Chilean Verano 2016

Chilean summers are the best.  I will miss our life here immensely.

Watermelon. Always.

Marraquetas. Also always.

That look. Zoom in and you will see how that kid gets anything he wants from me!

Again. Watermelon!

That view.

Sadie's 3rd Birthday

My baby turned 3 this month.  I can't believe how old she is.  Look at that face! She's seriously a preteen already.  We celebrated by having a party on the day of filled with pizza and pool time.  She had lots of friends over, and I could tell that she really enjoyed herself.  It was a success!  And, she's super into princesses and fluffly dresses, is that obvious yet?  And yes, all her friends are boys.

New Years

Nothing says New Years more than beach time in Antofagasta.  The people here LIVE at the beach in the summer.  I mean they bring cars, tents, outhouses, grills, water tanks, piles of trash, and everything you can imagine to the beaches.  This is just the way it is.  It's a very interesting sight to see.  We went down south to a great called Playa Lenguado.  Isaac was very happy. The downside was that it was so windy, Sadie lost her kite in about 5 minutes. Steve ran after it but it flew up over a cliff and I laughed for a good 30 minutes as Steve tried to climb up and find it.  He is a very dedicated father.

As a side note, NYE we spent at home, watching all the lights and fireworks from our window.  A new thing here is to light floating lanterns and set them off at midnight. There were hundreds in the sky.  It was quite beautiful, but as you can imagine the next day they were all over the place (and um hello fire hazard!).  There was even one in my garage! How did it get there??

Celebrating Christmas in Chile

This year we spent Christmas in Antofagasta.  Yes, it was slightly depressing, but it was still very memorable.  I think the hardest part for me was actually getting into the Christmas spirit because it was summer here.  It just didn't feel like Christmas.  It seemed wrong.  But, I blared the Christmas music anyway, got an advent calendar and made the kids go see Santa (who STILL wears the heavy costume even during the summer!).  Isaac was a little weary of him, and Sadie wouldn't even go close enough for a picture.  Even with me sitting there.  Yes, the beard is real.

Below is our Christmas Even dinner.  Very festive. Tacos.  Unfortunately Steve had to work on Christmas, but the good news is he came home early for Christmas Eve and got to have a late start the next morning.

Isaac loved his toys from our nana, Ineida.  They were very loud and lots of lights. All of them moved.  Even the dinosaur who roared and chased after the kids.

Christmas morning, Sadie was super excited about her my little ponies.  Hmmm... Followed by lots of fun, especially the princess castle and of course the completely made from scratch homemade cinnamon rolls (I was very proud of myself!)

Crashing a Chilean Office Christmas Party

We were driving around one day and noticed a huge park type carnival.  It looked like a ton of fun but wasn't open.  Well, we'll try another day.  Then one day we finally drove by it and it looked open, so we stopped.  We walked in.  We didn't see anyone taking tickets or paying or anything, and Sadie was going crazy with excitement.  So, we just enjoyed the park.  Sadie got to go on rides, helicopters, airplanes, and even a carousel.  Isaac loved the bouncy houses and trampolines.

Well, come to find out we just crashed a holiday office party.  Apparently it's a thing to rent out carnivals (specifically made just for holiday parties, and never open to the public) during December.  Nailed it.