Arriving in the jungle.

I flew out of D.C. at 7 a.m. on Saturday, October 8, and met up with the rest of the Peru gang (my parents and my sisters Steph and Erin) in Fort Lauderdale where we had a relaxing five hour layover before our five hour flight to Lima. We were a little skeptical of the Peru tour company we had arranged our trip through but they turned out to be great. We were relieved to find a driver holding a "Robert Olsen x 5" sign when we filed out of the baggage claim. We headed to our hotel and then found a place for dinner where I consumed the largest corn I have ever seen. We only saw Lima in the dark since we headed out first thing in the morning to catch our flight to Puerto Maldonado for our jungle experience. Turns out we would be getting up between 4 and 6 every morning of the trip.

We had a short flight from Lima to Puerto Maldonado. And surprisingly, the small planes/airlines within Peru were much nicer than our international flights (not recommending Spirit Airlines right now). There was a huge temperature change from Lima. It was hot and humid. Our jungle guide, Juan Carlos, picked us up at the airport and brought us to the Wasai Lodge on the river where we were greeted with fruity beverages and began preparations for our journey down the river and our two-night stay in the jungle. We had to quickly consolidate our five suitcases into one since there wasn't enough room on the canoe for all of our luggage. It was a nearly four hour journey down the winding Tambopata River in a motorized canoe to get to our jungle lodge. It was so cool to be so deep in the Amazon Rainforest. We spotted lots of wildlife (including some rarely seen jaguars!!), multiple rainbows, interesting local people, and a beautiful sunset.

We had to stop at a checkpoint somewhere on the river and register our group. After climbing the steep bank, we were rewarded with the coolest passport stamp ever. We arrived at our beautiful lodge just as the sun went down and were greeted with more fruity beverages.

 

Our lunch on the boat was this really yummy rice dish and plantain chips.

There were butterflies EVERYWHERE. This was the only photo I managed.

The check point.

Double rainbow!!

We spotted a mom and baby jaguar on the river bank.

returning/recovering

I've had a hard time adjusting to real life again after spending 9 glorious days in Peru with my parents and two of my sisters. I arrived home from the airport via taxi Sunday night around 11. And Ben left for the airport via taxi at 4:30 a.m. Monday for a business trip to Texas.

The best part about returning was seeing how happy the kids were when they saw me in the morning. Oliver wouldn't stop smiling and the girls wouldn't stop talking, filling me in on all the details of the last week. The first day back felt strange and I had to stop myself from saying "gracias" (which is about the extent of my Spanish). But I was happy to have clean bathrooms stocked with toilet paper. The flight to Lima is fairly short and there is only an hour time difference so I haven't had to readjust much. Just avoiding a massive to-do list and the daunting task of sorting through my 2000+ photos and videos.

The kids had fun receiving/wearing all of their Peru gifts.

Oliver loves his super soft alpaca. Or is it a llama?

Amelia made me this fabulous paper flower bouquet and left me some sweet notes.

hide and seek.

The rain stayed away just long enough for us to enjoy a walk at the National Arboretum between conference sessions Sunday afternoon. We explored the conifer collection and had fun playing hide and seek in the trees. The rain must have scared everyone away because we had the place to ourselves.

like riding a bike.

Amelia has been wanting to learn to ride a bike for a long time now. We tried the "balance method" of removing the pedals on her bike over a year ago but her bike was too big. We pulled out her smaller bike but it needed new tires. And then we just kind of abandoned the process. I think we were dreading it a bit. Amelia can be difficult to teach. She wants to do things perfectly the first time and it can get a bit dramatic (we're still having a major struggle with monkey bars.) We FINALLY got a new tire on her small bike a few weeks ago and had her start riding it without the pedals and training wheels to get the feel for balancing a bike. Saturday afternoon, while Elsa was at a birthday party, we took Amelia out with her bigger bike to see how she would do.

We expected this to be a long process. Multiple practice sessions. And definitely some tears. We were shocked when she was riding on her own within five minutes. No tears. No injuries (which is good since we completely forgot about her helmet). No drama. I was really happy to see her have such confidence in herself. And after about 30 minutes, she was starting and stopping on her own.

And that was it. She can ride a bike. And we're happily checking it off our parent to-do list. We celebrated with pumpkin donuts at Krispy Kreme.

I didn't have my camera so this was all documented with various hipster iphone apps.
(Amelia requested that I make a movie of her riding and put a song in the background. It's a bit lengthy at 2 minutes, but you can enjoy one of my favorite Decemberists songs.)

10 months old.

Oliver started crawling about a month ago. Life was much easier when he wasn't mobile, but he keeps himself occupied more now. It took him about a week of crawling before he realized he could leave the room. He always senses when we have left the bathroom doors open and sneaks his way in...he always goes straight for the toilet brush.

I'm constantly fishing things out of his mouth. The doctor actually found a leaf in the back of his mouth at his 9 month check-up. That was a little embarrassing. He weighed 18 1/2 pounds (25th percentile for height and weight). He had his first ear infection last week and was not happy. The girls never had ear infections so this was a first for us too. But he's back to his happy self now. He has two bottom teeth and two top teeth just poked through. He pulled himself up to standing today. He's a pretty quiet baby and loves attention from his sisters. He's also very ticklish. And he'll eat anything we give him.

We love the smiles and hugs we get from this kid.

I can't deny the cuteness of a baby boy in overalls.