New Year's Eve Cousin Party

We didn't get together with cousins in the area over Christmas, so we were glad everyone was available to come hang out on New Year's Eve! We ate pizza and lots of other yummy food and played games (mostly Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, Happy Salmon - another new favorite, and the Couch Game). The kids entertained themselves for a while, and Liza unintentionally ran a one-woman nail salon out of her room. 

I think Liza enjoyed doing nails for the first one or two people,
but then she felt like she was missing out on the fun downstairs.

The other parents (who all have younger kids) wanted to have an early-ish countdown so they could get little ones to bed. We started the process at about 9:30, and I made the mistake of handing out noisemakers too early. The noise was deafening. I figured there was nothing I could do about it, so we just endured it for a while. Then I remembered that Lindsey was gone running an errand and we didn't know when she would be back. So I finally raised my voice as loud as I could while trying not to scare the kids in the house who aren't used to hearing yelling (everyone but my own). I told everyone to put their noisemakers in their pockets, and we did the Macarena and the Cha Cha Slide while we waited for Lindsey to get back. THEN we had a fun countdown with plenty of noise, confetti streamers, and sparkling cider.

The older kids all had things they wanted to do with their friends for New Year's, and we mostly let them, once the cousins were on their way home. Liza had about an hour with her friend group from elementary school. She was glad to see her friends but sad that she was the only one leaving before midnight (we picked her up at 11:00 - 30 minutes past her usual curfew). Jack went to a huge multi-stake dance at the Pleasant Grove rec center and had a blast. We let him stay until midnight and picked him up right after we took the picture below. We also let Cat stay out past her normal curfew so she could ring in the new year with friends.

It wasn't that long ago that the kids were happy to eat popcorn and watch a movie on New Year's Eve. At 10:00 we could watch the ball drop in NYC then put them to bed. We're getting old. They're growing up fast.

December Miscellany

I think it's safe to say that Luke is the only kid at his school who
sometimes wears an FSU baseball cap.

Liza's science project

Luke hasn't wanted to sleep in his room since July.
One of the reasons he hasn't wanted to be there is that he didn't
like his room. So, I finally started trying to implement his suggestions.
The first one? He wanted to get rid of the bed. So, Eliza's former loft bed,
which got chopped down to this height in the early days of Covid, has been
sold to a new family. Luke's room now just has two mattresses stacked
on top of each other. And he actually slept there a few times!

Knowing Luke would be getting a Kindle for Christmas,
I took him to the library to get his own library card (for digital checkouts).

He was pretty excited about it.

The drawback of Luke sleeping in his room by himself was that he didn't
sleep as well. Inevitably, when I got up for the morning, no matter how early,
this is what I saw. And he would always tell me he'd been awake for at
least an hour. (This picture was taken at about 6am.)

Liza has resisted getting a haircut for quite a while but finally agreed
to go under the shears in December. Our good friend Chelsey did the honors.

I love this ornament Luke brought home from school!
It turns out, he didn't actually make the ornament - he
only posed for the picture. But he DID decorate the bag.

Luke helped his buddy Flash (the sloth) practice piano.

Jack really stepped up and studied for his exams before Winter Break.

And his hard work definitely paid off!

Cat and Ben took a minute for a pic with the sunset before heading
to Thanksgiving Point to see Christmas lights.

I insisted on some snow play one day after school, hoping

we could make a snowman in the front yard. Unfortunately, the

snow was too powdery to build a snowman, but it was great for

snow angels, and snow fighting, and burying people alive.

Cat pushes Liza down.

Liza gets revenge.

Luke and Liza buried Cat.
(You can just make out the edge of Cat's hood in front of Luke.)

Luke usually just wants to eat the fresh snow.

Liza and Cat also helped with snow removal and putting down salt.

Check out those icicles!
Also, do you see all the birds in my neighbor's trees?

This was Robert's answer to Cat's invitation to the Snowball dance.
Yes, he wrapped her bed in black Santa wrapping paper
and topped it with a wooden carousel horse big enough for Luke to ride.

Grant was with Robert when he was setting up his answer.
Unfortunately for him, Luke and Liza had time on their hands.
So, Grant got a new hairstyle, while getting tied up with tape.

Luke was excited to bring home his group's gingerbread
house from the class party.

Packing Tape Power

Too intense to smile.

I bought some travel toiletry containers and put
Luke's spray-gel in one. He helped me create a label
for it. The label says "alien saliva sample."

I'd been craving homemade cinnamon rolls for weeks so I was excited
to have a lazy day after Puerto Rico to spend all morning making yumminess.

Luke and his friend set up this battle and asked me to take a picture of it.
They did not want to be in the picture.

Puerto Rico Day 10 - Old San Juan and Traveling Home

Our last day in Puerto Rico, we checked out of our AirBNB condo and headed straight to Old San Juan. We thoroughly enjoyed this beautiful city! Our first stop was Castillo San Felipe del Morro ('El Morro'). This fort and it's counterpart, Castillo San Cristobal, both built by the Spanish in the 1500's, are located about a mile apart on the northern coast of the islet of San Juan. We'll have to go see Cristobal next time.

Rewind to a few days earlier, on the bus ride back to the parking area after our bio bay kayaking tour. A tour guide told us about all kinds of fun things to do around Puerto Rico, one of them being flying kites at El Morro, which sounded awesome.

We were the first customers at the kite lady's tent, and Cat picked out two awesome kites for the kids to share. We were flying kites for less than 20 minutes, but it was definitely the highlight of the day, and one of my favorite parts of the trip. It took a lot of convincing to get Jack to stop flying the kite so we could actually to into the fort, but making another family happy by giving them our kite eased his disappointment.

I expected the fort to resemble other Spanish forts we've seen in Florida and Georgia, and in some ways it did, but there was one significant difference: this one was enormous. Construction began in 1539 with the fort starting out as just a promontory with cannon.  Two hundred and fifty years (and five levels) later, the fort was complete. Considered a "masterpiece of military engineering" (according to the NPS brochure), the fort withstood many attacks over the years, staying under Spanish control almost continuously until the Spanish-American War, when Puerto Rico became a US territory. By 1898 the fortress was outdated.  It became a National Historic Site in 1949 and a World Heritage Site in 1983. (More history here.)

We had a great time just walking around and exploring some of the nooks and crannies of this cool building, and didn't even get to see the whole thing.

After that we literally just explored the city. We walked through El Convento, a convent that's been converted to a hotel; a beautiful Catholic cathedral called Catedral Basilica Menor de San Juan Bautista; and many Instagram-perfect streets. While the girls and I did a little souvenir shopping, Ben and the boys stumbled upon Parque de las Palomas (Pigeon Park), where they fed - you guessed it - pigeons.

We wandered around for a while, using a pin from Robert to find a restaurant he recommended. We finally gave up, settling instead for the closes pizza place. Turned out, it was Robert's restaurant. And it really was very good. We tried fugazzeta, an Argentinian-style pizza, which was awesome.

Then we hurried to the airport, arriving just in the nick of time, and finding out our flight was delayed. So, we had plenty of time to stock up on exotic chocolate flavors at the gift shop and play some more "Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza," which had been a family Christmas gift.

Final picture of the trip:
Cat insisting there was no need to carry a bag through the airport.

Bonus Scenic Pics:

From El Morro, you can look over this amazing cemetary and see
San Cristobal in the distance.

El Convento

Catedral Basilica Menor de San Juan Bautista

San Cristobal visible in the distance here as well.

 ¡Hasta luego, Puerto Rico!