LESS than a month...

A month from yesterday we board the plane from Uruguay...never to return "home" here again. I'm sad. And I'm excited. But sad. I will miss our life here. Our friends, our neighborhood, our beach trips and animals visits, our routine, our wonderful church ward, speaking Spanish.

Everything. (Not the roaches so much, who, admittedly, have been on much better behavior this past year...for the most part.)

These few weeks will zip by in a flash, I know it, and then it will be like so many other places and times in my heart. Just there. In my heart. I'm trying to absorb everything, and have been the last few months. Soak it all in...

I'm so glad our hearts are built to be infinitely expandable. Cram as many people, places and memories into them as we can, there's always going to be room for more.

Really more for ourselves, I wanted to include a few random pictures of what we'll miss, some of the stuff that may have missed getting on the blog in the past... and this is soooo not a comprehensive accounting of wonderful Uruguay and what we'll miss, but it's some of it.

Pocho, the guard across the street. N&B love him. Anytime they get outside, they head to the gate/fence and start yelling, "hola!! Pocho!!" They also love his red moto. Pocho's pretty fond of the tykes, as well :)

Fireworks from our roof at midnight on Christmas Eve. Just surrounding us...loud...beautiful...

Pato! My good friend Pato (Patricia) from church. She is a sweetheart. "Pato" means "duck" in Spanish, so the kiddos not only call her "Pato," but also "quack-quack" :)

The recicladores: Families who gather anything that can be reused in anyway. Usually with a horsedrawn wagon, so seeing "neighs" is a common sight for the kiddos, and it never gets old. They hear them clip-clopping down the street and their little ears perk right up.

Getting to ride little "neighs" almost any weekend when the urge strikes.

Paso, our favorite grapefruit soda. But we only drink it occasionally. We do have self-control... somewhat.

Ileana, my good friend and my Spanish teacher, also from church. Her daughter babysits for us, and their whole family is awesome.

The Rambla. Two blocks from our house...nice.

The missionaries! It's even more fun having them over when you're out of the country, I think. What great young men! (Even if they do occasionally invite themselves over to eat with pretty much no notice...we'll forgive 'em!)

The YW singing at the ward Christmas party.

Look at that grin! Kerstin, one of our sweet little embassy buddies here. We will sure miss her, her bro, and her parents. Good friends. I think N&B would live at their house if we let them.

City of Montevideo from Plaza de la Armada. We love going to this park.

Delia y Pedro, friends from church. Pedro sounds exactly like a Spanish Barry White. No joke. He's so cool.

In Piriápolis, one of our favorite places.

Making Christmas cookies with the cute Activity Days girls from church.

Montevideo, Uruguay temple. So beautiful. It's right next to our regular Church building.

Playing team handball every week with my Uruguayan friends! And Annie, the mission pres's daughter.

Our weekly neighborhood fería (market). Wednesdays at our nearby park. It's fun to walk to and around.

La PLAYA. I know that's been covered pree-tty well on the blog, but still...

Downtown Montevideo. A dance troupe doing a gaucho dance. We just happened across this one Saturday, and coincidentally, one of N&B's church nursery teachers was one of the dancers.

The colorful flowers that overhang and grow through everybody's fences during spring and summer...except our fence. Guess you have to water them, or something...

Not necessarily safe, but still crazy-fun playgrounds!

Seeing practically EVERYONE walking around with their maté and a thermos of hot water.

Ah, we love Uruguay!