One of Reni's best buddies has a birthday the day after his. Last year, they celebrated down in Albania. This year was our turn to head up to Kosova!
After the lockdown, we have never relished travel and a change of scenery more (I'm sure we're not the only ones!).
We had a wonderful time with our friends there. They have a wonderful grassy back yard -- a bit of a luxury in our part of the world -- so we brought some plastic for a slip 'n slide. We also played games, watched a kids movie, had coffee in the Rugove (a canyon just outside their town), and enjoyed some yummy local food. Because of the status of construction in the village, we didn't feel like we could be away more than a couple of nights.
After the lockdown, we have never relished travel and a change of scenery more (I'm sure we're not the only ones!).
We had a wonderful time with our friends there. They have a wonderful grassy back yard -- a bit of a luxury in our part of the world -- so we brought some plastic for a slip 'n slide. We also played games, watched a kids movie, had coffee in the Rugove (a canyon just outside their town), and enjoyed some yummy local food. Because of the status of construction in the village, we didn't feel like we could be away more than a couple of nights.
Girls gotta stick together!
Nathan brought some ingredients and an idea from the internet to create this Minecraft inspired brownie sword cake!
For one day they are the same age :-)
https://youtu.be/qCWiDm2O9DY
I had to include this photo of Reni double-fisting the brownie squares (below). I mean, when there are five other kids competing for a limited number of sweet chocolate bites...
I think he liked it!
Later the adults grabbed macchiatos. Which I later regretted when I could. not. go. to. sleep.
The art school in their town recently moved into a new building and their neighbor is the principal. He saw us on the street and invited us into see the last student exhibit. It was pretty incredible -- unfortunately this is the only photo I took (below). :-)
Our time flew so quickly. Impulsively, we arranged for our friends' two middle boys (a year older and 6 months younger than Reni), to come back to Albania with us for a week. I used to do "cousin swaps" growing up and this felt a lot like my childhood. The kids were thrilled!
Because the boys are minors (and we were not meeting half way between Chicago and Peoria but crossing an international border), their parents accompanied us to the border to walk them across. Just before reaching the border, we stopped in Prizren (about 15 minutes from the border) for lunch at a new shopping center. Wow! It was beautiful! We snapped some family pics with the birthday boys.
Once the boys were across the border and in our car, the fun really started...
We had barely entered Albania when we got behind a slow car in a construction zone driving up a mountain. Our vehicle immediately lost power and the temperature gauge shot to the top. We immediately pulled over to let the engine cool.
We did this twice, with each stop lasting more than an hour. The two hour trip from the border took closer to five!
The kids were extremely patient. Thankfully, some kind souls at the second stop had an idea that we might have an airlock in the hose that circulates the coolant (or something like that). The patiently flushed out all the hot water and refilled it with cold water and we were good to go. The rest of the trip home was downhill from there (literally)!
We later got the 17-year-old car checked out and the mechanic discovered something wrong with the circulation system and was able to repair it.
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