We bought some new fun items for when we have people over and they have been lots of fun! The first is a Walmart special Bocce Ball. We were inspired by our fabulous San Antonio friends the Eberlys, and we're so excited to have a set of our own. The boys have really gotten into it and even get the tape measure out at times to see whose is closest! Really?
Kevin going for a scoring roll, while being blinded by the big lights that Colby bought so you can "see"
The boys measuring when they all know that Claire was dominating them! 
My sweet Abilene girls Cassidy and Laura
I'm so blessed to be such good friends with the girls I work with! Sarah, Steph & Sommer
My family came in town a few weekends ago to bring the boys to Six Flags. I hadn't been there in forever and it was funny to me how so many things were the same, yet they've changed up a few things too. John Michael had earned a free ticket from reading at school, so it was great to spend a day with them out in the Texas heat. Poor Colby had a test the following day so he couldn't go, but we had a good time. Matthew surprised me and was probably the best rider of all, we hit up all the roller coasters together...and whoa, I'm not as young as I used to be! But hey, you've got to give my 59 year old parents mega credit for heading out to Six Flags and riding rides, etc. They are such troopers!
John Michael driving, his favorite ride of the day! Ah!
The fam on the Yosemite Sam ride
Matthew and Benji on the Shockwave- this used to be my favorite back in the day!
My little brothers with Colby, aren't they so big? Oh my goodness, both Benji and Matthew started high school this year, what?!? I remember when they came home from the hospital, crazy!
I decided to partipate in Kelly's Korner Show us your Life Friday this week, since I'm working on going through some Pharmacology lectures and blogging is so much more fun!
The topic this week is Bridal Showers and giving others ideas for showers. I think one of my favorite and unique showers was one that was hosted by my roommates who are dear and near to my heart and know exactly what a low-key kind of a person I am. Don't get me wrong, I love getting all dressed up to go out, but somewhere along the wedding trail with planning, etc it is just really nice to relax!
So the roomies threw me a shower that was in the morning, where everyone came in their PJ's and they served the most delicious breakfast food! The invitation said, "Come in your comfiest attire" and bring items to make their home "cozy." I thought it was a fantastic idea b/c everyone was so comfortable, including me, and we had a great time relaxing and not having to come all fancied up with a new dress and what-not. Coincidentally, we got married 2 weeks after graduating college, so the shower was during finals week and was perfect to see my girls during a busy time. It was wonderful and I'm so thankful for them hosting this. Even if pjs aren't your thing, breakfast is a great and easy shower option!
As much as I'd love to do a play by play on every aspect of our trip so that I can remember all that we did, that would take forever, people would stop reading our blog, and I start school this week and will be too busy for that. So I'm going to hit the highlights. I might add, that we bought a great book called "Let's go Costa Rica on a budget." And let me tell you, it was great! Very thorough and had great recommendations for cheap lodging and eating. We only had a hotel reservation for our first night and that is our best tip for traveling there. It's very easy to find many different places that range from resort style Marriott or simply a cabina for cheap! **Disclaimer: at least a little Spanish is necessary for this route, or you will automatically get labeled a rich American and get ripped off!***
Our first night in San Jose was crazy, as it took over an hour to find our hotel. The address: Calle 11 in between Avenida 2 and 6. Really? If there were addresses like that here, people would be lost forever, not to mention that between ave. 2 & 6 are about 3 different one way streets and nowhere to park the car. When we asked people what street we were on, about 3 people told me they didn't know. Now...did they truly not know, or were they just entertained with the gringos driving around in circles?
Yep, that's a palm tree growing in the middle of the hotel
Colby wondering why we didn't stay at the Grand Costa Rican hotel? $$$
By far, the most fun that we had and our one "splurge" of the whole trip was going white water rafting on the Pacuare River. It was absolutely beautiful and really one of the reasons that we chose Costa Rica in the first place. It has some awesome class 3 & 4 rapids and was so much fun! We did a two day trip where we paddled for half the day, stayed right on the river at their lodge and then paddled the rest of the day. We highly recommend this! So fun!
The Pacuare
The River Lodge we stayed at- everything here is in and out by boat only- they even had to bring the construction supplies this way. It was beautiful there!
Colby hanging out on the hammock with the river below, have you ever seen him this relaxed?
Hiking to a waterfall around the lodge
Hanging out around the lodge
Getting ready for our ziplining canopy tour at the lodge. This is Andrea, one of our rafting guides
Colby on the canopy tour
We woke up early to get a yummy breakfast and watched the morning rain come down. Did I mention how delicious the Costa Rican coffee was?!?
Can you see Colby down by the waterfall? They were everywhere b/c of all the rain and all fed into the river
After our trip with Andrea and Miguel, our rafting guides, who just so happened to be the captains of the men's and women's Costa Rica National rafting team, they were awesome! We totally lucked out!
This is in La Fortuna, where we went to see the Arenal Volcano
Where we stayed in La Fortuna...cabinas sissy. This was pretty much the people's house, turned into a few rooms. Our main attracting point for this place was the "private parking" since we needed a good place to leave Himmy overnight. So where was the private parking you might ask? Oh, just in Roger's backyard where his wife was busy hanging clothes on the clothesline. Ha! It's all good, Cabinas sissy actually included a fan and hot water showers, which was a treat at a whopping $20.
Don't you dare try to steal their television!
Since we slept cheap, we went to a nice dinner and enjoyed Sangria, coconut shrimp and fresh tuna steak!
That evening and the next morning we went and waded in the hotspring that is naturally heated by the volcano. Tour price for someone to take you there-$30 per person. Ask the locals and walk along a trail and under the bridge-free!
In Monteverde went went and saw the Don Juan coffee farm, yumm
Here's where we stayed in Monteverde, Hotel Oasis, a steal at $18! Here's where the Spanish paid off b/c while in the office and asking the price, the man told me $30 (which is totally do-able) and then a local girl was in there at the same time and he told her $18. Knowing that I understood what he was saying, and after asking him about the difference, he decided we could pay the same price. :)
Colby played in a local soccer game that evening. It's an indoor field, but they don't use walls, just nets. The picture is blurry- but I think you can probably see his red hair and gray shirt.
After being in the mountains, we headed down to the beach at Manuel Antonio. On our way, we decided to stop off at a smaller beach where there would be less people for a day and found a nice little cabina (aka-the guest room in someone's house to stay at, ha!) and while we were on the beach met some nice local friends. We ended up hanging out with them at their family beach house, going out to dinner with them (which they bought, so nice) and made some great contacts for our next trip down there. I think this was my favorite part. Getting to know the people and the culture that make up a country, so much more fun to really learn about how they live and spend time with them!
Colby at dinner with Hector, Guillermo, Miguel, and Guillermo Sr.
Yes I swam with my umbrella quite a bit b/c I didn't want to get fried!
The End! It was truly a trip that we will remember forever! I encourage everyone to go there at some point. It is a great country, that's very affordable and has things for everyone, from adventure-to relaxation and great food and beautiful scenery! Pura Vida!
To start off our Costa Rica trip, I must tell you about our good friend "Himmy." It's really Jimmy in English, but everyone called him Himmy and we thought that was very fitting. Especially if you say it with spanish flair (Him-mei) and excitement in your voice. We met Himmy within the first few hours of arriving in San Jose and we were so grateful to have him there throughout our entire trip. We went everywhere with Himmy and he was so fun to have with us! At the very beginning, we had some difficulties adjusting to Himmy and had to practice spending time with him. The first time we got out on the open road with Himmy, he caused us some problems and then people starting honking and yelling at him....poor Himmy. All the while, Colby and I were cracking up at Himmy and his complexities, as he is clearly a local "Tico" and not American. I think our favorite moments with Himmy were when we were driving from Arenal to Monteverde and never got out of 2nd gear because of the dirt and rocky road, so I had to buy Dramamine to prevent upsetting Himmy.
And then toward the end our our trip we met some American friends when we were trying to get back to the airport and they needed a ride back to San Jose...why the heck not? Himmy didn't mind, plus they helped pay for gas as our budget the last day became close with a choice of food vs. gas, hehe. So on the way back several routes were closed, don't you just love foreign countries? So then, we asked the construction foreman where we should go and Himmy just took us right through the caterpillars and workmen..hmm- ever tried that in the states?
Colby getting the low down on how to operate Himmy with the car rental guy thoroughly amused. Yes C can drive a standard, but try driving a standard in a foreign country with no street signs, (I mean none!) and with people everywhere, motorcycles, cows, etc. And everything is inclined, so of course you have the obligatory "roll back" when getting into first. No biggie, right? Well, it is when the person behind you is like 2 inches from your bumper and riding you the entire time. Makes you a little nervous, especially when you have to return Himmy safe and sound to get your deposit back!
We saw all kind of sights with Himmy and it really was the best part of our vacation, just our days on the road driving to the next place and stopping to find adventures all along the way. We wer at leisure to do as we pleased with our time, so that was great because often times the driving that should take an hour was tripled b/c of road conditions, bridges, etc. or just plain getting lost! We had our handy dandy map and the car rental place said, "We hightly suggest renting a GPS"...what? not in the budget, and no fun! Well, I can think of more than a few times that it would have come in handy, but our little map and sense of adventure was good enough, and believe it or not- we didn't argue once about where we were going..ha! :)
Oh, but that wrong turn road goes further along than you think...but a rather beautiful wrong turn, don't ya think? God has a way of always surprising you!
A busy San Jose street out the back window of Himmy
A walking only street in San Jose, b/c it's not enough for there to be crazy one way streets all over the place only to find once you get to the street that you're looking for that you can't drive on it!
My favorite view out of Himmy...the hydrangeas! Can you tell, they grew like bushes everywhere and were beautiful!!! I wish they grew like that in Texas!
From Arenal to Monteverde....the cloud forest-can you see why? We were literally in the clouds the entire few days there!
More to come! :) I start school next week, so I better hurry!
John Michael, the super reader!
Colby + Himmy = bff
