After a redeye we arrived in La Paz on January 1; our great adventure has truly begun.  We celebrated new years on the plane with a bit of a sleepless night.  We are all a bit tired but Visas were not a problem we just needed crisp bills and our ride into town was on time.  We had our first cup of coca mate tea and a South American breakfast of banana juice, cereal and animal crackers.

After the ice skating on Wednesday Oma was nice enough to take all the kids overnight while the adults went off to the Spa.  We all met up at the 10,000 waves spa and several people got salt scrubs and facials but Maddy and I went straight to the hot pool.  After plunging in the 50 degree pool, the sauna and snoring in the meditation room, we went back to our house for an epic game of cards against humanity.

The next day we had family pictures, it was very cold and the twins did a great job hanging in there but had definitely had it by the end.  That night we had another experience gift of a cooking lessons.  It was a great time and we made some awesome Chile Rellenos.

In an attempt to reduce the amount of christmas stuff the girls will get we asked everyone to get us and the girls experience presents.  So Uncle Bryan and Aunt Melissa on Tuesday took all the kids for a day of ice skating and swimming.  Unfortunately Julie was having a melt down and stayed home with Maddy, but that allowed Maddy to complete some work.   Caroline was very good on skates, she has had lessons before and Mira did great for her first time, both were zooming around the ice by the end.  I didn’t hurt myself and only fell over once!

We went swimming after skating and ha

The day after Christmas we packed up all the kids and went to Meow Wolf which is a surreal fun house in an old bowling ally.  The kids climbed through a refrigerator, sat in an upside down bus and Mimi scared some poor woman who decided to follow her into the huge white mouse.  We had lunch with our the woman who is going to rent our house, which is strange that she is from Santa Fe, but she was lovely and we are excited for her to stay at our house.  We all met up for dinner at Oma’s house.

After an amazing Christmas Eve we all met up at Oma’s house to open presents, everybody waited until 9:30 which was amazing considering all the kids.  Julianne had a few melt downs during the day which made things difficult and I was sad to not be with my Mother this Christmas but we had facetime with her and had a wonderful feast and a full day with the Tregidga/Halaburka clans.

We arrived in Albuquerque late on Dec 23rd and drove our rental car to Santa Fe, we had a bit of trouble with packing all our luggage into the car rental.  This doesn’t bode well for South America, but we made it work.  We arrived at our house rental and went straight to bed.

The next day we met up with Oma and the rest of Maddy’s brothers for Christmas Eve celebrations.  I searched for Lefsa (Potato wraps) but to no avail, apparently the Norwegians didn’t settle in Santa Fe.  Brian and I had a legendary pie contest which came out to a tie due to one of my own daughters not choosing my pie.  We had King crab for dinner which was amazing.  Matt and I played a round of Frisbee golf, once the pie was completed.

After dinner the whole family took a stroll down Canyon Road with about 20,000 of our closest friends, yes it was packed, lots of lighted bags and Christmas cheer.  The kids went to bed after so that Santa Claus could come.  We were a bit too tired to attend Christmas mass after a packed day.

Departure day is finally here, we started the day frantically cleaning and packing the house.  Once that was completed everyone seemed to relax a bit and the excitement of leaving set in.  We left the house with 3 big suitcases and 2 small ones, everyone had their own backpacks.  Thanks to our Nieghbor’s Steve and Ellen for looking after the house while we are gone.

We said goodbye to Nana yesterday with a fun pre-Christmas dinner and our babysitter Hannah drove us to the Milwaukee airport.  Today is Papa’s 72nd birthday and we have been thinking about him alot, and missing him dearly.  We are off to Santa Fe for Christmas with Maddy’s family before heading out to La Paz Bolivia on Dec 31st.

Ughhh, the worst day of the trip, packing, cleaning and totally freaking out.  We will make it!!!  The house must be totally clean for a short term rental over Christmas.  Next stop Sante Fe.

Oh life’s ups and downs, just one week out from leaving on our trip. A little girl crying on my lap because she’s not going to see her friends for six months, and finally found a lovely family with two little girls to rent our house (amen, hallelujah!). Let me make it through this week with my sanity intact and we will have an amazing adventure!

Maddy

Por Dios!!!  There are only 10 days until we leave for 6 months.  So here is where we stand, the van has been mostly purchased, the house has been sort of rented, the visas have not been received (although we have found out these you just get in Bolivia) and the house is not so much packed up.  we are kinda freaking out, this is doable right?

We did get plates for our van that is currently hanging out in Lima, Peru.  we have a family that is interested in the house but haven’t committed yet, and there is too much snow to re-install the solar panels after our new roof was installed.  The girls are very excited about Christmas and just realized that they will not be going back to school for nine months.  It’s going to be a crazy last 10 days but we will get it all done.  Hasta Luego