Semana Santa

Now that I've mostly recovered from being sick, I'd like to share our Semana Santa (week preceding Easter) adventures. We had a few highlights over the week:
-Friends visiting
-great birthday
-beach trip

On Sunday (week before Easter), my college roommate, Ashley, arrived here in Jarabacoa with her husband, Paul and her baby girl (2 days older than Timmy).
The following day, we relaxed in the morning, had a Dominican lunch in town, and then went to the Ark (ministry of Kids Alive) to meet up with Brian, another friend who went to college with Ashley, Paul, and I. Together, we all went to the lower Jimenoa waterfalls. Other adventures that week included swimming in the pool, playing card games together, and watching Daniel run in the Jarabacoa marathon (which isn't actually a marathon). However, a highlight of the week for me was Wednesday, when I had an extra special birthday. Because Paul and Ashley were visiting, Daniel took Wednesday off, and we hiked down to the upper Jimenoa, kiddos and all. Once there we swam, picnicked, and just enjoyed the beautiful day. The Upper Jimenoa falls is my favorite waterfall in Jarabacoa. However, we don't usually visit it unless we have visitors to take (I'm not sure why, we just don't usually think to go). To reach the falls, we drive about 20-30 minutes up the mountains, and then hike down about 30 minutes. The hike back up is a tough one, and takes much longer than the hike down!
After we returned home we showered quickly and headed back out for a birthday dinner at my favorite restaurant, La Lena. Following this, we returned home again for a wonderful birthday dessert party, thrown by my hubby and attended by many E.C. staff. My wonderful husband used all his spare time at the beginning of the week baking cookies, a lemon cake, and an angel food cake.
Easter Sunday began, for us, with a sunrise service on the mountain, followed by an Easter egg hunt for the little ones and a brunch. After relaxing some, we headed to a nearby waterfall for a picnic and swimming (see video of Jer singing, and video of Easter hunt below).
The following day we piled into a rental and headed for the beach, where we relaxed, had dinner on the beach, swam in the pool, played in the sand, and just enjoyed ourselves.
We returned Tuesday night, and our guests left the following day.
Altogether it was a wonderful time of catching up, playing with babies, relaxing, having fun, and just being together. Thanks for visiting Paul, Ashley, and Savannah!

Pictures from Semana Santa:



Easter egg hunt:



Babies at the beach: