Kermess

What is Kermess? Well, it means festival. It is simply a time to party. Several South American and European countries have a kermess, and it has no specific as to what you should do or a specific date, but you make it your own. Nido, the school the kids attend, has their biggest event of the year on Kermess. It is an international fair for this party. There are food booths from countries around the world. The school has around 50 different countries and about 30 participate in the fair. And it is all out amazing, the food is fantastic! I mean it isn't just little things, it is all out eat so good, so much, and for so long you wonder how you are not being rolled out. And then there are games, rides, and events on top of all that. It is a lot of fun and a huge event, and did I mention how good the food is? So here is a little sampling of what we did... ( no pics of Dallin and only one with Mason since they were running around with friends).

South Korea doing Gangnum Style

Mexico

Easton sliding down the biggest blowup slide I have ever seen (there were two other slides that came out this dino's ears).

Drew - upside-down

New Zealand had some good eats.

 Mason and his friend - eating and drinking near the USA booth.

Drew on the zip line!

A few photos

 

One thing that I love about living in a large town is just wandering around and stumbling upon activities.  There is a park that is right across the street from Mark's work.  Besides having amazing gardens, it has this playground that is huge...like 20 playgrounds put together.  And they have equipment that appeals to all ages, from baby to teenager (and adults too, even if they don't admit it).  We had been spending time at the playground and then were wandering through this little restaurant area when we found a free rock wall and bounce house up for the weekend, and best part, no other people around. 

Mason in his flip flops.

 

Dallin

Drew.
 (You can almost see Mark's office - one more to the right)
 

And the bounce houses for Easton.

A little hiking near the house.



 

Some clay dragon action. 

And making a trip to the hardware store a little entertaining.

 

October

Note: i wrote this post a month and a half ago and our computer is finally up and running correctly so I can get back to blogging.  So here is our October in a glance. Dec.29.

 

October! 

We had a band concert to attend.  With a little trumpet solo too.


We attended the school Halloween festival, which was very small, but the kids enjoyed hanging out with their friends.  I think because Halloween is relatively new around here and the majority of students are from places that do not do it, it just isn´t that big of a deal.  However the kids were glad they at least have a little of it here.

Don't you love black lollipops.

The annual pumpkin carving was also smaller...pumpkins are expensive here.  And hard to find, we found some on sale, see that not overly large pumpkin, originally $14, but we got it for $8.  So we carved one.  Each kid picked a feature to shape and carve.  Easton helped pull out it´s guts. 

We celebrated Halloween night at the Cub Scout pack meeting and trunk-or-treat.  It was a good night and the kids got to do some real trunk-or-treating which was great.  Mason helped Easton while I manned the trunk.  It was fun to decorate the trunk and participate in traditions of home.

 

 

 

Easton did have a costume, but after the awards at the scout meeting and before this, he was done with it. 



 

 

Dallin and Drew spent 4-5 days putting together a haunted house in their room and bathroom.  It was so fun to watch their creativity and all the effort they put into it.  I wish I had taken pictures of all the decorations they had hanging from the ceiling and the spider webs in the corners.  They recruited Mason to help as well.  I even made cookies with them, for a treat given by the fortune teller. 

It was dark, but my flash made it look light.

So then, I did it without the flash and then it looked funky...I am still trying to figure out our new camera, and I have so much to learn.  The soccer ball is a crystal ball and they built a lego base.

Getting the treats ready.

Nov.1 and 2 were a holiday so we decided to camp on Nov.1, but so did all of Santiago.  There was no room in the inn, so we BBQéd in the picnic area and then headed home and camped in the backyard.  It was fun and the boys slept in the tent the following two nights as well.  On Nov.3 we spent the day on the beach in Cachaqua, a little less than 2 hours NW from here.  It was a beautiful beach and a relaxing day.  The water was freezing because it is still spring, but we still put our feet in and on the beach it was a perfect day. 

 

 

 

 

I love being at the beach and the mountains are right behind you.

 

 

And a few nights late due to Mark working crazy hours and then our little camp out, we had our annual Halloween dinner.  It is always fun to make up the menu (even if it's just spaghetti).

 

 

Iguazu Day 3 (and a little extra)

The third day of Iguazu (Thursday) we spent in Brasil.  Though it is all the falls, you get a much different perspective from the other side.  The Argentina side is up close and you see only a bit at a time, however on the other side you get these great sweeping views of the falls as a whole.  The park is not nearly as big so we spent only a couple of hours at the park. 
We also had a little run in with a coati (those raccon like things).  They are more aggresive on the Brasil side.  Easton was hungry, so I gave him a little to-go box of cereal.  I had been carrying him, but put him down to get the snack out and then close it all up again.  We had moved away from people up a little ways from any place we had seen the coatis, so as to avoid them.  I was looking down, but looked up just in time to see this sneaky coati swipe that cereal box out of Easton's hands.  They have long, sharp claws, so there was a big moment of panic and all of us running to Easton.  Poor Easton, scarred him to death (and his mom too).  And once it was determined he was not hurt, we all calmed down.  Except Easton, he became upset - that coati stole his snack! 
After the park, we made our way across the street to a bird aviary that was spectacular!  It was one of the highlights for the kids.  We all throughly enjoyed it.  It was really an amazing place.  Once we left there we went to a big buffet in Brasil that was great.  We all ate and ate and ate.  I am not a buffet person normally, but these guys know how to cook their meat. 

 

 

This was taken in the maccaw area.  There were at least 50 of these big, beautiful, and very loud birds that you could just walk around with.

Friday, we were supposed to check out, grab a snack, and head over to the airport, except our flight was delayed a few hours.  So after we checked out, our cab driver took us to a park were you could see three countries at once (Argentina, Brasil, and Paraguay).  We spent some time there taking pictures and walking the little market.  Then we ate lunch and headed to the airport for some more delays.  We made it back home a little later than planned (1am), but happy and so glad to have made the trip.  This trip also gave us the opportunity to have some true cultural experiences.  We loved this trip and are so grateful to have had this opportunity.  Our world is an amazing place. 

 "Touching all three countries at once".  Argentina on the left, Brasil on the right and Paraguay behind.

 Paraguay on the left, Brasil on the right, and of course sitting in Argentina.

 

 

 Each country has a pillar like this one that you can see from this park. 

The very last photo taken on our trip.