Enchanted Rock

During the last week of December we took a short trip to Fredericksburg, TX. Fredericksburg is a town started by German immigrants in the mid 1800s. It is a nice looking town and it's famous for its wineries.

We stayed in a cute Bed & Breakfast in the countryside:

We had a chance to BBQ and Lucas experienced fireworks for the first time:

We hiked to the top of the Enchanted Rock, a nice gigantic pink granitic pluton formation located just North of Fredericksburg. Robert was prepared to carry Lucas:

But after Lucas finished eating some snacks he was ready to hike to the top:

We made it to the top!! The weather was perfect, the view was awesome, we really had a good time. We need to get out of Houston more often!!

Log Cabin

Robert had always dreamed about having a log cabin in the mountains. He used to tell me that when he was in the ARMY he to collected pictures of cabins on the woods. Many years later, one of his geology professors took him to Westcliffe in Colorado.  It was love at first sight, since that day his dream had a geographical position, he wanted a log cabin in the mountains of Westcliffe. So, me being the good & supportive wife I am ;) followed his dream too.

Initially we wanted to build our dream cabin but because of many circumstances we ended up buying one already built.  We bought it online, and took a trip in October to see it. Here some pictures so you can see it too.

 Living & dining room:

Tiny kitchen:

I

The attic:

The Websters:

We had a little memorial for Boone and buried his ashes in our land. I'm sure that's where he wanted his remains to be placed, somewhere in the mountains where he was so happy. He was Robert's field geology partner during Robert's thesis (in Colorado).

Westcliffe is a small charming town about 1.5 hours Southwest of Colorado Springs.  There many lakes around for fishing, and national forest for hunting. It's about 50 minutes drive to the closest ski area.

The town is small, this picture is taken in the main street and if you'd follow the yellow lines you would end up in our cabin on the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains,  across the Valley(~5 miles drive).  In the same picture, towards the left, behind some small branches, you can see some abandoned ski lanes, but due to global warming the ski area closed many years ago.

We hope we can enjoy this cabin for many years and have family and friends over.

I love our new house

We bought a nice house, it's not the perfect house but it has really nice touches. Here some pics from the listing website. We will change the color of the walls.

The neighborhood is great, with so many small kids. Lucas has some friends already and the neighbors seem really nice and welcoming.

Relocation Update

We moved back to Houston over a month ago. We are still in temporary living in an apartment across the street from the office. We bought new cars, and found a school for Lucas. He still misses his friends from Denmark and that breaks my heart. He says we wants to go to school but what he really means is to his old school, he keeps naming his old friends. I keep telling Robert that I will move again in 15 years, when Lucas is 18 hehehe, it's just harder on him than on us, and that makes it harder on us... a bad domino effect. Also at the beginning he lost his appetite, I think the food just tasted different, now he's eating almost normal.

My Mom was with us the whole month of July helping us to take care of Lucas while we found a school. I thank her so much for that. I love also the idea that Lucas is creating a strong bond with her. I just don't like the idea of Lucas growing up with only strong attachments to Robert & I.

We are still working on getting a house but at least we have really clear now that we want to live close from the office. So for the people familiar with Houston, we are looking on Bellaire, a nice, traditional, family neighborhood, relatively close to downtown.

Nos mudamos de vuelta a Houston ya hace un mes.  Estamos todavia en vivienda temporal en un apartamento al frente de la oficina. Ya compramos carros y encontramos un colegio para Lucas.  Lucas todavia extrana mucho sus amiguitos de Dinamarca, y eso me parte el corazon, dice que quiere ir al colegio, pero al de Dinamarca. Todavia casi todas las noches antes de dormirse habla de sus amiguitos. Yo le digo a Robert que no me quedaron ganas de volver a trasladarme de ciudad, que por ahi en 15 anos que Lucas ya tiene 18 hehehe. Ha sido mas duro para Lucas, lo que hace que sea mas duro para nosotros, como un efecto domino. Al principio tambien perdio un poco el apetito con el traslado, yo creo que porque la comida le sabia diferente, pero ya esta comiendo mejor.

Mi mama estuvo con nosotros todo el mes pasado, ayudandonos a cuidar a Lucas mientras le encontrabamos colegio. Estoy muy agradecida con ella por habernos ayudado. Y tambien me encanta la idea que Lucas cree vinculos fuertes con ella.  No me gusta la idea de que los unicos lazos afectivos fuertes que tenga Lucas seamos solo Robert y yo. 

Todavia estamos tratando de encontrar casa, pero ya al menos tenemos muy claro que queremos vivir cerquita de la oficina. Para los que conocen Houston, estamos buscando casa en Bellaire,  que es un barrio bonito, tradicional y para familias y esta ubicado relativamente cerca del centro. 

Time to go back

Our expat journey has come to an end. After months of debating and changing our minds back and forth we have decided to move back to Houston.  It has been almost 5 years since we left the US and 7 years since we left Houston. I am happy and sad at the same time. Happy to be closer to my family & friends in US and Colombia. And I am sad to leave Denmark and the nice Scandinavian lifestyle.


As expats we had many experiences that enriched our personal and professional lives. I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity of doing it and so lucky that I got to do it in wonderful cities (Buenos Aires & Copenhagen). Probably we will do it again (if a good opportunity comes along) but for now... I'm craving roots!!

Nuestro tiempo como expats ha llegado a su fin. Después de varios meses de discutir si devolvernos o no, decidimos volver a Houston. Ya han pasado casi 5 años desde que salimos de USA y 7 años desde que nos fuimos de Houston.

Estoy feliz y  triste al mismo tiempo. Feliz de estar más cerca de mis amigos y familia en USA y en Colombia, fY triste de irme de Dinamarca y dejar el estilo de vida escandinavo.

He disfrutado mucho los últimos cinco años. Como expat he tenido muchas experiencias que han enriquecido mi vida personal y profesionalmente.  Me siento muy agradecida de haber tenido esta oportunidad y también me siento muy afortunada porque pude hacerlo en dos ciudades maravillosas (Buenos Aires y Copenhague).

De pronto algún día seamos expats de nuevo, si una buena oportunidad se presenta, pero de momento yo lo que quiero es echar raíces!!

So I guess I will have to change the name of our blog.

Lunch at work the Danish way

Most of the companies in Denmark have a canteen. It is a system created by the employes for the employes. It is non-profit so the only objective is to provide healthy, affordable and convenient breakfast and lunch for the workers for about US$65/month.

My office has a wonderful canteen and I love to have lunch there. We always go down stairs by groups,  it's a good way to chat and laugh a little bit in the middle of the work day.

Lunch consists of the following, a series of salads and vegetables:

A warm entry, some kind of meat and a side dish:

More side dishes and usually another meat alternative, Danes love fish & seafood, those were crab rolls:

Always fresh home made bread and cheeses:

Fresh baked bread

Fruits and carrots for you to take back to your desk so you can snack in the afternoon. Although every morning  they  put trays of fresh fruit close to the coffee machines. 

The day I took the pics they had some cake too:

For drinks they have milk, water and soft drinks. 

Ohhh I will miss those lunches!!! and my lunch mates too!!

Venice & Rome

My Mom came to visit and wanted to go to Rome & Venice. We thought that Rome with Lucas was too much based on our experience in Paris last year. So we decided that it was better if my Mom & I went alone to Rome and then Lucas & Robert will join us in Venice.

Rome is my favorite city and I was more than pleased to go back.  We even we visited places that were new for me.  Here some of the typical pictures of a Rome visit.

Walking round Rome

Inside the Coliseum

Trevi Fountain

Then we took the train to Venice to join Robert & Lucas.

Lucas & Grandma in a Gondola

Venice is so romantic that maybe next trip should be just the two of us ;)