Is it really March already? Remember how I was going to try to post every Sunday on here? Well, I guess I forgot about that during February. Wouldn't it be fun if David sometimes posted too? You know, to have a different voice in here too? I'll work on that.

So, what have we been doing these past few weeks?

Let's see, first we got a Flat Stanley in the mail! He's from Colorado and we've been having fun with him. Just thought I should clue you in on that first, since he's in some photos with us!

So, Mom and Dad came up for a visit. That was a lot of fun. They hadn't seen our new place yet. They stayed at the super convenient Hilton and enjoyed experiencing Providence on foot for the weekend. We got some dim sum to celebrate Chinese New Year and we looked at slides and had some good food.

David made a visit to Texas and mom came up and did my taxes. Woo-hoo! First time in years I'm getting a refund, yay! David's return included a suitcase full of frozen food. We used the kalua pig as a reason to have a luau to combat the weeks of gray and drizzle that descended on Providence. We also enjoyed tasting some grilled meat in the middle of winter, and the spring rolls are always a hit. Thankfully we have one more batch of those in the freezer. Yum. The pork and egg ended up in a sandwich. Tasty.

This weekend it was FINALLY nice out! It's been a dreary winter, although thankfully lacking the crazy snow that most of the northeast got. It was nearly 50 this weekend, with a sky ridiculously blue, and the sun shining all the time. We even cracked open the windows! Saturday we took Flat Stanley out for a tour of Providence, even brought him down to a nearby beach and today we've been relatively lazy.

Check here to see some photos!

We've been having a good week getting back into the groove of things. Last weekend we were prety lazy. We finally checked out the winter farmer's market, and basically just crossed things off our list.

This weekend our plans with Ali and Andy were canceled, so we decided to see if we could get tickets to see Twelfth Night at Trinity Rep. We did the rush tickets, which were only $15 since we picked them up within 2 hours of curtain. It was such a great performance, so much fun!

Today David was inspired to cook some meatballs, and I went to Craftland for Super Craft Sunday and spent a couple of hours making stuff and hanging out.

I added some more photos of Ecuador today, so check them out here. We took a lot, so it's taking me some time to go through and get them all uploaded. Keep checking!

Our trip to Ecuador was amazing! We were sad to leave. 

Here's the breakdown: after a full day of traveling, we arrived in Quito Tuesday evening and checked into our super cute hotel. Wednesday we woke up and had a half day tour of Old Town Quito, where we were staying. This part of town is a UNESCO world heritage site and full of beautiful colonial architecture with bustling Quito life all around it. After, we went up to La Mitad del Mundo to see the equator. This was geo-geeky fun.

Thursday and Friday we spent exploring Quito on our own. We took the teleferico up the side of a mountain to 14,000 feet for an incredible view of Quito. We took a bracing taxi ride up El Panecillo for an up close view of the Virgin of Quito. I learned that St. Anthony prefers you leave him 13 cents when you want him to find something for you (I tested this, I'll let you know how it turns out) and we visited a bunch of beautiful churches and ate a lot of delicious food. We also visited an amazing museum featuring the work of Ecuadorian artist, Oswaldo Guayasamin. (Read about it here.)

Saturday we were joined by the same tour guide who gave us our Old Town and Equator tour, Edison, for a trip up to Otavalo to see the largest, and oldest, market in South America. We went through both the food market and a huge plaza full of all kinds of textiles and crafts. I proved to be a good bargainer with all these little ladies 1/2 my size. From the market, we stopped in Peguche, a traditional weaving village. This was a highlight for me, seeing weavers using a traditional backstrap loom. 

Sunday was a lazy day in Quito. We visited their national museum, and meandered through their city park. A lot is closed on Sunday in Quito, so we followed the example of the locals and laid low, relaxed and enjoyed the day. 

Monday was our trip to the Mindo cloud forest. There we did a hike up to a waterfall, and also visited a butterfly farm. Lunch was at a lodge surrounded by hummingbird feeders, or hummingbird crack houses, as I called them. These little birds were incredible and mesmerizing to watch.

Tuesday morning we were back on the plane to come home. As usual, we wished we had one more day. Our Spanish was just getting good, and we were wanting to revisit some of our favorite foods and places. Slideshow in Providence for anyone who wants one! For those who can't join us for one, here are some highlights.

It's been a pretty busy week here in Providence, although with not much photographic evidence to prove it. Tuesday night we had our monthly wine tasting. This month was a fancy one, Barolo. As predicted: delicious. The results are here.

Thursday, we had some fancy pants bubbly to celebrate the official end of my hoiday selling season and exceeding all my goals. Yay!

Friday night we went to see Handmade Nation, a documentary that we screened at Craftland. It was lots of fun and an inspiring movie. The rest of the weekend has been spent running pre-travel errands and packing. Yay! We leave on Tuesday, in the wee hours, and get back home on Tuesday night. Very excited! Lizzigator can't wait to see the Andes.

This week's posting may be boring, but I can assure you that the next post I make won't be!

I'll confess, December was a bit of a blur. Lots of crafting, lots of selling, not a lot of anything else. Life has only recently begun to feel like it's back to normal, and we leave in just about a week for Ecuador! 

What's been going on since fondue? A few fun things. We put up a cute Christmas tree, we had some snow storms, we had some cookies, we had lots of good food (one failed Kalua pig attempt, not sure what went wrong), and we finally started reading our guide books!

We leave next Tuesday, the 19th, and can't wait! David's most excited to have some of the food of the Andean people and I'm dying to see the textiles and people weaving on backstrap looms. This will be an exciting trip!

For some photos of the past few weeks, click here. Hopefully this starts me back on my regular Sunday blogging schedule. I'll try to keep up!