Latest Happenings

I know I'm a little behind, but I wanted to post about mine and Tyler's latest adventure. Back in April, we went home for Tiersha's wedding, which was great. Tiersha and Josh both looked so happy and very much IN LOVE. The day after the wedding, Tyler and I flew to Ecuador, which is where Tyler served his mission. We were there for almost 2 full weeks. Ecuador was quite the adventure! It's totally different from the United States in almost every way. People like to stand REALLY close to you in Ecuador, and in the US we believe in something called, "personal space." I was definitely craving personal space the entire time we were there. Also, there is no flushing toilet paper in toilets ANYWHERE. It's so weird, but surprisingly bathrooms didn't smell that bad. However, it was extremely hard to come across a bathroom. You can't just go into a restaurant like you can here, because they don't have any! I don't understand what the women of Ecuador do... Anyway, one of the places we visited that I loved was called Otovalo. It's a really cute, quaint town, and is very touristy so I never felt in danger. It's also beautiful... the scenery is amazing and the weather was great. The best thing about this town though is their shopping. They have a HUGE marketplace where they sell everything you can think of, and its CHEAP. We got real wool blankets and jackets for $10 a piece, and they're really cool looking. We also got plenty of jewelry for $1 a piece, and lots of other cool things. I just went to town! Tyler was great, he didn't try and stop me from buying anything. However, it's hard not to buy everything b.c it's so cheap. One other purchase that I'm really happy about is my leather jacket. We didn't get it in Otovalo, but in another place where they have an entire street that just sells leather. I got a suede leather jacket for $50, I couldn't believe it. It's my first leather jacket and I'm in love. Tyler really sold me on it, and I'm glad I listened! The last place in Ecuador we went was Guayaquil, which is the coast, which is where the temple is. We stayed at the temple hotel and even though there were only buckbeds, for $8 a night, we couldn't have gone wrong. We were able to see Tyler's mission president and a couple of his mission companions. They were all such nice people and it was so cool to see Tyler speak spanish with them. Tyler is so much more animated and dramatic in spanish, I LOVE it! After Ecuador, we flew back to CA and babysat the little munchkins (yes, all 4 of them) for a couple days and then went to Disneyland (one of mine and Tyler's favorite places) on our last day! We then flew home and got back to reality... sad day.