Juayua

After resting up a bit, we then headed over to the mountains to check out a famous waterfall in a town called Juayua.  My parents live nearby, so they drove over to join us in our adventures.  It is a very steep, rutted road down to where the walking begins, so we hired a pick-up between us all to make it a bit easier.  Tory would only let me hold her, until she saw my Dad, whom, thankfully,  she remembered from their October visit.   He then took over for me (boy were my arms happy!) and showed her the pretty waterfall and all the little treasures hidden within and around (such as rocks and flowers).  Edwin took some awesome pictures! :)  We ended the day by buying some delicious yuca (no English equivalent but it is like a mix between a potato and a squash).

Fireworks and Farms

We have a yearly tradition on December 28th, of visiting a neighboring suburb called Antiguo Cuscatlan during their festival honoring the innocent children that Herod killed trying to kill Jesus.  It is called the Day of the Innocents and is as close to April Fools as it gets.  The highlight of the evening is when the Torito Pinto (Colorful Bull) comes out and chases the crowd with its fireworks.  It is actually a man under a type of piñata in the shape of a bull.  He does race into the crowd and fireworks actually shoot out of the piñata somehow INTO the crowd.  They scream in joyful horror and flee.  This is a little dangerous to be in the middle of with a small child, so we kept our distance.  Tory thought it was great fun until the big, colorful fireworks (like the ones seen on the 4th of July) started up.  We then made a hasty retreat.  

The other pictures are a visit we made to Edwins cousin, Miriam, and her husband, Mauros farm.  He usually has parrots galore, but this year he traded them in for chickens.  Tory was thrilled! She did not know what to think of the little fuz-balls at first, but quickly warmed up to them.  She also enjoyed running around all over the grass and checking out the chickens and plants with her cousin, Alejandro.  The sugar cane was in full bloom and the countryside was so beautiful!

New Years Eve

This was a fun evening! We ate delicious food, talked, danced and took pictures. :) It was neat to have the whole family together to get a good picture in.  

The Beach!!

Every year it seems we get to re-visit the place Edwin and I were married civilly.  It is so beautiful, yet extremely hot and humid.  We saw some surfers riding the waves, and had some delicious natural juices.  Since it was January 1st and EVERYBODY wants to be out and doing something, the traffic was horrendous.  So we took a little break by letting the kids play in the water for a bit.  I was not really prepared for a day at the beach and was wearing jeans! Thankfully, Edwins sister had an extra swimsuit for Tory, so off we went.  The heavy, wet jeans I wore the rest of the day were worth every pound.  Tory was SOOO excited! She kept throwing the sand up into the air, and laughing when the water came up to where she was.  We made another stop in our long drive home to eat some pupusas and quesadillas (not the Mexican kind)! Yum!!! :)

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Ok, so this is weird.  Here I am, sitting in air conditioning, because it is so dang hot outside, and I am posting pictures of us in the snow! But I had to mention the snow before I talk about our time here in El Salvador.  It was beautiful, but COLD!!! I remember going out to get the mail, and that was it! No snowmen or snow forts for me, or Tory! Too cold!! But at least we did get out once! And there are some pictures of the snow in Seattle, too, before we left for SUNNY El Salvador! :)
Bueno, esto si es raro.  Aquí estoy sentada con aire acondicionado, pues está BIEN caliente ayá afuera, y aquí estoy poniendo fotos de nosotros en la nieve! Pero tenía que mencionarlo antes de hablar de nuestro tiempo aquí en El Salvador.  Fue tan bello, pero HELADO!!  Recuerdo haber ido a traer el correo al buzón y con eso bastó.  No a los hombres de nieve o casas de nieve para mi ni para Tory! Demasiado frio!  Pero al menos sí salimos una vez. :)  Y también puse fotos de la nieve en Seattle, antes de irnos para El Salvador caluroso! :)