Costa Rica Trip: Part 2

Zip-lining!!! Having a 2-year-old along on the trip meant someone had to stay and watch him so I let Seth go ahead and do the zip-lining with Sam and Elena. Charlie also stayed back, although in hindsight, we really should have let him go.  So if we ever make it back Charlie, Frankie and I will be sure to finally take our chance to go.

Dan and their oldest 2 went along as well, so Joy and I stayed in the car mostly with the 4 youngest. Initially it was raining so we were stuck. After quite a while, we got stir-crazy and managed to sweet talk our way into seeing the hummingbird garden for free, which was a patio where you could be surrounded by several varieties of hummingbirds who would come there to eat. They were so used to people you could just stick a finger out by the feeders, and they would sit on your hand. We also got a very close up view of a couple of coaties.

Fortunately Dan had his phone handy so he got some pictures and footage of the zip-lining and the Tarzan swing that they got to do at the end. They went on a 2 hour trek through the cloud forest, hiking from one zip line to the next. They got to go on 13 lines total with the longest one being 1 km (over half a mile). I didn't expect Elena to go since she has a slight fear of heights, but she went and loved it.

Here they are getting ready to go:

Here's Elena on a zipline

And Sam on the Tarzan Swing

Our Trip to Costa Rica: Part 1

Friends of ours invited us to go with them on a vacation to someplace warm this winter.  So we stocked up on flyer miles and got free plane tickets for all 12 of us to Costa Rica. Our kids are all about the same ages so each of them had a buddy which worked out perfectly. Given the price of our plane tickets, I suppose we shouldn't complain about the flights....but we were honestly second-guessing ourselves on the way down. The airlines were great, and everything was on time it was just 2 days & 4 planes each way with a very short night's sleep in between and a 2-year-old who HATES long lines and being forced to sit down for plane rides. Once we were there, however, all the stress was well worth it.

There's no way I'll cover everything in one night, but to get started I'll share about the first place we went. After a long, curvy and bumpy ride, we arrived at the University of Georgia Campus in the cloud forest of Monteverde.

I was a little skeptical our first night, as I listened to the wind and rain all night long, imagining how poorly our footwear and clothes would hold up in all the wet and muck. But even though it was unusually windy and misty for what should have been the dry season, it didn't too often flat-out rain. Having come from MN it was still plenty warm for us and the damp never seeped through enough to chill us so we were all happy even if we were smelly and a little soggy. As a silver lining, the mist made for some fantastic rainbows.

Other than the less than perfect weather, the place was fantastic. The older kids' favorites were hiking through all the trails with lots of guided tours. The classes given by the naturalists on insects and plants - plus the kids got lots of vials they could use to catch the insects they found.  Sam especially liked hanging out in the lab, learning about the research they do.
The middle age kids really enjoyed the constant supply of hot tea and hot chocolate (made with super-fresh milk; practically still hot from the cow). The littlest ones really liked getting as wet as possible. Frankie also liked tearing through the lunch hall around all the tables while everyone ate.

The moms enjoyed having 3 authentic Costa Rican & super delicious meals made up for us a day.
Seth actually really enjoyed the adventure of driving on terrible roads all the way up there. I can't say that was his favorite but he really liked it. (We complimented each other well on the trip - my language skills and his driving skills made up where the other was completely incompetent).





I'm not going to lie - before leaving I was a little nervous about poisonous snakes and whatnot -especially given that Frankie's not fantastic about not touching things when we tell him not to, but once we got there of course, I was just fine. Sam found a bunch of army ants once, but a naturalist was right there and told him to just walk away quickly. And we found a tarantula right next to a scorpion on our night hike. That was honestly so cool! They were both too slow-moving for me to get squeamish, but I can't say the same for everyone else there. Charlie was pretty disappointed that the tarantula and scorpion didn't have a battle.

Here's a picture of our last day there. I think Charlie was just mad at being rushed to get ready to go. 

Here's a leaf-cutter ant hill. We should have had someone stand by it to show how huge it is, but I think you can get the picture.

 Out on the nature hikes:

In the lab:

 Some of the insects and butterflies that can be found on campus. And yes, that rhinoceros beetle is as big as it looks. Probably bigger.

Charlie is 5!

I'm posting this a couple of days before his birthday since we will be gone for his actual birthday. I'll fill you in when we get back on how the big day went.

Our pre-birthday celebration at home was a small affair with the Grandmas and Grandpas. Charlie requested a blue raspberry cake this year so I made a jello poke cake. Much like last year, Charlie did not actually like the cake flavor he picked out but he thoroughly enjoyed the frosting (which was just whipped cream). 

Happy Birthday, Charlie!

Can someone please explain the logic behind this?

I don't get how the bathroom ends up looking like this. It's a good thing we have that hamper. Look how useful it is!

Having a talk

Charlie came downstairs tonight and said, very seriously:

"Dad, (deep inhale, deep exhale) we need to talk."

It was so funny, we didn't even care that he followed this up by telling us that Frankie had dumped an entire container of fish flakes on their bedroom carpet and also sprayed an excessive amount of air freshener throughout the room.

Halloween

Frankie was a very cute tiger for Halloween this year, as you can see. He didn't want to stand up normal for the picture.

 And it looks like he's already picked out his costume for next year. As long as his head doesn't grow too much, he can be a popcorn popper. He's been wearing the top to our popcorn popper on his head all night (he calls it his "football hat")

Deep Thoughts

"If you turn your head all the way to the side, your nose looks like the letter E." - Charlie

And another from Charlie as I was tucking him in tonight: "When I grow up I'm going to marry Debbie. But if Debbie married someone else, I will marry Gia. And if Gia marries someone else, I will marry.....Tenly. And if Tenly marries someone else, I will marry Kaitlyn! And if Kaitlyn marries someone else, I will marry....(long pause) I'm done talking about this now." And then he fell asleep.

Happy Birthday, Frankie

Frankie turned 2 about six weeks ago. So I guess that's how far behind I am. Anyway, once again he was fortunately to have his birthday 4 days after his cousin Gabby's so my sister could make a beautiful Elmo birthday cake for them.  I made a mediocre-looking but tasty cake for his actual birthday at home.

He really, really enjoys the "Happy Birthday Song" as you can tell from this video. He now sings it whenever we light a candle. Seth and I also got quite a kick out of Sam casually dancing while we were singing.

Charlie and the Eagle

A part of me looks forward to the day when I won't have the vast majority of my time taken up with taking care of little kids. Not because I don't like taking care of children, but because there are other areas of the community where I would like to help or volunteer and I can't. And once in awhile I would just like to say "I need to go to wherever for a day (or an evening or a weekend)" without having to call up the National Guard to help watch our kids so I can go.

However, there's this other part of me that absolutely dreads the day I will no longer have small children at home - because, holy buckets, can they make me laugh!

Like the other day when Charlie and Reed ran inside "quick!" because they saw an eagle (probably actually a turkey vulture) flying overhead. Here's his reaction:

House remodel pictures...finally!

We finished our house remodel almost a year ago, but I never did get around to sharing before and after pictures. Here they are.

For those of you who haven't been in our house before, it might be hard to visualize how this all goes together. It doesn't help that I'm a pretty poor photographer, but I'll do my best to explain.

Before: this was our formal dining room and sitting/play room, separated by pocket doors:

 After: We took out the wall and made one long living room right off the kitchen. I can finally keep an eye on the kids while I'm cooking in the kitchen! Life has much improved with this change.

Before: Turn around, and you can see our formal dining room from the opposite end. This is actually a before-before picture of the dining room (before we painted it and before the remodel). This was a beautiful room that was original to the house, but functionally it was making my life crazy. This room broke up the kitchen from the "living quarters" of the house, and the kids were constantly dragging stuff into this room on their walk from one part of the house to the next. It functioned less as a dining room, and more as a perpetually messy sight and sound barrier between the kitchen (aka, my home base) and the play room & living room (aka, the kids' home base).

After: Our new living room, separated from the kitchen by an island rather than 3 or 4 feet of cabinetry. Don't worry! We still kept that hutch and the 120 year old chandelier....stay continued.

Before: Here you can see our galley kitchen with a bathroom just next to where we cooked. Can't say we miss that.

After: We were able to reuse pretty much all the cabinets, just moving them to a more efficient layout. My favorite is the "kids' counter" - made out of necessity because the former bathroom window went too low for a standard counter. Not only is it a great place for the kids to help me in the kitchen, but as short as I am, it's actually a perfect height for me to bake. Kneading and rolling out dough are especially easier.

(I will add that our floor looks normal now. We hadn't finished it yet when I took this picture.)

Before: We loved eating in our breakfast nook, but as the family kept getting bigger, it was becoming crowded when we all ate there together (not to mention that we frequently have extra kids over). It was also a trap for clutter since it was a difficult area to clean out and sweep.

After: the breakfast nook and formal dining room converge into a single dining space. Here you can see the hutch (which was quite the task to move!) and chandelier (quite the unexpected expense to move!) from the old dining room. 

Before: The isolated living room, which was off in a corner of it's own in the house. The bottom picture was taken before we repainted in case you're wondering why half the room would be green and half gray. The covered doorway there lead to the old library (new bathroom featured in a previous post). 

After: We were pleased to have come up with a solution that allowed us to keep and actually improve on our library. The old library was small and cramped; the new allows room for our piano and other instruments.