in no particular order...

 Food truck Fridays have become a regular happening around here...

flank steak grilled cheese sandwich.  

Biscuit starts asking on Tuesday if we 'go to food trucks now Mama"

A couple weeks ago on a random Sunday we took the kids to Grandfather Mountain.  Everyone returned home in one piece (though I aged about 10 years).

family hike.  marcus was a nervous wreck.  i was prepared for someone to bash their head in and bleed to death on a rock.  we made it about a mile before turning back. 

gorgeous weather.  the kids have been obsessed with going again and keep asking about the mountains.  must be the latent Andean genetics.

the mile-high bridge.  also known as the "swinging bridge" (for good reason).  also known as "where mama nearly died of fright when javier decided to race across it".  there are some boulders you can climb to go to the overlook (sans barrier).  javier was incredibly pissed that we didn't let him go.

These chuckle-heads have started 3 day 2's at St. John's Preschool with Ms. Josey & Ms. Teresa

They love school and are annoyed on Mondays and Fridays when they don't go.  Javier especially loves it.  They have lots of friends from last year in their class and were just invited to their first birthday party solo (as in not as Emi's tagalong brothers).  They are un-potty-trained and, as evidenced this weekend, are COMPLETELY uninterested.  I promise to announce it to the world when they are potty trained, but really, I'm not worrying about it any more.  In January I'll be signing them up for gymnastics/tumbling (once they've turned 3 they can start participating in these things).  Javier is a speed demon on his balance bike and Andres loves his scooter ('cooter) more than life itself.

the wrap up

An amazingly awesome day spent with good friends and lots of littles on a working dairy farm.  Heaven.

let's say marcus is imitating andres' face whenever he saw a cow or a horse.  he was t.e.r.r.i.f.i.e.d.

 our friend vaquero & jose tomas

 this one was in his element.  latent gentleman farmer genes + finnish farmer genes = one happy boy.

 we spent a lot of time just watching the cows go from pasture to milking back to pasture.  sounds boring, but if you're under 8 it's fascinating stuff.

 llama

 babies were a big source of entertainment as well.... with Fran.

 marcus and javier in the field forever...

 checking out the guinea pigs.

 the boys and agus

 emi and julia rode horses in the afternoon together.

 bunny feeding.

 tire swinging.

 tractor driving.

 a valiant and epic failure of an attempt to take a group picture.  

Back at home...

This is Liliana, one of the girls who takes care of my kids when I go.  Every morning Javier would come downstairs after his own breakfast and sit with Liliana and have breakfast with her as well, stealing nibbles of her bread.  She's awesome and giggling in this picture.  Why?

because apparently she taught a certain someone to sip a little coffee in the mornings as well.

great.