Lily and Other Beautiful Flowers

Tuesday, 5 April - In the afternoon the kids went over to the Mini Club together and Corey was working in the hotel lobby, so after Lily wouldn't go down for a nap, I decided to take her for a walk to the beach. Pretty flowers in the brick walkway on the way there.


The outside patio between the hotel and the beach was this lovely rainbow of flowers - I loved the hanging leaves, with the shade and the view of the blue lake behind, it was gorgeous.


It was kinda hot on the beach, and Lily didn't seem to mind it, but I thought I'd still protect her from the sun's rays.


Sweet little face - She stared up at me with this kind of blank stare, like she was in a trance. I think she was enjoying the warm sand on her back, aahh. And of course I discovered later that speckles of the little volcanic sand collected in her diaper - looked like lots of poppy seeds on a bagel. After I had gotten toasty enough at the beach I dragged Lily away kicking and screaming. I wasn't able to get her in the stroller cause she was squirming, so I had her under one arm and pulled the stroller across the sand with my other hand - volcanic sand is not easy sand to walk in.

Pretty view of Volcan Villarica on the walk to the park

After we got off the beach I was able to strap her in and we continued over to the plaza park.

Pretty flowers again!

Lily not mad at me anymore, she had fun on the slide.

BREAKING NEWS!!!

We interrupt this vacation report for some
<<< BREAKING NEWS!!! >>>

THE AMAZING COREY HAS
SUCCESSFULLY SECURED PASSAGE
FOR HIS WIFE AND FOUR OF HIS CHILDREN
TO RETURN TO THE US IN TIME FOR
HER SISTER BEKA'S WEDDING!!!

Corey and the remaining three children are hoping
to follow suit in the coming days
and book their flights with a chance
that they will also arrive for the celebration.

(He says one step at a time -First task was to get his wife and daughters over the Berlin Wall ;)
metaphorically speaking of course

<<<<<<< STAY TUNED! >>>>>>>

Random quotes from Corey on the phone announcing it to his Mom and my Mom:

"It's kinda tricky moving all these people around! It's expensive! We eeked out of this one, but I don't think we can pull this off again, so no more traveling! Tiff's trying to reconcile that in her mind. I don't know if she told you, but she's got another one in the oven and Lily's almost two, so no more lap riding for her - we're lucky we've survived!"

Out Exploring the Gran Hotel Pucón

Out exploring on Day 1



These birds in the video above do not sing a lovely melody and I wish they would not make their annoying sounds in the mornings. They also reside in Santiago and disrupt the lovely sounds of traffic with their screeching. No me gusta. Get 'em Wes!



No luck with the geology lesson "I don't know, I don't care!"



And here you can hear Hyrum "Dad, this is booooring!"

Bike Ride 2

Corey took the kids out again on Monday, I volunteered to lure Abi and Wesley away from the bikes (after letting them get frustrated about not being able to ride them well) into the haven of the Mini Club where we and Lily all spent our time while the kids enjoyed their ride with Corey without Wes or Abi slowing it down. Here's our video of the fun (I think very typical of the fun we always have!) before their departure.

Bike Rides

I thought this little feature of the resort was fabulous - they had a row of bikes that you could check out and use for free - just sign your name and write down which number bike and we were off. The bikes were on the way to the kid club - which is in the background of the pic below - the stairs lead up to the room.

Corey took the kids to check out the town a few times -
All these pictures are from their ride on the first day (Saturday 2 April).

Right across the street from our hotel was a lovely park plaza - behind Wes (above his head) you can see lots of little wood display shops where there were lots of touristy knick knacks for sale.

Joe enjoying the ride

Not a very crowded town right now since they've just finished the summer vacations and not into the ski season yet. Nice and relaxing to tour the town -


The town totally had a story book feel to me. I loved it. Cute little wood shops, cobbled stone side walks, little dirt paths with small fences to protect the flower gardens everywhere, just lovely.

They made it to the dock on the other side of the peninsula from the hotel

Would have been a good view of Volcan Villarica too except for that cloud covering the summit.

(Awesome volcano btw)

Bus from Concepción to Pucón

Corey and the kids on the bus



And joining up with us at room 1342 of Condominio 3. The vote is unanimous: our hotel room is pretty sweet!

Group 2 Arrives in Pucon and the Mini Club

So Group 1: Corey, Joe, Hyrum, and Wes all left Thursday night for the south so they could arrive in Concepcion for Corey's two presentations there on the Start Up Chile speaking tour. The other kids who stayed with me could have gone to school, but since we'd told their teachers were were going to be gone and since they had told all their friends they were not going to be there Friday, they didn't want to go and have to explain their presence, so we just sat at home all day playing legos and cleaning/packing/being bored as we waited for our TurBus departure time. Our friend Rodrigo picked us up and took us to the stop. We thought we are at 11 like Corey, luckily he called me around 5 and told me to double check our tickets, and we were actually at 9:30! That was welcome news - it meant less time that the kids would be asking me how much more time until we go. So Rodrigo came to get us at 8:30.

Waiting for Rodrigo

There was quite a bit of traffic on the way there and I was nervous we were gonna miss it, but we arrived in time. When the bus came, Mel, Ethan and Abi shared two seats and I shared my seat with Lily. Group 2 on our way! Not my best nights sleep, but I had expected as much. The chair did recline a lot and I had plenty of foot room, so it was better than an airplane. A good warm up for whenever we decide to face that long flight back to the US.

Mel couldn't figure out how to recline her chair, so this is how she and Abi spent the night. Looks like Eth got his own chair (he was in the bathroom for the pic). They were all so quiet and I didn't hear them at all the whole time. I was a few rows up with Lily next to some guy who's snoring woke me up at 1:30 and kept me up for a half hour, then again at 4 woke me up and I was tired and cranky and debated if I should pretend I was asleep and flop my arm on him/hit him til he woke up, or if I should make Lily cry to wake him up to stop the snoring! Aagh, I wanted to punch something. So I was feeling so fed up with this guy, but then when he woke up to get off at his stop around 6 and asked me "Ronco?" I don't know that word... again "Ronco?" as he pointed to his face/nose and I figured he probably meant "I snore?" I said "Si" but didn't want him to feel bad, so when he asked me if it was mucho, I said "hmm, poco" which maybe wasn't lying cause I didn't recall hearing him between 2 and 4, so just depends on one's definition of mucho. But it was past and I was just glad he was leaving so I could ditch Lily and use his chair for the last hour of our ride.

We arrived in Pucon around 7 (Lily mad - probably about being woken up)

We took a cab to the "Gran Hotel Pucon" which was easy, it's a small town. We checked our bags in and went to explore a little bit. It was pretty cold - too bad we only have the summer clothes we packed for Costa Rica! Poor Lily only has short sleeve shirts and flip flops. ...
Mel shared her blanket and Eth shared his dog - isn't that just the cutest little face you've ever seen?! She's coming into her own and becoming quite a little character lately. So we kicked it in the hotel lobby for a while while we waited for Corey, who called every hour or so for 4 hours to tell me once again that he was guessing he was still about 2 hours away.


So after enduring 3 hours of unsuccessfully trying to get the kids to just sit on a couch and be still (Abi did a very good job keeping herself busy by quietly drawing. Thank you Abbers! Lily... not so good.) Finally since it seemed Corey wasn't just around the corner about to rescue me, I went to ask at the front desk if we could go to the kids room, which we did, and we hung out there until 1:00 when Corey, Joe, Hyrum and Wes arrived. So here at the "Mini Club" is where we spent a good chunk of our time. Nothing in nature can compete with dress ups and paper crafts I guess. Most of these pictures are of the first day - Saturday April 2nd - before we checked into our room.


Abi got her big hat on ready for the Kentucky Derby. Actually watching TV!!! Pathetic. Gotta keep that thing off - they are drawn to it like hornets to a BBQ.

Ethan dressed up, I believe, as a moose mermaid. They had a few of those masks, we all thought they were quite strange, so of course they had to try them on.

Abi and Melodie drawing and coloring. Mel is in her element here, she's such an artist.

Lily puckering up for a kiss before she climbs on top of the tables to dance again.

She got into the game a little with Ethan in the sports court - stole Ethan's basket ball so she could play soccer - that's my girl!

Abi played b-ball with Eth.

Ethan's got a pretty good 3-point shot, especially for how low the ceiling was and with the Little Tikes hoop. He wanted me to tell you he scored 32 points.

Girls playing house and making dinner

Joe, Hyrum, and Wes arrive and join in the fun. Wesley cracked me up. Put on the costume right away then went to work on crafts. "Hello, everything is totally normal here, and yes, I am the Blue Power Ranger. Do you like my picture?" I love kids, totally in his own world and it's all good.

Hyrum is a studious little student too. Good worker.

Last of the costume shots, the kids are chickens. So that is all of the Mini Club! We went there most every day, I was able to read The Real George Washington and the kids played. It was open from 10 to 1, then from 2 - 6. We'd go either in the mornings or in the afternoons, depending on what I was up for and when Lily was resting.

So that was the start of my first day of vacation and that's the Mini Club! Fun fun! More tomorrow.

Brief Summary of Our Week in Pucón

Mel, Abi, and Ethan walking on the grass outside the main lobby of the Gran Hotel Pucón.

Hey hey! We're back. Did you miss us? I'm ready to tell you all about our week in Pucón.

No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

Pucón, Chile. I wish everyone could come to this beautiful place - I think volcan Villarica is so cool. We had an awesome week and I loved everyday. And that was with 7 kids (7 kids means means we spent a good chunk of time in the Kid's Club room...


(isn't Lily cute) ...which was fine, cause I got a lot of reading done, made great progress in the George Washington book which I wasn't able to read at all on the bus ride..) But still, just imagine if Corey and I had been free to partake of all that this place offers, we would have had an amazing time! So I've decided I'd like to come back someday without the 7 kids. Or atleast without toddlers, kids that don't need naps and promises to keep up with us are welcome to tag along.

But, even with lots of Kid's club time and afternoon breaks for naps, it was great and we'd have loved to stay another week. Actually the kids all said they'd like to stay at that hotel instead of our apartment, and so would I.


We thought we were going to be in a 3 bedroom place, but for some reason we got a top floor unit which means it has an upstairs attic place - so we ended up with 6 bedrooms on 2 floors (kids were so excited to have an upstairs!!!) where there were 2 full beds and 9 twin beds. The kids all had their very own beds to sleep in for the first time since we left the US, boy were they excited. And that still left us with 3 free beds, so they were able to switch it up and change the sleeping arrangements each night.

The vista from our 4th floor living room - looking north with a view of Lake Villarica

Plus it wasn't that nice, physically speaking - Felt like some hotel from the 70's with out dated color schemes and furnishings. The furniture had small tears or holes, walls had dings and scuffs, un-matching dishes - all glass/ceramic, I should have brought our Ikea dishes - we broke something every other day - 4 cups. So aside from freaking out when Lily would go walking around with one of the drinking mugs or cups, we were able to relax and let the kids be kids more than we've been able to in our apartment with it's furnishings in "estado perfecto" and more than we let them in Costa Rica. We have a dining table in Santiago, but it's so nice and it's out side of the kitchen, so we all just eat in kitchen around the little breakfast nook with most of us standing or walking about. Here in Pucón we had sit down meals again!

And we would even set the table! It was nice and we felt a little more normal having room to breath.

I've never been to Germany, but Pucón seemed to me like a little German town with the additional exotic touch of a volcano. I'm going to do some research, we did see a few German named shoppes so I think my hunch is right on. It's like a German version of Park City, Utah with a hint of Yellowstone National Park (natural wonders - volcano and hot springs... here's some pretty pics on flickr) and of course a touch of Latin America. I kinda felt like I was in a Chile Pinocchio story book.

More to come tomorrow. We took a lot of pictures and a few videos, plus great news: Corey has now fulfilled his dream of returning to Chile and making a difference and thus he officially renounced all further ambition on Saturday, 2 April 2011. (That was after his trip and presentation in Concepcion and early & all morning bus ride to Pucon - "I'm tired of traveling, I'm done! No more ambition for me!" I got it on video) With that news there's a good chance that when we're done with Chile we'll settle down and live a normal life. We'll see how long those feelings stick and if I make him keep his word. ;)

TurBus Al Sur

SO! We have a car here in Chile that Corey's friend's aunt let us borrow cause she never used it. And we can tell. It has some issues, but we are very grateful to have it and just say a prayer and hoped it would get us where we needed to go. But for a 12 hour drive down south we wanted to have some professionals check it out. It was in the shop a week ago for 4 days, most of the time just sitting there I think. Got it back, it still had issues. Took it back in Wednesday with the hope to have it back Thursday by 3 so we could head out. But after a look under the hood, it was deemed unfit to drive on a long trip. It could do it with a few days in the shop and quite a few pesos in repairs. SO! What to do. We decided to divide and conquer yet again. Corey, being the kind thoughtful husband he is, thought I'd be more comfortable hanging out at home than in Concepción and more comfortable with a direct drive to Pucón, but since he had to get down by tomorrow for his presentations in Concepción we decided to check out how we like the Chile Tour Bus Business. He left last night with 3 children that could be trusted to sit through his hour long presentation without interruption, aka NOT Abi or Lily. So he took Joseph, Hyrum, and Wesley. I took them to the TurBus stop last night at 10:15 to catch their 11pm ride.

Joe's all animated and ready for fun.

Got their bags, ready to load up. Joe, can you be normal?

And guess what, it was a huge double decker bus!!! Boy were the boys excited.

Joe being weird again. But it's okay cause he only gets weird when the camera's pointed on him. He's normal the rest of the the rest time, so I can handle that. :)

They all said "yessss" when they found out their assigned seats were on the 2nd level, oh yeah baby.

Can you see their heads? I see Hyrum... I see Corey's back. and I think I see Joe's back pack blocking him. Hard to tell the kids apart from the back of the seats. I wait for them to pose for another shot...

Cute kids.

And did you realize that these are pictures! Digital pictures! From a digital camera! Corey surprised me with a camera on Wednesday that a fellow StartUp Chile associate brought from the States for us. Thank you sweetheart. Glad we'll be able to document our trip!

So I'm heading out tonight at 11pm for my 9+ hour ride to Pucon with the remaining 4 kiddos - crossing my fingers that Abi and Lily will sleep perfectly on the drive. Not sure how we'll meet up there since I'm going to get there before him most likely, but I'm sure we'll figure it out. :) We had tried to plan things out for our divide and conquer flights to Costa Rica, but the plans didn't make it through the reality of the jungle drive and pushy taxi drivers. But it still worked out. So we'll go with no real plan and our cell phones and see what happens!

BodyRocking Moms

Hey anyone from BodyRock out there - I'd love a place where we can ask each other questions and get tips and inspiration from each other - do you think a yahoo group would be good? Go HERE if you want to join and we'll try it out. Although I will be out this week on a vacation... so hang tight if I have to approve you as a member? Pass along the word if you want, we can try it out for a while and see if it helps any of us. As for me, I'm struggling trying to tell myself to just relax and take it easy, but when I saw this BodyRocker my jaw dropped, SHE LOOKS AWESOME. Holy Schmoly. Especially the one week post delivery photo! HELLO! Wow, I'm way impressed by her. I want to get on the wagon, if I can't with exercise than atleast I should be able to with my diet, right? But if I don't have exercise to relive stress, unfortunately I turn to food.

Not exercising + emotional eating = not a good combination.

Luckily all the treats for school lunches and good behavior rewards/bribes are gone right now so that's good to not have any temptations around the apartment.

Good news is the spotting is down to almost nothing. And I think I felt the baby move yesterday. I'm almost 17 weeks along. This pregnancy is going slooooow. (Relax Tiff!) I did do a little bit of upper body exercises on Monday which felt good. I did slow light reps - I read that while you're pregnant focus on MOVEMENT, not MOMENTUM. So no grunting or holding your breath and straining, just nice fluid movements at a comfortable weight and do more repetitions. My back was getting achy from my lack of activity, so it felt good to do that. I'll do more if the spotting does get down to nothing for a consecutive week.