and so it is...

05 August 2008

my sister's blogs

so what good would family be if you didn't shamelessly promote one another's blogs? the voncannon clan is no different and so i proudly introduce three of my sister's new blogs. one is for organic-enthusiasts, one includes reviews for hip and trendy baby products (thus the name) and the last is a review of organic baby products. i don't have kids and i love the site and easily get caught looking through all the fun products. she regularly has giveaway contests so be sure to check back often.

enjoy!

(until i can figure out how to put in a link, i'm just writing out the email addresses below)

http://www.organic4baby.com
http://www.organicinstyle.com
http://www.hipandtrendybaby.com

21 July 2008

engaged

dear neglected blog,

i apologize that you are always the last to know the news. and this time is no exception. but in case you haven't heard, i'm engaged. three weeks late, i know, but alas, here i am. check out the details at: www.tracy-dewayne.com

sincerely,
tracy

02 July 2008

ecuador

ah, ecuador. what a fun trip. let me give some background as to what landed us in that beautiful country. grayden, a good friend of ours, has parents who are mission presidents in ecuador (guayaquil to be exact). they were getting ready to finish their three-years there and grayden offered to bring some friends down with him before they left. thanks, grayden.

it was such a great idea. grayden had been a few times, with reed accompanying him on the last trip. then you had odie and i who had never been, and sweet jess who this was her first time to latin america. luckily for us, both grayden and reed are fluent in spanish, and having both traveled in ecuador before, we were set to go.

i really couldn't have asked for better dynamics in the group. everyone just seemed to mesh so well. which you have to do when you're on buses for hours and gross and scared to be horseback riding (well, that was just me), and basically just together 24/7.

a quick overview of the trip is that we spent part of the time in vilcabamba, a sleepy town up in the mountains, cuenca, the colonial, bustling town, and quayaquil. please note that it's best to actually scroll down to the first post on horseback riding and then read backwards, they make more sense that way.

enjoy the recap!

ecuador: random collection of pics

by far my favorite part of traveling is seeing the different cultures and being with the people. i love watching them interact and hearing them talk. especially given that i don't understand exactly what they're saying, so it intrigues me even more. below are some photos of the people we saw, as well as some cool landscape shots.

this cute girl was at the incan ruins and i believe reed paid her to take her photo.

there was a nasty rain storm as we drove down the mountain

and of course, what highway would be complete without part of the road breaking away? yikes!

ecuador: guayaquil

quayaquil is where we started, and ended, our trip. as well as where we flew in and out of (by the way, away the panama city airport at all costs). guaya, as i like to call it, is the largest city in ecuador and is a port city. i over all liked the city, but probably not as much as cuenca. the highlight definitely included staying with grayden's parents in the mission home. it was beyond welcomed to have a clean, safe place to be. that and they have a "MegaMaxi" near their house, which is like a SuperTarget of sorts. Nothing makes you feel like home like going to a store that resembles Target...

this is grayden's cute mom. she made a birthday cake for all of us that had recently had birthdays. extremely nice and tasty.

reed's best "i'm sad that it's our last day" face. the best part is that you can totally tell he was holding back a grin.

the living/dining room in the mission home

we took a pirate ship around guaya the last night we were there. this is us waiting.

grayden and jess. reading a book on pirating, perhaps?

this game, along with skip-bo, took up all of our time. it was a solitaire game of sorts. odie won once. and i cheated once and won. so i guess i didn't really ever legitimately win.

cute.

01 July 2008

ecuador: iguanas

everyone needs to visit a good iguana park now and again, and luckily, guayaquil has a great one. the iguanas there have somehow all congregated to this one square and they're everyone. i had to be careful where i walked as to not step on them. it's crazy. and you look up and they're all in the trees.

eveyone in the group sat down and fed them. besides me. i designated myself photographer and was more than happy to be on the sidelines...

here's how it works. you sit down, pull out food (preferably bananas) and up they come.

this was as close as i cared to get to one :)

ah, the animal lover

this guy gave odie a pretty nasty scratch

see how they blend in?

ecuador: ingapirca

we also visited ingapirca, which is ecuador's only major inca site with a building intact, the so-called temple of the sun. apparently it was erected in an eliptical form, coinciding with the movement of the sun. the site was mostly used for ceremonies and worship.

another one of the top five favs from the trip

ah, the one piece of clothing that odie took away from ecuador. compared to some pieces he was trying on earlier, this one is quite stylish. and it's amazingly warm. perfect for the ecuador sun.