Chrissy and Christian Visit Part II

For some reason this post felt like a college paper. I kept getting distracted and had to come back over and over again to get it done. Excuse the disjointedness of it! 

The school the kids go to tries to coincide with the North American schedule as much as possible, while still giving them a decent summer break. We have six weeks off in June/July and six weeks again in December/January. 

While Chrissy and Christian were in Chile, the kids finished up school. Wesley graduated from Kindergarten and (news to me) wants to work for Microsoft. 

When Chrissy and Christian came back we tagged along with them to meet Christian's mission companion in Boca, an eclectic and colorful neighborhood where Tango is said to have been born. It reminded me a bit of the French Quarter in New Orleans.  

Then it was James' birthday and I tricked C&C into watching our kids overnight while James and I stayed at the Marriott downtown. I though it was the same place we stayed 12 years ago...but I think that hotel closed during COVID. This one was much more elaborate and fun to explore. 

While Christian went to visit friends on Sunday James and I took our kids to Lujan to visit this huge and lovely Basilica. 

And then we went to Iguazu, but that is going to be its own post...

The nice thing about having people come visit is we do things we wouldn't normally on our own. Not that we're hermits, but the Teatro Colon was not on our list of sights to see. It was on C&C's list so we went along for the ride, even though my kids were being especially trificult that day. 

Using Bluey as a coping mechanism during the tour (where we were told not to touch anything....)

Here we are not touching anything

And again

The next day our Bishop who works at the Teatro was able to get tickets to the final rehearsal of Carmen. James and Christian took Charlotte while Chrissy and I stayed home with the ruffians. 

That night we celebrated Josh's 7th birthday a bit early and enjoyed some mate :) 

And then they left. This is the saddest photo to me. We LOVE having our people come visit. We're so happy Chrissy and Christian went through all the effort to come down with their kids and hang out with us for a month. It was so much fun and made June a blast! 

Of course, the day after they left James tested positive for COVID. Somehow the rest of us were able to avoid it, but James was pretty sick for about a day and a half. 

While James was incapacitated, Wesley took it upon himself to go to work. He spent HOURS outside digging this hole, intent on finding some sort of treasure. In a shirt and tie. (By the way, we're down to one dog. Two was just too much for me. Iro made the cut as the official guard dog)

I think in the last post I mentioned Argentina celebrated it's equivalent 4th of July--but I was wrong. That was a different holiday celebrating the beginning of the revolution against Spain. El 9 de julio is the day they declared their independence from Spain and there's another holiday for that. The primary kids in our ward made a traditional Argentine dessert and our ward had hot cocoa and cake to celebrate. 

And then our possessions arrived!! Seven months of living with rental furniture was a great/hard thing to go through. I almost didn't want all our belongings after living fairly minimally. But Wesley has been having the time of his life going through every single box, looking for anything he might lay claim to. 

Our Jack boy turned 10 and had a very laid back birthday. Our friend Paula came over and made cupcakes with the kids and we ordered a big tub of all of Jack's favorite flavors of ice cream. He didn't want to go anywhere, which was totally fine with me! 

And here is Mr. Smiles. It's amazing he's survived these nearly five months of life, as all his siblings (and his mom) just want to gobble him up. I relate so well with the Disney short Bao (the dumpling one) It's a struggle to not take a nibble out of these luscious cheeks and want to keep him all to myself. Ian is so easy going and acts like he's in on all the jokes. We love having this little chunk around! 

After our things came James set the tent up in the backyard and the kids were "winter" camping for over a week. School starts up the beginning of August so we've moved the kids back inside to start adjusting to waking up early again. It's been a fun break, but I think everyone is ready to go back to school. Or is that just me projecting on all my kids?

I'll call this post done. But the Iguazu post should be coming shortly. It'll be a good one! 

Abrazos y besos!