here are tons more pictures and videos from yesterday and today...

today was awesome. indescribable. unforgettable.

the boys were so excited when i came up to their house this morning...they were all in sweatpants so we did some quick 'ponte guapo' work. (i love the 'ponte' - it doesn't translate that well, but it basically means 'do this,' or 'become that,' depending on what you're saying. guapo is handsome, so essentially i was telling them to become handsome.)

anyways, we loaded up the car and prayed for safety while driving - that we would be surrounded by angels. we have this 11 year old, 3/4 ton van that is, well, let's just say it's nothing like the honda accord i'm used to driving.
we got to church with no problem - the same church that has been coming every other sunday afternoon for the past month. it was great for the boys to recognize their friends right away, and the guys were a huge help getting the boys up the flight of stairs...it was just awesome for them to be out and around people.
they're so lovable, even though they obviously have disabilities. people tend to be wary at first but after a few minutes they can tell the boys just want to interact with people. they did great through the singing (all so happy to finally see their friends paco, mimi, and noe play in the worship band) and paid attention through the sermon, asking me to help them find the bible verses that martha was preaching about.
other than the fact that jose, alex, and tonio had to go to the bathroom at the exact same time, it went really well!

then we loaded up and headed to a park - the one we used to eat at when we worked at 17 de abril - and had lunch. it was an absolutely gorgeous day...worthy of sunscreen! we were just all so happy to be outside, out of wheelchairs, in the sunshine...there was a playground at the park so we went and played for awhile...sergio, who is deathly afraid of dogs the size of teacups, ran to the tallest slide and flew down that thing, and was either doing that or making paco push him on the swing the entire time we were at the playground.
it wasn't wheelchair friendly (of course) but the boys had fun watching all the other kids play. i got them on the monkey bars, thinking that since they're so good in their wheelchairs they could do the monkey bars, but they were too nervous. we'll keep trying.
teddy went down the slide a couple of times and then we found this crazy (and slightly dangerous) twirly thing...you grab a metal bar and run in a circle and then pull up your feet up so you're swinging around and around...the boys thought it was hilarious because sergio and i would tumble to the ground every time we stopped swinging...
the playground wasn't good for wheelchairs, but surrounding and cutting through the park were beautiful, wide open sidewalks (it's funny how you see things differently and appreciate them more when you're with a certain population...)we walked and rolled around a couple times, made friends with a police office, bought all the water at a little snack shop in the middle of the store, and watched traffic (including a fire truck!) go by.
we loaded up to go home, and the first thing teddy says is, 'thanks for taking us to the park, hilary.' i was like you are SO WELCOME! and we are so doing this again. very soon.