Nice Seats!

We finally got tickets through Coke to the Nationals game and it was a pretty sweet experience.  The kids were loving it and the highlight was walking to the dugout in the 9th inning to get some game balls.  They were glowing with excitement.

We've watched enough Nats games on TV to know that we'd be smack in the middle of the TV screen behind the players.  I tried to do some product placement and put a Coke next to me, but more comical was watching a close-up re-play of Jason Werth batting with Charlie in the background shoving a hot dog in his mouth.  Literally 1/2 the screen is a close-up of Charlie shoving hot dog in his mouth.  At least they didn't pick their noses while on screen.  Carlos had this to report when he saw himself on TV: "wow - I look even more muscular on TV."  seriously.

Sadly it was not a great game and I am starting to really believe that I am bad luck for the Nats.  They always lose when I go to the game!

charlie's good friend Ian came with us

harper and harper provided non-stop commentary on the game

 

  

Labor Day Olympics!

We spent Labor Day in Cleveland for the annual Labor Day Olympics.  Very serious stuff!  Three-legged races, greased-up-watermelon-in-the-pool-game, tug-of-war, fishing, egg toss, vegetable sculpture....and some tennis and running of course.  Every year Carlos and I negotiate departure time for the 6 hour drive and every year Carlos wins.  I say we leave at 6pm and he votes for 8pm.  8pm + 6 hours = 2am. That would be fine if we didn't have kids getting up at 6am.  This year he won by saying he had to do some work before we left so he went upstairs while I got our stuff together, made dinner, packed the car and got the kids ready for bed....by 7:30 I decided to check on Carlos only to find him fast asleep.  Needless to say we didn't get to Cleveland until 2am.....

The drive is always worth the fun.  Carlos did pretty well playing tennis, the boys loved the softball game and we all had fun with the relay races.  Unfortunately, Charlie wouldn't get near the swimming races and Sofia wouldn't let me in the pool for my favorite watermelon event.  We did, however, have much more success on land - my cousin, Mandy, and I are long standing champions at the three legged race and I was happy to continue that title this year.  The kids were in heaven playing so many sports with their uncles and cousins.  They literally played some kindof sport from 10am-8pm each day with maybe 30 minutes for lunch and 30 minutes to make their vegetable sculpture. Tennis, running, swimming, back to tennis, baseball, relay races, back to swimming, running, soccer, catch, back to tennis....They were in tears when we finally cut them off from night swimming.

One of my favorite parts of Labor Day is having an outdoor picnic by a big bonfire with lots of s'mores with the whole community.  It's pretty amazing and I was so glad that the weather ended up being perfect.

Diego and his fish

Egg toss!

three-legged race

victorious

Pine Orchard

After California we headed up to Pine Orchard, Connecticut to spend some time with the cousins at my grandmother's house.  It is always so nice to be there - something about going to sleep listening to the water is very special.  The kids loved being together and spending lots of time rearranging the rocky beach, going kayaking, playing tennis, playing baseball and walking along the marsh trail to Stony Creek.  One of my favorite activities that the kids did was collect shells and crab parts and then set up a store to sell them.  They certainly are little capitalists - they were charging $70 for a clam shell.  We decided to move the decimal point over a bit....The amazing thing is that they actually made money (and not from us!).

 

The store!

Here are the kids doing the booty bump (?!)

California

 
The summer flew by! It's been the whole summer since I last posted!  We were in and out of town this summer and somehow it is time for school already.  I thought I liked to travel, but the boys really loved our summer trips.  We arrived back from San Francisco at 1am from one trip and the boys were utterly disappointed that I wanted to spend a day in DC to unpack and wash our clothes before re-packing, loading the car and facing a 6 hour drive to Connecticut.  When we got back from Connecticut they were devastated that they had to wait a whole 5 days to get back in the car and drive another 6 hours to Cleveland for the annual Labor Day Olympics.  The status of our car is reflective of how Carlos and I feel after so many long car rides.  Pretty beaten up!

It was a very nice summer despite the fact that we didn't go to Latin America this year.  The boys enjoyed lots of Nationals baseball games and the trips to California, Connecticut and Cleveland were fun for everyone.

About 12 hours after landing in San Francisco we headed to Target to pick up all the things we had forgotten!  Classic.  Despite feeling like I had packed up the whole house there were a few key items missing.  Somehow that list ended up including baseball bats and Sofia lobbied hard for this baseball helmet....

The weather in San Francisco was freezing in the mornings, but gorgeous by the afternoon.  Tia Veronika's house looks so awesome compared to when we saw it over Christmas and the location is ideal.  There are woods close by and the kids loved going hiking there.  I was pleasantly surprised how much the boys enjoyed hiking and for how long they could last.  Tia Veronika not only gave us all dental visits, but took the boys all around and took Charlie to Six Flags amusement park.

Sofia hiking

Sofia by the Bay

I had a work trip to LA so my mom came with me to help out with Sofia while the boys went to Reno with Carlos' mom.  Sofia had fun with my mom and then we drove up the coast and stopped in Santa Barbara on our way to San Francisco.  Sofia made a straight line for the water and had no fear of the crashing waves.  While in SB we also got to meet my friend's baby Eloise who is super sweet and we are looking forward to many girls trips in the future.  Sofia was not so happy about sitting in a car for another 5 hours to SF...nor were my mom and I as we rolled into SF around 2am!  Nevertheless, we made it back in time for my cousin's wedding which was another fun highlight of the trip.  It was beautiful and perfect and fun as always to see the family.

After my work trip we spent a couple of days in Sonoma to visit Carlos' old friend and were spoiled by their generosity.  We stayed in their vacation rental which was awesome and couldn't help but enjoy some good wine.  That said, most of our stay in Sonoma was consumed by Train Town which is a funky little amusement park.  The train takes you all around the property and stops so you can feed the animals and wander through a mini-town before heading back for the rides.  Charlie and Diego were in heaven.  It was Diego's first roller coaster and he loved it.