Pura Vida!!

 Lee and I just got back today from an 8 day trip to a place we've always wanted to visit, Costa Rica!

I haven't blogged in forever but I don't want to forget anything so I'm journaling it all.

After months of research, we planned out the "must make/see" stops. We flew into San Jose, stayed the night at the Airport Marriott and woke the next morning to rent our car for the week and headed north to the popular surf town, Tamarindo. (we rented a 4 wheel drive from Budget for a week for around $300 and brought our own GPS that we downloaded maps to before we left)

The GPS said it would take about 3 1/2 hours to get to Tamarindo but clearly didn't take into consideration the 40 different 25 km school zones and buses. 3 1/2 hours turned into 4 1/2.

So picture this - our first real day in Costa Rica. We're so anxious/excited to see this beautiful country and surf at this popular destination. We've been in the car for 4 1/2 hours, much longer than we anticipated, and we pull up to the hotel we booked for our first 2 nights, one of the most highly recommended hotel in Tamarindo by TripAdvisor...

No, I'm not kidding.

 We can laugh now, but after our long drive and built up excitement, we were not laughing at the time. It had more of a "hostel" feel to it, but it was a full fledged hotel.

So, in my opnion, this picture and surroundings is a pretty good representation of Tamarindo.

It's the hot, dry desert part of Costa Rica.

And the beaches...well, they aren't beautiful. Tamarindo beach is similar to some of the not so pretty beaches in san diego.

Anyway, we decided to stay one night just for the experience, and bailed on our non-refundable next night and Tamarindo all together.

BUT...not before getting up the next morning to get in some surfing at Playa Grande on our way out.

It was a nice beach. Not pretty, but the water is warm and we were 2 of abot 6 people on the entire beach. AND, there were some nice roller waves perfect for longboarding.

We left our valuables in our car and parked at the nice people's...house? that we rented the boards from. So this was taken at their place after.

just a little friend we passed on the way to the beach...

On to our next stop...Arenal!

And this time, we weren't disapointed. We added on a night (that we gained from leaving Tamarindo) and stayed 3 nights at the Hotel Silencio Del Campo in our own private cabin nestled into this beautiful scenery.

Now THIS was the Costa Rica I was looking for!

The hotel staff was amazing, the food was superb and there were natural hot springs scattered throughout the property to relax in anytime.

The hotel gave us (me) a complimentary volcano mud facial...heaven!

 While in Arenal (the rainforest part of Costa Rica near the active volcano), we did the hanging bridges, hiked to the La Fortuna waterfalls, and did some amazing white water rafting.

Hanging Bridges - a beautiful hike/walk through the rainforest, crossing several bridges suspended hundreds of feet in the air. It was beautiful! We were fortunate to have met a nice Tico that worked there and pointed out several animals, a wild turkey, an anteater, and a howler monkey that our new friend was kind enough to point out that howler monkeys have white testicles. We looked up. Yep, there they were! Our unofficial tour guide spoke only spanish so Lee did the talking. I heard our friend ask Lee if I spoke spanish and Lee said, "Nah, she just asks people how old they are."

Nice. Thank you Lee.

(When we were in mexico last year, I kept asking everyone "cuantos anos" instead of "cuantos questa" to find out how much everything cost....Lee waited until the end of our trip to tell me I had been asking everyone how old they were instead of the price of what they were selling.)

While at the hanging bridges, it started pouring rain. It made it that much more fun. It was a warm rain and for some reason, it  just felt amazing to be in the middle of the rainforest in the pouring rain.

White Water Rafting - Funnest experience EVER!

We rafted down the Sarapiqui river in class IV rapids. Amazing!

We only lost one paddle and two people...we got them all back. ;)

Pura Vida!!!

 La Fortuna Waterfalls - 

Great hike with LOTS of stairs. We hiked out the back side and then all the way back down again. Great leg workout! ;)

So fun swimming in the waterfall!
The current was so strong, you had to fight just to stay as close as we are, it kept pushing us back to shore.

The night before leaving Arenal, we went back into the little town of La Fortuna and strolled around downtown.
We ate at a local soda (the little mom & pop restaurants the locals open) and found a chocolateria where they make they're own chocolate from hand picked cacao beans! We did a sampling, learned how to make our own chocolate, and brought back some cacao beans to try it! Can't wait!

Typical Costa Rican food, Casado. (casado is a Costa Rican meal using rice, black beans, plantains, salad, a tortilla, and an optional entrée that may include chicken, beef, pork, or fish.)

On to our final destination, Manuel Antonio!

On our way there, we drove through Tarcoles and crossed over this bridge where crocodiles love to gather. They were HUGE! Some were 12-13 feet long!
   

...and since we stopped to see the crocs, why not get something from one of the hundreds of fruit stands? :)

Manuel Antonio had some beautiful beaches! 

The view from our room at Hotel Mariposa. Said to have some of the best views in Manuel Antonio.

Best place to watch the sunsets.

Manuel Antonio National Park - a must see! Hiking/walking trails through beautiful rain forest full of animals, leading to beautiful, warm water beaches. Just before the entrance, Tico's are out trying to hard sell you on a private tour (which takes the price of entrance from $10 a person to $45-50 a person). They tell you you wont see any animals without them and it will be waste. I would say 90% of the tourists went with tours...we went on our own.
And...we saw a huge sloth, a rare agouti (over-sized guinea pig looking animal), several large iguanas (3 feet long), a deer, squirrel monkeys, howler monkeys, and the ever mischievous white faced Capuchin monkeys.
It was fun playing I-spy throughout the jungle!

This is how close we got to the guys! One little guy kept reaching over and pulling some guys hair whenever he would turn around!

K, bare with this video. One little mischievous monkey watched these people put their backpack down at the beach. He waited for them to go into the water, then while looking over his shoulder to make sure no one was watching, scampered over, UNZIPPED the backpack, double checked again to make sure the coast was clear, rummaged through their stuff until he found a bag of individually packaged cheese and crackers and ran off with the loot.
This is the video we took. Its amazing how he opens up the package like a human would do, not like a wild animal!

Our last day in Costa Rica we decided to hike to the Nauyaca Waterfalls.
It was a short 45 min drive from Manuel Antonio, just south towards the little town, Dominical.
We stopped at Don Lulo's and paid the $5 per person entry fee. We were told to drive down and park in the "parking lot", which we somehow missed so we just drove until the road/path became  impassable.

We hiked the rest of the way (about 2.5 km) and saw beautiful, bright colored turquoise butterfly's and hundreds of the tiniest baby frogs you've ever seen, jumping along the path.
The hike took about 30-45 minutes.
We hiked to the lower falls first, where you could swim, and had the falls all to ourselves!


Selfie's under the waterfall!

After cooling off there, we hiked up to the upper falls.



Our hike out was about another 45 min out, then we stopped by the cute little town of Dominical and had lunch a "Porque-no?"  Delicious fresh food, beautiful views, and awesome fresh fruit smoothies...a perfect ending to our last day.

Despite the beautiful views and scenery, and the amazing adventures, by far, my most favorite thing was just getting to be with this guy...all by myself!

So, so grateful for the family and friends that helped out with our kiddos while we were gone, THANK YOU!

He'll be the death of me...



I found this picture on my phone...

Nice.

He and a friend took my phone for a stroll around the neighborhood and graced it with several similar pictures and video of Carson.  You could hear the friend in the background saying, "Wicked! Now try it from over here, Carson!"
 

My pediatrician always said about this kid, "if he doesn't kill himself by the time he's 18, he'll go on to do amazing things."


The death of me I tell you....

Erroneous.

Last night, Bryson came home from swim with his Basha swim cap and jammers for their first meet today.

Lee asked Bryson to take out the trash or something, I can't remember, and he said, "Just a sec, I gotta go put these up so mom doesn't wear them."

 

Huh?

 

Lee laughed and said, "I don't think mom wants to wear your swim cap and jammers."

Bryson - "Yah, last year when i first got my wrestling singlet, she put it on and texted me a picture. I opened it during engilsh and was like 'nooooooooo!'"

 

Erroneous, I say.

I have no recollection of that.

 

However.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parent teacher conferences

Had parent teacher conferences today for my two still in elementary school.

So refreshing to hear things like "I know I'm not suppose to say this, but he truly is my favorite kid".

And "I don't even know what to say about her as far as improvement goes, she is just outstanding in both academics and behavior."

However, my 4th grade daughter's male teacher pulled out a paper the students had to write and said, "I just had to show you this. It kept me laughing all evening!"

The students were suppose to write a letter to this one specific dictionary company and ask that a new word (of their choice) be added to the dictionary and then explain why.

Kendall's letter was as follows:

Dear Ms. Berube,

My name is Kendall Varney. I'm in the 4th grade at Patterson Elementary. I just love your dictionaries, I use them all the time.  I am writing to ask if you could please put the word "YourMom" in the dictionary.

I would like you to put the word "YourMom" in the dictionary because it is fun to say.  Also because it is a good thing to say when someone says, "you're ugly!" You can say, "YourMom is."  See?

Please put this word in your dictionary.  Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Kendall Varney

Mr. Reynolds laughed and went on to say, "Kendall's just so sweet and quiet. I don't know, I guess it just caught me off gaurd. I totally wasn't expecting that, especially from her!"


I nodded my head and said, "Let me just clarify this for you.  She has two older brothers, one almost 13 and one almost 15."

(Isn't it weird how a picture can be worth a thousand words...)

 

 

A child after my own heart...

If you know my two oldest at all, then you know how completely different they are.

When my oldest son was in Jr. High, i would threaten that if he missed the bus, he would have to walk or ride his bike the 3 miles to school.

Worse punishment EVER.

He only had to do it twice in two years because he was mortified at the idea of having to walk or ride his bike to school, people might SEE him. And apparently riding your bike to Jr. High is "gay".

Now son #2 is in Jr. High.

His threat goes more like this "if you are late to first hour one more time, I will make you ride the bus."

On day 3 of school, he was accused of throwing something at somebody on the bus. 

He didn't commit the offense but the "big-faced italian" (obviously not my words) bus driver made him move from the back of the bus with his friends, to the front by himself, right next to him. I'm sure Carson argued all he could with this man (because that's Carson), but the bus driver obviously didn't care at that point.

Carson watched as the bus driver threatened another kid with suspension from the bus when he got off a stop he wasn't "assigned" to get off on, even though it was right across from his house. Carson kind of scoffed and pointed out to the bus driver how ridiculous that was. 

Again, bus driver, not amused.

The next day, Carson went back to his old seat at the back of the bus and the bus driver said, "oh no, kid, this is your new assigned seat, right next to me." 

Again, Carson tried arguing his case, and the bus driver called the vice-principal over.

It was made very clear that regardless of what did or did not happen, regardless of the truth, Carson would be under this man's authority, subject to whatever rule he laid down.

And so, Carson took matter's into his own hands. 

Without making a fuss, or complaining to me, he started riding his bike. 

He went to the bus stop the next day and when the doors opened, he started walking up the steps and then looked at the driver and said, "Oh yah, I forgot. I'm not riding your bus anymore." And turned & walked away.

The bus driver yelled at him and said, "Get back in this bus right now!"

"Nope," Carson said, over his shoulder. And kept walking.

4 weeks into school and that boy rides his bike or walks (flat tire) to and from school everyday in this crazy heat! 

I said, "Carson, you know you're not hurting that bus driver. He could care less if you're on the bus."

He said, "I know."

I said, "Have you ever heard the term 'cut off your nose to spite your face'? Don't you think that's kind of what you're doing?"

"Nah," he said, "it's the principle. I leave for school and come home from school on my terms. And, usually i get home the same time or right before the bus."

"Besides, he added, "i can't help but think this is exactly what you would have done when you were my age."

Little stinker...

I have to hand it to him though, he doesn't care what other people think and he's not easily persuaded.
He is a young man of conviction and that's a great quality to have! :)

Gym buddies...

The chinese guy asked me if I wanted to race today in spin class. :)

See Lee, they do want to be my friends!




Seriously, dude? You think you can beat THIS!?

I was in the zone today in my RPM/spin class.

Had oatmeal for breakfast, got a good bike, I was on.

The instructor was talking about the cyclists in Olympics, getting us all pumped, talking about rounding the corner, picking up speed...

The chinese man next to me bumped my arm.

I smiled, he wants to race.

Ok, little man, it's on!

I took off! All the while making sure my legs were pumping harder and spinning faster than his.

He was focused, kept his eyes straight ahead of him.

Ohhhh, he's good.

He's trying to completely block me out, doesn't want me to get in his head.

I kept my head low and stared over at him, smirking, like, "you better look over here, I'm kicking your booooo-tay!"

And I totally was.

I was pushing harder, my strokes were faster, sweat was dripping...I was clearly winning. 

Whew, we finished!

The song was over and we were instructed to "ride easy".

I leaned over and playfully punched the chinese man in the arm.

I said, "I won!"

He jerked back kind of surprised and said with his brow furrowed, "It's no race. Is for self.

We not here for competition, is just for workout!"

Oops, my bad.

Around my house, EVERYTHING is a competition.

I though he wanted to take me on...