Costa Rica

We took a trip to get out of the cold and decided on Costa Rica. It was one of the most beautiful places we have ever been and would go back in a second. We stayed at the Marriott in Gaunacasta, it was only a year and a half old and was amazing. We stayed on the "dry" part of the country which was about 95 degrees during the day and had a low of 70 at night, but was only a couple of hours from many rain forests and volcanoes. We rented a car and drove into the local surfing town every morning to walk around, get groceries and site see.

The beach was pretty, but reminded us of California...the sunsets were spectacular.

One of our daily drives was spent touring the volcano and rain forest. We woke up at 5:30 am to start our day of adventure. The big attraction was Arenal volcano...it is active, but hasn't erupted with lava for the past couple of months. The drive was 4 hours each way on mostly paved roads (the roads are not in the best condition and apparently they don't believe in shoulders on the road). The most interesting part of the drive was not the chickens, dogs, iguanas, cows or donkeys in the road...but the police pulling everyone over doing passport checks on the pan-american highway. Luckily for us we had a copy and didn't leave the trip with one of those "funny" stories on how you end up in jail for a night.

Our first stop at Arenal was a zip line tour. This was my first zip line tour and I was really excited...that was until I found that the zip lines don't take you in the jungle they take you over the jungle from canyon to canyon about 200-300 feet in the air. I sucked it up and went along for the fun. We ended up having a great time and I think it was the highlight of Wade's trip.

After our adventure with zip lines we had a very nice relaxing afternoon. Costa Rica has amazing hot springs that are naturally heated by the volcano. Our hotel suggested a hot spring location that was partly man made. This was the best suggestion ever, we avoided the crowds and mud of the other hot springs and spend our time enjoying the nice warm water on big rocks with a waiter bringing us food....the water came straight from the ground but was pumped into nice pools in lush beautiful grounds. This was my favorite part of the day.

After the hot springs we headed to a local restaurant to eat dinner before heading back on the long 4 hour drive.

This was the view from the restaurant...spectacular!

Sun set dinner in front of the volcano...can't get any better!

The rest of the time we spent touring the local towns and just relaxing at the hotel pool. We love the ocean, but Wade and I both agree that it is really nice to see the ocean and hear the ocean but we can both do without the sand and salt water. This hotel was the best of both worlds with the pool ending on the sandy beach of the ocean.

The hotel grounds...

All in all we had a great trip with lots of sun, really good local food and plenty of relaxation.

Quick Weekend Trip

Wade had a national sales meeting in Miami. The week before then he had another meeting in New Jersey, so the only way I could see my dear husband in 2 weeks is to fly for the weekend to see him...so I had to suck it up and fly to Miami.

We rented a car and drove to Key West.

We spent the afternoon at an outdoor restaurant eating and enjoying the sun.

We stayed and watched the sunset in Mallory square.

They had "interesting" people at Mallory square

Work Fun

I had to travel to Boulder for work meetings, but am lucky enough to have great people that I work with. The nice thing about training and corporate meetings are the chance to catch up with people I don't get to see very often.

Andrew, Tom, Ginger, Alice and Me

Me, Ginger and Alice

Fun Weather

We have had snow a few time this year and Alliya loves to play in it. Our neighbors Tonya and Curt were nice enough to give us a "snowman kit" for Christmas. We were able to use it to build a snowman after New Years.

All of that snow led to flood level rivers and this is Snoqualmie Falls that is 5 minutes from our house. My mom was in town for a "girls weekend" and we walked around the falls...it was amazing.

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year! Once again I say that we have the best neighbors and friends ever! We celebrated New Years Eve by going to an awesome dinner at Woodman's first and then had the neighbors over to our house for some fun.

I decorated the house with lots of candles, twinkling lights, and balloons. Wade installed dimmers on most of the downstairs lights before the party so it made for very nice mood lighting.

Kristen and Todd brought over their xbox kinect and we played the sports games and even broke out the dance game.

Jeff and Karen did a dance off... very entertaining!

We did a white elephant gift exchange. It is very funny to see what types of gifts grown adults think are funny....

The pink flamingos were an extra gift and were re-gifted that night to poor Stephanie and Justin (who were in Cabo)

Here are Stephanie and Justin's new pets... they only lasted 4 days until they came home. I have a feeling Justin will share and make these a neighborhood pet and they will rotate around to the house of whoever happens to be out of town that week. The gift that keeps on giving....

Christmas Morning

We spent Christmas celebrating at our house first with all of the kids and then going over to my mom's to celebrate with my family. We had a very nice, and actually relaxing day.

Christmas morning before all of the kids were up.

The kids on Christmas morning, with the girls in their new PJ's (and matching doll PJ's) that Grandma Gayla got them for Christmas.

Opening the gifts - all of the kids got a pillow pet from Santa. Brennyn got an American Girl Doll, Emory and Alliya got a 6 in 1 FisherPrice game and Bronson got StarWars wii games and dueling light sabers (for the wii). All in all it was an awesome Christmas and fairly low key. The kids were great and even took turns opening their gifts!

We drove to my mom's house for Christmas dinner and gifts.

The Seven Days of Christmas

Grandma Gayla does the days of Christmas every year and this year she went above and beyond and did seven days. Each night we open a present as a family and have a fun activity and meaningful message about the meaning of Christmas. We had a puzzle for the first night, suckers to share with your friends for acts of kindness for the second night, homemade ornaments for the kids to make for the third, treasure bags to keep special things in for the fourth, a story book for the fifth, a magnetic nativity set for the sixth, and Christmas bingo for the seventh. Thank you Grandma Gayla for all of the thoughtful gifts and fun activities. It is something we look forward to every year!

Reading the story of the birth of Christ on Christmas Eve.