Shopping trips, friends, puppies, and blogworthy meals

We went to Ambato to do our monthly shopping yesterday. We ended up going with some friends and it was a fun trip. We always end up with a lot of groceries - multiply that by 3 families and you can imagine how full the van was! Brooklyn stayed home with her favorite babysitter and the other families left their kids with someone as well, making it a much more relaxing trip than it might have been - there would have been 8 kids if they'd all come along. Yikes! Maddie and the other little girl that came were great travelers and shoppers. We adults, on the other hand....Whew! That curvy road just about did some of us in!

I got a haircut. And I don't like it. All I really wanted was a trim but I guess I didn't quite make that clear. Oh well. Hair grows back. I think the cut itself is good, just not what I wanted. I have a hard time telling people in English what I want, let alone Spanish. I can't really blame the hairstylist for my lack of communication skills and it probably doesn't look as awful as I think it does. In fact, at first I did really like it but as time wore on, I began to realize that it wasn't going to work. I'm just anxious for my hair to grow back!

We came very close to getting another puppy in Ambato. They had some adorable yellow lab puppies and if it weren't for our friends we would have brought one home. Actually, it is a good thing we had somebody there to talk us out of it. We really don't have the space in our yard for another big dog. I'm not saying our friends were right, mind you - just admitting that if we do decide to get another dog, we'll need to think things through for a little longer rather than get another dog on a whim like that :-) Did I mention that those puppies were very, very cute. But, alas, our friends were able to look past the cuteness and lovingly knock some sense into us. Old people are so wise! (Hee, hee)

We did come home with plenty of groceries and some Dominoes pizzas. We also found some decent t-bone steaks that we put to good use tonight. We had over our friends from Pennsylvania to watch the Denver Broncos play the Pittsburgh Steelers. For dinner we ate steak, fried taters'n'onions, beans, salad and brownies. It was a good meal - we haven't eaten a good, home-cooked "American" meal like that in a very long time, so it was a special treat for all of us! This particular meal is what my Dad always used to cook for us on camping trips and is one of my absolute favorites. While it just isn't the same without Dad doing the cooking over an open fire, it turned out pretty close to the original (Sean is no slouch when it comes to good grilling). It was fun to have friends over to enjoy football, laughter, good fellowship, adult conversation, and yummy food! I have to say, we have some great friends here and I'm so grateful that they put up with us.

See Grandpa Ron, Maddie is ready to go camping now!