A couple of weeks ago, Drew and I hiked up Cerro Manquehue, which is a mountain we can see very clearly from our terrace. Drew has an itch, thanks to Andy Taylor, to hike all of the distinct mountains we can see from our house. Not sure he'll accomplish that, as there are alot of BIG mountains we can see from our apartment, but Cerro Manquehue was a good place to start. Drew had actually hiked it once before with some Dads from school. He also hiked about 3/4 of it with the boys last summer, but he smartly turned around before the summit, as Chileans don't seem to believe in switch backs, and the last half mile or so is basically straight up. It is only a 3 mile hike round trip, but it takes 3 hours to do and has an elevation gain of almost 2,000 ft, so that should give you a sense of the steepness. Sturdy hiking boots are a must, and I'm super glad we had hiking poles for the way down. Doing this hike in the spring was nice because a recent rain made the ground kinda hard packed. When Drew did it in the summer, it was dry and dusty, which made the trek much more slippery and therefore treacherous. There is another hill you can summit from this same trail head called Manquehuito, and it's much more family friendly. Drew and the kids hiked this once with school friends a few weekends ago as well. We tried to do it again just this last weekend, which was immediately after the biggest snowfall of the winter. That means it didn't snow in the city, but the surrounding hills got a good dusting, and the high peaks got alot. Anyways, we thought the snow would keep the people away, because it was bound to be a muddy mess, but, quite the opposite, the entire city turned out to frolic in the snow. I suppose it's kinda rare for snow to come that close to the city, so it's an easy access novelty thing. Anyways, there were so many people we couldn't find any parking anywhere, so we had to abandon our efforts. Luckily the trailhead is only 15 min away from our house, so no biggie there. In contrast, when Drew and I hiked Cerro Manquehue without the kids, it was on a Thursday, and we had the place to ourselves. So, lesson learned, anyone who comes to visit and wants to do some hiking, we will go on a weekday. And bring your serious hiking shoes or else you won't have a good time.
Avery's 6th birthday was on August 16th. We celebrated over two days, well actually 3. His birthday was on a Saturday, and, luckily at the last Mom's night out for the Kinder class, another Mom realized Avery also had an August birthday, so she offered for Avery to join an already joint birthday with two other boys from his class, Gaspar and Santi. This was the most amazing thing for me, as these other two moms basically planned EVERYTHING, and literally all we did was show up and pay them our share. And the party was great. It was at the event room in the apartment building of one of the boy's family. The event room was attached to a garden that had a playground and a basketball court, and the weather the perfect. About half of the class came; normally there's more, but that Friday before was actually a holiday, and there was no school, so alot of families left town. But I didn't mind; it still meant there was about 50 people there, which was PLENTY. The other moms hired a fitness trainer to take the kids through some funny, silly exercises and games, which they loved. And they also hired a magician to do a show, which was also great. Every birthday boy got to stand up and be the magician's assistant for a bit, which was adorable. During Avery's section, the magician asked him to put three handkerchiefs, one red, one blue, and one white, into a hat, wave his magic wand, and then pull out all the handkerchiefs put together into the Chilean flag. When Avery pulled out the "flag," all of the kids immediately started laughing and saying the flag was wrong, but I had no idea what they were talking about. Emerson, who was sitting on my lap, kindly explained that the colors were in the wrong place! The blue is supposed to be around the star and the red was supposed to be at the bottom, not the other way around! Duh, Mom! The magician apologized for his mistake, asked Avery to redo the wand waving, and out came the correct flag with the colors in the proper places. It made me giggle, because, as a foreigner, it was not immediately obvious to me what was wrong, but our boys got it right away. It's amazing what they are picking up here. All in all, it was a perfect party.
So with that excitement on Saturday, we decided to make Friday the family celebration day. So Avery got his chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, followed by mac and cheese for lunch, and finally pizza and a chocolate cake with whipped cream for dessert. He actually wanted to decorate his own cake with an assortment of sprinkles and fruit, so he went to town. Thanks to everyone who called and messaged for his birthday; it was very special.
Finally, since Friday there was no school, he got to celebrate with his classmates in school on Monday, to which we brought donut holes, which are always a big hit. He also got to wear "street clothes" to school, which was also hit, of course.
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