Visitors!

Sarah: I'll continue our semester journey after Spring Break, the last thing I wrote about with the exception of Adele. We had another week with a professor here, Dr. David Cummings from Point Loma Nazarene University. We were excited to have the involvement of Point Loma this year, and hopefully will get some of their students to join the program in future years. Dave brought along his 10-year old daughter, Sydney. It was a lot of fun to have both of them here. Sydney quickly made friends with our neighbors, who have girls about her age. Even though Syd couldn't speak tons of Spanish, the girls did fine and the local girls showed her around all over the place. Dave did a week on microbiology, and though some students were surprised, they all enjoyed it. :) I heard comments of "I didn't think I would like this week, but I really enjoyed it!" all throughout the week from various students. At the end of the week, Dave and Sydney took off for the beach for the weekend, and our students geared up for their 3-week traveling component.

I'll write more about the traveling component later when it is all said and done, but this past week has been a real treat for me. David's sister, Jordan, decided to bring her youngest son Benjamin (1 1/2 years), and come down and spend a week with Adele and me while David was mostly traveling. I hadn't been looking forward to such a long time here at QERC by myself, so the company was MUCH appreciated! The cousins bonded well - Benjamin loved Adele and was always looking out for her. He always wanted to be giving her hugs and kissing her all throughout the week, and he often imitated her as well. Adele did well "putting up with" his hugs that sometimes squashed her and she definitely watched him and tracked him the whole week. She even held her own toward the end of the week as she started grabbing better and got a hold of his hair and ears at times.

Jordan and I had a great time doing some hikes with the kids, attending the wedding of one of the Chacon granddaughters here in the valley, and staying up late at night scrapbooking and talking. At least twice a day we walked down to our neighbor's farm so Benjamin could see the goose and the bunnies (and the rest of the animals, but those were the favorites!). He is too cute and is always busy and wanting to be outside. We were thankful for beautiful weather the whole week so we could release a lot of that energy outside! It was a lot of fun to introduce them to our neighbors and of course everyone loved Benjamin's big beautiful eyes. He and Adele drew a lot of attention this week! Our apartment quickly turned into a disaster zone, and I got a little glimpse of what my life could be like in the future with more than one kid. :) I don't know how people do it with more than one kid! Jordan talked on Skype often with her husband and kids back home, and while Adele and I were sad to see her and Benjamin leave, we know they were excited to get back to the rest of their family.