Laguna de Guatavita

Laguna de Guatavita--we reached El Dorado.

Thanks internet for this photo!  Isn't it pretty?

Back in November I took the kids to Laguna de Guatavita (famous for being the start of the Legend of El Dorado.) We went with the Nueva Lengua Spanish school (it was geared to tourists) I was attending for 8 weeks for 4 hours a day/5 days a week. Do I speak Spanish now? No, no I do not. But I did meet a lot of interesting people from all over the world, which was cool. Anyway, Guatavita was meh, except that we saw like 5 different types of hummingbirds. The one in the picture is a Swordbill Hummingbird. Expectations are the root of all unhappiness--we thought we were going on a two hour hike, but no, it was a 20 min hike with stops for a tour guide to talk for 15 mins for every 3 mins we walked. Ugh. The town was cooler--very colonial Spanish with a bull fighting arena. I don't think going with the school was the best choice, but the kids were great and it was nice to get out of the house. The little boys actually said their favorite part of the day was riding the Transmilenio bus to and from the school.

We were waiting in line here. I thought it was so funny because on the drive to Guatavita, another student from New Zealand asked if Jubal, Nicolas and Efraim were triplets.  I can kind of see that for Nicolas and Jubal, but Efraim is a head shorter than the other two.

Swordbill hummingbird!  So cool!

Random tree photo.

The kids were really good considering I was really on their case about behaving since we were with a group from the school, but this is what we did when not listening to the tour guide. The tour guide only spoke Spanish and at this point, my kids understood nothing.

Such pretty views.

Photo in front of Guatavita where you can't even see it.  

I love my kids' smiles!!!

Oooohhh....aaaahhhhh.....

Guatavita wasn't the only scared lake to the Muisca, they had a whole layout of different lakes corresponding to stars and directions that were scared to them.

😍😍😍😍

Umm,  way to ruin the photo.  😂

I think the Muisca were cool because frogs were sacred to them.  What other culture can say that?!?!

Pretty hair flower thanks to Efraim.

It is pretty.

We FINALLY got to leave the tour guide behind!

Elena is being spoiled by Isabel because somehow she's 17 but can't tie her shoelaces so they stayed tied. 😐

And then the kids just took off running and ran the rest of the trail, which was slightly annoying because then we had to wait forever for the rest of the school group to get to the town, and keeping the kids occupied and out of trouble in the little tourist shops is always problematic.

Swimming Lessons

 After school ended in the middle of November, I signed the three youngest boys up for swim lessons for three weeks.  I really wanted Jubal and Efraim to get better, and they did, so that was good.  Nicolas was better than the class (they had class all at once all together), so he just mostly had to swim laps.

The boys insisted I take videos of them on the last day of swimming lessons.  So here they are.  It was kind of nice to be able to walk with the boys every day to and from their lessons, but Jubal and Nicolas were annoyed because I always brought books for them to read during Efraim's lesson.

November End of School Parties

Dia de los Brujas party.  This was Jubal's class.

Efraim had an end of the year Christmas party--school gets out in the middle of November, and they have summer break till the middle of January, so they did it in November.  

This was a birthday party in Jubal's class.

Jubal's teacher always shares a lot of photos.

I dont know what this party was for, but another in Jubal's class.

November things 2023

Watching movies and eating popcorn has become our go to Friday night activity.

And we watched a general conference talk almost every night.  I really liked that--I should start doing that again.

We walked out to the street fair at Santa Barbara one weekend.  I thought this was clever.

Also near the Santa Barbara Hacienda mall.

The boys loved these.

Efraim learned to blow a bubble!

Pres. Michael Nelson (the Young Men's General President) came to speak to the areas around Bogotá and the kids got to go in person. 

The boys played fútbol at the park a lot.

I made the kids an anime dinner.

Efraim's adorable drawing--he was so excited for Christmas!

I also made cookies one afternoon.  I took them some of them to share at the Spanish school.   I still had classes every day till after the first week in December.

This made me laugh so hard.  Definitely different generations.  I grew up with that being quite a typical teenage thing, now it's sexual harassment.  Not here though.

I tried on some cute clothes that I didn't buy.

Partly I couldn't decide if I liked the red or blue shirt better. 

Lando fell from the tree at the church and got hurt.  Ouch!

Nicolas likes this building.  

I put up lights for Christmas. And other decorations too--I tried to spend as little as possible and I thought I succeeded in making our townhome look festive.

Sebas with his "rich fútbol player" haircut as his sisters' called it.

I caved and bought a vase and frog so I could make flower arrangements.  Only I should have bought a bigger frog.

Our Christmas tree!

Remember I was going for biggest impact for least amount of money?  Well, that definitely had impact and was only like $12.

Colombian chocolate is SOOOOOO good!!!  Not Jet. But these kinds.  Easily as good as Lindt or Ghirardelli.

 I slowly added weights and exercise things to our supplies.

I aslo made Thanksgiving for the kids and the missionaries--with a turkey and everything!!! That's a small miracle because our oven is sketchy to say the least.

Colombia is having affecting our children.  ❤️❤️

Weird Colombian flavors.  

Actually a lot of my kids really like the pollo flavored chips.

Leo's view one night.

The biggest geranium plant I've ever seen.

Shopping at Pricesmart (the equivalent of Sam's Club or Costco) requires an Uber home, because no way I can pack all that. 

Leo's view flying into Bogotá!! 😍😍😍

The girls sang in church.

And Jubal insisted I record his cool jump.