Boricua en la Lima

Just a couple of days ago this Coldplay footage from the European tour showed up on Perez Hilton and since we have just been to the concert I thought I would share!

This week deserves two blog posts just because of the fact that Jose and I took a whirlwind 24 hour trip to Nice to see Coldplay.  Every step of the way I told myself we were crazy for doing it (particularly since I hate flying!) but it was well worth it.  The stadium was packed with 45,000 fans and when they sang "Viva La Vida" you just couldn't help yourself but jump and down and act like a crazy 20 year old (which I'm soooo not!). And "Fix You" literally brought tears to my eyes the minute Chris Martin started singing.  What an amazing song to hear live! I had wanted to see Coldplay since forever, one more scratched off the bucket list!  We have tickets in Madonna in July (in Hyde Park, London) but we don't know if we'll be able to make that once because we don't know if we'll still be here in Geneva. I'm hoping! We missed the kids and can't wait to pick them up at school today, but it was definitely worth the get...

Another weekend, another trip!  This weekend we took advantage of the fact that the kids were off Thursday and Friday (don't ask me which weird Swiss holiday it was) and drove about 6 hours from Geneva to Florence.   It took longer than planned because Mt. Blanc Tunnel is always hit or miss and on the way out it was definitely a miss (although the sight was a NOT MISS!).  Thankfully on the way back it was a hit. Once we were in Italy stopped for lunch at Recco based on a "reco" (pun intended) from Jose's friend from work.  We had yummy focaccia with their specialty cheese and then enjoyed seeing the ocean for the first time in a while! We stayed in a great apartment right next to Il Duomo (and lots of shopping!).  The day we left we actually found a place with "american breakfast" but it was closed that early so we ventured all the way to the top of Il Duomo.  The kids made us very proud by climbing up the stairs (though not without some complaint...

We started the weekend with really wonderful summer-like weather and sunshine and we went down to the lake for some paddle boat time. Unfortunately Saturday and Sunday were not quite as nice so we did what you do when the weather is crappy...eat!  For breakfast we had Mother's Day "brunch" at one my favorite breakfast places in Geneva.  Then we barbecued while it was sort of warmish and watched the first Venezuelan to win a Formula 1 race.  I guess if someone's gonna beat Fernando Alonso he might as well be Latin.  And the fact that I'm talking about this means I've been totally brainwashed by the husband and son.  :) Anyway, here are the little cards that the kids gave me for Mother's Day which were both so sweet.  Sebas' definitely reminds me that while we sometimes roll our eyes at kids being kids because they can drive us a little bit crazy, this time goes by so fast and before we know it they are all grown up. And since it was Mothe...

We just came back from the most amazing trip!  Definitely towards the top of our list -- it was so much fun for us and despite the fact that we thought "Amsterdam isn't for kids" the kids enjoyed it a ton too!  Particularly the Heineken experience.  Who'd thunk it but it was so well designed for kids they felt like they learned how to make beer and that they experimented making beer themselves and that they were even "made into beer" (there was a really cool "ride" demonstrating this).   We got up on these bikes and made t-shirts with these pictures, they love the fact that Sebas looks like he's sitting in one of the beer crates! I just wish we could've spent more time there, or I hope we can go back there in the future!  It was so much fun.

I was able to transfer my gym membership at work to the mall gym for not too much money so I've been trying to work out as close to daily as possible. I'm sore, my arms are spaghetti and I can barely move. But it feels good. If I can continue to brave the language barrier (by just following everyone else along) and bear being all the way in the back of the class it should be a productive use of my hiatus. I finally tried Zumba for the first time ever (yes I know, where have I been hiding all this time? At work that's where) and it was so much fun. The music was awesome, I sweat like a pig, and the feeling of dancing again after so long was incredible. Only problem now is that my body's in that stage where it thinks it needs to eat so much in order to keep up with all the exercise that it actually ends up consuming MORE calories instead of less. The fact that I'm not working doesn't help either because I'm at home constantly surrounded by yummy snacks. ...

I'm currently on a mini getaway with the husband. I think the last time we did this was in 2006! Well in October we went to Miami by ourselves but it was really to hang out with friends so this is the first time in a really long time we've gone away just to be by ourselves. Sorely needed! We've gone only about 30 minutes away from home to spa in France and it's beautiful. The most we've done is eat (bad for the diet, good for the soul!) and read Hunger Games. I'm on book #2 and Jose's on book #3. It's unfortunately still too cold in Geneva to hang out outside but we're doing just fine with the pool, jacuzzi, food and our books. And my iPad of course. :) Here's a couple of shots from where we're staying. It's called Jiva Hill Hotel and it's pretty amazing. The first picture is a view from the pool and the second picture is a view from our hotel room -- straight out into the golf course. Of course no one is playing golf. You...

My little baby boy is all grown up. Woke up today and said he wasn't going to suck his thumb anymore or drink milk from a baby bottle. He is super excited as we wait for our flight from Budapest to Geneva so he can open his big present which we hauled all the way from target in Cincinnati. He's gonna love it! Had a celebration lunch at hard rock cafe in budapest and he couldn't believe the staff knew it was his birthday. ;)

Attempting mobile blogging from a Cuban restaurant in the heart of Prague. We've had an amazing trip so far despite the fact that it's been cold and rainy in the beginning and end of the trip. We are sad it's almost coming to an end. Tomorrow we take a train from Prague to Budapest and then we fly from Budapest to Geneva on Monday. I also begin a new chapter of my life -- in the span of one week I am officially unemployed, I finished the last installment of the millennium trilogy and one tree hill is over. I feel empty! But I am renewed in my focus to exercise especially after eating so much cinnamon bread on this trip so hopefully between exercising and being a soccer mom I will fill my days until I can figure out what's next for me career wise. In the meantime I'm going to enjoy what I am dubbing maternity leave without actually having a baby...

Yesterday we went to La Clusaz again for the last skiing of the season.  Since Sebas did so well with his first lesson and Gabi is doing so well overall we decided to only have Sebas take lessons and everyone else ski as a family. This was my first time skiing since Thanksgiving of 2010 because in Thanksgiving 2011 I got the flu on the days I was scheduled to go skiing. So as you can see in the video I'm basically back to basics and look way worse than my kids do!  Gotta love it when your kids pick up things so much faster than you do.  Ah well. This week is my last week at P&G and next week the kids are off for Spring Break so we're taking another once in a lifetime trip to Vienna/Prague/Budapest.

This weekend we took Sebas for his first skiing lesson.  We weren't quite sure what to expect but it seems that he absolutely loved it and did pretty well with it.  So much so that we're thinking about going next weekend.  Gotta take advantage of the snow as much as we can before we possibly get shipped back to America.  :)   Here's a little video clip of him during his first lesson.  After his lesson he was so hungry he ate a whole Snickers bar (which he'd never tried before) in like three bites. Anyway, since he did so well I promised that if we go next weekend I would ski too so that the four of us would actually ski.  Here's hoping I don't break anything!

On Friday we headed down from Cincinnati to San Juan to go to Jose's buddy's wedding in Dorado, PR on Saturday.  I keep telling people that when we lived in Cincinnati we would've NEVER made the long trip from Cincinnati to Puerto Rico just for a weekend.  But now living in Europe it puts everything into perspective, an 8 hour trip to Puerto Rico doesn't seem long at all!  While the weather forecast was supposed to be rainy and dreary, our friends got super lucky as they got an absolutely beautiful day!  Sunny but not too hot, beautiful sunset and an incredibly simple yet beautiful setting.  My highlights for the weekend were: A little bit of time in the beach/pool  A little bit of time with abuela from Peru   An incredibly beautiful wedding ceremony   Getting to catch up with old friends (barely but still enough time to see what they're up to!)    Incredible food (not pictured!), and Finding th...

So Jose's been in Cincinnati quite a bit since the beginning of the year.  After missing the kids (and the kids missing him) for so long we decide to take a trip to Cincinnati to come visit him.  We're having a great time going to the places they loved to eat, going to Target, getting manis/pedis, seeing old friends, etc.  We're staying at friends' which has been great too because it's like a kids' birthday party every day (and it's not my house ha ha!). Best part was that Jose's brother and father came to visit us for one night this weekend and we were able to have the four cousins together for the first time.  A photo shoot ensued, while not all the pictures came out as we'd hoped it was great to have memories like these...

Not much to report here except that this weekend in Geneva felt like Spring and we even saw the Swiss version of lady bugs start to crawl out of the ground on Saturday which is a clear sign of Spring so I hope for our sake the lady bugs are right because after having that taste of Spring I can't go back to Winter, especially the Winter we've had here in Geneva this year!  Taking advantage of the awesome weather (the SUN makes all the difference!) we went to our favorite Peruvian restaurant on Saturday where the kids could actually play outside. And on Sunday we went to the Museum and then to pizza with friends of ours who were celebrating their kid's 3rd birthday.  After that my always-prepared friend had brought loaves of bread to feed the ducks and swans so my kids squealed with delight at the birds eating their bread.  On Saturday we are traveling to Cincinnati to meet up with Jose who everyone has missed terribly.  I am also looking forward to getting cheap hairc...

Last week the kids were off school for their "mid term break" (seriously they have so many breaks I don't even know what's the purpose of each one) so we went to Barcelona to spend the long weekend and meet one of Sebas' heroes, Messi.  What can I say...amazing food, amazing weather, super relaxing time, and getting to see your kid's face jumping up and down when Barcelona made 5 goals (4 of those were Messi's)? Pure joy.  Now Jose's gone back to Cincinnati for a few more weeks which kinda sucks but the good part is we are going to visit him in Cincinnati for a week and then head to PR for a weekend wedding of one of his buddies from high school.  I don't know how to feel about the trip to Cincinnati part of me is really excited to see old friends and eat at our usual places the food that the kids have been missing so much (Friday's, Boston Market's Mac and Cheese) but another part of me feels like it's going to be sad to see everyone a...

This one made me cry not because of her ability to convey the sheer enormity of being a parent, but because it let me know that you don't have to be all TIGER MOM to get your kids to succeed in life, that you can just be supporting and let them grow on their own and not pressure them into success with constant criticism. And that the pride they feel in accomplishing things all by themselves is much greater than the feeling of just barely having avoided disappointing the critical eye of your parents. As a child of the TIGER MOM line of thinking I am happy there's another way. I struggle every day, sitting on both sides of the fence, pledging to be totally unlike my mother but realizing that what's been ingrained in me for almost 30 years is kinda hard to suppress. I hope I can spend more days on the supportive side of the fence than on the TIGER MOM one. And maybe then I will feel like as a parent I am deserving of the amazing kids I was lucky to have.

After having Jose back for a few days, and my Dad visiting, which was then followed by two other nice visits, one from our dear friend Jeronimo from Cincinnati, and another one from Lily the Class Hamster, our house is empty once again.  While I'm happy to re-enter some kind of normal routine I wonder how I'll make sure the kids don't miss their dad for the next 12 days...I did my best yesterday by taking them to Disney on Ice and then having some friends come over for a play date, and maybe next weekend I'll coerce Gabi into actually skiing? Time will only tell.  :) Here's Jose and I at a local restaurant we went to last Friday night with Jeronimo. Here's Lily the Hamster eager to come out of her cage. And finally here's a short clip of one of Sebas' favorite parts of Disney on Ice. We were especially excited with parts like these where it was actually in English rather than French. :)

This was a great weekend despite freezing temperatures!  First everyone is quickly recovering -- I'm probably the farthest one behind but at least I feel good enough to be useful. :)  Then Dad and Jose both arrived on Thursday and Friday afternoon we drove to Tignes for another round of skiing.  While I stayed with the kids most of the time (and most of the time indoors because it was soooo cold!) it was a very relaxing weekend and the boys got to enjoy their skiing.  Whereas in November there wasn't nearly enough snow now there's actually too much snow!  The good thing is all the runs are connected with snow so you can go everywhere around the mountain in skis (or sled if you're me and the kids).   Here's Jose and Dad starting their first run on the first day, basically leaving from right in front of our apartment and this tunnel took them to one of the lifts. On the way back on Sunday afternoon we stopped at Annecy for a late lunch and took some be...

After so much "fun and leisure" over vacations we hit reality with a thump.  Jose left for Cincinnati on Tuesday after we arrived on Sunday afternoon, where he'll be spending a lot of time over the first few months of the year (the fewer the better!).  I will be playing single mom, hauling kid after kid to the doctor because their bodies are in shock after three weeks of pleasant weather -- warm sunny beaches and still warmer people around them.  I am incredibly grateful for the help of our nanny who can stay with one kid at home while I rush the other one to the doctor.  I am also incredibly happy that on Thursday both Jose and my Dad are coming to spend a little time here.  I do enjoy my time alone once the kids have gone to sleep where I can actually watch some chick flick that's been sitting on my DVR for 6+ months.  But I'd rather have Jose here taking the control of the remote because it's either Formula 1 or FIFA or who knows what other sport on the ...

Crash landing is probably the best term to describe what I'm doing in the office today after so much time away! Suffice it to say the vacation to Lima was amazing and much-needed, and that it'll take me a while to adjust to the reality of being back in the daily grind (not to mention losing those extra few pounds).  Given I can't get my head in the game for a good post-vacation blog post today (hopefully after next weekend), I decided to just post these videos from our vacation, and then post my career horoscope for the year from Yahoo which I thought was suitable to describe the mayhem going on in our work lives right now, given that Jose is leaving tomorrow for Cincinnati and will spend a good portion of the next three months in Cincinnati.  Here's to single motherhood, hoping I can survive the next few months of 2012! I'm hoping the horoscope is right and that while turbulent, 2012 will bring great things to our personal and professional lives...