Jenny and Ava in Texas

Here is a video that I took of Jenny and Alex when we were in Texas in March.  This is one of a series of interviews I have done with these two and they always crack me up.

J.

Ava and Daddy in kitchen

Here is a really funny video that Jenny took of me and Ava.  She interviews us and I try to answer for Ava.  I just think this is so funny.

J.

Photo of Ben and Virginia

We had a nice brunch two Sundays ago to celebrate Ben's engagement to Virginia.  Here is the photo I took.  It was so nice to just spend the afternoon with them and the girls.

J.

Photos from Sweetness 40th B-day

It has been a while since I posted so I have a few old ones stored up.  First off, I have a few good photos from the B-day dinner that we had for R's brother David (aka Sweetness) at Blue Duck Tavern.  There's a good one of R and her sisters and a good one of me, Eugenio, and Sweetness.  It was a really nice time celebrating with everyone.

J.

Fourth of July parade

We had a nice time today with Grandma Etu and Grandpa Eugenio plus lots of great cousin time with Jessica and Adam at the Tacoma Park July 4th parade.  It was very low key - we just hung out along the parade route and then after the parade had a really nice family lunch.  Rachel had dressed up Jenny and Ava in red, white, and blue outfits.  Ava didn't quite know what to make of the parade but she liked it and then fell asleep on Rachel!  Adam loved playing with Ava and everyone had a great time with her.  Then when we got home, Jenny and I went swimming in the Hillandale pool while Rachel put Ava to bed.  It was great having the pool to ourselves and we splashed around for about an hour mostly playing tag and other pool games that Jenny invented.  All of Jenny's games have one thing in comment:  the rules are designed to favor her.  So we were playing tag and I have to close my eyes!  Or she has special powers that makes me unable to tag her if she is holding on to the blue floating noodle!  It's fun to play those games with her.

We came home from the pool and Rachel fed Jenny dinner while I sat out on the back deck and read the paper. 

Jenny just went to bed and Rachel and I are watching the National Symphony 4th of July celebration on TV.  I will quickly post a few photos. Tomorrow I have to work but it should be quiet so I hopefully will get lots done.

More later...

J.

Second day back home

We are now feeling adjusted to being home and it was pretty easy.  Jenny is feeling almost all better but Rachel kept her home from camp both today and yesterday just so she can rest up.  Ava is doing great -- today, Ellen took Jenny and Ava to the Georgetown library and they had a great time.  Apparently, one of the customers complained that Ava and another baby were making too much noise!

Just looking at the photos from the trip makes me realize what an amazing time we had.  We just did so much in a short period of time.

I have uploaded a few additional photos that I did not include the night we got home from the trip.  The first two are of me and Jenny when we took the boat tour to the islands in Lake Nicaragua.  The rest are of our visit to the coffee plantation.  It is funny to see Ava being carried among the coffee bushes (trees?).  There's also one of Jenny holding a frog that the guide showed us.  Finally, there's the one Jenny took of a coffee bean.

J.

Second set of photos from Mukul

Here is the second batch of Mukul photos -- again, mostly of us just enjoying being together as a family by the pool outside our room.  It's hard to tell from the photos but the pool was literally out the sliding glass door of our room and it had an incredible view of the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean!

J.

First set of photos of Mukul

I will post a bunch of photos from Mukul.  Hopefully, you can see how lush and beautiful a place it is. Most of the photos are of us just sitting around relaxing by the pool (or in the pool). That's basically what we did for the few days we were there! It was just what we needed after running around Granada so much.

J.

Tour of the ceramics village

Here are the photos from the day we visited the village where there are expert ceramics craftsmen and we also happened to see the festival (with the people marching through the street carrying large amounts of fruit on heavy poles).  I love the photos of Jenny working with the craftsmen to make her own clay object.  The men were so serious about teaching her.

J.

Granada boat tour

Here are photos of the day we toured Lake Nicaragua by boat.  We had such a good time looking at birds and monkeys and just enjoying all of the islands.  We also had a nice visit to one of the islands where we had a drink and Jenny picked mangos!

J.