Whewww! What a ride. We have spent the last month entertaining houseguests, celebrating Christmas with family, and vacationing in Mexico.
We started off on December 15th when Emily came home for the holidays. (She has only been home 1 month since June of 2010, so it is cause to throw a party!) We kicked off her stay with an open house- featuring soup, salad and bread. It was fun to have everyone over, and opened the holiday season for us. We took Emily, Nate and Hannah to a Viking's game. We went to Molly's for supper. We got ready for Christmas.
She was followed a few days later by two friends of hers, and now ours, from Mexico. Both attend the University of Guanajauto where she teaches. Alex is a native of Leon, Mexico, and a graduate with a degree in chemistry. He is interested in doing his masters in North Dakota with an interest in alternative bio-fuels. Nestor is a native Colombian, who happens to be a talented classical and jazz guitarist. He was just back from a concert tour in Mexico, and playing a gig near Chicago. Both are very intelligent, friendly, funny young men that we thoroughly enjoyed getting to know. They came to see winter, but since THAT didn't happen, we took them to other quintessential Minnesotan places. They were game for anything. The first night, we asked if they wanted to go to the West side for some Mexican food and they declined- they wanted American food. "With Cheese and Bacon!" Ha! We took them to Dean's Tavern on Rice Street for hamburgers,tater tots,beer and karaoke.The first big laugh of the night came when they wanted to try an American beer, but didn't know what to order. Bob suggested Mich Golden Lite, but warned them that the kids call it "pisswater". That's all it took. They both ordered a "'pisswater', much to the amusement of our waitress. Many, many,many beers later, they had Bob so tanked up that he got up and sang
Brown-Eyed Girl on the karaoke stage.Emily sang
Goodbye Earl, and I was the designated driver! A special thanks to the teachers from a St. Paul elementary school who made it a very entertaining night, and played backup dancers for Alex and Nestor when they sang their songs in Spanish. It was a magical moment when they got the entire bar to sing
Feliz Navidad. Bob and I took them to Como Zoo and Conservatory, tours of the Capitol and Cathedral, Rice Park, the Landmark Center, the Mall of America, and Mickey's Diner. Other family members entertained them also. Zach went ice skating with them in Rice Park. Sarah and Tony took them to a Mexican Restaurant one night. Molly and Jeff had them over many times. Hannah and James celebrated the New Year with them. Even my brother Mike, along with Jeff and the boys, took them ice-fishing. They were very excited to try this! The biggest group effort was going to Station 280 with them and the entire adult Bean family, our family, and friends of Andrew's. The waitress came to the table to warn me they were up at the bar, "doing shots like it's someone's 21st birthday..." We dropped Zach and Nestor off at another bar in Minneapolis, then stopped at White Castle on the way home. Alex never even saw it! They tried 'hotdish', pronto pups, hanky-pankys, homemade white castles and salted nut rolls. They watched the movie
Fargo, after which Alex peppered his speech with you betcha and ya, doncha know, trying to fit in.
We had Christmas morning a day early due to Bob's work schedule, then went to my dad's for Christmas Eve. After eating and opening presents, Nestor played his guitar for us! Alex learned to play Cribbage. We all enjoyed Twylla's cooking as usual, and everyone had a good time.
We had booked our annual trip to Mexico in January hoping that Emily would be able to join us. But it wasn't in the cards, so the day after the last of the boys left, we also headed for Mexico, leaving Emily home alone to get ready for her return.
We spent our third year in a row at the Allegro resort in Cozumel with Hannah and Zach. We had adjoining accommodations in one of the cabana style 8-plexes. The beach is wide, the water clear and calm, and the atmosphere relaxing. Bob and Zach went scuba diving, and everyone snorkeled and kayaked. Bob, Zach and I went on a catamaran, and Bob and the kids played beach volleyball everyday. We spent all day at the beach, watched the sunset,then got ready for the evening entertainment. The kids went to the disco at night while we recovered for the next day. We ate 3 meals a day together for a week straight. More vacation pics in Part 2.
It was so nice to hang together and have a houseful of people. Very Walton-ish! Goodnight Emily. Goodnight Alex. Goodnight Nestor. Goodnight Hannah. I almost forgot what it was like to have a house full of young people, and energy, and things to do. But now real life sets in. Emily and her friends are back in Guanajuato, Zach is back at school, Hannah is back to work and spending every spare minute at her boyfriend's house. Now it's just Bob and I, alone, again. We will have to work to entertain ourselves and push to try new things. But I have hope, because now we have had practice!
