Easter weekend at Lago Vichuquen

For Easter weekend we were invited to a lake house with Jimmy's business acquaintance and friend, Mario, his wife Daniela, their three-year-old son Jose, and three other couples - all of whom are our age, and all have children between 9 months and 4 years old (awesome to be with a group that can relate with us on having little ones!).  We didn't do a very good job of getting the other adults in the pictures, mostly just the kids...

The house was in a place called Vichuquen, about 4 hours southwest of Santiago.  We also had a visitor from Lodi that weekend, Sorel Roget, who went to the lake with us, too.  (Sorel is spending a year traveling the world, a few months away, then a few weeks at home, and right now she is seeing parts of South America and just finished a cruise in Antarctica.  Amazing, huh?)  The drive was very cramped for mommy in the back seat between two wide car seats (see below), but we were thrilled to go check out somewhere new, be at someone's second home and not just a hotel, and spend time getting to know new friends.

Yes, that is my elbow behind my head...

Caleb wanted to hold Landon's hand while we were driving

Day 1:  Beautiful weather, and the kids headed down to the private beach area and into the water in their underwear.  Though they had just met, the kids had a blast together.

Scoping things out before he got in the water

Caleb and Jose playing in their underwear

The view from the main house up above... big lawn, little strip of beach, and a small dock on the right side.

View from the beach looking up to the main house

The second house (where we slept), with lots of bunk beds inside

Day 2:  Gray, foggy, and cold!  Sorel and I were not at all prepared for this kind of weather and spent much of the weekend cold... Forecast said 78 degrees - this was not even close, but beautiful just the same.

Lago Vichuquen is actually very close to the coast - only about a 5 min drive.  Well, maybe 10, but only because of the incredibly bumpy and winding dirt road you have to take to get to and from the area where the house is.   On Saturday we wanted to drive over to the ocean to take a look.  It was twice as gray and foggy, and MUCH colder.  The kids were so tired they fell right to sleep, so Jimmy, Sorel, and I got out for 10 minutes to take pictures while they slept soundly in the car.

Back at the house Saturday afternoon... Hanging out, letting the kids run around, and some friends of Mario's came to visit in the little fishing boat you see docked under the awning.  Never had a chance to talk with them, but they had two beautiful little girls (in pink and yellow sweatshirts three pictures down).

Caleb and I play fishing on the dock with reeds.  Cristobal and Clarita on the right playing with reeds, too.

Tete (as we called her) the brunette and Sole (the blonde) making crowns (coronas) for the kids from  lake grass.

Always hard to get all the little ones looking at once, but you get the idea..  They were all wearing their crowns.
(Two sisters in yellow Gap and pink coats were visiting for the afternoon...).

Video of kids bouncing on couch while eating cookies, click here or below:

Took a very short ride out on a fishing boat until Landon starting to get upset.  Not so sure about the moving vessel...

Cloudiness passed and left us with a beautiful sunset on Saturday.

We wanted to dye some eggs for the Chilean kids since they are accustomed to hunting for chocolate eggs.  It was kind of a last minute plan, and we weren't able to find white eggs or food coloring at the little market where we stopped to buy.  Sorel did her best trying to dye brown eggs using anything we could find in the kitchen... Grenadine, Curry powder, Red wine, and bags of tea... Some gave better color than others, but all were just a slight tint of color, and rubbing the wax from a real candle to try to make contrasting designs didn't work so well either.  Good thing the kids are young and don't know the difference!

Nothing like at home, but at least we got some variation!

Mario on the grill making Saturday's dinner

Sunday, March 31st happened to be Sorel's birthday, which we knew about thanks to Facebook, but Sorel didn't know that we knew.  A few of the couples picked up a cake for her before coming to the lake, and just after midnight Saturday night, only 30 minutes after sitting down for dinner, we surprised her singing happy birthday, in both English and Spanish.  She had no idea the cake was being brought out for her until it was set down in front of her, so it was a great surprise.  Oh, and everyone loved the "?" candle - it was perfect because the couples buying it had no idea, and she didn't have to reveal a thing!

Day 3:  Easter (Happy Resurrection Day for Jesus!!!)  Unfortunately there weren't too many references to Jesus in this year's Easter celebration other than the story telling we shared with Caleb of what the day was really about.  The kids all had a lot of fun looking for their baskets and hunting for our 'colored' eggs and running around on the lawn playing with the paper grass from the baskets. 

Video of Caleb and Landon playing with the paper grass, click here or below:

Video of Landon doing 'salta' (jump), click here or below:

Caleb and Jose sitting on his car transporter truck.

There were two kayaks parked on the lawn of the house that the kids had been climbing and playing on all weekend.  On Sunday morning Jimmy took Caleb out for a ride - new for Caleb, and he really enjoyed it and the time with daddy.

Video of Caleb and Jimmy as they paddle away in the kayak, click here or below:

This picture of Landon cracked us up!  We weren't sure whether to call it evil, mischievous, sly, or what, but it sure does not seem to go with his sweet personality!  So fun that Sorel happened to catch him looking this way.  In addition to her cheerful company, it was an added treat that Sorel is into photography and loves to take tons of pictures.  We felt a bit like celebrities, as if someone had been hired to document our weekend and we didn't have to worry about the cameras ourselves or not getting to be in the pictures.  Thanks Sorel for sharing your love of photography, and when we buy our SLR maybe you can give me a crash course! ;)

On the drive home we made a quick stop at probably the only winery open Easter Sunday to grab a few bottles of wine.  Caleb slept in the car, and we had Sorel take a picture of the three of us with the beautiful vineyards and valley behind us.   

The four hour drive ended up taking 6 because of traffic - I don't think I have ever experienced 150 km of nearly constant traffic, with about a 10 minute break after passing a large city exit.  We were exhausted and ready to enjoy some of that wine by the time we finally got back to Santiago.  What a fun weekend though, and a great way to spend our last few days in Chile!