Time Flys When You're With Gabriela!

Well it's been a fast and fun couple of months since our last time we posted here on the blog and I just thought I'd catch it up a bit. On March 1st we celebrated Gabriela's first birthday with our family & friends and had a terrific time and Gabriela got to enjoy her first cake.

The past few months Gabriela has been blossoming so much it has been amazing to watch and enjoy. We had a great visit at my mother's cabin for just before Easter with Monica's sister and nieces. At the end of the visit, Gabriela took her first couple steps without holding anything during Easter Sunday mass! After that, she started easing it in to it taking a few more steps each day but after about a week or so she was hustling all over the house, sidewalk, and anywhere else she could.

She doing so well overall and is talking more with a mix of both English & Spanish and Monica and I are now also trying to teach her a little baby sign language too. She has developed a full blown obsession with the "Itsybitsy Spider" which we have certainly had fun with singing along with her. She says "hi" & "bye" in English still; but loves to point in the air looking for an "avion", or ask for a drink of "agua" and much more.

Gabriela was baptized yesterday, in a small gathering at our church along with two other little ones. The entire family came together again and celebrated this beautiful day. As you can see by the photo below, Gabriela was absolutely beautiful in her gown but at the end of the ceremony she wanted to back to the holy water to play & splash.

Well, as I used to say in Bogota; "it's getting late" so I'm going to call it a night. Enjoy some photos of Gabriela from the last couple of months. These photos include her brilliant smile, fun with birthday cake, walking in the grass with her "Gran-Mare", playing with her friend at a mall play area (this one is new to us), and of course one of Miss Gabriela Sophia in her baptism gown with her beautiful mami.

What...11 Months Old!!!!

Well, Gabriela is now 11 months old and she is doing very well. She has discovered the joy of climbing up the stairs but not so much with the climbing down yet. She is now up to 3 intelligible words (we think); "baby", "hi", & "bye". She recently started with a couple of walker toys to help her walk a bit, but for now she is happy riding around on her car and discovering the buttons and music. And last but certainly not least, she is learning her animal sounds. Or at least one animal sound. That's right our daughter.... can moo like a cow!

So as you can see is as beautiful as ever and is doing very well. She is still in the lower percentiles for hight and weight, but is growing steadily and is certainly very healthy.

I hope you enjoy some of the latest photos with her new hair style. In the first she is cracking up like she usually is but I'm not sure about the 2nd. It looks like she is telling me off or something.

Hodson's Visit Kentucky

Monica, Gabriela, & I decided to drive from Virginia to Kentucky to visit our good friends Amie, Justin & their son Spencer who live halfway between Lexington, KY & Cincinnati, OH for New Year's weekend. When we decided to visit Kentucky we also contacted one of the families in our Colombian adoption Yahoo Group who live in Lexington and have just last week received the referral for a beautiful baby girl in Medellin, Colombia. Monica and I tried to help them narrow down the long list of questions that they have now that they are planning their trip to Medellin to adopt their beautiful Sofia.

These photos of our family with Juan Fernando & Jennifer, Jennifer with Gabriela, & our good friend Justin sitting with his son Spencer & Gabriela

Get Up, Stand Up!

Gabriela just stood up for the first time on her own. She is also transitioning from her "army crawl" that she has been doing to a full crawl on her knees; but she just doesn't have it down fully yet.

Can Gabriela be President one day?

I acutally don't know that the Constitution deals with international adoption, but I do know that Gabriela Sophia is now a United States Citizen! Having been home for just under 5 weeks, we received Gabriela's citizenship package on Monday. She will always be a Colombian citizen as well so she has the best of both worlds.

It's cold here in Virginia!!!!!

Settling in at Home

We have been home for a couple of weeks now and are trying to settle into our rutine as best as we can. We had a beautiful family gathering on the first Saturday that we were home and although we were very run down and I was actually sick by then, it was so nice to have both of our entire families here with Gabriela. She actually seemed to recognize the faces of much of her family from the photos that she looked at every day while we were in Bogota and also the voices of her Abuelas from the telephone as well.

This past Saturday we had a big "Welcome Home" party for Gabriela at Tia Maria's house and Gabriela enjoyed being the star of the show and all the wonderful and generous gifts she has been given by everyone. Our old friend Mary came all the way from Rhode Island and our great friends Amie, Justin, & their son Spencer drove all the way from Kentucky for the party! She has received so much love from everyone and we appreciate all of the support and love we have been given as well.

We hope you enjoy a few of the pictures from this magical homecoming and we will try our best to continue to post reguarly with updates in the life of Gabriela Sophia.




On our way Home!!!!




In the airport with my two Abuelas!



I'm so happy with my Tio Jim!



So much fun with my two Abuelos!



I finally have my own highchair and boy am I having fun eating!

Home Sweet Home

No photos tonight since I have no idea which bag the camera cable is in, sorry! We arrived safe and sound and on time tonight although we had a crazy day, but in the end all worked out as it was supposed to. We were met at the airport by a great gathering of family and some good friends as well. It was so beautiful to see so much of Gabriela's new family there waiting for her and for us.

The family then helped us get all of our bags back to the house, which is strange to see after so long by the way; and a hot dinner was waiting for us. Everyone was so excited to finally meet Gabriela and it was a lot of fun to see her with her cousins especially. Thank you to everyone for doing so much for us while we have been gone and for the amazing welcome home.

The day stared at 4:30am to get to the airport 3 hours before our scheduled 9:25 flight. Unfortunately, we were told that the flight had been canceled due to problems with the plane. The nice people at American Airlines helped us transfer our ticket to Miami to a big Colombian airline, Avianca; however this flight was scheduled to arrive in Miami an hour later than our previous flight leaving a very short time for Immigration and Customs. I'm still not quiet sure just how we made our connection in Miami, but we did!

Gabriela was really very good on both flights, sleeping for the firt half of each flight and playing most of the 2nd half. She did get a bit bored at the end of the 2nd flight but wasn't too fussy as long as we tried to entertainer her. Monica is now feeling a bit under the weather and I'm feeling pretty run down myself. So on that note, I'm going to stop blogging and go to bed.

By the way, Gabriela is sound asleep right now in her own crib in her own room and our dog (Zuny) is sleeping outside her door.... Life is Good!!!!!

Not Goodbye, but....

Hasta Luego, Bogota... we will be back!
Well, we did receive Gabriela's visa today without any problems and we are pretty much all packed up. It's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate a) with a baby and b) living in a foreign country for nearly 2 months. Let's just say we are going home with more bags than we came with but that's ok because we are coming home with something so special none of the rest matters anyway.

For Halloween Gabriela was "Minnie Mouse", well she at least had the ears. We didn't have too much time for shopping for a costume for her but when we did we didn't have much luck finding anything small enough for her. So she was an adorable Minnie and although they do celebrate Halloween here she'll have to wait till at least next year before we are able to take her out trick or treating. It just wasn't possible this year with everything we needed to get done, not to mention it would have been 100% for us and not for her so we easily decided to skip it this year. We had to get busy getting ready to come HOME!!!!!!

We are finishing up packing the carry on and then it's off to sleep hopefully. We are leaving the hotel around 6 in the morning and we'll be seeing some of you just after 6pm tomorrow night!!!! We can't beleive that we are finally coming home and although we are a little nervous about the flights and everything we are just so excited that this is finally happening.

So good night Bogota, we'll see you in the morning and we'll see you again soon.

Ready to come home?

Emotionally and mentally we are ready to come home but we still have a lot to do to actually pack up the last nearly 2 months and return to our happy home. We went to the US Embassy today and everything went really well there for us. We have to go back tomorrow afternoon to pick up Gabriela's completed Immigration Visa. She will be traveling on her Colombian passport but as soon as they stamp her visa in Miami, she will be a naturalized American. We can get her U.S. passport right away if we wanted/needed to, but I think we'll give ourselves at least a short break from that kind of paper work.

It's so hard to believe that we will be home so soon. As my dad used to say to us, we have "one day and a wake up" left here in Bogota. We are sad to be leaving the place where our precious daughter was born but it is certainly time to head home and we are so excited to see everyone.

This is your offical invitation to meet us at the airport, if you want to and are able to meet us at the airport and see little Gabriela; please feel free. The schedule is to fly into National Airport from Miami on American Airlines and arrive at 6:10pm. If we have any problems at the embassy tomorrow with the visa we'll certainly let everyone know but you'll have to check the flights online on Wednesday to make sure that all the flights are on time.

Well, we are very tired and have a lot to do tomorrow so I'm going to sign off for tonight and dream of the little Hodson family seeing our family, friends, sleeping in our own beds, in less than 48 hours!

Enjoy tonights' photos and we'll see you all very soon!

Sweet Sweet Words

In the last 7 weeks or so there have been several words that were oh so very sweet. The words "congratulations your daughter was born on March 1st" might just of been the sweetest. Or I think the first time Monica and I each heard ourselves say "our daughter", or when the social worker at ICBF said "esta es su Hija" (this is your daughter). Ok I'm positive it was the last one but there have been many words that have sounded so sweet in these last weeks.

Well this morning we received some more sweet words, "su Cedula esta lista" (your Cedula is ready)! We received this news at about 8:15 in the morning and so our day was flipped upside down and Monica made some quick calls, we had a little breakfast and then she rushed out to the Cedula office with Gabriela. This is what we have been literally waiting for and we finally have it in hand!!! Monica was also able to go the passport office today and obtained Colombian passports for her and little Gabriela. We wish we had a scanner right now because her passport photo is so freaking cute! We’ll try to get our hands on a scanner so you can all see it!

Ok, so what's left and when are we coming home then you might ask? Well, tomorrow we have an appointment with the Doctor for the US Embassy who has to give everyone getting an immigration Visa to the US a basic physical so before we can go get the actual Visa for Gabriela she has be checked by him. Unfortunately, the Embassy here isn't open for Visa work on Fridays so the earliest we can go is on Monday, which of course we will be there bright and early Monday morning. The Visa has already been approved but there is some paperwork for them to complete so the final Visa will be ready either that afternoon or the following day assuming that there aren't any problems. We are going to call the airline tomorrow morning to ask about flights back to DC for Wednesday next week. This would give us that extra day for the Visa if needed and if not an extra day to enjoy this wonderful city and the great people we have been fortunate enough to spend time with.

In tonight’s photos Gabriela asked her parents some questions. Is it going to be cold in Virginia? Ok for just a sweatshirt or will I need a sweater and hat? Papi, is BMW leather seats always this nice? And lastly, when can I come home to Virginia and show off this beautiful dress?

Quiet Weekend?

We've had a couple of comments about the lack of blogging and more importantly photos of Gabriela from this weekend. So I'll go back to Friday night in order to shed some light and new photos on the situation.

We had made plans several weeks ago to go out to a very cool bar outside of Bogota with Monica's young cousins (19, 22, & 26) so Friday night it was time for Rosario & Jaime to babysit a sleeping Gabriela and we headed out to "Andres Carne de Res" with Pablo, his girlfriend Simona, Maria Alejandra, her boyfriend Nicolas, Juan Carlos, & his girlfriend Lina. The bar was really an amazing place to see and the food and drinks were delicious and plentiful.

Well let's just say that Monica and I are now feeling our age a bit and we required a bit of recovery time on Saturday but it was worth it. We have really enjoyed our time here with all of Monica's cousins and even though we are not leaving quite yet, it was a very nice send off indeed. It will also be a while before Monica and I are out on a Friday night without our baby girl so we enjoyed it but are very happy to be "home" with Gabriela even more.

As I said yesterday we had a lunch on Sunday with Monica's Aunt and cousins as well and then the move to the hotel here kept us offline on Sunday as well.

We are checking on Monica'a cedula every day now and pretty much everyday we are about a day away so it could happen any time now really. We are going to make some calls today to the embassy as well as to the airline to make sure we have everything we need for both and get an idea about the flight availability over the next week or so so we can respond quickly when Monica's cedula is complete. We miss you all and hopefully will be home soon. We would love to have Gabriela home in time for Halloween but we just aren't sure if that can happen or not. They do celebrate Halloween down here too so if we are not home, we'll get Gabriela a little costume and take lots of pictures.

Sweet Tooth?

Well I'm not sure how sweet it is at this point but last night during a two hour crying session in our first night in the hotel, Monica and I noticed something new.... a sharp little point in Gabriela's gums. Yup, last night Gabriela's first tooth broke through. It appears to be her right bottom front tooth and it was hurting her last night!

We arrived at the hotel in the late evening after spending a very nice afternoon visiting with Monica's Tia Livia, Primas Carolina & Livia Estela as well as Prima Andrea. We walked from their home to a nice mall that was built into a large old Hacienda that was built when the land there was a big ranch outside of Bogota and now it is a mall inside the city limits. They have urban sprawl here too! While we were at the mall, we actually ran into 2 of the families that we got to know a bit at the Halifax Hotel. They are both from Norway and are headed home together with their children. It was wondeful to see them again before they left and we exchanged email addresses and even house addresses for something called "mail"; I'm not sure about this "mail" they speak of but maybe it can work.

Unfortunately, no new news on the Cedula this morning so we are going to just settle in here to the hotel a bit and watch them all spoil little Gabriela. Everyone here at the hotel is already in love with her and are wanting to do anything they can for her and for us too I guess. Here we known as Gabriela's parents not John & Monica; sounds about right and we expect this to probably continue for the next... say 18 years or so?

All of you have been so supportive of us throughout this journey and today we ask that you think of some friends of ours from our Colombian adoption group who are going to receive their son Alexander today. At 3:30pm today (Bogota time) Melinda, Moises, & Mateo will be united with little Alexander; so wish them well and we hope to be able to meet them all in person this week. We miss you all and hope to be coming home soon. We have absolutely loved our time here in Bogota and can't wait to return here with Gabriela but we miss you all dearly and are anxious to get started in our lives back in Virginia.

Mid-Day Update

Instead of my typical eyes half shut blogging about our time here in Bogota and our wonderful experiences with Gabriela when I should probably be asleep, I thought I'd throw in a middle of the day post for everyone. Monica and Gabriela are out with our lawyer at the Registration office (birth certificates) because we realized last night that there was an error in Monica's information on the one that they issued last Friday. It shouldn't be a big problem to fix but it's certainly better that we do that now than later. We did a lot of paper chasing yesterday and had hoped for some news on Monica's Cedula, but the only news we received there was that it wasn't quite ready yet and that it would be ready very soon. Let's all hope that the nice people who are working to get Monica's cedula complete quickly will be successul very soon.

Once we do receive the Cedula, we'll make a quick trip to the Colombian passport office for passports for both Monica & Gabriela. Once we have Gabriela's passport, we can schedule our doctor's appointment with the US Embassy doctor who has to give Gabriela a quick physical & then on to the US Embassy for her Visa. This may or maynot sound like much but we are in the final stages really so as soon as we have the cedula we can really start working again and get home to all of our wonderful family & friends.

In other news, on Saturday a wonderful couple from Colorado who are part of our Colombian Adoption group for Colombian families will be arriving here in Bogota and will be receiving their son on Monday afternoon. We are very excited to meet with them in person finally and very happy for them as well for their new addition to their family. See you soon Melinda & Moises!

I've included a nice picture that Amy took while she was here of Gabriela Sophia in her Papi's big arms as well as a lovely photo of Mami y su hija.

Wanting to go forward, backwards will do...

Gabriela continues to be amazing and is developing so well everyday. Tonight she pulled herselft forward a couple of time on her belly using her arms. She only moved a couple of inches each time but she really wants to be mobile. She eventually just started sliding backwards again as she seems to have that down pretty well except for the part about knowing where she is going. She tries to look back but hey... she's moving backwards.. it's hard. She began to try to push up onto her hands and feet tonight but she didn't have anything on her feet to help her grip and just slid back as she pushed up. Oh well, next time we'll try with the footie pajamas on her and maybe she'll have better luck.

We haven't blogged much in the last day or so simply because we have basically been here working, playing with Gabriela and not much else. Yesterday while I worked Monica went grocery shopping with Jamie and Rosario and for once..... Monica was not only on time to meet them, she was ..... EARLY!!!! And those of you who know us, know that this is a major news event. In the evening we visited with Monica's Tia Livia and cousins to celebrate Livia's birthday. We had a very nice time and some great coffee and cake with them and plan to meet with them again this weekend for lunch, which we are all looking forward to.

This evening we walked down to our lawyer's apartment for coffee and toured a hotel nearby that she has negotiated some special rates for her families. It is a very nice hotel and they are offering a great discount for her adopting families. Maybe we will go stay there for a few days and enjoy a little relaxation room service style before we head home.

Maybe tomorrow we'll have something more interesting to report, but for tonight enjoy the photo of Gabriela after she backed herself into a corner.

Cathedral de Sal in Zipaquira Colombia

Today we visited "La Cathedral de Sal" outside of Bogota. We drove about an hour outside of the city with Jaime and Rosario to the Salt Cathedral which was built inside of a salt mine that has been in existence for centuries before the Spanish arrived. We walked about 200 meters down into the mountain and along the way are areas different crosses and statues carved into the salt rock. It was something amazing to see and the photos just don't do it justice because of the darkness of the cave. Gabriela was her typical relaxed self and slept on Monica's chest in the Baby Bjorn for all but the last 15 minutes of the hour and a half long tour.

Tomorrow is a holiday here in Colombia so pretty much everything is closed for the day, but I'll be working as usual tomorrow and then I'm sure we'll find a way to enjoy the evening and the city that has been our temporary home for the past four plus weeks. The photos tonight include a lovely shot of Mami and Gabriela just before she fell asleep on our way into the salt mine, two from inside, and one from outside looking out over part of the town below and the mountains in the background.

Setencia Received!!!!

Today Monica and our lawyer went back to the courthouse and the judge for our case issued the setencia, which means that Gabriela is officially our daughter! We have had temporary parental rights here for the last 4 weeks but she is ours for good now!

Monica still doesn't have her cedula so we aren't ready to wrap up yet, we'll have to have it before we are able to get Gabriela's Colombian passport so we aren't rushing out of the country just yet and since Monday is a holiday here we will almost certainly be here through next week so we should get to meet another American/Colombian family that we have become good friends with from our Colombian Yahoo group who will be here on the 21st to adopt thier 2nd son on the 23rd.

We hadn't thought about it much other than wondering when it would happen, but there is some relief to receiving the setencia. It's official, she is now our daughter forever.

We'll try to post again tonight with a few pics from today, but for now we are off to Juan Valdez for coffee to celebrate!

"Manana"

Monica and our lawyer went to courthouse this morning and unfortunately the judges order isn't complete yet but they asked that we come back tomorrow morning and try again. Monica also followed up on her Cedula which we need in order to finalize some of the other documents for Gabriela here in Colombia. It is still in process as well but they think it will be ready next week. They are trying to get her Cedula investigation complete as quickly as possible when it normally takes much longer. We are hoping that we can receive it next week so we can finalize our other paperwork as well.

Otherwise, I worked today as usual and stayed home with Gabriela who is feeling the pain from those teeth that keep threatening to come in. We later went out for a bit of food at "El Corral" and ran into some of the adopting families that we got to know while staying at the hotel. It was wonderful to see how they are doing, especially the family from Norway who adopted their son at a little over 2 years old. He was having a tough time at first but he looks like he is doing great and is responding to them very well and is even starting to pick up the language at bit too.

I'm working on a couple of new videos but as you know it's hard to capture the best moments on video but we took a couple tonight and hopefully I'll get them ready and posted to youtube.com soon so I can show them to all of you on our blog.

We greatly miss all of you and are increasingly excited about the day when we are able to come home so that all of you can meet our daughter in person and see that we aren't good enough writers or photographers to do her justice. Kids are cute and Gabriela certainly is doing well in the cute department, but it's her personality that has everyone she meets in love with her in seconds. Now I know I had been using the right words when I would say "I can't wait to MEET my child" or "MEET my daughter" because she is already a person with her little personality and it's been amazing to meet her and to love her as we do.

Tonights photos include Gabriela playing with a couple toys before she decided to try to go mobile. She rolled onto the wood floor and then scooted backwards slowly making her way under the chairs before turning over and playing with her pants legs for bit. The other photo was from just a few hours ago, with Gabriela sitting on Papi's chest and smiling and laughing... enjoy and good night.

Happy Birthday Mami Monica

Today was Monica's birthday and we had a nice relaxing day that started with me working, then a wonderful late (late) lunch with Pablo and Rosario. We spent this evening at Jaime and Rosario's house along with all three kids and each of their girlfriend/boyfriends. We had a really nice time and a great dinner and birthday cake for Monica. Gabriela enjoyed all the loving she was receiving and Monica said many times today that she already had the greatest gift in the world and I can certainly agree with that.

Well, it's been a wonderful birthday for Monica and we are going to the courthouse in the morning to check in a few things and also to follow up on Monica's Cedula situation as well. Good night or most likely good morning to you and I hope you enjoy the video below and again Happy Bithday Monica, mi amor!

Gabriela - Video!

Not much to say, so enjoy the first online video of Gabriela thanks to the now very rich folks at Youtube.com.

Secret post...

Monica is doing the dishes and John is doing the laundry. Gabriela is sleeping and I figured I would do a quick sneak attack blog for everyone.

Basically, today was another wonderful day walking around Bogota with Juan Carlos and Pablo. We had lunch at the Pisarro house and then headed out. Afterwards, we had coffee and snacks with Pablo before meeting up with the rest of the family to have sushi at "Wok". It was a relaxing and wonderful day... we laughed a lot and then I said my goodbyes to everyone as tomorrow I head back to the states. Everyone wants me to stay, but I have to get home to my job and my dog and my house and my family... though I am going to miss my new Bogota family & "chickytina" Gabriela very much!

Anyway, I'll end this with post with two words: BUS ROJO! and here are some more wonderful pics of Gabriela from the last few days for you all to enjoy (didn't have time to upload todays pics but you'll enjoy them, nonetheless). :)

CIAO BOGOTA!

aj

Tia Amy in Bogota!

So John & Monica have invited me to make today's post, since I have had the honor and priveledge of spending the last few days with them in their "home away from home" here in Bogota. The past few days have been amazing, not only being with them and Gabriela (!!!) but also getting to know Monica's family here in Bogota, who I already love a lot (Rosario, Jaime, Juan Carlos, Marie Alejandra & Pablo ROCK!!) and also touring around the city seeing the amazing sights, the beautiful architecture, the wonderful churches and enjoying the fantastic shopping.

So, back to Gabriela, right?! She is so beautiful, and so sweet, and so soft & cuddly. Monica's family describes her perfectly as "juiciosa" which translates as tranquil and calm. She loves to just sit with all of us in the room watching us, or entertaining herself by pulling on her shoelaces and clapping her feet together. She wakes up happy, spends the day happy and goes to sleep at night with a sweet smile on her face - of course, some of that has to do with her Mami cuddling her while her Papi sings sweet songs in her ear each night before laying her down. She likes to sit in the high chair at dinnertime and chew on breadsticks, and she loves to sit on someone's knee, laughing and clapping and swinging her feet. She is amazing and I know all of you will adore her instantly when she finally comes to her VA home in the US. Not that you wouldn't adore her anyway, but her temperament is so laid back and relaxed, that you will beg to be in the room with her as often as possible! :)

So, as you have seen from the previous posts this week, we have gone to many cool places in Bogota since I have been here - Pablo's school, the Artisan shops, the monastery that overlooks Bogota, a local bar, Crepes & Waffles... Today we rode the "bus rojo" to central Bogota, and walked around one of the older parts of the city looking at the churches & strolling the backstreets taking photos. We also went to the President's mansion and witnessed the changing of the color guard. It lasted about 30 minutes and was really cool. Afterwards we went to eat steaks at a traditional Colombian restaurant, and ended the evening with ice cream from McDonald's - yes sometimes, you just need a hot fudge sundae or a McFlurry. :)

So OK OK - on to the photos. Here are a few of my faves from JH & Mon's camera, from yesterday & today. ENJOY!
aj

Extra Blog Post - Friday night makeup

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Ok, so we didn't post to the blog last night and our Thursday night post didn't have any pictures; so we dicided to give a makeup post for Friday to show what we were up to.

We all got up early and after I worked for a few hours, we went to breakfast at a wonderful place right down the street. We returned to the apartment for a bit so I could work some more and the girls could play with Gabriela. We then went for a walk to Pablo's "Colegio" which is actualy the school that he went to from kindergarden through 12th grade he gave us a very nice tour. We then went to a 4 level shop with all of the hand made Colombian crafts you could possibly imagine. We got some great ideas for gifts but that doesn't mean we bought you anything!

After a little dinner back at the apartment, we went out for our first night out without Gabriela. Tia Rosario stayed at the apartment with our sleeping angel and we went to a pub with Maria Alejandra and her boyfriend Nicolas. Juan Carlos met up with us at the pub later and we had a really nice time. It was a lot of fun to hang out with Monica's cousins and enjoy a few beers which we have had little to none of since we arrived several weeks ago. Gabriela slept the whole time and was her typical bright and beautiful self in the morning.

As for these pictures, I included a few from our night out on Friday night as well as a one of Bogota to complement Monica's wonderful post below about our day today (Saturday). We can only include up to 5 pictures with each blog posting so I'm helping her out with a scenic view photo. The amazing thing is that this photo doesn't even come close to caturing this entire city. It might include a 1/3rd of Bogota. From our pearch high above the city, we could not always see where the city actually ended it is so large.