Villarica & Pucon

We spent our first weekend in Chile in Villarica and Pucon. The drive to Villarica was gorgeous. The countryside was beautiful, and the volcanoes were amazing.

We saw this beautiful flower all over Chile.

We stayed at this lovely bed & breakfast in Villarica.

They had great food. I had the biggest piece of fresh Salmon; it was so good.

We walked down to the water in Villarica. The volcano looked amazing.

Mapuche are the indigenous people of Chile.

We had dinner at Pablo Restaurant. We also felt our very first earthquake there. The entire restaurant was swaying. It was crazy.

Annika, Aaron, Ken, & Susie
We went on a canopy adventure together.

We got to zip through the forest and over rivers.

We had such a great time!

Dinner at an Italian restaurant in Pucon.

Waterfall #1

Beautiful flowers were in bloom everywhere.

We had a great time hiking around this waterfall.

We love high benches!

Susie took a little fall on our hike. Oops!

Susie & Annika

Waterfall #2

This waterfall was so powerful. We were soaking wet in about 2 minutes.

Waterfalls #3

These were my favorite waterfalls. We had a great time exploring and hiking around.

Aaron wanted to jump in and swim so bad.

This is the waterfall from the other side feeding into the same pool.

Cool tree.

Our hotel in Pucon.

These are some of the shops in Pucon.

These flowers are made out of wood. They are amazing.

View of Villarica.

Welcome to Osorno, Chile

After customs twice, an evening in Mexico City, a tight connection in Santiago, and 26 hours, we finally made it to Osorno, Chile. It felt so good to be done with airplanes, and it was summer in Chile. Blue skies and beautiful weather for 2 weeks, we had such a great visit.

Our plane that we arrived on.

The weary travelers.

So happy to see Ken & Susie again!

Trip to Chile

Sigh! I finally got our trip to Chile posted on our blog. We have so many great pictures; I had to be picky. You can always see more pictures in the photo albums on my Facebook page.

There are 10 posts about Chile. So, have fun looking at the pictures! If you would like a full tour, Aaron and I would be happy to give you the long, slide show version anytime. Enjoy!

Layover in Mexico City

On December 30, 2010, Aaron and I got to take the trip of a lifetime down to Osorno, Chile to visit Aaron's parents. It's about time that I post some of the pictures from our incredible trip. If you would like to see them all, just check out my photos on Facebook.

On our way down to Chile, we had a very long layover in Mexico City. So, we rented a locker for our stuff and headed to city central for dinner and a little sight seeing. We decided to take the Subway, and it was an experience. We were the only white people on the subway both trips. We had several people help us along the way so that we didn't miss our stops or connections. We are so grateful that we both speak Spanish; it makes traveling in Latin America so much easier.

Cathedral in Mexico City

Street vendors

The city was decorated with lights for the holidays.

Aaron

We decided to run the last mile back to the airport instead of waiting for a bus. The traffic was intense. They drive so crazy in Latin America.

The blur is Annika running down the streets of Mexico City.

We rushed back to the airport to find out that our flight had been delayed another 6 hours. The airport had a great little museum. We spent some time looking at the art, we had a snack with our vouchers from the airlines, and we attempted to sleep on the airport floor while we waited for our 2 a.m. flight. It was a long day!

Emmy's 6th Birthday

Emlyn had her 6th birthday back in December. She wanted to have a princess party. She started planning her birthday party back in June; she is always very prepared for special events.

Daddy bought Emmy this very special princess balloon bouquet. The giant princess is still afloat in Emmy's room 6 weeks later.

It's hard to believe that Emmy is 6! She has accomplished many great things this last year. She started Kindergarten this past fall. She had a rocky start; she told me often that she wanted to go back to preschool. She loves her teacher, has made a lot of new friends, and enjoys reading books on her own. It has been so exciting to be a small part in helping her learn how to read. Emlyn was diagnose with Celiac disease in July. This has been a life changing event for Emmy and our family. We are so proud of Emmy and how well she has accepted her new gluten free diet. She watches out for herself making sure everything she puts in her mouth is gluten free. She is so much healthier now, and we feel very lucky that we figured this out at the age of 5 and not 15.

Princess castle cake was a great success. Gluten free of course!

Look at all of those Pretty, Pretty Princesses!