Trip to USA: Michigan

On Sunday July 18th, we flew from Denver through Chicago to Sault Saint Marie, which is a tiny little spot in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, almost to Canada. Drew's dad picked us up and drove us the last 45 min to Drummond Island, where we'd be staying with Drew's extended family at a cabin on the water for the next week. The spot was lovely as we had our own protected little bay with calmer, warmer waters. The boys played on the paddle boards every day, regardless of the weather, which was arguably ok at best. We had two days of nice sunshine, but the rest of the week was overcast, sometimes windy, sometimes downright stormy. But we made the best of it. 

Soccer in the front yard!

The best part of this trip was definitely the concentrated family time, especially with GG who is an astonishing 96-year old firecracker. I hope I have half of the mental sharpness she does if/when I'm that age. 

On Thursday, we took a day trip over to DeTour Village to visit my uncle Ken, my cousin Rachael and her husband Jeff, and their four adorable girls, ages 3-9. I unfortunately don't have a photo of the kiddos, but Drew and Emerson did go out with Uncle Ken on his boat, and you can see the gorgeous day we had.

On the following day, Drew, Grandpa, and the boys took a boat ride on our rented pontoon boat to a little beach in a different island, and they had a fun time building sandcastles. Hopefully they never grow tired of doing that. 

A tradition on Drummond is to have dinner one night at the Northwood Grill, which is one of the only restaurants on the island, for broasted chicken. It was delicious!

We followed our dinner out with a pontoon ride at sunset, low and slow. We convinced GG to come along, which apparently she does not do very often. The water was so calm it looked like glass in spots. Definitely a highlight of the trip for me. 

One of the things I love about Drew's family is their affinity for games. This must be a mid-west thing, for when the weather is crappy and you're stuck inside, games are how you pass the time. Every evening we would play one round of bingo as that was apparently Great Grandpa Erwin's favorite. In addition to that, we played a euchre tournament, dominoes, and every other card game imaginable, and completed 4 puzzles. GG is the fearless leader of the games, as her competitive spirit has only sharpened with age. 

After a week in Drummond, we drove back down to Brian and Karen's house in Waterford, which is about a 6 hour trip. We made a quick pit stop at Drew's cousin Kasey's house to visit her, Mike Mike Mike, and their adorable new baby Luelle, who was 6 weeks old. You forget how little they come! 

The following day we got to visit Uncle Adam and his newly converted ambulance turned toy hauler, which includes an astro-turfed rooftop for race viewing. I've never seen a bigger smile on Avery's face.

Trip to USA: Colorado

In July, the boys had two weeks off from school for winter break between their first and second semesters. Since it had been 18 months since we came to Chile, we decided it would be a good halfway point to go back to the US and visit family. We added on a few extra days at the beginning and end of the winter break to make it closer to three weeks. First stop was Colorado via Miami. No trouble at all with the trip, other than Drew and I not sleeping a ton. We were graciously picked up by Mom from the airport and went straight to Steph's house, where we'd be staying Wednesday-Sunday for some concentrated cousin time. 

We actually arrived on Auggie's 6th birthday, so we celebrated with homemade angel food cake by Nana. The cousins are ages 10 (Parker), 8 (Emerson), 7.5 (Kennedy), almost 7 (Avery) and now 6 (Auggie). It is so fun to have the cousins all in a similar age range as they play so well together. Auggie definitely changed the most for me in the last 18 month, as 4.5 to 6 is a big maturity jump. Before we left, he felt like a little guy to me, and now he acts like one of the big kids. So, it was fun to celebrate his birthday and, in my mind, his passage into big kid land.

On Thursday, my sister threw a party for Auggie with school friends at the local bowling alley, a place that's been around since I was a kid. Great times had by all!

Can't get enough of the cousin time! This was a hilarious dance party in the backyard.

On Friday, we put the kids into a day camp at the local climbing gym and us adults had a kid free, siblings day. We began by riding bikes to the Rainbow Cafe, a hipster health food joint in downtown Fort Collins, that has also been around since we were kids. We followed that with a trip to New Belgium Brewery another classic Foco staple, where we enjoyed an afternoon of local brews and good conversation. Thanks to Leah, Osman, Steph, and Kane for taking off work and setting aside time to hang out with us while we were in town. We felt very loved by your generous efforts. 

Saturday was an All-American family day in the burbs. We started watching Kennedy swim in her local swim meet, which was actually super fun watching kids of all ages compete in endless races. They have those swim meets figured out. No waiting around, no empty pool time. Just lots of little guppies swimming their hearts out. We followed this with a girls' shopping trip and resulting spending spree by me at Sierra Trading Post. I normally do the majority of my clothes shopping at Costco (let's be real, I spend 98% of my time in athleisure wear, and $15 yoga pants serve my retired fixed income lifestyle as well as $100 pairs do 😁), and I needed to get a few staples on this trip. But Steph always knows where the best deals can be found, and Sierra Trading Post was a huge success. After this we went back home and watched the quarterfinals of the World Cup, which given how much the cousins are into it was fun for the whole family.

On Sunday, we transitioned from staying at Steph's house over to Nana's house for some concentrated quality Nana and grandson time. 

On Monday, Steph, Leah, and I took the kids on a 6-mile hike to Lake Isabelle. The hike was perfect for the kiddos. Relatively easy with minor elevation gain and the ending views are spectacular. Aside from some tenacious mosquitos, it was a perfect Colorado day. 

Drew drove from Fort Collins to Denver twice to play volleyball with his crew. On one of the trips back, his grumbling tummy was drawn in by Buc-ee's siren song of jerky and snacks. $120 later, some lessons were learned. Maybe.

On Thursday, we drove from Fort Collins down to Denver. We stayed in the basement of the Schopps' house, which has a very comfortable two bed, two bath setup which was perfect for us. We visited so many friends over the next 48 hours, it was a whirlwind, but amazing to reconnect with everyone. On Friday, we went back to Platt Park to visit neighbors including our old next door neighbor Valeska and her twins boys. Valeska installed a pool in her side yard, and the boys are THRILLED to partake next summer. We saw more neighbors and old school friends, which included a lunch date with several different families at McKinley Thatcher, the boys' old elementary school. We had ice cream at Sweet Cow, because we had to. Friday ended with a BBQ at our friends the McLains, who cooked for us despite being in the middle of a bath remodel. Saturday we began bright and early with a Volleyball BBQ at Lakewood Park, a tradition Drew used to host, and I'm sure he will continue when we are back. We got to see so many volleyball friends, and Drew was in heaven. Saturday afternoon included recharging with the Schopps and watching the 3rd place World Cup game. Finally, late Saturday afternoon, Mike and Leah hosted us and 4 other close families for a pizza party. It was so amazing to see all of our dear friends again. We somehow have no pictures from any of these hangouts, but I'd like to think that's because we were living in the moment. This trip definitely reaffirms that Colorado will always be home for us; the roots are deep. I want to give a huge thanks to everyone who took time to hang with us. To the Schopps for housing us, it was so kind of you. To Mike and Leah for hosting our pizza party hangout on such short notice, also very generous and gracious. It means more than you know. Thanks everyone! See you again in exactly one year!

World Cup

I would be remiss in remembering our time here without documenting the mania that is the World Cup or Copa Mundial! About a month before the World Cup started, the kids here starting collecting these stickers. Every boy (and some girls) was obsessed with them, taking them everywhere they went. There is one sticker for each player, one sticker for the whole team, and several other random stickers, so more than 1,000 overall to collect. 

The stickers go into an album that has two pages for every team. 

You buy the stickers in packs at the store like you would baseball cards, and then once you have duplicates, you trade them. That's where the fun begins. We bought the boys zero cards, and yet they somehow ended up with over 25, just from kids giving them their extras that they didn't want and then trading them for others. The kids also play these games where you can win them. The trading is so popular that there were Cambiatóns or Trade-athons where groups of people come together to trade the stickers, all over the city: in neighborhood parks, malls, schools, etc. 

Now that the World Cup has actually started, the games are being played all day, every day, everywhere.  Everyone is talking about, everyone is watching it, and all the kids have their favorite teams and players. It's an obsession here, and it's been really fun to be a part of it, even if our enthusiasm isn't quite as high as most. There is a mall here that is full of outdoor sports stores, and they installed a large screen with free viewing of the games. So we went there for the USA v. Australia game last week and had fun watching with our fellow Americans. 

We are going back to the US in July for a visit during our winter break, and it will be fun to watch the games with our nephews and niece, as they also have World Cup fever.

GOoooooooooOOOOooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brazil: Isla Grande

On Monday, we traveled 2 hours in a private van from Rio to a town along the shore, and, from there, we took a 30-min ferry ride to the island of Isla Grande. Isla Grande doesn't have any cars, so it was a super chill place, and the kids could run around at will. The island is known for its beaches, which you can either charter boats to take you to or you can hike to them. Since it was winter time, the weather was decent, still 75, but not super sunny, and lots of afternoon showers. With all the rain, the hiking trails were a bit of a muddy mess, so we did most of our exploring by boat, which was great fun. 

More holes to be dug! This one the kids made into a power boat!

On Tuesday, we went to Playa Lopez Mendez which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Lots of soft sand. Lots of nice waves in aquamarine water. Palm trees. No services at all, so super chill. Hard to beat. 

Wednesday was a rainier day, so we went to a beach closer to home. 

Our Airbnb was great. It was 4 bedrooms, so plenty of room for both families. And it was right in town, so walkability was super high. We were there for 5 nights, so we were able to mix and match our nights out: Moms night / Dads night / Date night for us / Date night for them. And the kids had a blast just hanging out at home. Win win for everyone. 

My trip highlight was on Thursday. We had perfect weather, so we chartered a boat to take us around to all of these secret beaches and coves with snorkeling. We had a perfect day. 

Stop #1 on our boat tour was a snorkeling cove called Laguna Verde. So many fish!

They were nibbling my toesies!

Stop #2, a beautiful beach I don't know the name of. 

Stop #3, another snorkel spot: Laguna Azul.

Stop #4, another lovely beach.