Mac, Mercer, and Mack

Awhile back I asked Nadia what artists she wanted to see in person before she graduated from high school. We have been gradually working through the list she gave me. Ian's list was much shorter. There is only one artist left on the list she gave me - Riley Clemmons. Toby Mac was on both Ian and Nadia's lists, and we saw him in concert for the first time on Thursday night. When we attended a Steven Curtis Chapman concert earlier this month, Ian was really hoping that he'd sing "Got to B Tru," and miracle of miracle, that was one of the songs in his set list! Considering how many songs he's sung over the decades, we didn't think it was likely that one would be on the list. When I asked Ian if he was hoping to hear a particular song from TobyMac, he said he wasn't because he likes all of his music. The other artists on this tour included Tasha Layton (who was also on Nadia's list), Terrian, Cory Asbury, and Mac Powell. Each of those artists was given twenty minutes on stage. The pastor's talk plus the intermission accounted for another forty minutes. TobyMac was on stage for the final ninety minutes of the concert, which lasted 3.5 hours altogether. 

The number of concerts we go to in a year will drastically go down after Nadia graduates from high school. However, when we attend a concert that's more than two hours from our home, I typically try to include some other "field trips" in the outing. Because Nadia and Ian have chorus and art at the Christian school on Thursdays, we couldn't leave until 3:00pm. At first, we were planning to have dinner at TGI Fridays, but then we decided that we didn't have quite enough time to eat at a sit-down restaurant. Instead, we stopped at a travel plaza on the turnpike. The prices were rather high, so we ordered a large pizza, but we had to wait twenty-five minutes for them to make the pizza. I had thought we should aim to arrive at the arena thirty minutes before the concert began. We did achieve that goal, but I hadn't reserved parking ahead of time. If we ever go to another concert at Temple University, I will absolutely reserve parking well in advance! It took us 45 minutes to find a place to park (due to the zany amount of traffic) and then walk back to the arena, so we missed about ten minutes of Terrian's time as a soloist on stage due to our late arrival. Usually Nadia buys a t-shirt and/or sweatshirt at concerts. She got a t-shirt and a sweatshirt at the Steven Curtis Chapman concert earlier this month. Surprisingly, she didn't buy any merchandise at this concert. Ian purchased a t-shirt for the second time in his life. Last summer he got a God's Not Dead one from the Newsboys, and at this concert he got one from TobyMac. I was very grateful at the end of the concert that we were only driving about 30 minutes to a hotel rather than driving 2 hours and 45 minutes to get home. 

After we ate breakfast at our hotel, we drove about 30 minutes to Doylestown where we had a tour of TileWorks, which is a historic tile factory that is still running today. After that we toured Henry Mercer's home (Fonthill Castle) and visited the museum he established in 1916. In hindsight, I could have allowed less time for Mercer Museum and more time for TileWorks. The Fonthill Castle tour is guided so there's no need to guesstimate the length of time needed at that site. We ate some snacks we had brought from home as our lunch as we drove to Allentown for our guided tour of the Mack Truck Historical Museum. We had dinner at Carrabba's for the first time ever. I'm glad we tried it once, but most of our family prefers Olive Garden. The portions were large, so I'm looking forward to eating the other half of my chicken parmigiana this evening. Milo was very glad when we got home about 7:00pm. During the 28 hours we were gone, a teenager in our neighborhood walked him three times and allowed him to sleep in her bed on Thursday night. As I'm not a fan of lengthy drives, I am glad that our next longer drive isn't until April 26. I'm sure Milo will also appreciate that as he really doesn't like it when he sees us packing a suitcase!

For years Nadia has been asking us to go to England. More recently she's expanded that to England, France, and Italy. I'm not sure if/when we'll make it to Italy, but we are hoping to go to England and France in 2026. Up until recently, Ian hadn't said where he wanted to go in 2028 (when he graduates from high school), but now he's decided he wants to go to Japan, which thrilled Oliver as he's wanted to go there as well. Paul and I have been to China so that won't be a new continent for us, but it will be a new country for all of us and a new continent for the kids. Maybe Oliver will choose to go to Africa or Australia? Time will tell. 

Daniel

In June 2012 we took our kids to Sight and Sound for the very first time. We saw Jonah, which at the time was Nadia's most favorite Bible story. Over the past almost twelve years, we've taken the kids to Sight and Sound eleven times. They've seen ten different shows, as we took them to see Moses in both 2014 and 2023. The sets they have in their current show (Daniel) outshine most sets I've seen at Broadway shows in NYC. We weren't expecting Ezekiel to be part of the show, but he was, and mention was also made more than once about Jeremiah. I thought Nebuchadnezzar's transformation (during the years he became like a beast of the field) could have been a bit more dramatic, and the "lions" were only digital for the lion's den scene, but overall, it was an outstanding performance. We recognized that the actor playing the part of Daniel was the same man who recently played the part of David. It's a blessing to be able to take our children to see such high quality, biblically based shows. 

Typically, I schedule something else for us to do in or near Lancaster when we drive down to see a show. Last year we toured a furniture factory. The previous year we toured the home of President Buchanan. My plan for this year had been to learn more about the Amish people, but those plans were scratched once I saw the Seussical rehearsal schedule. As it was the kids had to leave the rehearsal at 30 minutes early so we could get to the show on time. While they were at the rehearsal from 9:00-12:30 I took Oliver to an Easter egg hunt and baked two cakes plus an apple crisp. The latter was for our family to enjoy, and I took the cakes to our Sunday School class this morning. 

Steven Curtis Chapman concert (March 8)

Paul's dad met us at Sight and Sound. We enjoyed the show together, and then we had dinner at Red Robin. It has been the only restaurant where Nadia will still order off the kids' menu. Yesterday she didn't do that although truthfully, I think she would have enjoyed her meal more if she had because she loves their macaroni and cheese, but considering she'll be turning sixteen in three months, she wanted to order off the regular menu. After dinner, we drove back home as Milo had been left alone for almost nine hours at that point. 

Oliver in the National Gallery of Art

On Friday Paul and the boys stayed home all day. Cheri joined us for dinner, and then Nadia, Cheri, and I went to see the movie Cabrini. That was also very inspiring. I had never heard of the woman, although I had heard of a section of Chicago referred to as Cabrini Greens, which was named after her. Christian movies have come a LONG way over the last two decades both in terms of quality and also quantity. I'm amazed at how many are scheduled to be released this year! Nadia was fine with seeing Cabrini, but the two she really wants to see are "Someone Like You" and "Unsung Hero." We chose to wait to see the fourth season of The Chosen at home rather than at the theater due to the cost involved in buying five tickets to three movies. As we watched the trailers at the theater on Friday, we were interested in Possum Trot, Despicable Me 4, and Sight. I'm looking forward to seeing Boys in the Boat on DVD in the near future as we didn't see that at the theater, and I really enjoyed the book. It's not a religious movie. In the past I've often gone multiple years in a row without entering a movie theater, but I'm planning to see Ordinary Angels with Oliver and Cheri on Wednesday afternoon. This will be a new record for me to see two movies in two weeks, ha ha! 

White House, monuments, and more

Friday morning, we left our house bright and early (6:00) and dropped Milo off at our friends' home on our way to the White House. I had requested a tour through our Representative. Two weeks before our tour date, the White House confirmed that we could have a tour at 10:00 am, and we were told to arrive 15 minutes early. I had prepaid for a spot in a parking garage for the day ($18), but I didn't realize it was valet parking. Oliver had gotten carsick on the drive down to DC which added to the "adventure" of the morning. We walked rather quickly to the meeting spot for the tours only to find out that we were allowed to enter the tour line any time between 10:00-12:30. Seriously! So, if you ever sign up for a public tour, just keep that in mind! We wouldn't have left our house at 6:00 am had we known that. Also, I forgot that no bags were allowed. I had remembered they didn't allow cameras with detachable lenses, so I had left my camera at home, but I was using a small purse. Because the van was parked by valet, it didn't seem feasible to walk back to the parking garage and attempt to put my purse in the van. The park ranger said there was a hotel nearby that would store bags for a fee. If the purse hadn't been my mom's, I would have put the contents in my pockets and thrown the purse away, but it had enough sentimental value that I was willing to pay a fee for it to be stored for one hour while we toured the White House. It had been decades since I had toured the White House. Back in the day, we were taken into more of the White House and didn't go through nearly as much security, but I'm glad my kids have at least been in part of the White House.

Jefferson Memorial

After I retrieved my purse, we went to the White House Visitor Center, and the kids each received a Junior Ranger Badge. Our next stop was the National Gallery of Art. We explored a significant part of the West Building. We've studied quite a few different artists this year since we've been studying the Renaissance. It was exciting to see original paintings from many of the artists we've studied. The disappointment was that the one part of the museum I was most looking forward to seeing (French Impressionistic paintings from the 19th century) was closed as they are doing renovations. We each got one thing from a vendor (I set a limit of $4 per person) for our "lunch." I don't recommend buying a soft pretzel. Paul and I did so, and they were very stale. Our next stop was the Museum of American History. As a child, my favorite part of that museum was the First Ladies' inaugural gowns. That museum has changed a LOT over the last few decades, but they still have some gowns on display. 

Our next stop was the Washington Monument. I had been trying for years to take the kids up there. First, they had it closed due to replacing the elevator, then it was closed due to COVID, and then I had trouble getting one of the $1 tickets. Paul and I really enjoyed seeing the views from the top of the monument. We planned to visit the Jefferson Memorial on Saturday morning, but the weather was beautiful on Friday, and it was supposed to be raining on Saturday. So, we decided to walk to the Jefferson Memorial on Friday afternoon. The kids weren't thrilled because they were tired of walking. Who would think that two adults in their 50's would have a much higher tolerance for walking than three kids between the ages of 11-15? I had gotten our National Park passports stamped at the White House and the Washington Monument, but due to renovations, we were unable to get ours stamped at the Jefferson Memorial. Two monuments in DC that the kids haven't been to yet are the ones for Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, Jr. The visited the Korean War, Vietnam War, WWII, and Lincoln Memorials last year. After we walked back to the parking garage, we drove to Alexandria, Virginia. We had dinner at a pizza place and then attended a Steven Curtis Chapman concert at a church that is located in a shopping mall in Alexandria. The concert was the reason we headed to DC. Nadia would have liked it if we drove back after the concert because they had to miss a Seussical rehearsal on Saturday morning, but we wouldn't have gotten home until 1:00am (at the earliest).

Because it was raining on Saturday, the only place we visited was the Holocaust Museum. Four of us selected cards at the beginning that were of Jews who survived. I was the only one who had been there before, but Paul and I have both (separately not together) visited concentration camps in Europe. The museum had changed some since I was there (when you go more than 20 years in between visits that's likely to occur), but the part that had been the most impactful when I was there decades ago (the exhibit with the shoes) was currently under renovation (no shoes for the time being). In addition to the main exhibit, we walked through one about the more recent genocide in Burma as well as the children's exhibit called "Daniel's Story," which is based on an excellent book I used to read my students back when I was a classroom teacher.

We had eaten breakfast at the hotel in Alexandria, and the kids were grateful we left the hotel at 10:00 considering it had been 6:00 the previous morning. State College is the same distance from DC as our home, and so we drove to PSU from the Holocaust Museum to attend a concert called Winter Jam. On the way we stopped at Roy Roger's (my request) because I haven't been to one of those in many years and as a kid, I loved their strawberry milkshakes. Those milkshakes were our "lunch." In State College we stopped at Wendy's for dinner (using a gift card). It was raining in DC, raining during the entire drive, and raining while we stood outside the Bryce Jordan Center waiting in line to enter the arena. There were about 15,000 people in line. I am not exaggerating. You don't buy tickets in advance but just pay $15 at the door. Nadia and Ian joined the group from our church's youth group. They had been waiting in line for 2.5 hours, so they were at the front of the line and got in long before Paul, Oliver, and I did. But we all got seats. Four of us (Oliver being the exception) had the same favorites - Katy Nichole and Cain. I also really enjoyed the song "Arise my love" by Newsong. I was very grateful for my ear plugs for the entire event, and I walked around the concourse during two of the artists (the two Oliver liked the best). In the future, I doubt Paul and I will attend Winter Jam. We'd prefer just to let the kids go with the youth group, but this one time it was nice to go as a family. We skipped the last artist (Crowder) because I wanted to leave before most people did to avoid the massive traffic jam on the campus when that many vehicles are all trying to leave at the same time. The other reason I didn't want to stay until the bitter end was because we were losing an hour of sleep that night due to DST.

We picked Milo up around 12:30 after church as the people he was staying with live about 5 minutes from church. Thankfully while we were in Florida and Ecuador, Milo really bonded with their eleven-year-old daughter. Milo loves Lucy! Honestly, he gets as excited to see her as he does to see Ian, Nadia, or myself. Prior to her I had never seen him show that much affection for anyone outside our immediate family. He also likes their dog, Cooper. It's such a blessing to know he is happy to be at their house while we're away. We are scheduled to watch Cooper for about 10 days in July, and they are scheduled to watch Milo for one week at the end of May/early June and for another week at the end of August. I'm hoping that Lucy can continue to be our dog sitter for years to come! Milo was so excited when she came over to our house for co-op last Tuesday. 

It's been harder lately to find audiobooks that Nadia really enjoys. I recently hit the jackpot when I got the first book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series. All three kids, especially Nadia, really enjoy this series. Typically, Ian is the one asking when we can listen to a book on a road trip. Now it's Nadia who is asking! The first few books in the series are each between 12-16 hours long, whereas many books we listen to are between 4-6 hours long, but we're already on the third book. I'm not sure if we'll listen to all ten books. Maybe the kids can read the last few if I get them from our local library? We shall see, but it's nice to find a series that Nadia really, really wants to listen to. 

View of the White House from the Washington Monument

Type A

In general, my personality definitely leans toward Type A although I'd never characterize myself as "aggressive" (one of the traits listed for Type A). I do like to be organized and in general enjoy planning things. As a homeschooling mom in a family who goes on vacation about 5 weeks a year, planning is one of my significant responsibilities. I write homeschool lesson plans for my three kids, weekly lesson plans for four classes in our homeschool co-op, plan out our meals (which then leads to creating grocery lists), choose what audiobooks we will listen to as a family (and which I will listen to on my own), schedule doctor appointments, purchase tickets to concerts, theatre performances, and the like, and serve as our family's travel agent, which involves making many plans and various purchases (airfare, hotels, rental vehicle, tour tickets, etc.). Since we returned from Quito, I've put further time into lesson plans, co-op plans for the next ten weeks, our vacation to Alaska, and selecting future books for the kids to read and listen to. In terms of our trip to Alaska, I am really, really motivated to make sure Oliver gains 5-6 pounds over the next 5.5 months because he has to weigh at least 80 pounds to do one of the activities I booked for our family. The minimum age is 10, and he'll be 12 years old at that point, but he's thin. I used Turo for the first time to book our rental vehicle in Alaska. It wasn't cheap, but it was much cheaper than other options I explored for Alaska, and I don't think there will be any unexpected fees like we experienced in Florida. Live and learn!

When I taught middle school in Maryland, I took my students on many field trips. Several of these were to Washington, D.C. Over the years we've been there several times, but we still haven't seen everything I wanted the kids to see. In 2020 I had tickets for us to tour the White House, Ford's Theatre, and Washington Monument, but all of those were cancelled. Four years later, we again have tickets to those places. We are planning to visit DC this weekend and the last weekend in April. Over those four days we plan to visit the White House, White House Visitor Center, National Gallery of Art, Washington Monument, National Museum of American History, Jefferson Memorial, Holocaust Museum, Supreme Court, International Spy Museum, Ford's Theatre, National Portrait Gallery, National Archives, and Rock Creek Park. After that trip, we will have visited most of the places I wanted to take the kids in DC. The places they haven't been yet include the National Museum of the U.S. Navy (took students there), National Postal Museum (never been), and the FBI (took students there). When I contacted our Representative for tickets to the White House, I also asked for tickets to the FBI, but there weren't any available. If there's another concert or play that brings us back near DC in the coming years, maybe we will visit those places. This weekend the reason we're headed down there is to attend a Steven Curtis Chapman concert, and at the end of April we're planning to see a theatre production of Prince Caspian at the Museum of the Bible.

Nadia, also a firstborn, is the other member of our family who shows the most interest in planning. For example, she asked me recently to figure out exactly what day she can get her learner's permit in June. She was disappointed she has to wait one whole day, as the earliest after her birthday (6/24) that I can take her is on June 25. She won't be getting much practice with driving in July because she found out last week that she has been hired to work at Camp Susque for four weeks this summer! One more example of how she leans toward "type A" would be that she recently organized all the magnets on our refrigerator (and we own a LOT). They are now in groups - for example the forts are together, historical sites, industrial sites, natural beauty sites, Presidential sites, etc. That's my girl!

Cold water!

Tuesday morning, we had breakfast at our hotel. They served us an egg (made to order), pan de yuca, avocado, cheese, tomato slices, watermelon, yogurt, bread, pineapple, and papaya. I'm glad it was a hearty breakfast because we had a very, very late lunch. Around 9:30 eleven us were picked up for our white-water rafting adventure on the Pastaza River. First, we picked up our helmets, water shoes, and wet suits. Then we drove to the location where we entered the river. The section of the river we traversed was class 3. Other sections of the river are rated class 4 or 4+, but considering we had kids as young as eight-years-old in our raft, class 3 was more than enough for us. We spent about 90 minutes on the river. It rained part of the time. After we carried the two rafts to the bus and took off our gear, we began our drive to the restaurant where we were to have lunch. We encountered a lengthy delay as there was a mudslide which killed a motorcyclist. We were all served rice and beans. Earlier in the day we had let them know if we wanted beef, chicken, or fish. Oliver had fish, Paul and I had chicken, and Nadia and Ian had beef. Because our meal was so late, I didn't feel like eating dinner. Joe brought back chicken and fries for dinner. 

For breakfast on Wednesday morning we were served a pancake, an egg (made to order), pineapple, mango, dragon fruit, yogurt, and a cheese empanada. Instead of syrup, you could put either jelly or molasses on your pancake. Around 9:00 twelve of us were picked up for our canyoning trip. First, we picked up our helmets, shoes, and wet suits. Then we had a very short drive to the location where we received our other gear and were given instructions as to how to rappel down the waterfalls. There were three sections to rappel down. All twelve of us went down the first section. Joshua, Paul, and I didn't do the second section. In hindsight, Paul and I would have preferred to have done the second section than the first as the only person (not counting the youngest kids who went down with assistance) who didn't become submerged in first section of the waterfall was Joe, whereas none of the nine people who did the second section were submerged. Joshua did the third section, but Paul, Ian, Joel, and I skipped that one. If I had to do it over again, I wish I had just been an observer and taken pictures and videos instead of actually participating. It was challenging enough just hiking to the top of the waterfall. Being submerged in ice cold water pouring over me and then at the bottom being submerged in ice cold water was just plain torture. I felt like I couldn't breathe it was so cold. At the end of the trip, we each shared what were our top two experiences of the trip. All nine of the kids plus Joe ranked horseback riding as number one and most of them ranked canyoning as number two. Paul and I ranked white water rafting as number one and Quito Old Town as number two. If Paul was allowed to pick three, he said he'd pick playing Scumbags and Warlords (a card game) as number three as he enjoyed playing that with Nadia and some of his nephews on Tuesday evening at the Casa Verde and Thursday morning at the Towfighi's house. After eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at Casa Verde, we drove back to Quito. Yvonne served sloppy joe sandwiches and leftover tuna noodle. We really enjoyed the rolls that she used for the sloppy joes. After dinner, Paul and Joe returned the rental vehicle to the airport. 

Because we only had one small vehicle, we just stayed at their home on Thursday morning. Yvonne served quesadillas for lunch, and we packed sandwiches on those delicious rolls to eat on our flight from Quito to Miami. Aside from the waterfall on Monday, white water rafting on Tuesday, and waterfalls on Wednesday, the other time we encountered cold water in Ecuador was when we took our showers. I did manage to get one hot shower while we were in Ecuador, and that was at 6:30am on Thursday. Unfortunately, later that morning their hot water totally gave up the ghost, and they were told it would be at least two days until someone came to try to repair it. They encountered quite a few difficulties within a span of about ten days. First, another driver rearended their small car while Joe was driving. Because no one in Ecuador has car insurance, Joe had to pay for the repairs even though the other driver was at fault. Thankfully, car repairs are much cheaper in Ecuador. They got it repaired shortly before we arrived, but we didn't discover until Friday that one of the headlights needed to be replaced. Joe replaced it on Wednesday evening. We had car difficulties with both cars on Saturday on the horseback riding adventure. The small car's problem was easily rectified. The bigger car ended up being towed and needs a new transmission. They had sold both of their vehicles before we arrived but had been given permission to keep using them until they fly back to the US next week.  Joe was also worried about being pulled over by the Transito as they frequently randomly pull people over. He was pulled over once when I was in the car with him. Hopefully things will go more smoothly for them during their final four days in Ecuador.

I was able to make use of my Spanish in Ecuador. I didn't always understand everything that was said to me, but I understand many things that were said. Similarly, I usually could find a way to communicate in Spanish although sometimes I made mistakes (ex. I used the Spanish word for grandson instead of nephew when I was talking to a guide about Wesley). I wouldn't consider myself fluent, but I've made more progress in Spanish over the last 2+ years than I did when I was in middle school. Although we don't plan to return to South America, hopefully I will have more opportunities to make use of my knowledge of Spanish in the future.

After eating lunch on Thursday, Joe drove us to the airport. It was a tight squeeze to fit six people plus all our luggage in a small car, but it wasn't a lengthy drive. We made it through the passport control and the security screening very quickly. We did some shopping at the airport because during the rest of the week we had only purchased magnets. Oliver got a baseball cap, Nadia got a purse, and Nadia, Paul, and I each got a t-shirt to remember our time in Ecuador. We landed a little early in Miami, which was a good thing because it seems you need two hours to go from one airplane to another in that airport. After we made it through customs and the security screening, we had to almost run to our gate. We arrived when group four was boarding, and we were in group five. None of us slept on the second flight despite the fact we landed in Baltimore around 11:45pm. We took the shuttle to the long-term parking, bought some gas for the van, and then drove home. Oliver had started having diarrhea on Wednesday, and he required a lengthy bathroom stop when we were about 30 minutes away from home. We got home around 3:10 am. Oliver went straight up to bed, and he promptly threw up on his bedding and again on the carpet in the hallway on his way to the bathroom. Due to helping Paul clean up that mess, it was about 3:45 by the time I crawled into bed. 

I was the first one up this morning. I stopped and got a few essentials (ex. milk) on the way to getting Milo. I missed him! Thankfully, he did well at their home. He particularly bonded with Lucy. We did some schoolwork when I got back home with Milo. After lunch I took Ian to the orthodontist because one his wires had popped out while we were in Ecuador. I also did some more grocery shopping on the way home from the orthodontist. Oliver and I went to bed very early (8:15) last night. Nadia, Ian, Paul, and Nathaniel went to see a Tim Hawkins show. They didn't have good seats because a traffic accident added 30 minutes to the length of their drive there, but they really enjoyed the show. Ian and Nathaniel slept some in the van on the way back home. They got home around 11pm. I let Ian and Nadia sleep until 9:05 this morning. They had a two-hour musical rehearsal that started at 10:00. I slept for 10 hours last night and was in bed for 11 hours. Oliver slept for 14 hours straight!!! We've all been able to stay at home since Nadia and Ian came back from their rehearsal at 12:15. The only thing on our agenda for tomorrow is going to church. 

We are very grateful that we were able to spend time in southern Florida and Ecuador. However, we're also very glad to be back at home sweet home. Some things we appreciate about being at home are toilets that can be used to dispose of toilet paper, hot showers, being at a lower altitude, being with Milo (and in Nadia's case Lily), sleeping in our own beds, being able to text/call (we had to keep our phones in airplane mode for a week), being able to drink water from the tap, not needing to pay money to use a public restroom, being able to wear my wedding rings, and in Ian's case, he's been enjoying playing the piano again (he used the Towfighi's electric keyboard some but he prefers a piano). I didn't wear any rings during the entire vacation because Yvonne had said to wear a ring would be to risk having my finger cut off. Literally. I wanted to keep all my fingers, so I left my rings at home. The only place I used my good camera in Ecuador was in Cotopaxi National Park, and I made sure my cell phone was hidden in a pocket that had a zipper. Thankfully, none of us had any encounters with pickpockets. We also won't miss the insects that were biting us in the Banos area. Those bites itch much worse than a mosquito bite. Not fun!

We never made it to Turkey during the fifteen years they lived there. When I booked the trip to Ecuador, they had no idea that their time in Quito would be coming to an end six days after our visit ended. They are moving back to Maryland next week. It will be easier to see them more frequently when they are only living 3.5 hours away from us. Yvonne's physical difficulties in adjusting to the high altitude is the main reason their time in Quito is coming to an end. Next month she is due to give birth to their ninth child. They are planning to come and see one of Nadia and Ian's Seussical performances next month, we are planning to go to HersheyPark with them one day in June, etc. Whenever we fly out of BWI we will probably see them at least a little bit, which will also help us avoid paying for parking at the airport. We plan to do so in August when we fly to/from Anchorage. My kids absolutely love spending time with their cousins!