San Alfanso (AKA: The Biggest Pool in the World)

When we found out we were moving to Chile, we weren't quite sure how to break it to Kate.  We figured she would be the one who would grasp the brevity of it all.  So we bought a few books about the country with plenty of photos.  After we had a good cry, she went to bed and started looking at all of the books.  She came out an hour later with a small smile on her face and said, "I want to see the biggest pool in the world."  

Little did we know it would only be less than 2 hours away!  We decided that because we would be staying here for Christmas, we wanted to do something special.  We would all be missing our family!!! 

So, after the last day of school, we packed our bags and headed to San Alfanso for the weekend.

What a RELAXING way to spend the upcoming days 'til Christmas!  I was taking pictures of Kate and Jake and looked over to see Luke completely and totally at ease.  LOVING IT!

Kick your shoes off and enjoy!!!

Luke finally decided he liked sunglasses on this trip!  Yahoo!!!  I've been trying for a while because the sun is soooo strong down here.  He loves to put them on top of his head too...makes him feel like he's the coolest guy in the room.

We took a nice leisurely walk around the entire pool and it took us 1 1/2 hours!  It truly is like a lake.  It's a bit frigid, and at times you will see sailboats, paddle boats, swimmers, and kayaks out in the middle of it...sorry, a bit too cold for me to be doing any swan dives...I just waded :)

There wasn't too much to the town outside of the pool!  A few cool little places... we found a great Italian restaurant...

and some YUMMY, fresh baked churros along the seashore.

and then spent more time in the sun :)

We can't even escape the stray dogs along the coast!  THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!!!

So amazing.

Yes, that is Joe out there going for a swim!  

I happily said I'd keep an eye on things in the nice, warm sun.

Fun, Fun, Fun!  If you look closely behind Luke, there are a bunch of people sitting in an exclusive area at the resort.  You have to pay by the day to go in there.  We noticed toward the end of the day that everyone had red, blue or purple swim caps on.  For some reason it gave us the giggles.  We decided we were having enough fun.  We didn't need to don bright colored caps...

And here's the proof!  

Thank you Joe for treating us to such a fun weekend for Christmas!