After a full night spent partying outside, it’s hard to wake up. But Hannah can count on Lola to meow into her ears until she rises and tries to shine.

I was already bathing in a pond by the bungalow, and I scrambled eggs and made coffee. The Selvadorada Museum opens at 8:00 and we want to be there before all the other tourists.

The Selvadorada Museum has a partnership with the Windenburg Museum. It’s the reason they flew us here in particular. Hannah has a VIP pass here for as long as the trip lasts. Which means we get in for free.

There are many ancient and/or typically Selvadoradian artifacts on display. Hannah already knows a lot about them, and she explains it all to me. “See Mom, this is the deity of harvest. They said if you angered her, she turned into a literal thunderstorm.”

One of the tourists is not all too happy about the complete absence of any type of guide, but the rest of us just ignore him politely. Hannah is on the phone with her dad anyway.

As we’re heading out of the party at the inn, Hannah runs into an orange, cute floofball.

They bond instantly.

“Oh,” Sara says. “That’s Lola. She isn’t anybody’s cat, she just lurks around her to get food. She… usually doesn’t like anyone though.”

But she likes Hannah. Loves her, in fact.

Immediate best friends.

And just like that, Lola becomes our cat. She starts following Hannah around for the whole trip, and we end up bringing her back home in San Myshuno.

The nights get cold in selvadorada, and we don’t all have a floofy cat’s love to warm us up.

“Are you done playing with your friend, darling?”

“Haha, you’re killing me, Mom.”

Who do you think is dancing the simrumba with bones in their hand? Is it the ancient skeleton, or Hannah Stewarts, heir to an old and respected Windenburg family?

I’ll let you decide for yourself.

Hannah and the rando skeleton are definitely bonding, but I mean at least they’re productive?

Very productive.

Pretty soon, Hannah reaches one of the treasure rooms…

The now-familiar golden light…

Treasure! Hannah can’t wait to share this discovery with the museum.

And now for the second chest…

It’s a… glass bottle?

With it comes a parchment, and written on it in ancient Selvadoradan, it reads, “to come back from the dead”.

Hannah drinks it before I can advise her to be cautious.

She did well — now that she’s got flesh on her body again, I happily hug her.

Then we head back to literally digging around for a while.

She can’t do it all alone, so she does ask for my help.

“To NOT being a skeleton anymore!”

“So I take it you almost died in the jungle again?”

“Oh Sara, you have no idea”

We’ve found the temple again! It’s even more impressive by night, somehow.

Our first trap puts Hannah in an interesting situation. She doesn’t see the hilarity in what she’s doing, but I do.

“… Seriously?”

Apparently Hannah’s old friend had been waiting for her return.

He seems to appreciate her new look.

Hip bump! I mean at least they have something to bond about?…

Anyway, she does end up finding the answer to the puzzle. I guess she had an advantage this time.

We head back to the jungle at dawn. And Hannah has barely opened her first treasure chest of the day that she gets blasted with a rather unfortunate curse.

Long story short, my daughter is now a blue skeleton.

It’s not about to stop her from exploring the jungle, though. In fact, she’s still pretty happy about herself and the circumstances. I admire your optimism, sweetheart.

Somehow bees still think they have a shot at hurting her, in spite of you know, her being made out of bone. She’s prepared anyway, and she chases them away with a special flower Sara gave her.

Treasures are not only found in chests.

While she’s digging in places that seem safer to her skeletonish self, I open a nearby chest.

It’s an actual treasure!

And it comes with a blessing. I feel like I’m going to be happy for the whole trip now!

Hannah is already on the other side of the clearing, macheting away at branches to enable us to go through an archway. I swear, the branches here grow so fast.

I quickly teleport by her side.

Yeah, our being away didn’t last long.

As I mentioned, Hannah’s been in the spotlight of our local museum; and not just that. They held a “history lovers” contest, and she shared her notebooks from our last trip, which won her first prize. What was said prize, you say?

An all-expenses-paid trip to Selvadorada with the parent of her choice.

Can’t describe Hugo’s face when she said she’d rather go with me again.

You may have taught her how to fish, but she knows I know the jungle drill, honey.

Hannah’s starting to get a hang out of the cooking business. She makes us an edible breakfast before we head to the marketplace again.

“I managed to get through to Dad! He says the twins are jealous.”

“They didn’t want to talk to us?” I’m disappointed.

“No, Dad says they’re mad I chose you and not one of them. He says he’s mad too, and I’m not sure he’s kidding.”

“Well I sure am glad we paid extra to get our phones working overseas, that sure was useful.”

Back to this good old inn.

Hannah and Sara are thrilled to see each other again. Surprise!

If we want to go to Selvadorada again, we want to be ready. So Hannah and I start taking our fitness very seriously.

We’ve had this climbing wall in the basement forever; it’s about time we put it to actual use.

Hannah struggles a little more, but she’s determined.

At the end of our days, she’s spent, though.

On the other hand, this is how Cyril and Cleo spend their weekends.

Selvadorada doesn’t leave Hannah’s mind. She writes every day about our expedition, about her findings, about the relics she’s discovered.

She has taken my gift out of the box and unfolded it. It’s an archeology table!

She uses it as soon as she wakes up, and then throughout the whole day when she can.

When she isn’t either at school or using the table, she’s writing about her findings. Even when Nounou gets in her way.

We end up moving it into her room, where the wardrobe used to be, about a forever or two ago.

She’s still using it right before going to bed.

Her dedication pays off; pretty soon she gets a young talents medal from the local museum for her contributions. Her passion is making her grades drop, but we couldn’t be prouder of her.

Cyril and Cleo got used to using their sister’s bedroom whenever.

So she has to go do her back-to-school homework downstairs. I tell her I’m going to get cooking for tonight and, eager for a reason to get out of her maths problem, she jumps at the occasion to tell me she’ll be doing the cooking.

I mean, I let her. Can’t be worse than what I do, can it?

She says she’s planning on a typical Selvadoradan meal.

Ohboi.

Grandma has gone back to live at my childhood home, but she drops around from time to time. She also wants to see photos from the trip.

Hanah’s struggling, and Nounou doesn’t like it.

Oh baby, this… is not supposed to happen.

… Grandma, Hugo and I suddenly realize that we’re not that hungry.

She’s really embarrassed about it.

One plane ride, and there we are; back home again.

I announced the terrible news to Hannah at breakfast before we left, and she cried the whole way home. I had to keep holding it together for her.

And now it gets even harder for her, because on top of that grief, there is the sadness of being back to San Myshuno; specifically the stuck-up, bleak uptown, not to mention going back to a school which she hates.

I got her something before we left, though, something to make her feel like Selvadorada was still with us.

It makes her happier for a minute.

I’m so happy to see my other two babies!

Cyril is mostly happy to see our holiday pictures.

I also find my husband again. Selvadorada was great, but this feels like home.

Hannah’s jet-lagged and goes straight to bed.

It’s tough to get used to this again, especially when everything’s different for us now.