Camping

Last weekend we took the kids camping and enjoyed some down time doing nothing but communing with nature, swatting mosquitos and playing with Kari and Avram's ipads. It was very nice. The kids seemed to have fun and the grown-ups really enjoyed some time away from everyday life.

We got pretty lucky in that despite the severe weather that seemed to have hit other parts of NJ, we only got some rain with minor thunder on each night and it started just about the time when we were getting ready for bed, so we never had to figure out what to do to entertain the kids during the day.

On Saturday we went to the Delaware river and spent a nice day there. We did well with the food, too. Brian and Keith grilled up some sausage and chicken on Friday and Keith made some burgers and hot-dogs on Saturday. Sunday, Avram made awesome breakfast treats that consisted of butter, bread, eggs, and more butter. YUM!

Sunday, we took a walk to the Wolf reserve that was on site. And finally after we were all packed up on Sunday and heading for Hot Dog Johnny's, the rain started coming down hard, which did not deter us from getting hot dogs, but did make us grateful that we weren't packing up in that storm.

All in all, it was great to spend a weekend not having any real plans, and just sitting around talking, always outdoors in fresh (although hot and humid) air. Dylan renewed and strengthened his bond with his new BFF, Brendan, who he now calls "that guy." And he came home saying he had fun with Sam (Kari's son). I think all in all, everyone had a good time and we hope to make this a yearly trip.

Here are some more pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=185314&id=650388930&l=aaac7c2f3a

Family, Fun and Futbol!

Since summer has started, we've all been having lots of fun. As always, my parents have BBQ's about every other weekend for any "special occassion" they can think of to celebrate. We go swimming in the pool with "Tio Ney and 'Leria", which is Dylan for Tio Negro/Nestor and Valeria. We have gone to visit grandma, and Layla and Chloe, and Dylan and Daddy went to visit Alicia and Tommy and the baby in Alicia's belly.

Teresa and Abu have a pool set up for Dylan at Abu's house (my parent's house) and Dylan has been spending most of the heat wave comfortably playing in water, though the rest of us are melting!

Mommy and Daddy got to see some Phish shows, and go to some parties thanks to all the wonderful babysitters we have, including the grandmothers, tia, tio, and Vanessa and Jim. We had so much fun watching the World Cup games and rooting on the U.S. and Uruguay teams which did surpsingly well. Dylan sang along with all the chants: Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole!!!! and Soy Celeste!!! and was awakened from more than one nap with the crazy screaming of GOALLLLLLLL!!!!! Anthony and Monica got married in the middle of all the Futbol Fever and the wedding was a fun celebration of love, two cultures, and soccer.

Through it all, Dylan has been talking more and more every day. He surprises us with how well he communicates and has gotten so used to communicating that when we don't understand him, he sometimes gets frustrated and upsest. Luckily, he gets over things pretty quickly so that he may cry for about 30 seconds and then see a toy he wants to play with and it's all over. His "terrible two's" aren't really terrible at all thanks to his sweet disposition and his ability to get over things really fast...and we're really grateful. He's speaking two languages and picking up so many new words every day, and also he's generally a nice kid. When we were food shopping this last week, he told me he wanted out of the shopping cart. I explained that if I took him out, he had to behave and walk next to me, which he did. And then he helped me pick stuff out, load it on the conveyor belt at the check out line and then he helped me bag the little things I handed to him. He was this little toddler acting like a big kid...and it made everyone smile at how sweet he was.

We've got lots of fun stuff planned for the rest of the summer: camping, beach, concerts, and pool time. We plan on enjoying every minute of it!