instead, we did something much more fun - or shall I say Mucho Mas Divertido??!!!
AINHOA
Yep, for one glorious weekend we were transported back to Spain, back to Sh's best friend Ainhoa. Sh and Au cleaned up Friday and got ready for company. Ainhoa is visiting from Spain for a month - sadly staying with other friends (We decided we want to hijack her....) but at least we got her for the weekend.
Friday night we had a Spanish dinner of gambas al ajillo (shrimp) and tortilla espanola (spanish omlette of eggs, potatos and onions) and pan (bread) and ensalada (salad). Then we showed her an American dessert of homemade strawberry shortcake with Great Grandmother's recipe of shortcake (YUM!). We all went bowling - duckpin was hilarious. We mocked each other in Spanglish and laughed until our sides hurt. Then we came home and played video games, DDR and guitar hero. The kids played pool and I called it a night. Being teenagers and Spanish at that, they decided they couldn't go to bed before 2 a.m. or was it 3....
Saturday started slowly for them - I got up with all the puppies and debugged my computer for a few hours and chatted with family. They ate breakfast at NOON, pancakes and strawberries and bacon and juice - Ainhoa likes pancakes but didn't want chocolate chips in hers. She did opt for the strawberry syrup instead of regular. They played for a while and I continued to debug. Then we drove far to the VL family where Ainhoa is staying for a month.
Irene in the kitchen.....
[Background: The Vl and our family lived in Spain together 1995-1997 on a project for work. They are american. Ainhoa's mom worked with the guys and speaks perfect English. we have stayed in touch over the years]
the VL have 3 smaller kids and all kids played well together while I caught up with Irene. It has been about 18 months since I've seen her, but somehow it's one of those friendships that is like "yesterday." We talked and talked about everything -work and kids and reminisced about Spain and everything. It was so hard to leave.
SO WE DIDN'T - well, not until we had some s'mores and showed Ainhoa yet another American Tradition!!
Lazlo, Ainhoa and Isabelle (who was a mere 5 weeks old when we went to Spain!!)
Perfecting the Marshmellow roast....
Unfortunately, my camera didn't want to focus on the 2 pretty girls. Just too much beauty for one frame, I guess! All my photos of them are slightly blurry...
Then we hatched a plan to go shopping with the kids Sunday. Because what did I have to do Sunday? Oh 3 million chores. But chores or shopping with Ainhoa? um SHOPPING.
So we took Ainhoa back to our house (yes the point of driving an hour away was to bring her home. But we weren't ready to let her go!) I told the kids not to stay up so late like last night b/c we had to be out the door by 10am.
hahahahahahahahahaha
Friday night, it turns out, was just a warm-up. These teenagers and old best friends had much to do.
At 9 a.m. I made noise and got the puppies out.
At 9:30 I opened bedroom doors and tried to get responses.
at 10a.m I yelled loudly GET OUT OF BED!!!!!!!!
What time did they go to bed Saturday? how about 6a.m.??!!!! Seems they were having too much fun.
So we managed to get in the car at 1045 a.m. after a breakfast of puff pancakes and grapes and bacon. We shopped with irene and her oldest daughter for about 4 hours. We ALL had fun trying on things - even the moms got some cool stuff with help from the kids. Irene was amazed at how much Au participates in opinions on the girls' clothing choices. The kids all had fun dressing up Ainhoa. We all played at spanish and made fun of each other for saying silly things and we encouraged Ainhoa who is supposed to be here learning ENGLISH. oops we like practicing. We all found it hard to switch back to English and found ourselves talking to sales clerks in spanish Why yes blond hairedblue eyed people do get funny looks when asking spanish questions in stores....
When it was finally time to leave it was so hard to say goodbye. Watching Ainhoa was like the past and the future all coming together. At times I could see the 4 YO girl we left in spain. She gets these expressions on her face that are uniquely Ainhoa And she still looks similar, just more grown up. but when she opens her mouth, I hear her mother Milagros, a dear friend I miss deeply.
Thanks Ainhoa for dropping in. As Sh said tonight, "This was the best weekend of the year!!!!!"
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