Miscellaneous shots from this past weekend. We went to church in Santa Rosa, and enjoyed a picnic in the park afterwards where we took the outdoor pictures. The girls have been swimming daily, and our yard has become the place to play in the neighborhood do to our large backyard, and the pool helps too! :) I took the picture of the sunflowers from inside the car as we sped by, but you can still see the beauty of them...and the bananas with the large purple flower hanging below--gorgeous!

P.S. I am super behind on my e-mails, but will try to catch up this week/weekend. I want to wish a Happy Thansgiving to you all! Love, The Foerderer's!!!!

Makaela at D' Forno Pizzaria where they make the pizza in a stone oven that you can see behind her. Makaela especially loves watching them make the pizzas, and she is always hoping the next one is for us. It's a long process going out to eat here--we waited a good hour or more to get the first of eight pizzas, and another 45 minutes to an hour for the dessert pizzas. Everything is sooo laid back!

Samantha and Alina

Alfredo and Nidia--Sadly this was their last night here in Horizontina. They are now transferring to Madrid for 3 - 4 years. We miss Nidia already! The other ex-pat girls and I are planning a trip to Europe next September to visit her and tour the area.

Molly serving Makaela the famous chocolate, pecan pizza.

Samantha at Zelandias--the best bakery in town--with the other ex-pat ladies. This is our Starbucks for now--they even use soy milk for us in their lovely cappachinos).

Fall Decorations made by the girls with various beans and corn

Bamboo trees downtown Santa Rose

Downtown Santa Rosa--I still can't get over the horses downtown--it's so charming to me

This has been a great week, as both girls are completely well!!! (For over 2 weeks, they were fighting a virus. Samantha had a fever for 6 days running!) Life is back to normal as we know it here, and we're enjoying the hotter days, with the very cool evenings. It actually feels "Christmassy" this year to me to have it heating up. The snowmen are back downtown too. Yesterday, Makaela and I went Christmas tree shopping, and she chose two--one for the family room and one for the bedroom. So, now we have Thanksgiving decorations downstairs and Christmas decorations upstairs. I usually never bring out the Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving, but with traveling over Christmas, we wanted to make the specialness of the season last a little longer. For Thanksgiving, we are feasting with the other ex-pats on the 30th, as it is too challenging to coordinate a large feast when everyone has to work until 6 p.m. Thanksgiving Day. The girls are excited as they each have a recipe they are in charge of. For the actual day, Andrew is going to take a half day off, and we're going to do some feasting on our own and make phone calls back home. We do so miss all of those lovely Thankgivings with the Fernandos--good food, music, and friends!

We cannot purchase salsa here, and Andrew enjoys canning anyway, so he and Makaela made a large batch of delicious cumin flavored salsa last Sunday. It's lovely--not a bit hot, so the girls can enjoy it also. Unlike the salsa, the days are hot, so we're back in the pool in the afternoons. The girls are toasty brown, and Theodore the "pool dog" is bleach white with the poofs on his legs tinged green from the chlorine.