Ode to Allison

In honor of Allison returning home today(YAY!!), we're posting our own little tribute to her! It's been a long 5 weeks without her, and we're super excited to have her back.
The first day we arrived, Allison went out of her way to make us feel at home. She instantly felt like one of us(obviously this was not the case with Stephanie, since they've known each other their whole lives). We had many a crazy adventure. Here are some pictures and stories from those times that we haven't blogged about!

Roses from Allison when we arrived. SO SWEET!

In May, Allison and Tania(a sister from out hall) decided to take us to an orchard farm and to Chordileg(a little town known for its silver). The orchard farm was pretty amazing. Orchards are very delicate plants so when they plant them, they put them in a glass bottle and hermetically seal them for almost 2 years. They finally get planted in their own soil, but they still have to be cared for very carefully. The orchard farm had a TON of different varities and it was so neat to see all the beautiful flowers that Jehovah has created.

The faces of both Ashley and Allison crack me up!

When we visited Chordileg, Steph and Ashley decided to step up and be brave. They both got their second holes pierced. It was amazingly only $5! I was a little jealous considering I had spent over $30 back home, shortly before we came down here. It was hilarious all of us being shoved into a little store watching and taking pictures as they sat there.

Something we realized in Chordileg about Allison is that she is an amazing bargainer! She has this way about her, where people just agree to things. We used this knowledge later for our own advantage. Mwahahahaha! We went to one of the markets in Cuenca. We made friends with this one merchant who has a "secret room" as we call it. It's in a building above the market and had everything!! Using Allison's powers, we ended up getting good deals from him. You rock Allison!!


Along the way(who can ever remember dates), the Lopez family held a despedida for Allison. This was one of our first few parties, and Kaitlyn and I definitely did not have dancing down(not saying we do now!). Allison always helped us out. ;-)


Allison, all we can say is thanks for being your awesome self and we're so glad you're coming back.


PS. On a personal note, I love you forever for bringing me my chocolate pretzels. You have no idea how much I want those right now. :-)