Feliz Cumpleanos Creed!!

Creed turned four on July 20th. Where does the time go?! He is such a cutie. We do not know anyone here so just had a little party with our babysitter and her niece. They kids spent all week planning and decorating the living room. Diana (our babysitter) took them to get a pinata a few days before and they enjoyed planning with it and filling it with toys and candy. Not sure how that tradition started for us of having the kids fill their own pinatas, but they love doing it. They put up balloons and streamers. It is so fun to see how excited they get about things. Well, really it is Laney who gets so excited. She was the one who got in trouble trying to wait for the party.  We finally had to start at 10am. I ran and got a cake and ice cream and we had the fastest party in the west. We played a little musical pillows, opened some prices, had a pinata and then ate cake. 

 Darlene and Laney coming up with a strategy to open it.

 Laney hitted the pinata with all her might. She still has not figured out that her dad has to carve it open since they are made so well.

A little known tradition (to us) that you eat off a corner of your cake. Creed had to do three corners so I could get a good picture.

 

I love that they had so much fun with hardly any friends and cheap toys. What a fun age. Creed is quite the character and has grown up so much in the last year. Of course, his Spanish skills have grown leaps and bounds (more than I can say for myself). He corrects my spanish a lot and is quite helpful when I do not know a word. He prefers Spanish and is way more comfortable in it. He is not as shy as he use to be and walks up to all the kids we walk by and says hola. Not sure if he is more extroverted in Spanish or if he is just more extroverted in general. He can walk a lot more too. Well, I guess I should rephrase that; he does not like to walk much, but now he will run places. There is no relaxing family walks; it is either run with Creed or carry Creed. Hmmm, does that remind you of anyone? Like father like son. It is a little harder to run up these hills at 9300 feet, but it is easier than carrying him. He has definately put on some pounds. He is constantly making us laugh. Today he was hugging his sister and saying "amigos por siempre" (friends forever). I love how close they are. He absolutely adores his sister and vice versus. They play so well together and seem to really enjoy each others company. Granted they are not in school here so if he did not play with her he would have no one. He does love pretending he is some animal or dinasour. It has been fun watching his imagination grow. And there is nothing cuter than listening to him play with two of his animals because they always talk in Spanish. I cannot wait to see what this year holds for him. I know it was a transition for him to learn Spanish in the beginning and it will probably be a transition for him to talk more English. 

Quito

We made it to Quito a couple of weeks ago for a quick little look before heading home. We had found a house on craigslist in the Old Town so were able to move right in. It is a cool authentic neighborhood. I can buy meat, veggies, fruit, eggs, etc. with just a little jaunt in either direction down the street. It has a lot of character. We have no yard, but have an amazing terrace with great views of the basilica and other cool things. It gets nice and hot up there.

Through the manager of the house we found a wonderful babysitter for the kids. Her name is Diana and she is so sweet and seems to keep both of them occupied. They love her and wait by the door for her everyday. I go to class most mornings just a short walk away. Everything came together pretty quickly here, which was nice since we only have a short time. The weather is nice. It has rained maybe 15 minutes since we arrived and is not too cold at night. It is around 70 during the day and got up to 80 on Sun. We have had some issues with the altitude, which is 9,300 feet. I have not been running due to my ankle, or at least that is my excuse. I get out of breath just walking around. We have found some parks and some restaurants so we are doing well. Creed's birthday is Friday so the kids and Diana are planning that. They are so excited, well at least the kids are. It will just be us and Diana but I am sure they will have a blast. We need to come home before Creed forgets all his English. He is way more comfortable in Spanish and seems to use it 90% of the time. His English even has a Spanish accent. I think he is in for a big shock when we get home.

Adios Asilo

We started saying our goodbyes here. I took the kids with me to the Asilo (the home for the aging that I volunteered at). The have gone once before and were a hit. It is like they are rock stars. They did so well. It can be challenging since most of them are not too coherent and all are hard to understand. The kids ran around and found things to play with, which entertained the ladies. One of them kept saying how cute her gingritos were. Another one who I was feeding said "que lindo" when Creed ran by. I was so shocked since I had not heard her say anything before. My favorite, Dolores, loved them. We took a bunch of pictures. The nun who I work with is so amazing. I told her I would pray for her becuase working there is so hard. Another worker said to pray hard b/c they did not want to lose her. All the workers walked us out of the wing and we were bombarded by others. Other residents, nuns and visiters. Everyone wanted pictures with the kids. One nun went and got her camera. Creed hammed it up and refused to look at the camera. He thought he was hilarious and so did everyone else. He is such the class clown. I finally had to bribe him with candy to look at the camera so we could get some good pictures. They were all so sweet. The sisters do so much for the residents. Very few have family and there is very little money. They work so hard. At least in my wing the women hit, pinch, grab, kick, and the other week I saw one spit at the nun. It is sad seeing the state they are in. Anyway, the sisters are so sweet. They even gave the kids juice boxes (which is HUGE to them and oreos). The kids were exhausted afterward but did great with everyone picking them up and trying to get their attention.

Laney and Kindergarten

There is a school in District 20 that is bilingual Spanish and English. We think we want our kids to go there so thought we would start the process since she is going to be in Kindergarten in August. We live in District 11 so are trying to choice her in. My mom went down to the district office to fill out the paperwork for us. There was a question on the form asking if there was another language in the home. She marked yes, since there is and since she thought it would help Laney get in. Well, then they told her she had to fill out an ESL form because of it (English as a Second Language). She did and she told them that English is not her second language and she speaks English fine. They told her someone would call us and talk to us about it.

This lady from ESL called me and I told her Laney speaks Spanish and English. She reads and spells only in English. Anyone who knows Laney knows she can speak well....and all the time. I told her that both Jason and I were native speakers. She said according to federal law they have to test her to see if she needs services from ESL. They cannot send her application to Foothills until she takes the test. So we cannot figure anything out until we come home. It all seems so dumb. Can´t someone be good at two languages. That is what happens when they learn a language young. Of course, there is no arguing with red tape. No one will believe me as her mother that her English is excellent so we will jump through the hoops. Welcome to the education system!!

Feliz Dia de Padre

Happy Father´s Day. I am blessed to have an icredible dad. Wish I was in CO to celebrate with him. He is a Godly father who raised me to love God, people, and adventure. I have so many wonderful memories with him and am so glad we can continue making more. He is a wonderful grandpa too. The kids adore Deepaw and love spending time with him.

My kids are extremely blessed too. They have a great dad. They spent yesterday making him cards and giving him gifts of twizzlers and chips. No gifts allowed that have to be hauled around according to Jason. We ate ice cream too. Granted it was a day early, but we were all home. Jason is amazing with them. He is extremely silly and comes up with great games to play with them. A lot of times the games include learning how to spell, read and speak Spanish. I love that my kids have so much fun learning. They do not even realize that is what they are doing. He is extremely patient.

I am blessed to have a great father in law. He has always accepted me into the family and been willing to help us with the mountain of things that had to be done on our house. We never could have done it without him. We loved living close to him in CO. Papa Gary is so great with the kids. He loves messing with the kids and they think he is hilarious.

My kids are so fortunate to have two wonderful grandpas who love and adore them. Right now I just wish we were closer to them. Happy Father´s Day. Especially to our one and only Heavenly Father who loves us uncondicionally even with all our craziness.

Long Week

When will this week be over? I guess technically it is a new week today, but the pain of last week still lingers. It started Sunday afternoon when I sprained my ankle. I was walking to Maria's house to pick up my kids. She is the director of the school I go to and she has two wonderful girls who love to play with my children. Delaney and Creed love to play with them. They offered to watch the kids while I did whatever I wanted. I had a fun afternoon shopping for a few trinkets to take home and studied some. It is surprising that this is the first time I have sprained my ankle since leaving home. The sidewalks and roads are very uneven and have lots of holes here and in Costa Rica. After I fell some nice people helped me up and gave me some advice. I was pretty close to Maria´s so thought I would just hobble over. It hurt way to much and had to hail a cab the last few blocks. When I got to Maria´s she sprung into action. She got me ice and a bandage. She even brought a bucket of water and soap to wash my hands. There was a huge ball on the side of my ankle and it hurt like hell. The kids did not care for all of it so continued playing with Sonja and Diana. Maria gave me some ibuprofen and ice cream. It was nice having someone to take care of me.

Maria called a cab for us and off we went to our house. Oh, she had crutches too that she let me borrow. It hurt a lot and I decided to stay home on Monday and rest. Monday was kind of fun. I stayed in bed and watched TV all day. Which also means I worked on my Spanish. Jason and the kids took care of me. Laney enjoyed checking in on me and telling Jason to get me whatever I needed. I was able to limp on it on Tues. so went to class.

The kids came home from school on Tuesday in tears. Granted that is not all the abnormal. Sometimes the walk home is too much for them or who knows why. But, they were sick. Laney had a fever. We spent all afternoon in bed. They were a wreck. We think our babysitter gave it to them since she had been sick. Bummer. Well, they never made it back to school last week. Creed has had a horrible sore throat and laringitis. I thought Creed was hard to understand before, but it is even harder now in a raspy whisper. Both have had fevers come and go and come again. We have spent most of the week in bed. Now we are at the coughing stage. I am hoping they recover for tomorrow so they can go to school. We are in the half sick phase, which is not the easiest. Creed seems to get himself in a lot of trouble in this phase. Of course, this will all be a blur soon. The kids have both been sick three times in the last month. Too much for me. I feel so bad for them. They have been so miserable. I am waiting for them to sleep through the night again and for Jason and I not to get it. Jason feels a little sick. We leave for Ecuador in less than two weeks and I want us all to be healthy.

The ankle seemed to being healing well and the swelling has gone down, but the pain has come back. I think sprained ankles take a long time to heal. I miss walking around. I am lucky taxis are cheap, but they scare me a bit. I am ready for a little driving of my own and being on roads where people have rules and follow them. Here´s to a better week!

Cuzco

Machu Pichu

 I had to take a picture of them in the morning b/c they were so cute. I also had to wake them up b/c I was too excited to wait any longer to get to Machu Pichu. From Aguas Calientes you catch a bus up the hill to Machu Pichu. It is a very windy road and takes about half an hour. Of course, Machu Pichu was beautiful and amazing.

 The kids favorite part was playing in the dirt at the end.

Getting to Machu Pichu

I have no idea how the incas got themselves to Machu Pichu. It is way out of the way and takes a lot to get to and I live in Peru. Arequipa is only an hour plane ride away. Most people take the bus which is I think 10 hours.  We left early in the morning around 8am. When we arrived in Cuzco we caught a cab to Ollantaytambo, which is an hour and a half away. We could have taken two buses, but once again we chose the easiest and fastest way. Creed did not sleep very much the night before, nor did I, so we were glad we made this decision. He was able to take a little nap on the taxi ride. The driver was nice and asked if we minded if we swung by and picked up his wife to join the ride. We were able to practice our Spanish as well. Jason is very  impressive with his conversational skills. 

This is Creed and I on the plane.

Here they are in Ollantaytambo. Where we grabbed lunch before getting on the train.

Here they are on the train. It was the kids first train ride and they loved it. It was so much fun and the scenery was amazing. You can only get to Aguas Calientes (the town at the bottom of Machu Pichu) by train or walking. There was no way I was taking a four day trekking trip with the kids. The train was only an hour and a half. There was a gorgeous river with huge boulders in it the whole way. As we approached the town there were more and more mountains. The kids also loved the little table between our sits and we were given a snack on the way.

Here is Aguas Calientes. It is a tiny town in the middle of the mountains. It is very touristy and many half done buildings. I think we got there around 3:30. Long day and the kids did great. We ate dinner and were in bed by 6:30. Luckily it was dark and the kids were exhausted.