Last night, after over 20 years, I met my Aunt Ilse. Ilse is my mother's sister and also my Godmother. Aside from a few pictures of my Catholic baptism and a few other ones strewn about, I haven't seen her since my family left Venezuela. I was so excited and happy at meeting her. My wonderful cousin Monsi invited Matthew and me over for dinner and to meet our Aunt who had been in town for the week. It was great meeting her because it's so nice to reconnect with that side of my family and get to know my mom a little more through that extension.
Something we learned is that Munchmeyer women are inherently similar in their personalities. Warm, kind, beautiful, a little eccentric and nervous creatures, but overall - absolutely wonderful! So many of the mannerisms i've picked up from my mother are seen in most of the Munchmeyer women. And for better or worse, i'm looking forward to becoming like them.
I also got to meet Monsi's awesome step sons - David and Cristian. They were really kind and connected well with Matthew. Thank goodness for the international male language of sports. Though most of the conversation was dominated in Spanish, my aunt spoke German with Matthew and David Jr. kept the conversation going in English with him. Monsi shared her wonderful cooking skills with us and made us some Venezuelan food... Arepas! Mmmm...:) She also shared their limited supply of Toddy which Matt found he loved more than regular American Chocolate milk. We also got to see little Ilse (Monsi's daughter) in her wonderful dress up outfits. She was Cinderella, a ballerina, and her cute peace outfit. She really is a little doll.
Ilse- My Aunt and Godmother.
My Taunte Ilse and us
From left to right and front David (Jr)- Monsi's step son, David - Monsi's husband, Cristian - Monsi's step son, Taunte Ilse, Little Ilse - Monsi's daughter, Me, Matthew, and my Cousin Monsi
Monsi's daughter Ilse and me.
Yesterday was a bit of a scramble for us. We had planned for a beach trip in the morning and after a mad scramble of finding our beach towels, packing a lunch, and figuring out how to use our new sun -umbrella. We were on our way. The weather was wonderful and thanks to a sun block of SPF 90 - we had no burning happen :)
Ft. Lauderdale Beach
In March, the sea turtles come and lay eggs on the beach. All over the beach are these roped off sections protecting their eggs.
They say that the eggs typically hatch in October. We hope to go out and watch the little "Crushes" swim out.
Sand, sand, everywhere... this was our faces after discovering that you can't avoid getting it in everything.
We love our sun!
We made friends with some tourists from Michigan who volunteered to take pictures of our pasty selves... Hopefully in a few months we'll darken up a bit.
For some reason, we always do these really awkward prom poses... even at the beach...
I asked Matt to do his "man" pose and he went straight into a tackle.
When I asked him to give it another shot, he wanted to show off some leg.
Enjoying our day...
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