La Paz Gardens

La Paz Gardens and waterfalls were Collin's favorite. Even when a crazy parot decides he want to eat Collin's hat.
And when a crazier toucan thinks he's like to nibble on dad's toes (you should see the video - pretty funny stuff.)He got to see, and hold, many different kinds animals: tree frogs,
macaws, (notice they always stay in pairs - how romantic :)

butterflies and his favorite - the toucan!
And of course Collin made more friends. He even exchanged e-mail addresses with the girl working in the snake house.
There are 5 beautiful waterfalls that you can walk by after seeing all the local animals and insects.
Crazy Monkey-boy
On the way home they stopped by a little restaurant that was closed for a employee party. That didn't stop Collin from playing with a little 2 yr old who ended up being the owner's grandson. Once the owner was done eating he made Chad and Collin some great food for cheap then motioned them to follow him across the street. In the backyard of his house a friendly dog came up to welcome them ... then a friendly deer did the same thing. Seems they have a semi-pet deer that they feed. So Collin got a chance to hand feed him too.

Arenal

Summer is the rainy season - so they were pretty much wet constantly... but they still went swimming or to the beach or river nearly every day

Cute picture, though I am curious what my six year old is doing in a bar :) I'm as curious as you are to hear the story of this one... The boys were only home for a day before they left again so I didn't get all the stories yet.
They were able to swim in a warm river that was heated from the volcano. Chad had warned Collin not to swim too close to the waterfall under the road just before Collin disappeared from sight. Chad found him at the bottom of the, luckily little, waterfall. He was fine except for a few scratches on his stomach.
At Arenal there are dozens of bridges transversing the many rivers (they don't call it a rain forest for nothing) Chad informed me that right after this picture was taken Collin's foot slipped under the fencing - not to worry though, it was only a 200 foot drop into crocodile infested water...
On their way in a man stopped them to point out a cool snake... a eyelash viper - yep, very poisonous.
I'm sure Collin is much further away than he seems in this picture... I hope!
In order to keep Collin busy Chad created a game where Collin got points for finding cool things - frogs (which are hard to find since they're nocturnal) leaf cutter ants, butterflies, insects longer than my finger, monkeys, more poisonous snakes...

Sarchi

In Sarchi there's a Ox Cart Factory that uses no electricity (Ok, I think there are 1 or 2 light bulbs) All the machines are run by a water wheel that turn rods that power the machines.
Downstairs you can watch the artists paint the intricately painted carts.
This is the one on display in Sarchi... I've seen pictures of when they bring it out for parades... you should see the oxen - jk
Chad & Collen on the yoke.
Collin was a trouper. He's get in the car and just ask, "So, where are we going on an adventure today? He & his Dad had a great time. Chad likes to keep busy and they found things that few tourists do. They had a memorable vacation!

My Boys are Home

Collin & Chad got back safe tonight from Costa Rica...yeah!
I'm sure you'll see many pictures and stories from their adventures but we haven't even unpacked the car yet so it will take some time to go through all the pictures to share with you...

Thanks Marj - Collin Loved It!

I want to thank Marjorie for her wonderful job. I've saved it so you may see it again in the future. Now that she's shown me how to change things on my own I need to play with it a little... Don't be surprised if it's a rain forest animals motif next month...

Kelsey + Karissa + Addison = Cute Pics

Today we went over to Karissa's house for a a Piggy & Paws Party (I'll tell you about it later). Uncle Matt was great pushing Kelsey & Karissa in the swing,

The girls wanted to play dress up... I think Karissa's princess dress looks familiar.
I guess not all princesses want to be kissed
Kelsey was so excited to hold baby Addison
Addison is too small to stop K from kissing her :)

So Sweet!

This is the header I came up with but I really like the dino motif for Collin -- I'll save this one for another time.

Keeping Busy

Kelsey wanted to dress up like a 50's style house wife...
I'd show you a picture of the "after" shots of her hair after the curlers - but it pretty much looks like the "before" pictures. But this is a "before" we cut her bangs...
We walked over to IZ's house and Jessica trimmed K's bangs and french-braided her hair.
Even though Kelsey normally runs the whole way, she still takes time to stop and smell the wild flowers.

Happy Pioneer Day

Kelsey played some pioneer games
Kelsey, Micah, Avarie, Duncan & Simon
After a fabulous tri-tip dinner K played with her cousins.
K saw some kids rolling down the hill and tried it... It took her a while before she got the hang of it. Duncan was coaching her, "You have to be more vertical..." I'm sure she knew exactly what he meant.
The whole time they were trying to get her to give them hugs. She finally did when it was time to say goodbye. Duncan even got a kiss or two.

What the girls have been up to while the boys are away...

We went to the park with Kelsey's buddies, Ethan and Isaac.
Kelsey decided to take a nap in my clean laundry... no wonder it takes me so long to get it all folded and put away...
Kelsey helped mom go to the cemetery and take pictures to upload onto findagrave.com ... ok, it's a strange hobby but I'm not the only one - most of the top contributors have submitted over 50,000 names! Way to go!
Kelsey attempted to put her shirt back on... she did ok but somehow when she was trying to put her arms it the shirt got turned upside-down and inside-out.
So, We're missing the boys but I know they're having fun. Kelsey and Collin have still been able to talk (yell) to each other on the phone every night so far which they've both enjoyed. I've enjoyed that it's only for a few minutes then all is quite and peaceful again ... everything has a silver lining, eh.

The Boys in Costa Rico

The boys left Monday night for Costa Rica to visit the grandparents (see their blog at the left) While my parents were working Chad and Collin went to a local Butterfly farm. Collin was excited to find all sorts of butterflies, one even while it was laying eggs!
He got to hold the caterpillars and the butterflies and learn all about them.
So far, day one has been lots of fun. Besides the butterfly farm they also got to go swimming - until the electrical storm drove them inside. Tomorrow they're doing more sightseeing and if my mom is as fast at posting to her site as she was today I'll be able to send you some of the pictures as well...

Our Cousins

Gena, Thanks for sending me a clearer picture!

We met some new cousins this weekend. Ok, I met them but Chad hasn't seen them for over 30 years. Imagine our surprise to learn that Jim only lives about 15 minutes away from us! (Sorry about the blur - my I've been using Collin's camera and it gets dirty sometimes...)
Jim, Kayla, Gena & Chad.
Kissing cousins.
Alaina & Kelsey are first cousins but Collin was trying to figure out what Gena was to him (because, of course, he's fascinated with her). Is she his second cousin or first cousin once removed? He just decided that she was his oldest cousin - not counting her older brother, I guess, or any of my cousins... He loves having such a big family. Once on the beach he met these kids and introduced them to me as his cousins: Miguel, Keana & Kim (most of the kids he had played with up to that point were actually his cousins so he just assumed everyone else was too.)

Happy Forth of July!

This morning we went to the flag raising ceremony and pancake breakfast. We had alot of fun and Collin was able to ride his scooter in the parade. He didn't want to ride on the dirt path but then figured out he could ride around on the 4 inch cement border and go pretty fast.

In the afternoon we had a fun swim and BBQ with Kayla and the kids and Grandpa Lonnie. Instead of going to the fireworks we climbed the very steep hill behind our house and watched the local firework show. Quite a day - we're all sunburned, smell of bug spray and my toes hurt from hiking down the hill in the dark... a wonderful 4th of July all around!
Hope yours was great too.