The Tsaturyans: Summer Vacation

Monday, December 1, 2014

Summer Vacation

Here we are in December and I've decided to reclaim my blog! Hello again, long lost friends with whom I do not communicate on Facebook! :)

There's a lot to catch up on. We'll start with summer. Due to the timing of family being in one place and stuff, we didn't take our vacation until school pretty much started here in Guyana, so my kids missed the first week or two of class. Totally worth it. The portion of the summer that we did spend here in Guyana was filled with lots of swimming at the pool, a trip or two to the movie theater, getting together with the few friends that did not abandon the country for the school break, etc.

The kids did do a small summer art program with a teacher from their school. It was very low key, but it offered a little diversion.

Jasmine would (and still does) join me on my outings to get milk from the local dairy. They sell cow milk, but this goat was hanging around too.

"Fun City" is also one of the few places around town to go to with kids.

Our friend had a special iftar (breaking of the fast) during Ramadan and invited us to it…yummy!

Sisters' swim.

Ladies' luncheon.

The lady who hosted the luncheon has awesome fruit trees in her yard. Here are some Suriname cherries and whiteys.

We built a playground with our neighbors. :)

Doesn't get any better than this.

Or this.

Transformers birthday party. Kids had to assemble themselves into a transformer. Love how Jasmine is having a hard time making an "angry" face, as instructed.

Piñata time

This happened for the first--and probably last--time. Fun and pretty but oh-so-impractical.

Trying to keep cool with an ice-related activity.

Or you can just soak in a Rubbermaid container.

More mangoes from our yard…and carambola (star fruit).

So, the vacay. We started out by heading to Orlando via Trinidad. I went to the annual Zumba Convention and Sevak went to Disneyworld with the kids (his parents met us in Orlando and hung out at Disney with them). Sevak and a couple of the kids were sick for a bit, but they plodded through and still had a really fun time. I really enjoyed the convention, as well. It got me really pumped to up my Zumba ante. My enthusiasm is dwindling a little bit now…might have to go to another convention soon. For some reason I am lacking photos of the Florida part of our trip. I think Sevak has many on his phone. But just imagine some good times.

Then we flew to California. Man, was it awesome and surreal to be back home. I'm just gonna throw some pictures up here and caption them. Not necessarily in chronological order.

Rose got to reunite with her two little friends Ruby and Zoe (this was at Simon's birthday party at Super Franks).

Poor little buddy was sick at his birthday…here he is wearing his jacket to combat chills.

The pitiful thing…probably couldn't fully enjoy the reunion with his friend Bridge. Rose is handling the photo op for him.

Visited Sevak's parents in San Francisco one day. Of course his mom cooked up a bunch of delicious things for us.

The Exploratorium…really fun museum.

On the way back to SoCal we drove down the coast. Here is Pismo Beach.

Finally checked out Ostrichland.

Perfecting the tourist look in Solvang.

Gotta get your fill of pastries in Solvang...

…Unless you're my kid, in which case you choose an artificially colored and flavored popsicle.

Ebelskivers

My cute mom made a chart with certain actions the kids could fulfill to redeem prizes.

We helped my dad move some stuff out of one of their storage units into another. Here Jasmine is, crammed amongst some things in the van. Can't remember why she was sad.