Happy Birthday Isabella

Well, It's hard to believe, but Isabella is 6 years old! Her birthday was February 7th, but I am just now finding time to post this. In our family the kids get a party with friends only every other year. Lucky for me, this year is a no party year (yeah). We did have a small family celebration after dinner on her birthday, and she got to pick what ever restaraunt she wanted to go to Saturday and take 1 friend. I don't think she really minded not having a party and it was certainly easier for me! Here are a few pictures of Bella.

The Birthday Girl

Isabella with her new "laptop" and Webkin

Bella blowing out her candles

The Birthday Girl at school

Happy Birthday Isabella!!

A Visit from Mom and Dad

My parents were able to come and visit us for about 10 days and we had a great time with them. They flew in late Wednesday night and on the way home as we were getting closer to our house my mom said "I think we're in the getto", she was refering to all of the razor wire around the top of everyones fences and gates. Unfortunately there are alot of homes that get robbed and in order to prevent that people have guards and razor wire. Lucky for us we are in a gated community with guards and have heard of no problems here.


Thursday I took them around town, showed them the church, the kids school and the community in general. Friday we packed up the whole family and went to the beach for 3 days. The roads to get there go over the mountains and are very windy and slow. On the way we stopped at the "crocodile bridge". It is a large bridge that crosses a river and everyone gets out to see the crocs. Well the 2 times we stopped in the past there were only 1 or 2 crocs, but this time my dad counted over 40, some of them very large. We stayed at a condo up on a cliff with awesome views overlooking the ocean. We bought boogie boards at Christmas and this was the first time we've been able to use them. Everyone had a blast, dad really got into the body boarding and ended up sunburnt from being out there so long.
On Monday mom, dad and I rode the city bus down town to go to the markets. We met up with Dustin and went to the Gold Museum. The museum has the largest collectio in the world of pre-columbian gold. They had all kinds of little animals and people made out of gold. Afterward when mom and dad and I were walking back to the bus stop we ended up getting a little lost and found ourselves in the red light district (prostitution is legal here). We quickly got out of there and found the bus stop.

On Tuesday mom dad and I drove to Arenal Volcano. It is about 3 hours away on windy, hilly roads. After checking into our hotel we went to the hanging bridges for a 1.8 mile hike. The bridges are really cool and you are surrounded by the rainforest. When we were almost to the end of our hike we saw a mommy monkey and her baby up in a tree. It was the first time I've seen a monkey in the wild. My dad and I got some pictures but they didn't turn out really great. On our way back to the hotel we went to an area we were told you could see the lava rocks when they come off the top. When our family went in November it was very cloudy, but this time it was clear and we were able to see the top of the volcano. It ws really cool to see the hot red rocks tumble the side of the mountain. That night we enjoyed the natural hot tubs and pools at the hotel and of course played some cards.

On Wednesday we had a reservation for a Canopy tour near the volcano. A canopy tour is a series of zip lines way up in the trees. When we were waiting for our tour to begin we were looking at the volcano when it suddenly let out a big stream of smoke which was followed by a long, loud rumble! It was so Cool!! We rode up to the start of the canopy tour in a sky tram and the views were awesome. The tour we went on had 7 long zip lines, the first one being the highest and over 1/4 mile long. We were in a group of about 12 and of course dad volunteered to go first. Mom turned to me and asked Does that mean we have to go next?". Well I went 2nd and mom went third. After the first terrifying 3-4 seconds it was amazing. You are high above a canyon zipping across a cable and the views are spectacular. We had such a blast. The longest cable is just under 1/2 mile long and reaches speed of up to 55 mph! We will definately be doing this again next year.

(Top: Volcano Arenal; Bottom: the lava rocks coming off of the volcano at dusk)

On Thursday and Friday we just hung around the house and went down town again. Friday late afternoon Dustin and I were able to go to the Temple with mom and dad and then out to dinner to calebrate their anniversary. (33 years, yeah!) Saturday we hung around the house and pool and unfortunately they had to go home Sunday.

Mom and Dad at the Temple

Our family at the beach

We all had an awesome time and can't wait for mom and dad to visit again next year!