I have dreamed for years about bringing my Peruvian family to the U.S. - to give them a once-in-a-lifetime experience of seeing the popular locations that they know from entertainment, to spend time with them in my home, and most especially to get to cook for and serve Laura as she has cared for me and my family over the years. A way to thank her for all the times I have visited Peru, and she has made my favorite foods, taken us to fun places and spent time together.
Patrick and I had mentioned to them a few years ago that we were setting aside the funds to bring them "someday" whenever we could coordinate schedules. This has always been hard since their school vacations are during our winter and busy holiday season. But in May, Estefani sent me a note, asking if we could try to coordinate a trip. It took a few weeks of working schedules, and Pamela had to miss the first week of college classes, but we arranged for them to come here to NJ during the last 2 weeks we had before school started for our kids.
We then made lists of all the things we would love to do with them and culled that list with the reality of Patrick's vacation time and the logistics of getting 10 people (including 4 kids) to all the different sites. We hit a few bumps in the plans as we went along, but overall we were able to show them the highlights of the Northeast and give them time to relax and have a vacation. Laura's mom, Mama Rosa, had died earlier in the year; so she and the family needed some time away.
We picked up our friends from the airport and came home to celebrate Austin's birthday with dinner and that blue carrot cake.
Colleen being silly with the finger puppets the Peruvians brought her.
Another memorable moment of the evening - Amelia was eating a hot dog when her tooth fell out! She had mentioned that it was loose that morning, so we assumed we had quite a few days before it would come out. But we were wrong.
This is Alessandro, Estefani & Luciano's 11 month old son. This was his first trip anywhere, and he was super-flexible during his entire stay. The only funny thing was that he would basically only fall asleep in a stroller, so they would bring his stroller inside and push him up and down our hallway.
Laura woke up a bit earlier than the others on their first day with us, so we took her for a walk around our neighborhood. The local fire trucks were out of the firehouse and she was so excited to get a photo with Amelia with them.
Since Patrick headed into work on Thursday, we all walked down to a local park to picnic. I knew our friends would love the "greenness" of it all since park spaces like this do not exist in Lima.
Laura, Estefani, Luciano & Alessandro with Amelia
When we picked them up from the airport, Estefani gave me the news that she was 5 months pregnant with their second child, a daughter. Such a great surprise!
Throwing rocks in the river
Luciano showed Austin a lot of attention - playing soccer, sword fighting with sticks & thumb-fighting often.
This girl. We were busily setting the table and preparing dinner when she pushed her chair over to the fridge and had filled her cup up with water, overflowing all over herself and floor. I realized what she was doing as I heard the water just splashing onto the floor. Now we have to engage the child lock on the fridge water, but I believe it will only be a few weeks before she figures it out.
On Friday morning, we headed to Baltimore to visit the National Aquarium there. We had packed a picnic, thinking we would eat it on the way. But we ended up being separated on the interstate and passed all the picnic points. So we just ate it in the marina area right outside of a Coast Guard vessel. Then we spent the afternoon at the aquarium. Fun was had by all except Colleen. She needed a nap, but fought it all afternoon, even in the carrier (no strollers allowed). She zonked out literally right after we had exited the aquarium and were headed to dinner.
We drove that night to Washington DC with plans to spend Saturday & Sunday in DC. If you could have heard the squeals when we pulled into the Marriott hotel. Our friends thought they had walked into an American movie (hotels are very different in Peru). We started off Saturday morning with a walking tour of DC at the Lincoln Memorial.
Colleen had gotten Daddy's phone in the hotel and made silly faces.
Uncle Nathan was spending the weekend in DC for work and he came along for the day. I don't know what we would have done without him. We had expected the kids to struggle with how much of Mom's attention was on another family and that they couldn't understand what was being said over half of the time. They definitely acted out all day, but Uncle Nathan was such a blessing. They argued for his attention, and Austin pretty much survived the day by being Nathan's sidekick.
Martin Luther King Jr Memorial
D.C. War Memorial
World War II Memorial
Colleen had so much fun being silly with Uncle Nathan.
We picnicked in the shade by the World War II Memorial. Our friends really struggled with the heat the entire time they were here.
We walked by the White House.
We spent the afternoon in the Museum of Natural History. Colleen again needed a nap, but fought it. So Uncle Nathan took Austin exploring, Daddy managed Colleen, and Mom and Amelia took the Peruvians around.
We ended our walking tour at the fountain in the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art.
Holding a sleeping toddler. True love.
On Sunday morning, Colleen was in full form, charming everyone she met. She was a ham at breakfast, having her first taste of "rainbow cheerios".
Everyone loved riding the Metro into the city.
We spent the morning at the Air & Space Museum. We got the Peruvians the headsets with an audio tour in Spanish, so we pretty much divided up and let everyone tackle the museum at their own pace.
Picnic lunch outside of the museum before heading home.
Monday was scheduled as a "relax" day at home while Patrick went into work. The kids spent the morning playing outside, even though the heat was steadily increasing this week. When I had asked Amelia a few weeks prior what she wanted to do for Austin for his birthday, she insisted that she wanted to make him a paint pendulum like hers. So Daddy and she found a water bottle, drilled some holes and made him one. This morning was the first opportunity we had to use it, so they went outside and enjoyed some water play.
After lunch we headed to the pool. Laura loved taking photos of Austin's cannonballs into the pool.
Colleen loved trying to "help" give Alessandro his bottles.
On Tuesday, we had originally planned on everyone going into NYC. But Patrick preferred to stay home with the kids and have a "Daddy day". So he took them to the local splash pad while the rest of us drove to Liberty State Park and took a ferry into NYC.
We headed first to the World Trade Center Memorial.
Some interesting painted walls on our way to St. Paul's Cathedral.
I was disappointed that St. Paul's Cathedral has now removed all of the memorials around the church to a side room. But we did get to see them re-installing the original chandeliers to the building. They had been undergoing restoration for a few years.
We took a taxi to the Empire State Building and went up to the top.
At this point the heat was become too much for our friends. We walked to the Grand Central Terminal to eat our lunch and trekked up to Times Square. But they decided that they'd rather come home than try to complete their list of tourist attractions. So we returned home before commute traffic and enjoyed a family dinner.
Wednesday was another relaxing day. Austin actually stayed at the house to play with Laura while I took the girls out on some errands. We pulled out the water table for more fun in the morning. Laura & Pamela went with us to the grocery store to buy food for the Lomo Saltado that Patrick had requested. Then we got into the pool again after rest time.
On Thursday, I took everyone to the Statue of Liberty. A friend watched Colleen for the day so we could fit 8 of us in the minivan (Patrick had to go to work), and have a bit more flexibility. She sent me photos of the fun Colleen had with Adelaide and Scarlett.
We drove to Liberty State Park to catch the ferry to Ellis Island. Amelia preferred to stay down below in the ferry while Austin, Luciano & I went to the top deck.
The tour of Ellis Island comes with an audio tour in multiple languages; they also have a 'kid tour'. So we all strapped on our audio guides and spent the morning on the tour. Amelia & Austin LOVED the audio tour. I was surprised how they wanted to listen to all the extra bits of information that you could have. They would have stayed and done the two additional audio tours if we had time.
Then we took the ferry over to the Statue itself and entered into the museum & statue pedestal. Everyone insisted that Estefani could not do any stairs because of her pregnancy, so Estefani, Luciano & Pamela went up the elevator to the top of the pedestal and waited for us there. Laura, the kids & I went through the museum and then ascended the stairs to the top of the pedestal.
We made it to the top! (And earned the ice cream we bought for everyone later.)
Pamela felt the need to keep Austin's head up when he fell asleep on the ride home.
Friday was another home-day for us. We played outside more in the morning. Then in the afternoon, I had one of the most unique experiences I'll ever have translating. Luciano is an engineer, but his family business is a funeral home in Lima. He had asked if it would be possible to tour an American funeral home. He had done extensive research on the funeral home business, embalming, cremation, etc. here; things are done very differently in Peru, using very antiquated methods. I called a few places, and one place returned my call, offering to give Luciano & Estefani a tour, with my translating. We spent an hour going throughout the funeral home, including all of the behind-the-scenes rooms, getting answers to all of Luciano's questions. I don't think I'll ever have a more interesting translating experience. (I spent some time that morning looking up all kinds of words that I didn't know previously.) The funeral home director was incredibly kind, giving Luciano information on all kinds of technology and vendors that he can contact to modernize his family business. Let's just say while Luciano took many, many photos, I am content at leaving a written record of the visit.
In the evening, we headed to the Cheesecake Factory for a special dinner. We had to wait a bit in the mall, so we headed to the Lego Store & Disney Store to pass time.
For their last day with us on Saturday, we headed to the shore. We spent the morning and early afternoon relaxing in the sand. It had finally cooled down, so it was too cool for the kids to get in the ocean, but perfect for playing in the sand.
Austin loved watching a nearby volleyball game. Amelia and Austin took turns playing frisbee and catch with Dad.
Colleen and I spent a lot of time hunting for little pebbles and shells.
We took a walk around the lighthouse at Sandy Hook.
No comments:
Post a Comment