Momo and BG: The Best of October had yet to come!

Absolutely the hot fudge on our ice cream sundaes was Mom and Dad's arrival to Santiago at the end of the month!!!!!!!   

 We could barely stand it as we counted down the days for their arrival.  We were ecstatic.  They had quite the flight (gotta love it when the lights won't turn off on a red eye...among other things) but they were all smiles when Luke and I picked them up at the airport. Dad was armed and ready with his camera, and I was so grateful!  I realized there are so many every day things that I forget to take pictures of down here... So, thanks to his photos, our every day life has been captured.

We hopped in the car and started heading home.  I gave them the option of going straight to the house to settle in a bit and rest... or we could get going on a list of possibilities.  

(The tallest building in Chile--we drive passed it almost daily).
They were running on adrenaline and were ready to see it all.  So, we went straight from the airport to the Pewter outlet.  

After all, it was kind of on our way home :)

We purchased plenty... and then made our way to our old neighborhood and home...

And then to our new home to unload all of the gear.

Shortly after, it was time to pick Kate and Jake up at school.

 It was a joyous reunion!

We all went to pick Jake up in his classroom, and he was really excited to show Momo and BG his classroom and his teacher.

Mom and dad were in shock at how nice the school was.  "More like a college campus" is what we kept hearing :)  We have been very grateful for this experience.  Overall, it's been an incredible one.  And even after 2 1/2 years, the kids still think it is so great to go to school in clothes that feel like jammies :)

Then it was off to introduce her grandparents to Mr. John-- Kate's 4th grade teacher.

Normally, that would be more than enough for someone's first day in Chile.  The flight itself is exhausting!!!  As we left school though,  everyone was hungry, so we stopped at La Punta and grabbed a quick bite to eat.  Wanted Mom and Dad to try a few local foods like empanadas.

We headed home to let the kids show Momo and BG around the house again...

 and then Kate and I took Mom to a Mother Daughter Tea that evening.

There's something extra special about having your grandma make it to your school's Mother Daughter Tea when she lives 6,000 miles away.

Kate  with her friends Gaby and Sabine

And there's something extra special about having your Mom come to a Mother Daughter Tea when she lives 6,000 miles away ;)  Couldn't wipe that smile off my face.  Mom was a trooper!  She looked this good after almost 20 hours of travel!

 While the girls were at the tea, Joe came home and took BG and the boys to our ward's Halloween party :)

 Here's our chapel!  I'm so glad Dad took these!

 And right behind the church is Cerro 18--the hill we were warned never to get near--when we first came to Chile, because it was so dangerous.  Then we found out that half of the members of our congregation live up there.  Haha!  What are you going to do?!  I've been there a number of times and thankfully have been just fine.

 Pumped to have BG finally here

 The Trunk or Treat party was a total success.  Mom, Kate and I left the tea a tad early so we could run over to the church and pick the boys up.  They were having a ball, but we snuck them out early so we could go have some authentic Chilean cuisine.  

I'm not kidding.  We went out to dinner after all that.  I don't know how Mom and Dad were still awake, but they knew we only had limited time in this city and they wanted to see it all.  Well, quite a bit, at least!  So, we even let them experience eating Chilean cuisine, Chilean style.

 We arrived to Casa Vieja restaurant for our 9:30pm reservation and we were still one of the first groups to sit down at a table!!! The dinner was surprisingly fantastic and the company even better.

Everyone couldn't wait to crawl into bed that night.
What a start to an absolutely SPECTACULAR 12 days.