Crazy Weeks

Ben told me last night that I'm behind on my blogging. I know that I am, but truthfully this past month has just been crazy; it's left my head spinning and given me very little time to sit down and think. Here is a five week timeline of our lives this March and April:

March 3: Ben leaves for Europe (Germany, Turkey)
March 10: Ben arrives home at midnight
March 13: Ben flies to Portland
March 16: Ben takes a red-eye flight home to Mexico, arrives at 9 am the next day
March 18: Our family flies to Puerto Vallarta to kick off three weeks of vacation
March 23: Our family  flies to Portland to visit home for the week
March 31: Drive to Lakeview to visit my parents
April 3-April 5: Family road trip with my parents to Yosemite National Park
April 6: Fly home to Monterrey

The hardest part was Ben being on business trips 12 out of 14 days. It was a lot of exhausting traveling for him, and a lot of single parenting for me. As the kids have grown older, in some ways it has gotten a lot easier when Ben is out of town. However, this time in particular, Josh really struggled. In fact, he began struggling the week before Ben even left. We had two parenting errors regarding this business trip for Ben. First, we thought it would be wise to "mentally prepare" Josh for Ben leaving by talking about it periodically starting a couple weeks before. Unfortunately, that led to Josh being extremely anxious every time Ben left in the morning for work, because he thought that it was Ben leaving for his trip. Error number two: I usually try to stay super busy while Ben is out of town, for my sanity and to help the time go faster. Well, for an already anxious Josh, this was just too much to handle...and he was so socially overwhelmed that he was throwing massive, screaming and crying tantrums every time I tried to leave the house. Thankfully, I finally put all the pieces together, dialed back our social calendar and had some quiet, routine days at home. Josh (and I) had a much better week 2 with Ben gone. However, many of his new anxious habits are continuing, even with Ben home and we're having to adjust old parenting techniques and learn many new ones in order to help Josh function within the chaos of our constantly changing and traveling international life. It has been the most humbling parenting experience I've had yet, and we still have a long way to go with many of his anxious behaviors. 

It was difficult to have Ben gone for days in a row, but I sure am thankful that this didn't happen six months ago, before we had a chance to meet a community of people to support us. Our community here in Monterrey is so wonderful and it was amazing to have their help while Ben was gone. Two of the weekend days we were able to swim at the consulate with friends. One Saturday afternoon we picked up my Northern Ireland friend, Cassie, and her kids for dinner and a movie night. My friend Megan, whose husband was also out of town on the first week, came over several nights for dinner and to help out. She played games with and read to the boys. We spent another weekend day out at the Leonards' on the Back2Back campus. Our Sunday alone was broken up with church service. I hosted a girls night one evening and a moms of minis Easter egg hunt one afternoon. We ate at our favorite restaurant, Frida's, twice. After school one day, we hosted one of the boy's friends from school, Nico, to play for the afternoon. I chaperoned a field trip for the boys' class to Planetario Alfa. The kids jumped on the new apartment trampoline almost every evening. We spent a Friday evening at a super fun birthday party at Josh's gymnastics studio. All of that was packed into those twelve days that Ben was out of town!

It's amazing to think of how full our lives are in Monterrey with such awesome families...all in the span of a year. We are so thankful.

Saying goodbye to Daddy is so hard!

Easter egg hunt at our apartment. I can't believe that it was a cloudy and cold day...rare for Monterrey March.

Most the kids in the group are around 2 years old, so my kids hid the eggs instead of searching for them.

That's a lot of moms and kids!

The boys with some of their classmates on the field trip. It was fun to see them interacting with classmates.

Consulate pool time with friend; the twins are doing some acrobatic thing with their buddy, Kyler.

My friend, Megan, playing Candy Land with Josh

The boys loved Megan reading to them: she had great voices for James and The Giant Peach

Joshy playing at the park with buddy, Harvey.

Girls night with friends from church (photo credit: Seth)

I was thankful for the twice weekly gymnastics class. Josh continues to do really well there.

The twins had SO been looking forward to the birthday party at the gymnastics studio, because they always have to sit and watch Josh at class, but never get to play on all the cool equipment. This is Seth playing on the trapeze swing. 

The Lord blessed up with the most beautiful sunset after Liza's birthday party.

Ben came home from Turkey with cool gifts for the kids. Josh got a dagger which he now brings everywhere with him...including the store and bedtime.

For the twins, he brought the most beautiful Turkish chess set. They loved it!

*More detailed posts of the happier parts of these five weeks (our vacations) to come! 

Jamie's Parents Visit Mexico

January 30 - February 5, my parents came to visit us, journeying on their first international trip. It makes me smile remembering having them here in our lives, sharing this culture and adventure with them. It truly was a special time. 

Unlike Ben's parents, who had a terrible travel day getting to us, things couldn't have gone smoother for my parents. They arrived at the airport around 4 in the afternoon to one of the clearest days we have ever seen in Monterrey. We were so excited and proud to drive them into the city with the view of mountains all around. It is a beautiful sight to behold. 

Day 1: 

Our first full day together, we started by taking a drive through the Huesteca mountains. We never tire of seeing and sharing the unique cliffs and untamed land that is only 15 minutes from our house. 

As you can see, it was a beautiful, clear and sunny day.

A great day for family pictures

 Me and my boys (it was TOO sunny for Josh's liking, thus the closed eyes)

Papa with the boys

Dad enjoyed checking out all the different types of foliage

We drove all the way down to the dam at the end of the road and the kids enjoyed some rock climbing.

Ben thinks these pictures with the graffiti are weird...I think that they are kind of cool!

 I love this one of Seth and Josh

After the Huesteca tour, we went out to lunch at our absolute favorite restaurant: Frida Chilaquiles. We cannot get enough of this place; not only is the food amazing, but the atmosphere cannot be beat! Mom and dad loved it. They especially liked the Cafe de Olla (a specialty Mexican coffee) and we spent the rest of the week ordering it wherever we went.

After lunch, we headed to Fundidora park, a must-see Monterrey attraction. 

 Josh enjoyed showing Papa and Titi the "dragon" (dinosaur). He loves it!

We walked through a bit of the park and then headed to the Santa Lucia river cruise.

The boys sure do love their papa.

 Not only is the river cruise unique, it also bring it's passengers to the historic Marco Plaza. 

Abstract photo credit: Josh

This the view with your back to the palace. It's pretty neat.

For the first time since moving to Monterrey, we actually explored one of the palaces.

It just happened to be free on Wednesdays, so we figured, why not? 

It was a pretty neat, old Spanish style building.

 Seth and Sam explored everywhere. 

We then took the river cruise back to Fundidora park for a few more quintessential photo ops.

You have to have one with the Saddleback mountain and foundry bucket

Such a great picture! 

Also in Fundidora park is the museum at Horno tres (in Spanish: the third oven). It has a super cool show with an interactive video with lights and a show of the foundry when it was actually in operation. The city of Monterrey used to be famous for it's foundries. 

I love the coloring and background in this picture.

Day 2:

The next day, Ben headed back to work and we had the twins go to school as well, so Josh and I went on an adventure with mom and dad to Santiago. I really wanted them to see a more traditional looking Mexican town. Also, on the way home we were able to stop at a market for souvenir shopping. Having mom and dad in Mexico gave me confidence in how far my Spanish language learning has come: it was fun to be able to read and order from menus, as well as talk with the shop workers. Dad and Mom were very complimentary of my language skills and helped me feel confident in my growth! 

 Great picture of the two of them! 

 Cool statue

 Joshy wearing my sunglasses, because again, it was a beautiful clear and sunny day! 

Day 3:

After two packed-full touristy days, we scaled it back on Friday and did some more "real life" things such as a visit to our gluten free bakery and the grocery store. We let the twins stay home from school and my mom spent a couple hours making Valentine's Day cards with them. Dad and I got in a good hill walk together...it's always fun to show off the mansions that are up the hill from us.

Blessed with another beautiful day! 

We were also blessed with a date night! Ben and I watched the Winston Churchill movie: "The Darkest Hour" and then went out to dinner at a steakhouse that was too extremely hip for us (loud music, etc.) It was nice to be out on the town together, though!

Day 4:

Saturday was another packed full day as we drove out to Bioparque. It was a great day, as the pictures will show!

Ready to feed the animals on the safari.

First visitor: an ostrich.

Who promptly stole Seth's food cup.

 Don't let Josh's smile fool you: there's no way he was getting close enough to an animal to feed it.

The camels were hilarious.

This particular camel was obsessed with Ben and had a staring contest with him.

He seriously wouldn't leave Ben alone. 

Such a great picture!

 

Next up: the zebras

We even saw a baby zebra!

How cool are zebras? What a creative Creator we have! 

This guy was HUNGRY and wouldn't leave us alone. 

 Now for the main show: the giraffes!

The giraffes never disappoint. 

 They are amazing and the safari truck spends a lot of time letting people pet and feed them to their heart's content.

Seth got some great "face time" with this giraffe.

 I love the wonder on Seth's face.

Dad and Mom look so happy. What a fun once-in-a-lifetime experience!

 I LOVE touching the giraffes!

 Ben must have smelled yummy that day, because Mr. Giraffe liked him too.

These pictures are hilarious to me.

 Not many Grandma's would hold a white python (I certainly wouldn't!)

The Lorakeet cage is always so neat. 

Dad was like a bird whisperer

This was Josh's first time with the birds.

 As one can see, he wasn't too sure about them. In fact, he was kind freaking out, but Ben talked him into calming down and staying in the cage. 

He warmed up to them in the end.

 I love the birds!

 These are a great series of pictures of Seth and Sam.

Seth just looks like he's having a blast!

Handsome Sam.

 Some new friends joined us at Bioparque as well. This is Aaron and Sonia Luster and their boys, Max and Oskar. They are a super nice family and live just down the street from us. We're very thankful for them! 

I was excited to introduce mom to a mango smoothie with a chili and tamarind straw.

All the kids did some zip lining at Bioparque and dad was able to catch a great picture of Josh!

Unlike our last visit to Bioparque, this time we toured a super cool cactus garden.

Family picture in front of an enormous cactus. 

Such a smile on Josh: he loves his brothers!

Great picture of mom and dad in front of some cool cactus!

The boys totally weren't tired of getting their pictures taken.

Anyone want a cactus screensaver?

On the way home from Bioparque, we stopped by the Back to Back campus to visit with the Leonard family. Then we ate Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and brought my parents to our favorite ice cream shop. Dad said it was the best vanilla ice cream he'd ever had! 

Day 5:

Sunday we were so excited to bring my parents to church with us! But first we stopped by the Sunday street fair. It's a great place to experience San Pedro (ritzy) Mexican culture.

Sampling food.

Checking out the booths

 Eating pibil tacos for breakfast just like the Mexicans.

This day was also filled with a tamale feed after church (when asked if they were tired of Mexican food yet, my parents just talked about how much they loved it!) Then that afternoon we hosted a little party for the Superbowl at our house. It's always fun for dad to get to watch the Superbowl with the boys!

Day 6: 

Our final day with mom and dad was cold and rainy. The boys didn't have school again, but we were all pretty tired out. We spent most the day at home, just playing games, exchanging pictures and enjoying time together. In the afternoon we still drove up to Chipinque. Unfortunately the mountains weren't visible because the fog was thick, but it's always fun to play on the cement slides. It's also a really cool cultural experience as whole families are always laughing and playing together. It's shows the fun and joy of this culture. 

And just like that, a week with my parents was over. It was such a fabulous week and I was so proud of the flexibility and resilience of my parents. They really did a great job of taking everything in this crazy city and culture in stride. I think that some more international travel might be in their future! At least we hope to have them return to Monterrey soon for more memory making!