Sanity in the form of Crossfit

When I first got to Chile I felt literally insane.  I was depressed from losing my independence.  I could not speak the language or understand the culture and I felt very dependent on others.  And in the midst of this, the stars aligned and I ended up neighbors with Grace, and through Grace I met Annik, who also lived in our neighborhood.  And we all had our three year old boys at the same jardin (preschool).  What was a chance conversation about wanting to try a personal trainer became a reality when Annik found us a guy who would come to our neighborhood and torture, I mean strength train.  So we began what seemed like a great way to exercise with an English speaking trainer.  What it ended up being was sanity, therapy, and friendship.  Several months later we added Kiersten and then from there we had Kristy in the summers and when Grace got pregnant and had her sweet baby girl we added Mia.  It was what made my Chile experience great.  We laughed, cried, celebrated, vented, and shared triumphs and failures.  I love these women.  And don't forget Manuel who knows way to much about all of us and got us all whipped into great shape.  It was such a great 2 and 1/2 years together.

 Mia, me, Grace, Kristy, and Manuel

Me, Kiersten, Mia, Annik, Grace, and Manuel

Twelve!

At the end of May we celebrated Dallin's birthday!  12 years old!  Dallin invited his best friends and we headed to Johnny Rockets for dinner and then back to the house for some tag outside, the Lego Movie, and of course some red velvet cupcakes.  It was a great night for Dallin and his friends and family to celebrate him.  Dallin is confident in speaking to kids and adults, a great conversationalist, he works hard in school, and he is great with kids.  We are so grateful this young man came into our lives 12 years ago.  He loves his family, the outdoors, and learning new things.  Oh happy day Dallin!

The day after we went to look at more Legos!

Willy Wonka

This year's middle school musical was Willy Wonka and Mason played the music for it.  It was a lot of fun to go and to hear Mason in the band.  Because he is the only brass, he is easy to pick out and he did so well.  Loved it and so proud of him.

Sorpresa - Day 3

Day 3 was a beautiful morning.  Because the roads up into the mountains were closed our plans changed as to were we got to go.  But it was a perfect day.  We made our way to Laguna Chaxa via a small pueblo called Toconao.  It was a quiet little desert town with a great view of the volcanoes.

 This staircase is made out of cactus wood.  The cactus grows one centimeter per year.  Good thing there are lots of them, because they don't replace quickly.

Look at the little snowman!

 At first I thought the ground was mud plowed up, but it is hard and crusty…and salt!

 Look at the flamingos flying in front of a snow covered volcano!

 After the lagoon we explored the town of San Pedro de Atacama on bikes.

 There was a lot of mud.  This place does not get moisture, so this is not a problem normally.

And for our final thing we went to a small observatory and had a wonderful time learning about the stars and planets.  The man that talked to us was so passionate about how amazing the universe is.  He commented that seeing all this should never make us feel small, because as far as we can see there is not another planet like ours and he said, "we are special and unique."  So not small, but amazing.  And I agree, there is so much to see and learn.  And I am grateful for the weekend I spent with Mark seeing the north of Chile.  Thanks babe!

Sorpresa! - Day 1 and 2

Mark surprised me with a weekend get away to the driest desert in the world, the Atacama desert in northern Chile.  And what to our surprise, but we happened to go on a day when it had snowed for the first time in 50 years!  It made for an interesting story on how we ended up getting there almost a day late, but we made it and loved every second of it.  Even the crazy getting there was OK, because we were together.
 Mark had made all the arrangements for our nana to watch the kids and all the rides they would need for the 3 days we were gone.  Mark arrived back from the States on Saturday morning, spent some time with the boys, and then that afternoon we headed to the airport for a short 1 hour 50 minute ride north.  Unfortunately the weather had other ideas, after 45 minutes and 2 attempts to land (not to mention a lot of nausea for the whole plane…you know it's bad when the flight attendants had to go down the aisle to offer extra barf bags and dressed in gloves for clean up), we landed in Antofagasta.  From there we took a 2 and 1/2 hour bus ride to Calama (where we were supposed to land), stayed over night in Calama since the road to San Pedro was closed, and then waiting for the road to open.  At 11:30 the road opened and we headed to our destination.  It was beautiful.  The snow and sun on the red rock and sand was perfect.
The desert and the formations of sand and salt are breathtaking and I am so glad I got to see it all with Mark.  So here are tons of photos of our trip.  Short, but definitely sweet.

All along the rode from Calama to San Pedro we saw hundreds of cars stopped with adults and children alike playing in the snow.  Those who grew up there have never seen snow up close and personal, a dusting on the mountains is about all.  We also saw tons of cars with these on the roof or front of the car.  We asked about it and the locals all said, "That is the Chilean way!"

 Our first afternoon we visited Valley of the Moon.  And you know it is good when your tour guide is taking photos.  He had never seen snow in Valley of the Moon before.

 I am looking at the salt embedded in the ground.  Because it is lighter than dirt, the salt rises to the surface with the help of moisture.

 The three Mary's.

 Salt formations

 The tour guide called this the Roadrunner and Coyote cliff.  It did make me a bit nervous.