Avery's 7th Birthday

Avery's birthday fell on a Sunday this year. We did our main celebrating at home on the Friday before. Kick off with chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, of course of course. Avery got to wear "street clothes" to school instead of his uniform, so we let him open up one of his presents early, a Ronaldo jersey from Nana and Papa. The smiles abounded. I didn't even notice that the jersey number coincidentally matched his new age, but he picked up on that right away. He also took donut holes to school to share with the class. Don't mind the long hair. Avery is choosing not to cut it right now. We'll see how long it lasts.

Dinner was a menu of his choice, which is our tradition now, which included mac and cheese, but not the "healthy kind" that I normally make which is doctored up with peas and chicken. "Just the noodles and sauce, Mom." Lol, making my life easy kid, I appreciate that. Peppers and blue berries completed the menu. Avery was not as easy going with his cake request. I want a cake that is half chocolate and half vanilla. With blue frosting, the sugary kind that Dad likes. Topped with blueberries and chocolate chips. I did my best.

The rest of the presents included a World Cup album where the boys can officially stick in all of the stickers they have been collecting and a few packs of the stickers themselves. Avery was thrilled when one of the packs had Ronaldo in it, matching his jersey. I originally said I wouldn't be buying the album or packs and stickers, and yet here we are, but about 2 months too late. Boys were still over the moon about it though. 

The main birthday wish was that he wanted to ski on his literal birthday, as that is something impossible to do in the states. We could see a big snowstorm was due to hit on Saturday night. So, we drove up the 40 curves to La Parva, which is one of the 3 ski resorts up a valley just outside of the city. We got there around 11:30am, and by 1pm it was snowing HARD, so timed that perfectly. We camped in our van overnight, which luckily has a diesel heater, keeping us warm and more importantly, capable of drying all of our wet snow gear. We skied La Parva on Sunday, which was fun as another family was able to join as well, so all the kids could ski together. It was a powder day for sure, as they received around 8 inches overnight. Drew took off before sun-up to hike up and get in a few runs before the lifts officially opened. I brought the kids over around 10am, and we skied til around 3pm. Boys and I are still getting used to skiing on powder, but we had alot of fun trying.

On Monday, we kept the boys out of school and skied Valle Nevado, which is in the same valley but on the other side of the hill. By the time we packed up, drove the 45min over there, and got everyone geared up, we didn't hit the slopes until 11am. But it was a gorgeous blue bird day, so we skied literally all day til the lifts closed at 5pm. The ski resorts here are interesting because they are all above tree line. So there is so much skiable terrain, especially on a powder day, that we could still find fresh lines all day. Fun times.

On Sunday night we had a gorgeous sunset seen from the van!

One other fun item I'd like to mention is that after watching Drew and I play lots of euchre at Drummond, the boys are officially learning how to play. So we have two burgeoning euchre players here now, and we can actually play together as a family! Cue heart warming vibes.

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!