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)