A Good End to Spring Break

Back at the beach again! Woohoo!

I could really get used to this.

Of course, from a blogging point of view, it was quite boring. Same old, same old: pool, ocean, pool, seafood, etc, etc, etc.

The kids did get some play time in: Angry Birds, the card game! (Quickly becoming a favorite, and a classic! - thanks Aunt Kimmy!)

The kids didn't seem all that excited to see us (the parents) because Bati was there, and they couldn't get enough of him (Yet oddly I don't have one picture of them with him - bummer!).

But I am sure they were excited to get lots of bedtime reading in, especially with our favorite English book The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog.

It was hot, still, and the kids got to use their fancy M&M's fans.

I caught Agustín reading the paper one morning (it was a Miami Herald Andrés had brought from work). He informed me, very seriously, that he was "reading about London. It's really interesting. I don't really understand much, but I know it's interesting."

We left for Quito on Saturday, hoping to beat the holiday traffic by a day, and were glad we did. There had been a landslide on the highway we normally take (only 20 miles north of Quito! Such a bummer - so close, yet so far...) so we had to take the Sto Domingo highway. It had been years since we'd taken this route, and they've done a lot to the highway to improve it - tunnels and two lanes both sides, more signage. Man was it ever gorgeous! The "new" highway can't compete at all - and it is pretty too, but the Sto Domingo road is full - FULL! - of waterfalls and volcanic rock and breathtaking drops off the edge. Absolutely awe-inspiring. We were all speechless - except for Andrés, who actually had to drive it. Still as dangerous as ever, the highway is super wind-y with tons of hairpin turns, and of course it rained and was foggy all the way to Quito - quite stressful, not to mention the extra hour and a half it added to the already long drive.

But I got to see the Devil's face! Yay! I thought it had been demolished with all the construction.

Creepy.

A Good Start to Spring Break

Of course, it isn't technically spring break here, since there is no spring on the equator, but it was Easter week, and the kids had it off, so the grandparents decided to take them to the beach for the week. Andrés and I had to work during the week, so we bookended the week with two trips to the beach (the second with Sebastián and his girlfriend).

The first weekend we made it down to the beach, to see how clean up was going since the huge storm that hit a few weeks ago and destroyed the shoreline.

Hmmmm, could be better, but at least you can see the sand!

Nico came down to the beach with us (Agustín stayed at home - not sure why he doesn't like the sand lately) and got his cars out to do some rallying in the sand. It was quite hot, and we had to leave quickly because the sun was beating down and frying us, but it was really nice to get in the sand and hear the ocean a bit.

Of course we spent lots of time by the pool.

Me, reading a book on my iPod.

The kids doing lots of cannon balls.

Some silliness before bed.

And cooling off by eating ice cubes - oh he has that Miller blood in him!

Excited to be alone with the grandparents, Agustín kept encouraging us to "leave whenever you want."

Swimming Lessons

Swimming lessons have really paid off! We got to witness Agustín's skills first hand this weekend, as he doggie-paddled across the kiddie pool and showed us how to tread water in the larger pool. He still wears his floaters, but he isn't as scared of the water, and it is amazing to me that in another month or so he will be able to be without the floaters!

Mom, these swings are too LOW!

I thought it would be so much fun. Swinging, see sawing, monkey barring. But when Nicolás got to the park at the hotel and saw that the swings were too low for swinging, he got so mad! Lately he has been having these little temper tantrums, and today I witnessed one first hand. He kicked and hit the swingset as he said, emphatically, "These. swings. are. too. LOW!"

He was so mad, but I had to get a picture of that crabby crabby face.

I can't get over why Ecuadorians love to cement the kids' parks. Not very safety conscious. And Nico did end up falling and scraping his ankle, making a HUGE scene.

Like I said, I thought it was a good idea.

Halloween at the beach

Strange to spend Halloween at the beach, but we had a five-day weekend and needed to take advantage of it! We stayed in La Pradera, and it was nice. Very economical. Not near the beach, but we drove into Tonsupa and Las Palmas with no problem whatsoever. Spent the first day in the pool and then in the sand.




This is the life! Why don't we live here?

Welcome to MN!

Having lunch in the Miami airport. So excited to see the family.



And there they were! It was late, almost 11, but even Hannah was there! Boy were we excited, and it was hard to get to sleep that night, but what a great thing to see family.

Memory, Books and Vacation

Lots of Memory and relaxation around the house this Christmas vacation. Nicolas especially is fascinated by this game, and asks everyone to play it. He doesn't cheat - too much. He cries when he loses and gets excited when he is winning. He pouts and walks away and hides his head in a pillow if someone gets the pair he had his eyes on (although he is getting better about this the more we play - big brother is now doing the same, however, which makes for tedious play). He "saves" the cards that are pairs by placing his hands on top of the cars, and he won't let anyone else turn them over, unless we want to see the Pout.



Myself, well, what have I been up to? You guessed it - lots of reading! Finished The Book Thief (got it in Vegas) and it was not at all what I expected.



I hate it when I get a book, thinking it is going to be great because so many people have recommended it (when I bought it at Borders, the girl even commented that I had made a great choice!). It wasn't bad. It was sort of good. Again, it was meant for teenagers, like the Twilight saga. Maybe that's my mistake. There is no comparison to Twilight, mind you, but I thought the language was too contrived at times. I shouldn't be so critical, but there were some sentences that just didn't make sense to me much at all. I guess the author was trying to show the power of words, how they can envelop you, change you, imprison you and free you. Sometimes I just wanted more of the story, though, and not so many "words".

I kind of liked the narrator, however. Death. The author did a great job of making sure that the narrator was not such a cliche. It was still a good story, although I didn't cry once (and I cry at everything), so there was something that couldn't make me care enough about the characters.

I am going to blame the power - excess - of the words.



I am still working my way through Angela's Ashes. It is really good, amazing, and I can't quite make myself believe that Frank McCourt will make it through to the end. He is amazing and the story is so great, and I can hear the Irish lilt of my Great-grandpa Kreyer as I read McCourt's memoir. The way the ideas are threaded and connected is so much fun, and there are some parts that are just hilarious! I mean, what do you do with a line like this:

Before he leaves his house he always sticks his head out the door and tells the lane, Here's me head, me arse is coming.

You laugh out loud!

So, back to school and work tomorrow. I am expecting lots of tears tonight!

Let me take this moment also to wish you all a Happy New Year!

All Soul's Day

We spent a nice All Soul's Day holiday in Ambato, which they call Finados there (come to think of it, I have no idea why or even what finados is!). The kids LOVE going to Ambato, and although we planned on returning Saturday (luckily we didn't, as the annual Mama Negra event in Latacunga was going on full force and it would have meant MAJOR traffic jam), Agustin begged us to let him "please stay one more day". As he usually gets his way (well, spoiling my kids with something like spending one more day on vacation is fun!), we agreed to stay.

He was reluctant on Sunday to go home, but we managed to get him back to Quito, where, two minutes after he walked into the house, he turned around and said, "OK, let's go back to Ambato now!"

Nicolas, on the other hand, had a hard time sleeping there. He wanted his bed back home, I guess, and would make frightened faces at the ceiling, as if he were seeing ghosts or something. He had to be put to bed in his grandma's arms, and once asleep didn't have any problems. Last night you could see the relief in his eyes when we put him into his own bed again. While Agustin has never had a problem sleeping in strange beds or bonding with people easily, Nicolas is a different story. We have decided to go back to Ambato the weekend before Christmas, to pick up my father in law before he goes on vacation, and therefore have an excuse to get Nicolas used to sleeping outside of the house.

Happily, I got a lot of reading done over the long weekend. I finished two books, The Sleeping Doll by Jeffrey Deaver
(not a big fan, not sure why I continue reading his stuff, I guess it is just escape reading and something I can get through quickly while kids are screaming and pinching and hitting each other, and not have to worry about losing my place),








and The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant,
a book I had wanted to read forever and which completely surprised me in the end.










I also started Naked by David Sedaris, and, as expected, it had me snorting (laughing snorting!) as I read.

Everyone was looking at me like I was nuts, but that guy is just hilarious! Too much!

Coming to a MN Lake near you

Oh, the quiet and relaxation I will be experiencing in less than three days... sitting on the deck, watching the bats swoop down over our heads at the gnats waiting to eat us alive, swatting at mosquitoes, running after Nicolas as he attempts to dive kamikaze-style into the lake, catching Tin as he jumps Scooby-doo style into my arms after he hears a "scary dinosaur" in the woods behind the cabin... I can't wait to be in MN!

Oh the fun we will have! Cabin visits, baby showers for my sister Amy, playdates with friends I haven't seen in a LONG time, treks to the library (working on those biceps in order to carry away piles of books), shopping, shopping and more shopping (our true obsession - how lucky am I to get a husband who likes to shop more than me!), walks around the lake, sunlight until 8 or 9 pm, battling the mice in my grandma's basement, taking long drives around the state. We've got trips to Duluth, Two Harbors, Pine City, Mille Lacs, Stillwater (not really a "trip" per se), Hinckley (oh yeah, cha-ching!), downtown Mpls, and possibly Red Wing, planned.

We are arriving on Delta on Friday morning at 10 am, and I cannot wait for the heat to melt me! Won't be long now...