Day 14 in Colombia!

Last night Owen had a blast in his crib trying to figure out how music came out of his mobile...


Then this morning when he was playing in his crib, it broke! I heard this thump and looked up and saw him sitting cockeyed in the corner of his crib with this big grin on his face. I guess he enjoyed the ride! Thank goodness he didn't have far to fall since the crib mattress is only 5 inches or so above the ground.

Later this morning, we set out on a trip to see Freddy, an emerald dealer that Carmen from El Refugio knows. He sent a driver to pick us up at 10:30 sharp. It took about 30 minutes to get to Freddy’s. When we got there, the driver rang the door bell and a woman answered. She let us into the entry way and waited until all 4 of us were in and then locked the door behind us. She then unlocked the next door and let us into the house. When we entered, there were several tables covered in jewelry with the most beautiful emeralds we have ever seen! No wonder why they have such tight security. Freddy walked us through what to look for in an emerald and showed us examples of various emeralds of differing qualities. There were several rings that we liked, but none that were quite right. So Freddy pulled out some stones and helped us design my ring. We picked out a beautiful emerald and are having it set in white gold. It should be ready by Saturday so we are very excited to see how it turns out.

After our adventure to Freddy’s, we headed back to El Refugio to get packed up. Last night we decided to make a move to an apartment building called Plenitud (which is part of the La Fontana complex). The Henry’s had moved into Plenitud yesterday and told us all about it. We decided to follow them to the hotel to evade the lice breakout and get more space for when my mom and brother come to visit. We rented a 2 bedroom 2 bath room apartment with a living room/dining room and kitchen. We’re looking forward to spending the next few days as a family of three and getting Owen more accustomed to what life in MN will be like without all the chaos of El Refugio (including us and the Henry’s, there would have been 11 kids there!)

Owen was quite the little helper unpacking all his toys...
Although we will miss all the wonderful people at El Refugio, we love the additional space (no more tripping over our shoes and luggage) and Owen is having a blast crawling all over and checking everything out. He was obsessed with the telephone and wouldn’t put it down! We’re also enjoying the peace and quite, with the exception of Owen’s adorable babbling and the occasional outbursts – yes, he does cry! Since we no longer get lunch or dinner made for us, we headed to Crepes and Waffles for lunch. Owen tried the spinach and mushroom crepe this time and vanilla and strawberry ice cream. Everything was delicious! We then ran a few errands – the ATM and the grocery store to stock up our kitchen. For dinner, we decided to be lazy and ordered Dominos. We didn’t think Owen would be hungry since he had just had a bottle, but he took one look at us eating and wanted to try out our pizza which he thought was very tasty! Tomorrow Owen is going to spend the afternoon with the Henry's while Shane and I go to FANA for a tour. It'll be nice to get to see the place where Owen spent his first 11 months. Stay tuned for our adventures tomorrow!