Quatro

Let's wrap things up shall we?  Our last few days were spent just outside the kicked back town of Peurto Viejo.   On our way there, we did a little white water rafting.  And when I say little, I mean the same river they did the world championships of rafting just the week prior - class three and fours!!  There was a split decision amongst John and I as to whether this was fun or not.  As adventuresome as I am, I was in the HELL NO, NEVER AGAIN CAMP.  John was in the when can I come back and take my boys down this river camp!!  

I was happy though, to get to kick back and enjoy my reading to the sweet sounds of the jungle after a life flash before my eyes kind of a day.

I love every minute of Arenal and all of the adventures we had, but this is what I was waiting for..... relaxing at the beach!  

We rented bikes from our hotel and headed to the beach, and then went into town and had a fabulously fresh red snapper dinner.

I didn't take pictures, but one of those boats to the left caught our snapper and the restaurant bought it from them that very afternoon.  It was probably the freshest fish I've ever had, and oh so yummy.

John and I are so grateful to his Mom Lois for flying out for the week to watch our crazy kiddos.  While she was doing laundry and driving carpool, changing diapers and walking the dog, we got to enjoy beautiful sunsets and enjoy ourselves for a full week.  Thanks Lois!!

Tres

So the fun did not stop at flaming dinners my friend.  One beautiful day we headed off to my favorite adventure on our trip - zip lining!

 

We went up a mountain on a tram and were greeted with an old man serving up a smoothie and offering to take pictures.  

  

We went on 8 zip lines, one of them being over 1/2 mile long.  You could get up to 50 mph on that baby!  

For me, the best part was right in the middle when I was zooming through the sky and feeling the breeze on my face as I took in the view.   If I looked to the right, you could see Lake Arenal, and to the left was the beautiful landscape, and below, well I didn't really do that! 

   

Another exciting part was at the end when you were at top speed and you had to go spread eagle to slow down.  Every time it felt like you just might not stop in time.  

Another day we took a gorgeous hike up to the Lava Fields of Arenal Volcano.  

We  lucked out and had an awesome tour guide who taught us all about the vegetation and landscape of the area.   Our luck stopped short at getting a view of the volcano on our hike.  It's right behind us, you'll just have to use your imagination!

Dos

After our Canyoneering excursion, we were dropped off at the beautiful Nayara Arenal Hotel.  It was ranked one on trip advisor, and it did not disappoint.  Check out the view from the bed.  Pretty amazing right?

I felt like we were on a cruise.  Every day we would come back to find a towel creation.  This one was my favorite.  

We stayed pretty busy, but we did make sure we got a little lounging time by the pool.  

It was crazy how much wildlife surrounded us.  If you look close, you'll see a little white rabbit and a parrot in this pic.  

Part of our hotel room.  What you don't see is a hammock and hot tub on the deck outside, and an enormous bathroom with both an inside and outside shower.  

One night we went into town and ate at a place that was recommended by the hotel.

We were kickin' back downing coca-cola classics when in walks this bad boy like he owned the joint.....   No one seemed to care but me.  The locals didn't bat an eye.  Not me though, I was on the floor taking pictures of a random cat.  Now that I think of it, I was probably making more of a scene than the stray cat.

Throughout the trip, John was an ordering genius.   This time was no exception.  We laughed so hard thinking about how his food came out in all of it's flaming glory, and mine looked like it came from Denny's.   

Denny's special of the day:  

Don't you waste time feeling sorry for me about the blue plate special......everything tastes better when you are on vacation.

That time we went to Costa Rica

 At the risk of sounding redundant for those who know me......John and I went to COSTA RICA!!!  We had a fabulous time.  Words can't describe the beauty, or at least mine can't, so I'll just give you a little play by play of our adventures and let the pictures do most of the talking.

We flew into San Jose Sunday night and stayed at a little place call Hotel Los Volcanes.  It was a cute little place that was once a mansion and has been converted into a hotel.  We woke up early (for vacation standards) and a excursion travel bus picked us up to transfer us to La Fortuna.  The beauty of a transfer excursion is that you get to kill two birds with one stone.  First, you do some rad activity, and then they take you to your hotel.  

For our first excursion, we chose to go canyoneering.  It's essentially a little hiking as you repel down a series of beautiful waterfalls.  

Here's John getting in on the repelling action.  He really wanted to go head first, but the guides wouldn't let him.  (thanks Jose)

 It was a blast.  I felt a little like the paparazzi was hounding me though.  They had a couple professional cameramen there to take your pics along the way.  It's hard to look this good while contemplating death by waterfall.  For reals.

I think I am pretty much required by law to write this next sentence:  LOOK MA, NO HANDS!!!

Another fun spot was when they had a two guys go upstream and block off the water for a couple minutes.  They had us sit down in the stream and wait for the surge of freezing cold water.  It was so refreshing!  

The couple at the top of this picture were from England.  They were honeymooning for three weeks and found it pretty depressing that we only had one week to "go on holiday."  Poor me, I only got to spend a week in paradise.  

More to come about the rest of my short and depressing holiday.

I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel

Ten points to anyone who can name that movie line.....So this weekend was awesome!!  Why you ask, well I got a sweet camera.  It's a Canon Rebel T2i baby!  Can I get a woot woot?!!  I convinced John that for our upcoming ULTIMATE vacation, that we needed the ULTIMATE camera.  I've had it for a few days and have been playing around with it a little so I'll kind of know how to use it by the time our trip rolls around.  I've taken a few pictures and could immediately see the drastic improvement from our old point and shoot we had to a DSLR.  

This is Jackson during conference this weekend.  He was playing bingo for cookies and was pretty ticked that it was taking so long for one little cookie.  Can you see it?

Today Sadie, Max and I took a walk down a trail near our house.  I got a few good ones of Sadie, and then immediately messed them up trying to edit them.  She looks a little too white, no?

I thought this one was pretty good of little Maxers and Gator.  Note to self: Max will be happy to pose for you if you let the dog be in the picture.    

I love my Rebel already, it's just a bit overwhelming thinking about how much there is to learn.  Wish me luck....cuz I'm going to need it!     

Dinning Room Accessories

One of my most recent projects has been the dining room.  So far I've painted and made curtains.  It still pretty bare and I haven't figured what to put up on the walls and if we have room for a buffet or anything like that.  This is where my 9 year old obsessed with space comes in.   A while back, Jackson set his eyes on a telescope at Costco.  He saved his Christmas, Birthday, and allowance to earn enough cash to buy it.  It took a long time, and we were all so happy and excited to get it.  Well it turns out that it was a big bomb, and didn't live up to the hype.  This didn't deter Jackson a bit.  He decided to save up a little more and upgrade to this beauty.  

He's had it for less than a week, and loves it.  So far he's spotted Jupiter, a double star,  and and can't wait for the moon to be in sight before his bed time!  

 

 I'm so proud of Jackson for aiming high, setting and following through on his goal.  He is one determined kiddo.  It doesn't end here though, he already has his eyes on bigger and better one.  This one will take years and years to save for......and this time won't fit in my dining room.  

Thanks Jackson for helping out with the dining room.......one less spot for me to worry about decorating!  

Something is different around here

Have you noticed? Yep, the music is gone. While you wipe the tears away, I'll explain why. So a few days ago I was reading this blog about the 10 most annoying things you come across on blogs and music was one of them. It included tons of follow up comments from readers saying how they hate it royally. I guess reading and listening to music is too hard for some. CONFESSION: I am like a 14 yr old girl and have always wondered if my blog were a person, would it sit at the cool kid table for lunch. In an effort to maintain my cool kid/blog status in my head, I've decided to take down the music. Don't worry though, I will post some tunes occasionally that I just can't get out of my head and deem worthy of all of my 5 readers. To start off I'll show you this little ditty.

A few weeks back I went to the Weezer concert at the Great Minnesota get together. I loved every minute of that sweaty mess. Men's armpits in my face were involved, and I still enjoyed myself thoroughly. We started out in the back and squeezed our way to the middle of the pack. I had a plan to get to the front that is pretty much fail proof: wait for a mosh pit to start, and then bolt forward as fast as you can before it dies down. We ended up about 5 people from the front, which is perfect because if you are too close, you will get so cramped it's hard to breathe. What made it doubly awesome is that they decided to cover Foster the People's Pumped up kicks song (which I happened to have on my blog at the time) My phone can't record for very long, so here is a little clip....