A sunny day in Mendoza

Jeff's school had a mate class this afternoon, which I walked over for, enjoying seeing and feeling the sun for the first time in a week. We learned some very interesting things about this tea and how to drink it, which you can read more about on my Year of Firsts blog.

When Jeff and I got back to the house, the kids were ready to go out and enjoy the sunshine as well, so we headed to the park. Ruth and Weston went for a run and worked on some other strength exercises while the little boys played in their special grove of trees and Jeff and I sat on a low tree branch visiting. It was a gorgeous day, and I'm so glad we got to get out and enjoy it!

Later, we all agreed that we had a craving for sushi, so we headed over to Sushi Club, which is just a short walk from our house and which had good reviews online. It was wonderful and really hit the spot. We just love Mendoza and are so thankful for the time we have to spend here!

Mate

We saw the trash truck on our way home from the school.

Happy boys in their happy place!

Getting our sushi fix at Sushi Club

I'm not saying this happened tonight, but it might have. 😉

Easter Island

We boarded a plane in Santiago, Chile at 5:30 in the morning on Thursday bound for Easter Island, after traveling all day and night the previous day. Jeff had upgraded us to first class, so we could stretch out and get some sleep, and it was a brilliant move on his part. We arrived well-rested and ready to begin a new adventure. That first day, our priorities were showering and finding a place to do laundry, and we had moderate success with both. The shower was cold but got us clean, and we were told that the only laundry facility on the island had "blown up" last week. However, our landlord's mother offered to do our laundry, so we were not completely out of luck. After those important tasks were taken care of and our national park tickets and groceries were purchased, we found a place to have lunch and then visited an awesome playground overlooking the ocean. The kids played there happily while Jeff and I wandered down the path to see our first moai statues, which was just amazing. We have both always wanted to visit Easter Island (also known as Rapa Nui), and we couldn't believe we were actually here! We all reconvened just as the sky opened up and started spilling its contents, and we headed back to our cozy little cabin.

The next day, we set out to explore the tiny island, which has a total area of only 63 square miles and contains three volcanos but only one town. The drive along the coast is absolutely stunning, and we had so much fun stopping to look at all the moai, especially the large group of 15 that stands on the coast and the ones scattered along the slopes of the Rano Rarraku volcano, which is believed to be the birthplace of all 887 statues on the island. We also visited another volcano, Rano Kau, which houses a mysterious village and has amazing views of the Pacific. It also has an amazing crater, which is now filled with a freshwater lagoon that acts like a greenhouse for many different types of plants. There is one spot from which you can view all these things at roughly the same time, and we believe it may be one of our favorite places on Planet Earth. Later in the evening, we had dinner at Pea, which sits right on the water.

On Saturday, we set out for another day of exploring, revisiting a few places and hitting some of the sites we had skipped during the rain storm that moved through the day before. We kept being astounding that we were actually here! It is such an amazing place and has been on our bucket list forever. We ended the day with an amazing dinner at Te Moana.

Today was our last day on the island, but we had time to visit the museum and Rano Kau again before our afternoon flight. We are so thankful we had the opportunity to visit this magical place!

Moai

Rano Kau
Clockwise from left top: Crater, Orango Village,
View of the Pacific, Rock carving

Amazing Rapa Nui

Fun for the whole family
(Notes: Top left--We never check bags, so it was special for
Clay to pick up his bag in the baggage claim. Bottom right--
Ruth wanted to say she had driven on Easter Island, so she
had the opportunity to learn to drive a stick shift.)

Arranged by size

Some of the moai scattered on the slopes of Rano Raraku

One of our favorite places on Planet Earth

Where one season ends and another begins

Today was Ruth's last cross country meet of the season and her first horse show. She had very little time between the two events and literally had to change clothes in the car. She pulled off the transition flawlessly! We are so proud of all her hard work during the cross country season and for the ways she has improved and the friends she's made. The riding season got off to a great start, and we look forward to all it holds.

A strong finish to the cross country season

Ruth and Charming in the Walk/Trot class

Ruth and Blue in the Walk/Trot/Canter class

2nd in W/T and 4th in W/T/C

Calgary Stampede

We left Banff very early yesterday morning and headed to Calgary for the last day of their yearly world famous Stampede. We had to get there early enough for a free pancake breakfast, which is apparently a big part of the event. Just about every church and civic organization in the city offers a free pancake breakfast at some point during the Stampede. We warned our kids to only take a polite amount of food, which meant that we ended up taking them out for "second breakfast" afterwards. We finally made it over to the fair grounds in the middle of the morning and the fun commenced. We enjoyed the livestock barns and activities, and then made our way to the indoor arena for the light horse events, including the mini chuck wagon races, which was hilarious and adorable and easily our favorite event of the morning. The rodeo started at 1:00 and was held in the outdoor arena. We stayed for the whole thing, through rain and hail and a sharp decrease in temperature. We were never so thankful for our thrifty ways, which put us way up in the cheap seats, UNDER AN OVERHANG. We stayed dry and happy, while people who paid a premium for better views scrambled for cover. Jeff and I had taken Ruth and Weston to a small rodeo when they were very little, but none of us had ever been to a big pro rodeo, and it was lots of fun to see the best of the best compete for C$100,000 payouts. Later, we watched the heavyweight class of the heavy horse pull, which was just amazing. The winning team, which consisted of a Belgian and a Percheron and their handlers, pulled a load weighing 12,500 pounds 14 feet. Finally, we made our way back over to the outdoor arena for the full-size chuck wagon races. This was a sport we were not previously acquainted with, but it quickly became our favorite. It was rodeo meets horse racing, and it was fascinating. After consuming all manner of fair junk food and after a full 12 hours at the Stampede, we headed toward the Canadian/American border, which we crossed early this morning, after a short night's rest. We are so thankful we got to experience so much of Canada's beauty and that our time in Canada ended with something as spectacular as the Stampede.

Pancake breakfast

Miniture chuck wagon racing

Making friends in
Draft Horse Town

You know a cowboy needs a rope...

Everyone loves a mini horse

Indian Village

Calf roping

Bareback riding

Barrel racing

Saddle bronc riding

Time to bring in the bullfighters

Heavyweight heavy horse pull

Ready for the chuck wagon races

The Budweiser Clydesdales

Chuck wagon race is underway

Playing cowboy

Making my mom proud
with a bowl of chocolate
chip cookie dough!

More fun in South Dakota

There is so much to see and do in South Dakota, and it is so beautiful, despite being near freezing  (literally) in the middle of May. This morning, we got to explore Jewel Cave, which was quite a treat. In the afternoon, we visited the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary, which was lovely and made one member of our group especially happy. After that, we headed back to Mt. Rushmore hoping for better visibility than what we had yesterday, and we got it. Apparently we got very lucky, because we heard that there was absolutely no visibility this morning and that some people waited for around four hours and still didn't even catch a glimpse of the stone-faced presidents. By the time we were finished up there, we were all starving, so we headed into Keystone to grab an early dinner at The Powder House Restaurant. Every single thing was so delicious! On the way through the little town, we found out one of the hotels had an indoor heated pool and a hot tub, and since we had not yet planned a stop for the night, our cold bodies yelled, "Do it!" So, that's how we found ourselves frolicking in a pool until almost 10 pm and bedding down in hotel beds at the Mt Rushmore White House Resort (which sounds much fancier than it actually is).

Eager to go into the cave
(Partly because, at 49 degrees, it was warmer than outside)

Jewel Cave

This formation is called "bacon,"
and this particular one is over 20 ft. long

Being a stalagmite

Why do we explore

Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary

The newest member of the herd, at only three days old.

The Sanctuary is absolutely beautiful!

Most of the horses were too skittish to get close,
but a few of them were curious and brave.

Mt.  Rushmore. Check.

Just chilling with some famous presidents

Weston was so hungry, he ordered a whole cow for dinner!

Breakfast in Arkansas, Dinner in Missouri

We got a nice early start leaving OK this morning and drove through the rain for a couple of hours until we got to Granny's Kitchen in Huntsville, AR, where we stopped for a delicious breakfast. The menu offered traditional homemade Southern favorites and a few surprises, like biscuits covered in chocolate gravy, which we had to try. The dish was essentially homemade biscuits topped with homemade chocolate pie filling, and, while it was tasty, it was a bit too rich and sweet for most of our group.

Granny's Kitchen

After breakfast, we drove through the rain for another hour and a half to our destination: Branson, MO. We arrived at our campground early, but they had our spot ready and allowed us to go ahead and check in. We were all desperate for a shower, since we had missed the last couple of rounds, due to unusual travel circumstances, and we all felt more alive and ready to explore when that little bit of business was taken care of. Plus, we were really ready to stretch our legs, and the rain had stopped, so we set off on foot to see what the town of Branson had to offer. I can tell you, it has plenty to offer, and each attraction is a little more wacky than the last. Our wanderings brought us through the kitschy town and dumped us out at Lakeside Forest Wilderness Area, where we got to experience a beautiful hike. It was my favorite part of the day! Our eventual goal was to make it over to the Dixie Stampede dinner show. Everything, from visiting the stables, to the bluegrass band pre-show, to the amazing horse riding, to the dorky humor, to the efficient food service, was so much fun! We loved every minute! Afterwards, we walked the two miles back to our campground and settled in for some playground time and a mean game of Skip Bo before bed.

Kitschy Branson

Lakeside Forest Wilderness Area

The Dixie Stampede

Skip Bo