A Fun Filled Visit from Amma

       In early March Keith had to go to Chile for a week. Poor guy. He did his best to convince me that it wasn't going to be all that great, but I would have switched him places anyway, given the chance. Flying in a plane all by myself to a warmer country, staying in a hotel where breakfast is ready for you each morning, going out to eat each night, and getting to spend two days at the beach and hiking in the mountains (even if I had to work the other 5 days), sounded lovely. Absolutely lovely.

It still does.

However, Amma came to stay with us for two weeks, so even though it was still winter in Fargo, we had a good time.

Her first Saturday here the weather was actually nice enough for a trip to the zoo. Yes, there is a zoo in Fargo. No, it is not very big. Yes, they can only have cold hardy animals, like Bactrian Camels who are from frigid Mongolia. But it is the perfect size for kids. Not too big and not so small that they get bored.
 
I like the middle picture where Charlie is man-handling Jane's head in an effort to help her see the crane.

Our weekend with Ted E. Left, top to bottom: Ted E. playing Sneaky Snacky Squirrel with Charlie and Amma, at Courts Plus, at the dentist. Center: at Space Aliens. Right, top to bottom: at the zoo (wolves in background above Ted's head), helping out Charlie during his blood draw.

That first weekend, Charlie also got his turn to take Ted E. Bear, the preschool bear, home. He was super stoked. Along with Ted E. came his journal, or rather the journal that the parents of the chosen child has to fill out with stories of his weekend adventures including pictures. Don't forget the pictures. No pressure Mom and Dad. Luckily for us, since Amma was here, we already had big plans for the weekend.

Right off the bat Ted E. proved to be quite helpful. Charlie had to have a blood draw shortly after school that day. He had had one less than two weeks prior and it was an absolute NIGHTMARE. This time Ted E. came along to help Charlie be brave and between he, and Amma's relaxation breathing she taught Charlie, it went off without a hitch. Nice work Ted and Amma. After the blood draw Keith took Charlie and Ted E. to Charlie's absolute favorite restaurant in town: Space Aliens. Imagine the restaurant in Toy Story, where Sid gets the little alien squeaky toy, but cooler.

Ted E. also accompanied us to Courts Plus (more on that shortly) on Friday and to the zoo Saturday. On Monday Mr. Ted came in handy once again at the dentist. Charlie loved his first dentist visit but has grown less and less excited over time. Once again he showed Ted E. how brave he could be. It really was a good weekend for a visit from Ted E. Bear.


Courts Plus is technically a gym but I have never been past the front desk. We pay $1 per person at the desk and take a left to the doors that open to a three-story playground on steroids. It is a great place to play hide and seek and to tap into that inner-child again. Among the many features in it are two slides. There is a super fast pipe slide and if you climb to the very top level there is this big three-lane slide. Make sure to wear slick pants if you go. I didn't the first time and was completely bummed that Charlie consistently beat me on the slide races.




I am not sure what the technical term for this things is but it is basically one of those handle slide things that you jump onto and it carries you off to the other side. Charlie was imagining that we were all swinging over a river filled with alligators and he kept on shouting for Amma to get out of the water!

Unfortunately Mom can't be with the grandkids as much as she would like. That is why we love skype. I think it is great that whenever we do get together with family, our kids don't have a long adjustment period while they remember who each person is. Picture books and phone calls help but interacting through live video is as good as it gets with out in-person interaction. While Mom was visiting us we could skype Sarah and Darren's little family in Utah!


Jane had her personal stylist back. Before we even had breakfast the first morning she was here, Mom was saying how she could hardly wait to get her hands on this hair as she moved her fingers through Jane's tangled curls. Jane was surprisingly willing to have Amma do her hair each day. I only wish I had gotten a better picture of the pigtails. At church the first Sunday a friend stopped me in the hall and asked if it was nice to have my mom here. I was a bit confused because I was almost certain that she hadn't seen my mom yet and I hadn't told many people that she was coming. When I asked her how she knew, she said that she had seen Jane in nursery and noticed how nice her hair looked. That should give you a pretty good idea of how well I do at managing her hair if people know my mom is here simply by noticing how Jane's hair looks.

Checking her tongue in the mirror while Mom took me shopping for kid's clothes. It was so nice to run errands again!

It was really nice to have Amma here. Charlie loved showing her gymnastics and preschool. Jane loved the attention she got when tagging along on the little errands while Charlie was at school. I enjoyed the talks, night time movies, and just not feeling the same isolation that accompanies Keith's work trips. Between not driving and not getting out much with the kids in the winter, the days can be extra long when he is gone.

Thanks for the visit Amma! We love you. See you in St. Louis in the fall! (the zoo there is much better ;) )

Patagonia with parents part 3

Our first view of the towers upon entering the park. The three towers of Torres del Paine were formed from a singe mountain that was ground down by glaciers during the last ice age. In case you were wondering. These peaks, Cuernos del Paine, are neat because the bottom white rocks are a type of granite and the top black rock is a type of sedimentary rock that is only found here. You can see how much faster the black sedimentary rock eroded away in comparison to the tougher white granite below. This group of peaks at the headwaters for all the rivers that flow into the surrounding lakes and it was neat to see the white and black boulders, rocks, and then pebbles shrink in size and become polished smooth as we followed the streams. There were no other types of rocks mixed in and the contrasting colors in the river beds were really pretty.
Along with drugs, don't do fire. (This is for all the Boy Scouts out there).
Camp after a rainy day.
Puerto Natales is on the Pacific ocean. Really good seafood. :)
Perito Moreno Glacier is huge! I have seen a fair bit of glaciers in my day, but this one was REALLY big! And it calved big chunks of ice with shot gun cracks about every 1/2 hour. The glacier comes out across the lake and runs into the land on the other side separating the lake into two. About every five years or so enough pressure builds up on the north end of the lake where the rivers enter that a huge calving event occurs creating a channel the again joins the two sides of the lake. This is predicted to occur any day now so the glacier is being watched very carefully so that it can be caught on film.

The clearer ice is older and more compact. The range of blues was surreal.

Welcome to Chile

Last week (the days are starting to blend) the parents and I hopped on a bus from El Calafate to Puerto Natales which is a Pacific coast town in Chile. Because I had over stayed my 90 day visa free welcome in Argentina I would have to pay a 50 peso (about 17 US dollars) fee to leave the country. The official at the office in Puerto Madryn had informed me that I could pay this without problems at the border. Not so. The bus stopped at the border office, all the passengers got out and got thier passports stamped and reborded the bus. I, however, was told that I could not pay the fee there, so my parents and I, to the surprise of the other bus passengers, stayed there as the bus continued on.
It turned out that I would have to go to a nearby town to pay the fee and the nice officer ordered two other officers to escort me and one parent there in a National Guard vehicle. Mom and I were driven all over the muddy streets of Rio Turbio until I was sure we were headed no where near a National Guard office, when a white cement building appeared among the small wooden houses and we got out. We were taken into a back room where two officers took down my passport number about a hundred times, passed my passport around to three other officers, and rarely spoke to me at all until we broke the ice by making jokes about the amount of paper work in government jobs. Turns out that is a headache here as well. After paying my fee we were driven back to the border where we were informed that another bus would probably pass through in about 3 hours. Fortunently a nice Chilean man named Angel drove by a few minutes later and offered us a ride. So we hopped into his beat up 16 passenger van and were on our way. Turned out Angel was from Puerto Natales so instead of just dropping us of there he gave us a tour of the town including his mothe´s house, the house where he was born, the plaza, his favorite fishing spot in the harbor, and the meat market. The tour ended at the house of a child hood friend whose mother now ran a sort of hostel from the upper story bed rooms. That night we slept the softest beds ever pilled high with quilts and afgans. Lovely.

The next day we took a bus and a boat to where we would start our hike around the Torres del Paine. The day was sunny and bright and we had high hopes of another perfect hike. The weather soon became more normal for the area and we ended up not seeing the towers the entire time we slogged around them in the rain and snow. It wasn´t all bad though. The area was still lovely with the mountains, lakes and narrow forests squeezed inbetween, and as the area is a popular destination for international trekkers there are several hostels along the route as well. We didn´t pay the big bucks to sleep inside but as campers we still were granted enterance to these warm, rustic buildings where we could dry infront of wood fires, fix our meals, and rub shoulders with world travelers from places like Switzerland, Korea, Israel, and the Czek Republic.

Tonight we are back in Puerto Natales for a short while before heading on to Tierra del Fuego. Just long enough to eat seafood, dry our gear, and sleep one more night in those amazing beds.