope I can figure out how to get lightroom back on this computer, because I miss it!

So, enjoy my unedited photos :)