August Visit from Abuelo & Finks Move to the U.S.

During August we had the pleasure of a few family events on the Santiago side. Abuelo came to visit, help with the house, and help Helen move to the U.S. After thinking about the move for much time Helen and her family finally made the big move over the Atlantic and are stateside again. During their first week and hotel living we got together several times. During the weekend we visited Glen Echo Park in Maryland. It's a really great park that I've meant to visit many times but had not yet been to.

The girls and Oscar and I enjoyed a turn around the Merry-Go-Round, and very old one at that. The horses were beautiful and it was a nice little ride.






After lunch Oscar and I took all three girls (Luli, Fiona and La Luz) into the puppet show. It was a really cute show with really beautiful puppets. We had our picture taken with one of the puppetteers after the show.

Another night that weekend we went out to dinner to a Spanish restaurant in Bethesda. The food was very good and the paella was lovely. But the food was just a lovely side to the family time together. It was a very nice evening to welcome more family to the area, the girls were relatively good, but could have been a wee bit better. This is the best picture we could get of the group before the battery died.

Early Thanksgiving

This past weekend we travelled up to the Catskills to celebrate an early Thanksgiving with the Santiago Family. Oscar's brother, Rafael and his son Lucas were visiting for a few days and we thought we'd take the opportunity to also see him. The last time the girls saw Lucas was two years ago at the family reunion. Lucas is such an amazing young man, he was so wonderful with the girls. I don't know any other eleven year old boys who would play so well with two preschoolers and not once complain. Oscar and Rafael were able to put up solar panels on Abuelita's sanctuary, and the weather was gorgeous for the kids to be outside almost the entire time. I took a ton of pictures and they are also in an album to the left of the blog. Enjoy!

Visit from Abuelo

The week before father's day Abuelo was passing through Virginia and stayed a few days with us. He helped out with some home projects and enjoyed some time with Oscar and got to play with the girls. The girls were happy to see Abuelo and kept asking for him to swing them. They made special paintings for him and showed him all of their toys and all of their new house.

The girls in New York and Jenn alone at home!

This past weekend I experienced some things I haven't experienced in over four years, namely being alone! Oscar took the weekend to visit his parents with the girls and I stayed home for a job fair, some school work, cleaning and packing. I easily could have sat in front of the TV, well the old Jenn could have, now I get antsy sitting around and need something productive to do. While the girls and husband were off I wrote a paper (and several drafts of it), did a final project (which isn't due until the end of April), did some research for another project, cleaned my kitchen with bleach (because I can't use bleach when the kids are around) and generally got the house ready to be seen by Realtors and potential renters. I listened to a little music during the day but for the most part just enjoyed the sweet sweet sounds of quiet. The funny thing is that Saturday night I woke up several times thinking I heard one of the girls cry out, maybe they were in NY and I'm just that in tune with my kids (ha! or maybe).

Oh I guess you'd want to know what the girls and husband did. Oscar left right after gymnastics and arrived in NY in the afternoon. Fiona spiked a fever upon arrival and was a bit cranky for the rest of the evening. The next morning found them all feeling a bit better and ready to get their walk on in the garden. The girls love walking through Abuelita's giant garden, putting out corn for the deer, trying to spot some wildlife, and looking for other nature trinkets. Of course there was also the eating to partake in, Abuelita is always cooking when we're there and she makes some of the tastiest comforting food. I was definitely jealous! They returned late Sunday night with another feverish Fiona, who's still congested but mending.

If you know anyone interested in renting my house email me and I'll send you the listing. As you can imagine I'm not putting my address out there for the world to see.