Chilean National Day

Nathaniel started this great annual tradition of celebrating Chilean National Day for September 18 (we used to call it Chilean Independence Day and are finally going to get it right).  

Mmmm! These empanadas are sooo yummy!  It takes a lot of work.  But his cool shirt helps!

There are different options for what you get inside your empanada.  Some plain cheese, some pino (a deliciously seasoned meat/onion mixture) with variations.  The typical pino empanada has a slice of hard boiled egg, a whole olive and 3 raisins.

Pastel de papas is sort of similar to a shephard's pie.  They sprinkle the top with sugar near the end of baking and it is very good.  We left a small section without sugar on it.

The tomato and onion salad is THE salad of Chile.  It's what you would get if you ordered salad at a restaurant.  The other salad is typical: shredded lettuce in the middle of the platter drizzled with olive oil or lime juice, with corn and avocado (common options, but not limited to those) on either side.

Leche asada is similar to flan

New this year!  We decided to include another common dessert they like there:  canned fruit with whip cream on top.  Simple but fun, and a hit with the kids.  Next year we will have some games for the kids. Too late for this year.

Since we've added some things to our fiesta over the years, I need to take note  and pictures to help me not have to think so hard next year.

The kids really wanted to help decorate.  They got into my 6 rolls of crepe paper and somehow I ended up with about 1 1/2 once they were done... even though there wasn't that much crepe paper decor to show for it.  Oh well. 

But notice the red, white and blue cut pieces of crepe paper.  Seth decided to cut those and then gave them to me.  This is what I did with them.

Almost all of these souvenirs (in the picture above and below) were given to Nathaniel while he was on his mission.  Victoria gave me the beaded flower ring and Patricia gave me/us the Chilean Good Luck Pig when we visited after Christmas in 2007.

The lovely fireplace.  Not only was a mysterious amount of crepe paper used, but a lot of tape too!  Did you know you need about 5" strips of tape for decorating?

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We got a fun, big flag...

...and some flag tattoos which were a hit!

Friend Fun

We met some of our friends at the Provo Library.  Anika and Shayna were great little friends and part of the co-op preschool we did.  They are really good at picking up where they left off.  

Sadly I didn't get pictures of my friends (Sherry & Amber) or any of the other kids. 

I got to catch up with my friend, Brianna, one afternoon.  Anika had so much fun playing with Brianna's daughter as well her cousins.  Here are all of the kids on one tricycle!  Pretty clever!

They played in a little pool and had a water fight.

Poor Seth had to stay at Grandma & Grandpa's maybe-sick.

Nathaniel met up with his good friends, Kris & Dustin and their families at Highland Reservoir.  I stayed back with Kari who was sick (nothing like being sick on a trip).

They came back to my parents' house to hang out a bit longer.

The kids are lining up pop its behind the van tire for a fun surprise

when it's time for our friends to leave.

We went to Wingers for dinner.  It was Kris' birthday and he shared his yummy treat with us.

Sadly these are all the pictures we had between all 6 of us adults.  Oh well.

And fireworks!

Silver Lake

Wow it's taken forever for me to finish this post. I put the pictures on and even started writing my post, but lost it again... somehow.  Once that happens I'm even worse about finishing it and moving on.

While in Utah this past July we went to Silver Lake.  I love it!

We walked by just as this lady caught her fish.  The kids were enthralled with the whole thing; from reeling it in to getting it off the hook.  They even got to touch it.

This nice lady was fishing with her sister and one of their daughters.  She is 70 years old.  She said she became obsessed with fishing when she was 5-years-old after she watched a man catch a fish.  He told her to get a stick and he tied some fishing line on and baited it for her.  She says she caught a fish and was hooked ever since (pun intended).  Supposedly her parents made her cart around her stick pole for a time until they knew she was serious about it.  Then she got her own fishing pole.

Kari wanted to be out of the stroller and a part of the fun!

My kids were so excited about the animal holes.  They took several pictures.

Just to clarify, when we refer to our/my/the "kids" we usually mean Anika and Seth, LOL.  I suppose Kari will fit in there at some point.

Grandma and Grandpa's, other

Grandpa did some big fireworks a couple times while we were there.

The Roberts were with us one of the times.

Seth didn't like the loudness so he wore noise-cancelling headphones.

We bribed the kids and went out for ice cream snow cones.

Anika and Seth tried each other's.

Kari liked it too.

My Uncle Arne, Aunt Linda, and cousin Rachelle came to dinner with the two women Rachelle takes care of.  My Uncle Rulon also came with my cousins, Melesa and Reann.

Anika and Aunt Linda played a math game with Popsicle sticks. Aunt Linda also listened to Anika count to about 300 and gave each of my kids a book and stuffed animal.

Seth was very very sweet with Natalie. I was surprised by how comfortable he seemed with her, and how naturally he interacted with her. He talked to her and showed her things. He helped her try things. He pulled a chair over so she could try pumping the top to make it spin. When that didn't work very well he showed her a different way that would allow her to still use it. It was very precious.

Anika surprised me by giving Misty a big hug when they were about to leave. That was also very sweet if her.

Misty, Rachelle and my Dad

 

My Aunt Linda came to bring me some family history things and also brought her balloon-making stuff.

Cool hats, parrot, flower, sword...

She left a straight balloon for each kid to try to make something.  Seth made a fishing pole out of the light blue one. That made me smile. He's been wanting to go fishing.