Livin' La Vida Loca!

I just tought I would give you the latest update on the Irlenborn family. The first bit of news would be that we had a lot of ongoing problems with the house we were renting and after 3 months I was fed up! So, of course I started looking for a new home for us. We were very lucky in that we found a penthouse apartment in the same complex as a friend of ours that is going to be perfect for us. There are so many benefits to the new place, such as a heated swimming pool, saves us money, closer to EVERYTHING, lots of kids for ours to play with and it cuts Dustin's commute in half.



So how this gets crazy is that Dustin was in Guatemala Nov. 27-30 and again from the 2nd to the 6th. And at the same time I had a trip planned to Florida since September from the 5th to the 10th. So I got home late Monday night (3 a.m.), had to pack Tuesday and Wednesday, the movers came Thursday and didn't get done until 8:30 p.m. So Friday and Ssaturday we were unpacking and on Sunday I had to pack myself and the kids for our trip back to the U.S. Of course on Saturday night Zoey got sick and kept us up half the night and this continued through Sunday night. Lucky for us on Monday morning she was well enough to travel.



I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to fly home alone with the kids before Dustin. I had obviously forgotten about customs! The really tricky part was that we only had 1 hour and 20 minutes between flights. Of course the customs line and the security lines we enormous, but luckily there was a nice gentleman who let me in front of him, or we would never have made it. I'm sure we were quite a sight, 1 mom with a baby on her hip and 4 children trailing as we are running as fast as we can through the airport. Luckily we barely caught our flight (I think they knew we were coming and held it for us.



Our arrival in Arkansas was a chilly one! Of course the kids were so happy to see their cousins and I was excited to see my sister Vicky again. We are looking forward to spending lots of time with our friends and family. And of course for oll ofyou who know me well I am looking forward to alot of shopping!

Thanksgiving Costa Rican Style

This year for Thanksgiving we we did not do the traditional turkey with all of the fixings (a small turkey is $40-50 here). Instead we went with a few families for the weekend to a resort at Arenal Volcano. It was a lot of fun although the clouds covered the top of the volcano the whole time we were there so we were never able to se the top or the lava flows. We did have alot of fun though at the pools with waterslides, the hot springs, hanging bridges and just relaxing.

On Friday our family decided to go to the hanging bridges. It is a 1.8 mile trail through the rain forest with these awesome (sometimes scary) hanging bridges. A few of them were around 300 feet long and just as high. Amazingly enough none of the kids complained at all on the hike, and other than having to carry Zoey alot it was amazing. I am planning on taking my parents when they come in January.


On Saturday we went to a place with our friends to watch Austin's friend Brady bungee jump. They also have this huge swing that we let Kaylee, Austin and Braden ride. My friend Kari made a video that I will try to post. We really had a great time throughout the whole weekend.

Zoey and daddy on the first bridge

Some of the views from the bridges

Kaylee, Braden and Austin on the giant swing.

(sorry I can't get the video to download, maybe next blog)

Halloween

I just thought that I would post a few pictures of the kids from Halloween. Enjoy!!

Zoey as a butterfly

Isabella as a cheerleader

Kaylee as a witch

Braden as a dead basketball player

Austin as a vampire

The latest from the greatest!! Haha!!

O.K., so I am quite obviously not very good at blogging. I must say though that I often think about updating this, my thoughts just don't seem to be followed by action!

Isabella, Kaylee, Austin and Braden at the beach

Since I last posted a lot has happened around here. A few weeks ago we were able to go to the beach again. Austin is getting to be quite good at bodyboarding and really enjoyed the waves. Kaylee and Braden went on a crab hunt and I think they ended up with about 12 sand crabs by the end of the day. They weren't very happy when I told them they weren't taking them home. Maybe next time we can plan ahead and get a small cage and bring 1 or 2 home, we'll see. Really we all enjoy the beach except for Zoey, who absolutely HATES water. She won't even put her feet in it without us forcing her to.

Zoey loving the beach!!

A little background on this next little tidbit: When we were looking at moving to Costa Rica this spring we had a family meeting. At this meeting we asked each of the kids if they wanted to move and why or why not. Well when we got to Isabella she was very excited to give her answer. She said yes, she wanted to move to Costa Rica and when we asked her why she said "Because I want to drink from a coconut!". Apparently she thought we were going to be living at the beach. We thought it was funny and had to explain that we would not live at the beach, but that we would be able to visit. Well on the last day at the beach, just as we were packing up to head home, a little guy came down the beach with a wheelbarrow full of coconuts and flowers selling you guessed it, coconuts to drink from. Of course we had to get one for Isabella and actually got one for Kaylee too. Isabella was very excited, but quite disappointed when she actually got it. I'm not sure if it wasn't ripe or what but they tasted awful. Of course we really only did it for the novelty of the whole thing.

The coconut man making Isabella's coconut



Isabella with her coconut (and the coconut man)



Kaylee with her coconut (and the coconut man)

Another thing about our weekend at the beach is that on the way home we decided to take a different road because on the way over there were alot of mudslides. Well it turned out that a bridge on this other road had been washed away and so what was supposed to be a 3 hour drive home turned into 7 hours! We said to the the kids "This is an adventure!" and they said "We're sick of adventures!". (In Costa Rica there are no street names or addresses so we have gotten lost several times and I always say "This is an adventure!".)

Zoey and Braden enjoying the ride home

Bella, Zoey and Kaylee on the way home

In other news 2 Sundays ago Isabella fell and hit her chin on the tile and split it open. We had to go to the ER and get 10 tiny stitches. The funny thing is she never even cried when it happened, but she sure wailed when it was time for the stitches to come out today. I wrestled with her for 30 minutes while the nurse tried to take the stitches out while Isabella was yelling in her ear. A 5 year old can be stronger than her own mother when someone is coming at her face with scissors. After 30 minutes the doctor finally came in and finished up in about 3 minutes with the help of a bribe from her mother!

Bella's new chin

Irlenborn update

Ok, so I've been meaning to get this thing going for over a month now and I'm finally doing it. My sisters all have their own blogs going and I really enjoy checking them out so I thought it was time I got my own started. I also thought this would be a great way to sort of journal our family life. (FYI- I am not technically gifted, so don't expect this site to get too fancy!)

First off, we are now living in beautiful (although rainy) Costa Rica! In August we moved to Costa Rica with Wal-Mart (Dustin's job). The plan is to be here 2 years and then return to Northwest Arkansas. Just in case you don't know where Costa Rica is, it is the narrowest stretch of land in Central America that connects North America with South America.

The unfortunate thing about arriving in August is that this is their winter which means that it rains almost every day. I've never seen so much rain in my life!! Since arriving on August 10th we've seen 3 days without rain, and they say the rain won't stop until December. The good news is that they say it doesn't rain at all January through April and it's just beautiful. Oh, I forgot to tell you that although it's the middle of the winter most days average around 80 degrees and it gets down to the low 60's in the night.

One of the benefits of living in Costa Rica is that there are tons of beaches, both on the Pacific side and the Carribean side, and we plan to visit as many as we can in the next 2 years. We were lucky enough to go to the beach the first weekend here and really enjoyed ourselves. Some of saw a sloth, monkeys and some rather large iguanas.

Although we've had our challenges since arriving (problems with the house, living in a hotel for 10 days, the language barrier etc.) we seem to be getting settled. The kids go to a private school that is very american and they have transitioned pretty well. We actually feel very blessed to be here and to be able to give our kids this great life experience.

Well, that's enough for today, I'll keep you all posted on life in Costa Rica!

Here are some recent pics. of the kids, enjoy!!

Isabella (5), Zoey (15 mo.) and Kaylee (8) playing in the sand at Manual Antonio beach.

Austin (11) and Braden (9) body surfing at Manuel Antonio.

Isabella

Kaylee

Braden

Austin

Zoey

Kaylee buried in the sand.

Braden and Kaylee hanging out.

The end of day 10 in Costa Rica!