Thursday, December 2, 2010

Our amazing week in Florida

Nils and I went to Florida for the Sundelin Decade Party. We met all of his family there and we had a blast.

Day 1:
We left to Florida on a saturday very early in the morning.We dropped off Charlie with his trainer the day before. We had a layover in New Mexico , and found some time to take pictures. We were so surprised about the size of the airport, it was tiny! ( Maybe because they have a huge statue and that takes up lots of space ).
After 9 long hours we arrived in Florida, met up with Margreta and Seth and went straight to the resort and got a very nice welcoming from Nils' parents. Then we helped them unpack their van in which they pretty much brought everything any of us needed for the trip.

Day 2:
In the morning we hung out with Margreta, Seth, Max, Sam, and the parents. Sunday was a little cloudy so we rented a pedal boat and went for a ride and enjoyed the resort. That afternoon Annica and Mitchell arrived. Sunday night's menu was the famous Swedish Meatballs. We invited my mom's best friend Raquel, and her daughter Bianca, that live in Florida for dinner. I haven't seen her for a very long time and never met her daughter, so it was very nice to have them over, hang out with them and catch up. I felt like visiting one of my aunts since she knows my mom from Peru and were friends since middle school. We had a nice dinner and an awesome time.

Day 3:
Monday was one of our highlights of the week. We took Max and Sam to Gatorland along with Nils' parents. Unfortunatly Margreta wasn't feeling too well so she stayed in the resort while Seth and the Burns went golfing. When we first got to the park, Nils thought it would be fun for to take a picture sitting on top of an alligator but later on asked Max if he would want to do that and he said yes, so Nils let him do it. We had a great time at the park and got a chance to get to know Max and Sam a little better, they are both such a cute boys and made us wish we could see them more often.

After Max had his fill of riding alligators we headed home and it was perfect timing because it started rainning really hard.




That night Nils and I were in charge of making dinner for the gang, and since I'm now an expert at cooking peruvian food we decided to share one of Nils' favorite dish "lomo saltado". Somehow, we managed to cook for 8 people and had some left overs. Everyone loved the dish, and it made me feel very good about my abilities of cooking for a large group of people, and of course thanks to Nils' help I was able to pull it off. That evening the rest of the group arrived--Tore, Tiffany, Liv, Ella, Beckett, Lennart and Amie.


Day 4:
On tuesday we spent most of the day at the pool. We got all the kids and most of the adults in the pool and had a blast. This was definitly Nils' favorite day, he got to relax at the pool and play with all of the nephews and nieces. Seth bought a couple of inflatable toys for the pool and they were a success for all the kids, they were very happy. That was a perfect day for all of us, we had lots of fun by the pool enjoying each other's company.
That afternoon they had a short alligator show at the resort we stayed at, so we decided to go check it out with Tore, Tiffany and their kids. Liv and Ella got to pet a snake and an alligator while Beckett spent some play time with Sam by the kid fountain. At night we all went out to have dinner and surprise Mom for her birthday. There were 17 of us (12 adults and 5 children), so luckily Margreta scored us a huge, private room for the occasion. Of course Mom had no idea about this, so when Lennart started telling her why we all were there she shed some happy tears, and I think I did too. It made me so happy to see her so happy. We all had a very good time celebrating her, she is such an amazing mom and woman and the sweetest and kindness mother in law anyone could ever ask for.




Day 5:
This was the day we took our family pictures really early in the morning. We were very excited to take pictures with everybody and can't wait to see how they turn out. Right after taking the family pictures we hurried to change into some comfortable clothes and go to Magic Kidndom. I was looking forward to this day. I love everything about Disney, so it was a dream come true to go to Disneyworld and wander around. We spent the whole day there and had so much fun with the kids.
Day 6: Thanksgiving Day
On Thursday morning we woke up and headed to the pool to have another nice day by the pool. The weather was very nice, it was 83 degrees and it was just perfect.

Around 7 we all got together at the master suite for an amazing Thanksgiving meal. Margreta ordered all the food from William & Sonoma and it was delicious.

Right after having dinner we decided to put all the kids in one of the rooms so they could watch a movie while the adults gathered together for the Decade Party. We started by watching a video of the first Decade Party 20 years ago and then the one from 10 years ago.

The big tradition is to create a time capsule where everyone in the family puts in something special that has meaning to them from the past year or so. Then the time capsule is sealed until the next Decade Party. It was fun to see what everyone put in the old time capsules.After going through the old time capsules, we went around and let everyone explain their additions for the new Time Capsule.
Nils and I put some of the shells from the beach where Nils proposed to me and Charlie's tooth.

Day 7:
We had Swedish pancakes for breakfast. This was a sad day since most of the family headed home. Lennart and Amy left at 4am, Margreta, Seth and the boys left at noon and Annica and Mitchel took off in the afternoon. So, Tore, Tiffany, the girls and us decided to go to Sea World, another of my favorite parks, while Beckett spent some quality time with the grandparents. I was very excited to go see the new baby Shamu that was just born two months ago at this Sea World, but, Nils and Tore were more excited about the roller coasters. So Tiffany, me and the girls went to see the Shamu show while the boys went to enjoy the rides.
Then, we meet up for some surprisingly tasty barbeque lunch. After getting some food, Nils and I went to play some games while the other Sundelins went to a Sesame Street show. I rocked at playing carnival games--I won 4 stuffed animals and Nils only won one. Then we met up with the rest of the group at the dolphin show and enjoyed the new show. I really wanted to go feed the dolphins so right after the show we went to the dolphin pool, but unfortunatly it was closed. We still went to see them and I was super close to almost petting one, but it was just not my day : ( Since we didn't have any luck with the Dolphins, Nils thought we should try out luck with the stingrays, so we headed over to check them out. To feed them you have to hold a little fish between your fingers and let them swim over and eat it. It felt REALLY weird, almost felt like a vacuum sucking on your hand.
It was starting to get dark so the boys wanted to do a ride with all of us. They thought that riding "Journey to Atlantis" was a good idea but unfortunatly Ella was too small to ride so Tiffany stayed with her while Tore, Liv, Nils and I went on. Liv was pretty scared but she was a good sport about it and we were so proud of her for being so brave. Ella couldn't leave without an adventure of her own, so when she saw a trampoline, she decided she wanted to get on.
We had a very fun day at Sea world, it was really nice to hang out with The Sundelins outside of Washington : ) Then, after we got home we ate some dinner and went to bed. Nils was exhausted, but it was our last night so I convinced him to go to the hot tub with me for a little bit and it turned out to be a great idea because it helped him relax and fall asleep as soon as we went back to the room.

Day 8:
We ate breakfast with the parents and the kids, then they took Tore and his family to the airport while we stayed and finished packing. When the parents came back we got to hang out with them for a little bit longer until it was time for them to drop us off at the airport. And of course when it was time to say goodbye we all (except for Nils) had happy tears. I love my in laws so much they are seriously the best!
Nils and I had so much fun with everybody and I survived hanging out with the whole gang so yay me! And yay for everybody that made it to Florida and for the awesome time we shared together!

Went we finally made it home we picked up Charlie and heard some awesome stories about him. We missed him so very much while we were in Florida and missed his first time in the snow, but fortunatly his dogsitter was nice enough to take a picture for us so we could see how much fun he had.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Giving Thanks

Since Nils and I weren't home for Thanksgiving I didn't get a chance to log in and share what I'm thankful for. So before November is over, I wanted to make sure I made my list.
1. I'm thankful for having such a wonderful husband, he is my rock, my happinnes, my better half and I feel so blessed to have him in my life.
2. My family, they are the best and I love them so much!
3. I'm thankful for my "new" family, because they accepted me as one of their own, they are so great and I feel very lucky for having them in my life. Especially for the little ones, I have the cutest nephews and nieces anyone could ask for!
4. My dearest friends, for always being there for me and for all the memories and laughs we share.
5. Thankful because I'm healthy, happily married, I'm the happiest I've ever been and for each and everyday I wake up in the morning.
6. For my grandparents.
7. Charlie and Bruno : )

Monday, November 8, 2010

It's official

Last saturday, I took my driving test and I passed. So I'm officially a driver and I'm so happy I can finally be on the road : )

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Sand sculpture

Nils and I went to a sand sculpture not too long ago and I forgot to write about it. We had lots of fun! It was very cool to see all the different sculptures and the creativity and ability of the people that made them. It was such a pretty day to go outside and enjoy the weather and so we did : )


Fall is here!

Fall is here and we love it!

At first when I moved to Seattle I close all the doors to everything and anything because I wanted to go back to sunny California, but now I'm falling in love with Seattle little by little. And this fall certanitly help alot! I love the leaves falling, all the diferent colors of the trees, I've been enjoying the rain more and more latetly and it's not too cold after all.

It's also the time of the year when the Sundelins start baking and wearing cute sweaters. Here are some pictures of us enjoying this fall : )



Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Our halloween weekend

One of my favorite times of the year is here, Halloween! I love Halloween because we get to dress up, last year we had Wendy with us and we got her a butterfly costume, but this year is all about Charlie.He has 2 costumes this year, the first one is the straw man from the wizard of Oz, and the second one is lion head... and let me tell you he looks adorable!








This year Nils and I went to a haunted house with some of our friends on Friday night. It was the first time I went to a haunted house and I was so scared, specially because I got tricked into be the first one to go in and I was terrified, but we had fun! The next day we went to a Halloween party and dressed up, I was a police officer and Nils was a Peruvian ( he wore my clothes)

We were also excited to give candy away, but not alot kids came over, so we had lots of left over candy which was not a good thing for us since we are trying to loose weight. But overall we had a very fun weekend!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

My 24th birthday

I woke up the day of my birthday by Charlie licking on my face, I open my eyes and saw this:

I laughed so hard, he looked super cute. After getting up from bed, I opened up my gits and I got some really cute stuff that I loved. Nils and I went out to get breakfast together at our favorite place "The pancake house" and it was yummy. Unfortunately, Nils couldn't take the day off work, so after eating some delicious breakfast he took me to a nail salon to get my nails done for my birthday and he went to work. After I got my nails done I couldn't get off the phone. Alot of people called me to wish me a happy birthday and it felt really good to feel the love. I didn't notice how long I was in the phone for until I heard Nils opening the door and realizing it was almost 6pm, time to get ready to go out to dinner to Benihanas.Nils invited Tiffany, Tore, Angel, The Hullingers and Shaun who was in town for work. We all got together and got some really good food. It was nice hanging out with everybody.

Thanks everyone for making this birthday so very special.

Friday, September 17, 2010

California trip

Last week I went to California by myself for my best friend's baby shower. I got to LA on Thursday and hung out with my friend Andrea who picked me up from the airport and took me to the beach close to her new home. It was a beautiful sunny day and we walked on the beach and caught up with each other's life. I was so happy to see her and hang out with her, she's awesome!

On that afternoon my cousin Tata picked me up and took me to his house to meet his newborn baby Gia. We hung out for a couple of hours, and at first his older daughter, Giselle, was a little shy, but eventually she became my best friend. Giselle and Gia are super cute and I really enjoyed spending time with the Rivera family.













That night my brother Pablo and my Dad picked me up and drove me to wonderful Murrieta, where my family was waiting for me with a chocolate cake (my favorite)! My dog Bruno was super excited to see me and couldn't stop jumping on me and licking me. I've never seen him like that before so it was really cute, I wanted to bring him home with me. The next day my cousin Alejandra came over to pick me and my brother Pablo up and went to get her sister Kaddin who is living in the San Diego area. We all went to Pacific beach to eat some lunch at this cute little restaurant by the beach.

After a nice walk on the beach and going to see Alejandra's new place we headed back to Murrieta. That night, the girls and I went to downtown Temecula to meet up with my friend Alicia and her friend Tiffany and got some dinner together.

The next day was already Saturday, baby shower day : ). In the morning my Mom and Ale went to do some shopping for the baby shower. My mom and I were planning to go together to the baby shower, and so we did. We had a good time, even though it felt like it only lasted about an hour. I feel like every time I visit time flies by waaaayyy too fast. I was very happy to see my beautiful friend with her cute belly and hang out with her, I also got to hang out with Jazmine, who I haven't seeing in a very long time. Jazmine took her son and so I got to meet him too, he is 2 years old and super cute. I was in charge of the games and helped out taking pictures of Alicia opening her gifts. She looked so happy and had a good time, all her friends were there and it's always good to know that she enjoyed her baby shower.



After the baby shower, my mom and I went out to dinner to one of my favorite restaurants "Daphne's" that they only have in California. After eating dinner and spending some lovely time with my Mom, we went home to pick up my Grandma and Bruno to go for a walk.
Sunday morning, my Mom and Grandma had to sing at church so I went with them to the spanish branch and saw some people that I really miss. After church we went back home and hung out with the family. Alejandra and Kaddin went over to say bye. My Dad made ceviche and my Mom made chicken and rice. We ate all together and took some pictures. After eating, it was already time for me to pack my stuff and go to the airport. This time was a little harder to say bye to my Mom because we grew so close to each other and I don't know when I'll see her next. It's kind of weird to live so far from each other, I really do hope that changes one day. I loved seeing my family and I wished I could have stayed a little longer but my husband and puppy were missing me too so I had to get back to them. I always love to go to California and see everybody. It was an amazing visit and I hope to go back there again soon.


Thursday, August 26, 2010

Lady GaGa

I have the best friend in the whole world! My friend Angel decided to give me an early birthday gift...to take me to lady GaGa's concert!!!
It was super sweet to give me this gift! We had so much fun at the concert! That day he came over to the house to get his hair blue, thinking "we need to be a little crazy for gaga" but then we arrived at the concert and the blue was nothing! This picture explains it all:
I enjoyed the concert so much! She did such a great show that I became a crazy fan! We dance the whole 2 1/2 hours of the concert and had a blast. So thank you Angel for this unforgettable gift!