After the Storm

The upside to two days of torrential downpours (in which we had no heat, no hot water and had rain running down the walls inside of the house) was this mornings azure blue sky, the powdered sugar covered mountains and the clean, clean air.  Add to this a frame of technicolor leaves still clinging to life on the trees and you have pure perfection.  It almost makes the rain worthwhile.  Almost.

The pool overflowed.  Into the the patio and the swing set and the back porch...

The view from our driveway (mountains peeking through) as we headed to school.

The drive to school.  I still can't believe that this beauty surrounds us on all sides.

No rain.  Clear and clean air.  Time for a walk with this happy pup!

I love my neighborhood!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

 Rain, Rain, Go away... Never come back again.

That is a valid rhyme, right?

I hate rain.  I don't like the word hate and don't allow it to be used in my house.  My girls don't like things but they don't hate.

But I hate rain.







This is what we looked like for the second day in a row.  Feet up, still in our comfy clothes, stuffed from the waffles I finally had the time to make for breakfast (schools were closed due to...wait for it...rain!  Rain???).  And we are all a bit over it.

We are even thinking that an arc may be in order if this doesn't let up any time soon.

Did I mention I hate rain?









And so does this one since she doesn't get her daily walk!

This is all we saw out of our windows for the second day in a row.  Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know, it's only the second day.  I know some of you have been dealing with rain and gloom for the past couple of weeks.  And I feel for you, I do.  You are the ones who wonder how I could be complaining about two measly days of rain.  Rain that has overflowed river banks, caused mud slides and closed an entire city (if not region of the country) of schools but only two days worth of dreary.  It sounds a lot like what happened to my hometown this Spring so why am I complaining about two measly days of rain?  Because I live in a third world country and, as much as my hometown is a bit small town and redneck (me included), it is still two worlds away from third world.  A torrential downpour like this her in Chile can cause buildings to collapse, electricity to be cut and people to be trapped in flood waters and die.  It also causes the entire school system, public and private, to be shut down. So we have to improvise and make the most of it.  Yesterday we jumped in puddles for the afternoon.  Today we switched it up and had a fashion show...at least MadHatter did.  Stinkerbell wanted nothing to do with it.

I brought out my jewelry box, a few pairs of my high heels and some of my clothes.  Things that she has been wanting to try on for the past year or so.  She keeps telling me she can't wait until she is big enough to wear my clothes.  I can.

She looked so grown up.  She looked so happy.  She loved posing.  She loved strutting (as best she could) in my way too big heels.  She love pretending she was me for the afternoon (her words).  And I loved every minute of watching her.

Maybe rainy days aren't so bad after all!

Puddle Jumpers

When this is your forecast for the day...

And your backyard starts to look like this...

You can do one of two things.  Mope around inside and complain about how the rainy season sucks and this is going to be life in Santiago for the next 3 months.  Or you can make the most of it. 

We chose to make the most of it (I did the moping and complaining part the first year we were here, got out of dodge the second...)

All dressed and ready for some action.  You can't really tell but it is POURING here.

We got right down to the nitty gritty of getting wet.  Soaking wet.  We jumped, ran and sloshed through all of the puddles we could find on our corner of the cul de sac.  I wasn't about to take my good camera out in the downpour so all I have are a few iphone snaps (which I kept almost dry by keeping it under the hood of my jacket).  I do love my iphone pics but the camera does have a fault - it doesn't have a fast enough shutter speed to keep moving objects in focus.   So, my pics are blurry but I still think you get the gist of how much fun we had.  The girls were soaking wet and freezing cold after about 20 minutes so we went inside, dunked ourselves under a stream of hot water and indulged in a warm treat.

Those are the best kind of rainy days.

 I think they had a bit of fun!

Mampato

Tuesday was Dia de las Glorias Navales (Navy Day) here in Chile.  I don't know all of the details, save what I have read here, but my kids can tell you all about it. And in song nonetheless   And they will sing that song numerous times a day.  Heck, make that numerous times an hour.  Let's just say that I know Arturo Prat figures heavily in this holiday because he is in each and every song and poem my kids recite over and over.  And over.  Again.

And I would like to thank Arturo for the fabulous time we had on Tuesday.  We had been putting off visiting Mampato for the past 2 years.  Not because we didn't want to go, but because from what we hear it is usually very crowded and the wait times rival Disney's.  Add that to the fact that Stinkerbell wasn't tall enough to ride most of the rides until about 6 months ago and you can see why we just kept the whole thing a secret from the kids until this week.

But now the cat is out of the bag.  And I don't think we are going to be able to get it back in again.  They were shocked to find out that there was a place that had rides.  Rides that they could ride alone.  Without an adult.  A park that had junk food and rides.  Did I mention it had rides?  And junk food?  All about 10 minutes from the house.  RIDES.

This was just as good as Disneyland to my girls.  Granted, they won't think that in a couple of years because the park is definitely geared towards kids under 9 (1.5 meters tall) but for now, they were in heaven.  And just listening to their giggles, seeing their smiles and hearing their screams of delight was enough to make me smile, giggle and scream in delight myself.

What great memories we made this Navy Day.  Thank you again Arturo Prat...

Not bad...They charge about $15 per child for the day and $8 for an adult.  And anyone older than 65 or with Downs Syndrome (and a friend) are free!

First things first.  Is she tall enough to ride most rides by herself...Yep, but just barely.

Monster trucks was our first stop!

Roller coaster!

Heading into the Haunted House...

Heading out of the Haunted House...

Bumper Cars!

We all caught a fish!

Time for a junk food snack!

Elephants and...

Balloons, oh my!

And the tower was our last ride of the day.  MadHatter was so excited she rode it with me...

and with B!

And Stinkerbell just said nope, and covered her ears against the noise of it all. 

Until next time Mampato!  Until next time...