Virginia is Lovely in July

The beginning months of 2015 brought with it the dreaded news that my mom's cancer had returned. Along with this news came the seemingly insane treatment that goes along with it, a stem cell transplant in conjunction with chemotherapy, a radical procedure that takes a toll on your body. The upside is that when cancer returns like this, it is a better shot at beating it for good - and that is the ultimate goal.

I'll start with the transplant process, which takes 30 days from start to finish when you can resume to normal activity. During those 30 days you are under strict observation, generally going to the hospital daily. In addition, there are a zillion safety requirements that are designed to reduce or eliminate the exposure to germs. No restaurants, no leftovers, no fresh foods, special water, my parents had to stay in a hotel to be closer to the hospital, and the list goes on. My mom was a rockstar and considering he was the main caretaker and kept her in good health, my dad was pretty incredible too. I came to Virginia for this trip around day 25, with plans to have Gran and Poppa take my kids to Lexington so that I could care for my mom. Little did I know that she would be doing as well as she was! Instead of making broth and nursing a patient, I was there to take my mom to do all of the things she had missed out on. 

We started with reuniting with her horse, Casey:

Then we celebrated with her first restaurant meal post-treatment:

And then we spent a lovely week in Whitestone, enjoying the weather and the water and really just enjoying being with family. An added surprise was that my mom was doing well enough to see the kids for a few days! This was an extra special treat for us since we didn't expect that she would be able to see the kids this soon after the transplant.

Gretchen had a blast feeding the fishpond fish with Papa Mas, and she tried fishing - though patience and quiet aren't her strong suit.

We enjoyed our usual game of throwing snails in the water. This is a favorite year after year.

The kids had a blast, I had a wonderful time reconnecting with my parents, seeing my brothers and spending a few days of true vacation with my children. Thank you so much Gran and Poppa (along with Daddy) for keeping the kids for close to two weeks while I spent that quality time with my parents. It was an unbelievable relief to know they the kiddos were well cared for while I was able to take time with my family. I am forever grateful.

The underlying reason for this extended trip was scary and hard to process, but it resulted in a healthy mom and a wonderful visit.

Robinson Reunion in Lexington

Gran and Poppa have retired to a lovely piece of property in Lexington, Virginia. We love going there, our kids feel right at home and the summer weather is much more tolerable than we get here in Texas - so naturally we wanted to share it with lots of our friends. From high school. With their families. It was a large group of chaos and fun.

 Poppa was a big hit with the "big" kids, tractor rides for all! 

I went to Robinson High School for 2 months of 8th grade and all of my 9th grade year (thank you ExxonMobil relocations....) but Jon was there for all of his middle school and high school years - and the friendships he started in those awkward high school days have become some of the closest, long term friends that we have. I am lucky enough to have had a year together with the same people, and even more fortunate that I could fall back in step with this crew so many years later. We are also lucky enough to have added spouses and quite a few children to the mix, each addition making the clan bigger and better. This, however, was the first time since Jon and I had children that we were able to all convene in one place. The only local-to-Virginia family missing was about to have their own baby... so naturally we'll have to do it again! 

There is a great hike down to the river straight from the back yard. We were an ambitious crew to take all of the kids, it's a pretty intense hill on the way back. Most did great, there were a couple of falls, we only did it once...

Matt and his mini-me hiking along

Gretchen and Anna are less than a year apart and you would have thought them kindred souls. Granted, they are at this fantastic age where you can become someone's bestest friend in the whole world on your first meeting, but I believe that they will start up again the same way whenever we get to see each other next. They're both silly, energetic, loving and willing to get dirty. Also, totally comfortable with their own style.

Due to the rarity of our get-togethers, every adult was attempting to take approximately 1,000 pictures. Maybe some kids are into that. Most are not. Natalie is DEFINITELY in the don't-take-my-picture-you-can't-make-me-smile category. This was my most proud parenting win of the weekend. Through pure trickery, we went from leaning away from the big kids....

To kind of enjoying participating in the game....

To a true blue smiling photo. Here are all of our "big kids", at this stage big is anyone over 3 years old.

Adam was rocking on the tambourine

And then there are the "little kids". These sweet boys, so calm, so easy, so little! I think Alex is the oldest at 1 year 10 months in this picture.

Then the grand finale of photographs, trying to get the entire children brigade. This was not easy. So much so that there are no pictures after we took this one, everyone was burnt out. I love their little personalities showing through. Gretchen and Anna in front, Gretchen being a little silly. Natalie reading. William and Hudson in charge of babies, Luke is completely chill and Hatcher is ready to crawl away. Alex just wants his toy back, he's also eating something out of his right hand. Adam is giving the, "I'm in the picture, but I'm not gonna sit on this chair" mischievous face. I love it. What a joy to have so many friends under one roof. How amazing to have a second generation of little people to carry on the friendships. Huge shout out to Gran and Poppa for comfortably hosting this massive crew! No matter how hard it was to capture, I'm so thankful that we have documentation of this incredible weekend together. Let's do it again as soon as possible!!

Stateside Fourth of July Turkey Fry

We capital-L Love visits from Uncle Ted and Aunt Kyra and we were so excited to hear that they wanted to come and visit us in (gasp!) July, we wanted to be sure and show them a good time. To start with, we wanted to continue the tradition of frying a turkey on the Fourth of July. Admittedly, this tradition made more sense when July was in the middle of winter in Argentina, but it's too fun not to continue. Even though it's triple-digit hot in July. Lucky for us, the Newhooks were just as willing to keep the tradition going. They loaded up their car with 2 kids, a full turkey fryer and accompanying items, band instruments for a late-night jam session and drove the hour up to our house for the night. Have I mentioned how much we enjoy the company of these friends??

There are a couple of things you can count on in Houston, in July. 1) It will be hot. 2) It will be humid. The thing that you cannot depend on is the weather, it is completely erratic. 

So a day that starts out like this:

Can turn into this - in the blink of an eye. 

But don't worry, it returns to a bright, sunny, hot day before you can say "Fourth of July Turkey Fry"

Seriously, we were in the pool enjoying a lovely day, the traditional July turkey was nicely frying in the corner when the weather turned and a complete downpour with accompanying lightening and thunder stopped everything for 45 minutes. Thankfully, Ted was willing to risk life and limb by holding the largest umbrella ever known over the fryer to keep the turkey going and avoid a fire-filled disaster. We thank him for saving our home, and our turkey.

We were all smiles throughout the day. It was great to have members of our family, our long-time friends and our new neighbors all in one place. The day was made even better with take out food from Corkscrew, hands down the best brisket and pulled pork that I have ever had. 

Alex enjoyed some personal attention from Aunt Kyra

The littles kept themselves busy with bubbles

There were enough adults to go around, but Aunt Kyra was the preferred choice for bedtime stories

The night ended with a jam session, which is always a highlight for us. Jon was rockin' it out on the box drum, a great addition to the band.

The rest of the weekend was a real treat for us and the kids. Aunts and uncles make the best kind of visitors! Uncle Ted spent time being hilarious with Alex, I mean, who wouldn't crack up at Mr. Potato Head's glasses on little Nemo?!

And the monotony of the same game over and over again didn't seem to touch our visitors. The bean bag pick up game was Alex's favorite for the weekend. I love how little he looks in this picture. The bean bag totally envelopes him, such a little peanut.

The patience of someone who lays to let ALL of the matching game cards be placed on them, only to then hilarious stand up and let them all fall to the ground, that is something that only an uncle has. I hope I'm not blowing his cover, but Uncle Ted is patient, fun, hilarious and a favorite among this nice and nephew. Thank you, Ted and Kyra for visiting, and we are now counting the days until your next trip to Houston. 

Father's Day Fun

Father's Day in Texas has meant a pool party with friends and food and late night fun for the parents. We have been lucky with good weather for two years in a row, and this year we hit the jackpot by having our wonderful friends, the Kemps in town to share the weekend with us.

This year the pool has been so much more fun, and so much less intimidating than last year with the kids. Gretchen and Alex are so much more comfortable in the pool, and I am much more confident, especially now that Gretchen is officially swimming on her own. We did a full session of crash course swim lessons at The Woodlands Infant Aquatics and they took her from swimming confidently with floaties to being completely self sufficient in the water in a matter of 6 weeks. Impressive.

And little Alex is having so much more fun in the water. He's not quite the aqua baby that Gretchen was at this age, but I think he'll quickly get up to speed now that the weather requires us to be in the pool pretty much daily. 

Speaking of water babies, we are always thrilled to have these two beautiful ladies (and their parents) join us, especially when the pool is involved. They are complete mermaids.

Gretchen and Talia are still attached at the hip whenever they're together

The day was to celebrate Dad. Our favorite poolmate, the one who slides with us, the best putter-to-bedder, the one who always knows how to put on a show or get the TV to work, and who lets Mommy sleep in even when he wakes up earlier than everyone else any other day of the week. Happy Father's Day Jon, you're an example of Fatherhood at its finest.

The Man of the day with his little buddy

The true test of Dadhood is making down the slide with your little one with both of you still smiling at the bottom.

Mission Accomplished!

Gretchen was as happy as we were to have baby William to meet for the first time. She played the part of the doting big sister and was completely enamored with her new little buddy.

Whether baby William was on board with all of this attention has yet to be seen. 

Our lovely friends, we are so glad to have met your son and we thoroughly enjoyed our time together. If only it could happen more often! We miss you and would love to have you back as often as possible!

Life After Argentina

We have lived in Texas for a year.

It does, in fact, feel like we have been here a year. Don't get me wrong, we really like it here, but in many ways the creative juices in our lives (and my brain, hence the lack of blog topics) has dried up. Living in Texas is really easy, getting around is pretty straightforward and most of the time, people are predictable, reliable and prompt. It's very easy to get used to, and also, kind of boring.

Not that life itself is boring, we have a whole lot to keep us busy. To start with, two little munchkins that are constantly on the move, constantly doing silly things like this:

and this:

We live in a fantastic neighborhood with lots of kids and fun adults to relate to. We have gotten to reconnect with family and friends that we haven't seen in years. We own a beautiful home, with a yard, and a pool that is clean, safe and accessible without an elevator, portero, or multi-lane city street to cross.We have lots of hobbies and interests and we are still learning about our 'new' town, exploring new places and figuring out where we fit into things. 

Still, I can't help but feel like a little bit of pizzazz has been stripped from our lives. Things that used to make me crazy, not being fluent in Spanish, living in a big (dirty, noisy, flooded) city, the unpredictable lifestyle (traffic, store hours, virtually all scheduled times, bus system, airport) I now think on with fond "remember when" tone. 

The strange thing is that there is an abundance of Latin culture here in Houston. A HUGE amount. Gretchen is at a bilingual preschool. Three of our four yard-touching neighbors are Mexican. Almost every written sign is in both languages. The majority of my friends are bilingual. And somehow, that makes it almost more difficult to stay connected to the things that we learned while we were abroad. 

So, instead of figuring out which restaurants will open before 8:30pm we are beating the "night rush" by eating at 5:30pm. Instead of walking to wherever we want to go, we get into our air conditioned cars and drive. Instead of wondering if we have enough cash, or more precisely, if we have small enough bills, we charge or write a check or use an app to pay for whatever we're buying. It sound alluring, right? All of the conveniences of home, without any of the story of living in Argentina.

I guess this is all to say that I miss it. We miss it. And we don't. It was hard, complicated and frustrating. It was also fun, challenging and incredible. 

I'm beginning to wonder if this is what repatriation is all about.