Lake Life, Part II

After Lake Rapel, we drove to Lake Vichuquen to stay at the lake house of the good friends.  We stayed there on our own all week until Friday night, when Ruddy and his girlfriend Vale arrived around midnight and his mom, Nuddy, sister, Natalie, arrived at 2:30 am.  I was asleep with the kids for all arrivals!

They are generous friends to let us use the house all week!  Sheesh, how amazing and fortunate are we???

The week at the lake with our little family was such a gift!  We had family team building time, basically.  No television - so lots of time together, talking, dreaming, exploring.  We would call out, "Adventure is out there!"  every day as we set off for whatever - kayaking on the lake, a boat ride, a trip to the nearest general store (think - one room, 1950's USA).  

I love chatting with Nuddy and just being in her presence.  She's one of my favorite Chilenas!  She's amazing - has beat cancer, travelled the world (she learned English in Papau New Guinea where she spent 10 months as a newlywed 23 year old - and they speak pigeon English - can you imagine?!)

We took a day trip during the week, over the mountains to a town called Duao.  It's in the Maule region and is a cute fishing village on the coast.  Lunch, swimming in the restaurant's beachside salt water pool, and then exploring the beach were so fun.  Tristan and Tanner collected shells for their Gammie back home.  We could drive right onto the beach.  Tristan had fun challenging the tide.  

We drove off and stopped for ice cream down the road where we discovered that Tanner had left his shoes on the beach!  We managed to drive back and find those tiny little Crocs and made the crazy trip back to the lake house.

The road was a single lane dirt road up a steep mountain and down a steep mountain.  Deep, deep, powder dust made it even more exciting.  The views were spectacular - a huge lake on one side and the ocean on the other!  We had to share the road with logging trucks!  Interesting ride, to say the least.  

Tristan had friends to play with during the week.  Augustine is the caretaker's 8 year old son and Vicente came on the weekend with his dad, Igal (I have no idea how to spell this name.)  He had fun making new friends and it was good for his Spanish language development.  

Tanner loves Ruddy and Natalie and they were able to get him to have some fun in and around the water!!!  Victory!

Kiko got some dirt biking dreams come true, riding with Paleo and then with Ruddy.  

Tristan is growing up too fast.  He did the kayak solo!  And got really good at paddling!  That's my boy!

I have more photos to add as soon as I can upload them so stay tuned!!!  We might take a break on photos as Kiko and I both gained a bit - cheese and bread, chocolate, and an ice cream bar every day did not help my lose weight mission.  At all!  But sure did taste delicioso!

All in all, our little family agrees that we love lake life and will be on the lookout for a lake house just as soon as we can!  

Lake Life, Part I

Last Saturday we met up with Moiky and Ritchy across from Kids Store in Santiago and followed them to Lake Rapel to spend the weekend at the Marisio Family Lake House.

Let me say, that my confidence and self image has not been the greatest this past year, after gaining 20 lbs in three months (what is THAT??) and failing to lose it.  So imagine, pudgy, not tall, pale North American me, walking up to the poolside to find three of the most beautiful women in Chile sunbathing in bikinis.  Oh my word.  

I think I may have quickly retreated to our room and may have needed Kiko to give me a quick pep talk to rejoin our society and let myself actually enjoy the weekend.  It did help that he pointed out that all three are actual models and generally accepted to be more beautiful and perfect than any one.  Ever.

So, tankini with cover up on, I rejoined the group and discovered some truly wonderful and amazing people!  They were the kind of friends that made you feel right at home, are interested in you, encourage you, and you want to stay up late talking with.  My biggest regret was not being fluent in Spanish!  Someday, I am going to be just so I can talk, really talk, with these friends and family that continue to make me want to really know them!

Alvaro had all the toys!  He has jet skis, wakeboards, a pool, swing set, basically a little paradise for the boys and for us!  The house was beautiful but comfortable and functional.  Tristan was in heaven!  Alvaro took him jet skiing and it was all he asked to do, every 10 minutes, for the next 36 hours.

I got to wakeboard!  I got up!  On the 2nd day I even got a teeny, weeny amount of air jumping the wake.  The photos are not flattering.  I am focusing and concentrating so hard and it's all over my face!  

Moiky is so smooth and fluid wakeboarding - she's stunning anyway but put her on the wakeboard and it's beauty in motion!  I watched her from the deck of the house and another boat passed by and the guy wakeboarding behind it kept watching her, even once he had far passed her and did the horrific crash for it.  

Her husband Ritchy has only been doing it for a year and was awesome!  The kids loved them both.  Tanner was especially in love with Moiky and was all snuggles and kisses for her.  

They got Tristan to kneeboard on our last day - he was terrified but went for it anyway and was so proud of himself.  He fell over and didn't let go of the rope quickly so had a little bit of time underwater being pulled by the boat and learned that lesson the hard way.  And daddy and Ritchy had near heart attacks watching it happen, ready to jump in and rescue our little buddy.  

Alvaro is a pro on the jet ski and wake board.  He thrilled the kids with flips and grabs, jumps, wheelies and style!  

Maryanne, his wife is pregnant and has an active 20 month old boy, but won jet ski races and championships previously so next year we will see her show the boys even more, I suppose.  She is one of the people I am looking forward to talking with and knowing once I can speak the language!  It's so frustrating to want to ask questions or know more and totally not have the words to do it.  

Dominic and Francisco (aka, Negro) were another couple there and were great to chat with and get to know!  Dominic is like me with the language - understands but not able to speak, so she spoke in Spanish and I spoke in English.  Someday we are going to be great friends!!!  

All in all, my best days in Chile were there at Lake Rapel watching my boys have the time of their lives and getting to know some great friends of my husband's and now, mine!  

I am so impressed with Alvaro and Kiko's friendship.  One of those lifetime, totally blessed friendships we all hope to have.  

Too much to catch up on?!

So I obviously have not developed and kept a good schedule of blogging about this adventure in Chile. At all.

Our first two weeks in Santiago de Chile, the capital city of the country, home to some 8 million people, sprawled out between two cordilleras - mountain ranges.  It's big.  And noisy and busy and tense.  The Andes are on one side - massive mountains that at first made me think of Denver but then realizing their size and closeness to the city I have to rethink it and say, "No, not another place - just here."  And that is something I have to do a lot.  When I travel, I find myself thinking, "Oh, that looks like California!"  Or some other place I've been to before, comparing and contrasting.  But I have to take time to recognize the here and now and the uniqueness of wherever I find myself in that present moment!

During my first two weeks, we stayed at the Cecy and Enrique's apartment in Las Condes.  A development of five buildings, each 21 or 22 stories tall.  We are on the 15th floor, with decent views and a large balcony.  Cecy is a talented decorator and the home feels live-able but well put together.  So we had her cover everything white (our boys are annihilators of white furniture) and we spend some time redirecting behavior (like stay away from windows and terraces that do not have screens on the 15th floor...and I pray a lot about that and keeping the door of fear closed.)

I lost two pounds though I was pretty bitter about it.  I worked out every day, did my intervals, walked a lot, did the vibroplatform "gym" with my sister in law four days a week, took the stairs once a day, and was hungry for two weeks.  And I lost TWO pounds.

So I kind of went on a food bender the past ten days of holidays within our vacation.

And now I am back in Santiago, and will go back to being hungry, working out, and seeing what to do next!  Grrrrr.  My MIL is suggesting that I go to the doctor here and get a work up of my hormones.  I was having trouble the past several months with them and seemed to be doing much better since going after the issue in prayer.  I am not sure what to do...