Having slept in the same bed for 46 days in a row now,  I can say that our Central American adventure is pretty firmly in the rear view mirror.  In this case, objects there appear farther away than they really are.   It seems like much more than a month and a half ago that I attempted scary things like speaking Spanish or lowering myself down a 300-foot cliff.

Our lives have not been fully devoid of adventure, mind you.  They’re just not the kinds of things that cause us to rush to the keyboard and pound out a blog post.  For the sake of a little closure, though, I’ll give a little glimpse of what we’ve been up to now that we’re back in the US.

The Internet was practically made for kitten pictures.

First and foremost we’ve added two kittens to our family.  They arrived on Mother’s Day.  Ebby and Ivory are sisters, though the family resemblance is minimal.  They like to scamper around all day and pounce around the girls’ bedrooms all night.

Lanie has officially seceded from Zoe’s bedroom, moving into the spare room that frequently houses Grandma when she visits.  Grandma still gets the room when she’s up, and Lanie gets a futon in Zoe’s room

Lanie’s new crib

Bedroom configurations and re-decorations were very hot topics of conversation during our various hikes last winter/spring.  Until today no paint had been splashed, but lots of furniture has been swapped around and lots of unused items have made their way to the Swap Shop. While there have been a few sleepover parties, the “Welcome Home Pavliks” party we planned to throw ourselves has not yet materialized.   These were the three things that got covered most during our downtime in Central America — bedrooms, sleepovers and picnics.

Thinning the peach tree

I, on the other hand, took to plotting my own projects while we hiked.  So far projects #1, fixing up the chicken coop, and #2, re-repairing the chainsaw, have both been accomplished.  Next is drying out and disposing of old paint cans in the garage.  Adventurous stuff, I know.  I’m sure you can’t wait for that blog post.

Just today we painted the basement.

Practically the moment we got off the plane, Jen negotiated for and bought a replacement for the beloved Saturn Rocket.  Not only was the clock ticking because she needed a way to get to work on Monday,  she also rigged the trip to end at the end of the month, when the best car deals are available. The new Honda does not have a cool name yet, but it does had bluetooth phone connection and a gauge that tells you what your gas mileage is in real time.  Jen surprised us all by pickings silver over blue.  Sadly, the midnight purple would have required a greater capital outlay.

Everyone folded back rather seamlessly into school and work.

Lanie’s violin recital went well — thanks in part to all the practicing on the road.

There were  a few productive weeks for the girls before the school year began to fizzle out.  We experienced field trips a-plenty to go along with all the places we visited in Central America.

Zoe and the ORMS Jazz Band and Studio Orchestra performed this month at the Portsmouth Music Hall.

In May, Zoe even got  back into an airplane for a trip to Disney World with the rest of her middle school jazz band and studio orchestra. Nadia has been down to Boston twice since we met Sam at the luggage carousel on the second to last day of April.

The girls are looking forward to a new adventure — a two-week sleep-away summer camp at the end of July for all three of them.  I wonder if they’ll blog about it?

Nadia rode in her first big horse show last month.

That leaves Jen and me with some time on our hands.  We’ve already got an idea for an outing that might make for interesting reading.  Tune in again in a few weeks for more details.