The Best Day of the Year???

Well, the day has finally come. Just when I thought I might tear my hair out, school started!!! The last week the kids have really been at each other, and I really think everyone needed a break from each other. While I love the fact that I can sleep in a little in the summer and we have no real schedule, I think everyone at our house needs to get back on a schedule.

As is our tradition, we always take pictures of the kids on the first day of school, so without further ado-

Isabella- 1st Grade

Kaylee- 4th Grade

Joe Cool, I mean Braden- 5th Grade

Austin- 7th Grade

Can you believe we have a 7th grader???

1 Year!

I'll keep this short, but I just thought I'd let everyone know that we have officially been "Costa Rican" for 1 year. It's hard to believe, the time has gone so fast. We are kind of feeling the pressure now to make sure we see everything here. I guess this means we will be vacationing a lot this year!!

I also wanted to post this picture. It is a beautiful tree that is right outside my dining room window. I have no idea what kind of tree it is, but I thought I would share it with everyone.

Summer Fun

Well, I guess it's about time I update this blogg! My sister Vicky has been on me for about a month asking when I'm going to make a new post. Well here it is.

We have had a very full summer. The first week of June my cousin Megan came for a 2 week visit. We went zip lining and to the beach and had lots of fun. She was also kind enough to watch the kids over night for our anniversary and we went to the most awesome place ever. It was called Peace Lodge, and that is the perfect name for it. If you ever come to Costa Rica you have to stay there for atleast one night. It's not a family place and is a very romantic place for couples.

Me on the balcony of our room at Peace Lodge

The week after school got out Megan and I took the kids to a beach resort for 4 days. Our friends the Belnaps and Andersons were also there for their last beach trip before moving back to the US. Everyone had a great time and we will miss our friends so much!

Braden in front of a big tree at the resort

The same day Megan left, our whole family flew back to Arkansas. Dustin was able to stay there with us for 2 weeks, unfortunately working most of that time, and the rest of us stayed for 6 weeks. We were able to see lots of friends and family. The kids had a lot of fun with my sister Vicky's kids. It was especially fun to see Zoey and Trista play (and fight) together. They are only 5 weeks apart so they are fun to watch.

Zoey and Trista in matching nightgowns

Austin and Kaylee also got to spend a few days with their best friends, Josh and Katherine Walker, before they moved to Hong Kong.

Isabella, Katherine and Kaylee

Austin and Josh

After Dustin went back to Costa Rica, Vicky and I loaded up the kids (all 9 of them) in our cars and headed to Kentucky to see our sister Rebecca and her family. It was a little crazy with 4 adult and 10 kids in a 3 bedroom house for 4 days, but we had fun. We all went to a water park together and had a blast. My kids and I also stopped by Churchill Downs for a picture and went to the Louisville Slugger Museum, where we got to see them make the bats and all got our own miniature bat to take home.

Zoey listening to the TV in the car

We made a quick stop at the Temple in St. Louis

Trista, Zoey and Jacob at the water park

The Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory

Isabella, Austin, Zoey, Braden and Kaylee in front of the big museum bat

On our way back the kids and I stopped at the St. Louis Arch for a photo op and then continued on to Grandma and Grandpa Lowe's for a visit. We spent a couple days with them and then returned to Arkansas.

Braden, Isabella, Kaylee, Zoey and Austin at the Arch

The St. Louis Arch

We went to Missouri to see my parents the next weekend and Austin and Braden got to go to a Springfield Cadinals game (the minor league). They had a great time with grandpa and Braden caught a hat they threw into the audience and Ausin caught a T-shirt. On Monday we sent Austin to Boy Scout camp for the week. It sounds like he had fun, although he came home with poison ivy and a million bug bites!

Zoey helping with brownies at Grandma's

(she had it all the way to her feet)

Braden and Austin at the game

Last Friday the kids and I flew back home to Dustin and Costa Rica. I am glad to no longer be living out of a suitcase and of course to be sleeping in my own bed. Now I am just counting down the days until school starts! (11 days, yeah!)

Happy Birthday Austin!!!

It's hard to believe it, but my first born is now 12!! He's also 5' 4 1/2", Crazy!! Lucky for me he is a pretty good boy. He still likes his mom enough to go out in public with me and he's not too embarased when I give him a hug in front of his friends. He's actually a very helpful young man, especially with Zoey. So, I just want to say,

Happy 12th Birthday Austin!!!

Austin, around 1 year old.

Helicopter Flight

This blog posting is from Dustin, Austin, and Braden.

On Saturday, May 10 (Zoeys 2nd Birthday) the three of us for the first time had the opportunity to fly in a helicopter! Our Bishop (David Patey) took us for a 1 ½ hour flight!

In Austin and Bradens words, IT WAS AWESOME!!! I totally agreed with them!

We took off from the Pavas airport (town that is part of the San Jose metro area) around 12:30 p.m. Austin was the co-pilot and Braden and I were in the back seats. From the tar-mac we lifted off the ground a few feet and moved to the middle of the runway. We then hovered about 10 feet off of the ground in the middle of the runway for a minute or so until we were cleared for takeoff. Once cleared for takeoff, he pointed the nose of the copter down a bit and accelerated quickly off the ground. It was very neat as the copter glass wrapped all around the pilot/co-pilot so you had a full few of the ground below as you were rising above it.

After takeoff we headed to the Northwest. We first flew over and around the San Jose, Costa Rica temple.

Then we headed West out toward the Pacific Ocean (normally a minimum 2 hour car ride) and we made it in 20 minutes! We flew between 2,000 – 3,000 feet at around 120miles per hour!

We all agreed that this is the best way to go to the beach from San Jose. You avoid all the curvy roads that climb up, down, and around all of the mountains between here and there and best of all your at the beach in 20 minutes!

Along the way to the beach, you normally go over a bridge called the ‘crocodile bridge’. We have posted pictures in the past that we have taken from the bridge. This time instead of being on the bridge we flew along the river bed up to the bridge and could see the crocodiles from the air and then continued on flying over the bridge and along the river bed. What was very funny was Austin said “Look at those people, they are taking pictures of us”. So, at the same time he took a picture of them!

From there within 2 minutes we were at the beach. We flew over a man net fishing with his boys in the Ocean.

Then, we flew along the beach where we saw a large flock of seagulls so we flew down and around them, cutting back and forth, up hard and then sideways and down. We all really loved this. We would fly along the coastline then out a bit over the water flying low and then taking off hard toward the sky, then cut down around sideways! This was awesome!

After playing for several minutes we headed South and flew along the coastline (flying over Punta Leona --- a resort we have stayed at a few times). Then onto the Jaco beach area and over Los Suenos (a Marriott Hotel/Resort).

From there we headed back to the East (back towards San Jose). Along the way, we flew by a waterfall that was spectacular. The waterfall was in a canyon so we were able to drop into the canyon and sit right in front and next to the waterfall. Before leaving we rose up, flew right above it where the water was flowing from and then back around to the front of it again.

After this we continued heading East back toward San Jose. There were some really strong storms moving in to the North of where we were flying as we saw some BIG lightning bolts (in a helicopter you definitely have to fly quickly away and around storms!) About 2/3 of the way back to San Jose we starting getting light rain.

We flew over many interesting things on the way back --- bridges to nowhere (long story but in short about 20 years ago a road was contracted to be built from San Jose to the Pacific coast and the only thing completed were the bridges…after the government/contractor dispute, 20 years later, they are now working on the roadways), water hydroelectric plant, Tu Ru Bari (place where our family had Ziplined a week and a half before, and then into Santa Ana (the town we first lived at when we moved to Costa Rica), and finally into Escazu (city we now live in) and around to the Pavas airport ---just in time before the storms started to move in!

It was a great day and all three of us had loved every minute of it! Hope you enjoyed this awesome adventure…

Happy Birthday Zoey!!

Yesterday was Zoey's 2nd birthay. It's hard to believe that our "baby" is now 2! We didn't do much since there's no family here, but she did enjoy her presents. Her favorite was a talking Dora phone that you can easily program to say her name. So when she pushes the buttons it says different phrases like "Hola Zoey, it's Dora! How are you? Como estas?" We did go over to our Bishops house and have cake and ice cream with them, but that was the extent of our celebrations.

Canopy Adventure

OK, So I've been meaning to do this blog for a week now, but Dustin has been out of town and things have been crazy here.

May 1st here is Labor Day and so of course there was no school or work for Dustin and the kids. We have talked about taking the kids on a canopy tour/zip lining for a while now and decided this would be the perfect day. We found out about a great place about an hour and 20 minutes from here called Turubari.

We left a little later than planned and so we didn't arrive until close to noon. Because Dustin has neck problems the plan was for the older kids and me to zip line while Dustin and Zoey hung out. Isabella and Kaylee were a little nervous, but also very excited. Because Isabella is lighter they had her go with a guide, and Kaylee also opted to ride with a guide. The girls were the first to go and went with smiles on their faces, and much to my surprise, no screams. The boys were also excited to go and had a great time.

Shortly after starting the clouds started to roll in. We were told you can still zip line in the the rain, but of course if it started thunder and lightening we would have to stop. Because the storm was coming they really rushed us through the course and I didn't really get to see Isabella and Kaylee do much because they were already gone by the time I got to the next line. Unfortunately the lightening started and we had to cut our tour short by a couple of lines but we did get to do the last line that was 700 meters long or close to half a mile.

We still had a great time and will definately be back (since we have a credit there now). Here are some pictures of our adventure.

The crew before the big adventure!!

Geared-up and getting our instructions.

First up, Isabella. Is that a nervous look??

Look at her go!

Next up, Miss Kaylee May!

You go girl!

The boys, getting ready for their turns.

Next up, Austin. He thinks he's a pro because it's his 2nd time zip lining!

Show Off!!

And here goes Braden!

Loving every minute!

Last, but not least, Angie.

Last one in, but we beat the storm!