Feliz Nuevo Año... eve

hey kids.
After another hellish bus adventure, Annie and I are back in Quito after three days on the coast of Ecuador at a beach town called Canoa. Another addition to a series of relaxing and pleasant places since our advenutres in Riobamba with volcanoes and ancient trains. If you haven't read the last entry (shame on you!) we are here to catch a flight to Chicago on Jan 3rd to wrap up this section of our travels and see our families... which have grown since we have been gone (in number, not in body size [well maybe in body size since Christmas])
As some of you may remember, today being New Year's Eve, this is our wedding anniversary. 2 years people... and no divorce -- in fact we love eachother (and love being together) more today than we did even 2 years ago. I know, that is amazing. Take that American marriage statistics! Apparently if we make it past three years our statistical chances of staying together for life skyrocket. And if we make it past five years we get an official certificate from the US government declaring us "awesome". So after sleeping off the misery of the domestic Ecuadorian travel system, we'll celebrate today with a gratuitous and embarassing American film at the movie theatre and enjoy a nice dinner out, although the novelty of eating out for a special occasion has lost some of it's luster in that we've eaten out probably more than 200 times in the past four months. Also, Ecuadorians celebrate the Nuevo Año by having a huge parade with paper mache effigies of various people. They are all different sizes and some of these effigies represent bad people (like George Bush Jr.) and some of them are a bit more random (like Spiderman) Anyway, Ecuadorians strap these things to their cars and drive around all day today, then march them in the streets tonight, and then, being filled with sawdust and fireworks, blow them up at midnight in a savage display of violence. What a sweet tradition. The meaning of course being to rid ourselves of the bad and begin fresh for the new year.
I wanted to say here that Annie and I will not be abandoning this blog site but will continue to update with news from your favorite action/adventure partnership. There is a lot more to come actually. This trip has been a very introspective for us, although we have devoted most of those topics to emails with our siblings. But, since you were wondering; we talked about starting our own business(es) ranging from a breakfast restaurant to a woodworking/furniture or a custom kitchen/remodeling busiess, to a small college town residential rentals business. We've also talked much about myself going to graduate school for sculpture or 3d design, and Annie maybe pursuing a new direction too. We have also, with some trepidation, discussed transitioning to California and different living arrangements near or alongside Judy and Mark in Berkeley (thanks to Mark for all his patient emails). Another popular topic is Ella Tienefe, our new sobrina whom we've yet to meet and Amora, our sobrina who has begun to walk and talk since we left Chicago in June. Speaking of those rascals, happy birthday to their beautiful mother Chasity! We look foward to celebrating with you (a few days late) soon. We have by no means allowed this trip to make us intellectually lazy -- we have spent countless hours discussing the meaning of every choice we can make about our present and our future. We have read almost 20 books between us, and have focused more intensely than ever about how to make this life we are living together meaningful and conscious. We look foward to spending time with each and every one of you soon. See you in the US.