Families

I have so much to be grateful for.

Most especially my husband and our growing family. 

I am grateful for Heavenly Fathers love and all the blessings He gives us through tender mercies each day.
I am grateful for loving, caring parents who have always let me make my own mistakes and continued loving me after, even while saying, "I told you so." I am grateful for my siblings, who may not have always been the easiest to get along with, but have always had my back and supported me with love. I am grateful for grandparents who made FAMILY a priority, who knew the true value of Gods gifts. I am grateful for aunts, uncles and many cousins that are always close in my heart.
I am grateful for friends and family that makes this sojourn worth the while!

I have two friends whom I've known since elementary years, whose families have melted into my own; we each call each others moms, "Mom." Each family has become extended families of our own and we love each other as family does.

This bond is something that comes and grows with time.

I am so thankful for these two girls and their families. 

My marriage has welcomed me into my husband family, whom I treasure as my own. And this year, I am grateful to become a growing part of yet another extended family-- Jordan's best friend Ryan has always welcomed us and loved us with the love of a brother. He married Amber last year and we've since become close with her parents and brothers. We spent time last Christmas celebrating with them and they welcomed us into their home this year for Thanksgiving dinner!

I am so happy that God not only gives us the families we are born into, but gives us opportunities to continue creating larger families with those we love.

I am thankful to have a knowledge and belief that families can be together FOREVER. 

Thanksgiving at the Fullmer's 

My contribution to the Thanksgiving Feast!

The End-- Costa Rica Part VI

THE POAS VOLCANO LODGE

After exchanging the broken rental car for a new one we had to hit the road because our last hotel was up in the mountains/boonies. Each of the hotels were estimated to be less than 2 hours apart, but this one ended up taking us a little over 3 hours to get to. Yikes. But it was nice to drive and have some down time to relax. The only unfortunate thing is that the roads are too tiny to pull over and capture the view. 

The view from INSIDE the car... 

Ha ha. This is no joke, we got stuck behind these cows just a few miles from our hotel. We were ready to finally BE THERE, but these cows set us back about 10 minutes. We rather enjoyed it though because it's not everyday you get to see this! 

Our last full day in Costa Rica we got to visit a zoo. It was rather large-- size wise, but they only had their local wildlife--  mostly only had cats, monkeys and birds. 

No lions, tigers or bears, "oh my!" 

We were particularly interested in the hummingbirds y el mariposario [butterfly house.] We were watching a butterfly birth from its cocoon, which is a very sensitive process because it needs to get its wings fully free before their veins fill up with blood or it will get stuck in the cocoon and die! Well, it was taking too long and we were pretty sure the little guy was doomed because we'd been watching hi struggle for some time, so we left to see the totally alive butterflies. 

Some as big as Jordan's hand! 

As we were leaving the butterfly exhibit we saw a little monarch butterfly flapping helplessly around on the ground, it may or, just as easily, may not have been the one we were watching birth/die earlier. There were literally hundreds of butterflies in the exhibit, but it was the same coloring and it was very near to the birthing center we'd been visiting... so I convinced myself it was him, so I wouldn't have to be sad he had died. [We did check his cocoon to see if he was hanging there dead and he was not, but we had seen the maintenance lady come to clear out the dead hanging butterflies earlier, so he could have met the same fate, we will never know, but it is better this way to imagine!]

   

I don't like to hold butterflies, they are just plain creepy to me. 

I braved my fears and smiled for a picture with The One Who Lived! 

Feeding the hummingbirds has always been one of my favorite things! 

The birds came in all sizes...

Small

Medium

Large!

The zoo was really fun because, like I mentioned earlier [about the crocodile encounters at the other mini zoo,] they are very open, so the animals are not 40 feet from your view or always sleeping and hiding somewhere out of sight. There were quite a few encounters that were hands on and you could feed and pet the animals. 

I was close enough to the monkeys to actually get a decent picture... 

I even held my camera right up to the fencing and this monkey tried to steal it! He knocked it right out of my hand!! 

Frogs are at the top of my list of 'Most Hated Creppy Crawlies.' 

Jordan likes them, so he did all the picture taking.

One year My little brother went on a boy scout trip to one of these frog houses and hours later when he was getting ready to shower, he took off his clothes and screamed then started crying because there was a dead frog stuck between his back and shirt. He explained the other kids had been throwing them at each other and one must've gotten stuck on him and he must've ended up squishing it. EW! That little squishy traumatized me as much as my kid brother!  

The Blue-Jeans frog we'd seen on our first day in the wild. 

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The zoo was a part of a hotel, which was a part of a waterfall lookout, so we went to see our third waterfall. I was rather hoping all these waterfalls would be ones we could swim at the bottom of, but they were all conservatories and protected land, so we could look, but not touch. 

After, we went to see a crater formed by a volcanic eruption. Jordan was very interested in it, but I wanted to be done walking for the day, so I was definitely in a mood! 

We'd picked up a few souvenirs along the way, but this place was the coolest.  

The owner is an artist who makes most the souvenirs by hand.

When we walked in he offered us coffee, and at first I was weary because we had been especially warned no to take free drinks or smell anything from strangers, but he was just a real friendly guy! We talked to him for about a half an hour and I got a little pig ornament made of a decoupaged egg.  

On a side note: I've decided that in our travels we should look for souvenirs that can be made into Christmas ornaments so we don't accumulate a ton of seemingly worthless trinkets cluttering the house.

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The Poas Volcano Lodge was a quaint little lodge with only a dozen rooms or so and no tvs in the rooms! We had space heaters and water-filled heating pads to keep us warm at night. It was really different and nice! They did have a 'game room' with a pool table, board games, a library by a fire,  computer access and  a tv room with movies and a projector. All the hotels we'd visited had free breakfast, but this one was not buffet style like the others, we got a full meal-- eggs, bacon, pancakes, fresh strawberries with homemade cream, all served by a wait staff-- it was more of a bed and breakfast type feel. A really relaxing way to end our trip! 

Our trip was 8 days/7 nights and I'd say we got to do and see a lot. A few more days would have been nice, but you can say that about every vacation, can't you? Traveling was definitely a time-eater, getting from hotel to hotel was 2 hours minimum, but worth it to see different areas of the country. We had so much fun with the time that we had and our trip was even extended by a half a day when our flight got pushed to the next morning... ugh. Unfortunately that was our connecting flight from Atlanta to SLC and weren't stuck in CR, but the ghetto of Atlanta. The airline paid for the accommodations  but we just wanted to be HOME! 

Traveling is great, but getting home to our own bed-- 

even in our dinky apartment, is a great feeling! 

Just when you start to feel safe-- Costa Rica Part V.V

Oh my gosh, I totally forgot to tell the story about our car being BROKEN INTO!! 

When we were done snorkeling we headed back to our car, which was parked on the beach outside of a restaurant, only to walk up on a burglary in progress!! We're walking toward the car [in an unlit dirt parking lot] and Jordan starts yelling, "AAAY!! AAAY!" I didn't see anything at first and was totally confused. Well we walk up to the car to find a man with his arm INSIDE the backseat broken window! He pulls his hand out really quick and says in English, "It wasn't me man. I was watching it." Jordan's totally calm and all, "No, no, no.. you did this." The guy repeats the same thing and all the while I'm watching his hands to make sure he doesn't reach in his pocket for a knife or anything because I was held up once before [in Lake Elsinore back in high school, with a group of friends. Long story.] At this point all my adrenaline is pumping because I was frightened at first, but it's clear this guy is just a lowlife who isn't going to harm us, so I start confronting him in Spanish. I don' think he saw that coming! After a few minutes of him insisting he was 'just watching' the car for us, I see it's going no where and I tell him I'm calling the police and ask if he wants to stick around to tell them what he saw. Ha ha, right? He takes off and we call the police. The dispatcher speaks less English than I do Spanish and I'm basically describing to her every local in the country of Costa Rica! I mean, it was dark out-- he was tan skinned, curly moppy dark brown hair wearing a t-shirt and cargo pants! We file a report and call our rental car insurance to report it to them. 

The bad guy got away with nothing-- because there was nothing in the car. We'd been packing the phone and GPS in our backpack and hiding any wiring in the trunk, so it wouldn't even look like we had those extras. But all rental cars are the same make and they each have about 5 stickers identifying that it's a rental, so they're easy targets for local scumbags. 

We traded in the car the next morning and the broken window only cost us $50. We didn't let it get to us and just factored the cost into our trip budget. 

My wonderful husband even said, "Maybe he was trying to be nice, he broke the smallest window afterall." What a guy my husband is, huh!? Always looking for a bright side. True-- he had only broken the small triangle window in the back, not a larger one with an automatic window roll down device.
He did rob us of one thing though-- we had planned to get massages on the beach before we checked out of the Flamingo Resort the next morning, but since we had to exchange the car before getting on our way to our next destination that morning we didn't have any time for massages!  

Boo. 

"I'm on a boat!"-- Costa Rica Part V

Fun in the Sun! 

We were both lookin' extra fly on our way out to our Sunset [no] Booze [for us] Cruise, so we took some GQ pics on our balcony. And now you are forced to look at our vanity...

I told him his toe shoes [Vibrams] really killed the shot! 

I'm no stick figure, but this is the best I'll be looking until after Baby, 

so let me indulge, hey?

Rockin' the white sunglasses Kanye-style.

Our next trip was SNORKELING!!

We booked an afternoon boat trip sailed by an Australian captain, retired in Costa Rica. They provided us lunch and snacks and booze-- which almost no one was drinking. We don't drink, but I would still have enjoyed the ridiculousness of drunks on a boat, I mean-- I was the only one dancing to THRILLER.

   

TIME TO HIT THE WATER! 

Jordan jumped in ahead of me and swam out away from the boat before I even got into the water. I do not like being in the water without someone less than 4 feet from me. In case of a shark or Orca Whale attack I can push the other person in the way while I formulate an escape.

He ditched me to keep up with the guide who was going to show us all the cool creatures before they got scared away by our presence.   

And do you know what the first thing he said to me as soon 

as I did get in the water...? 

"I SAW A SHARK!"

...and he really did. 

A 4-5 foot long Bull Shark! 

He and the guide were the first ones out to the reef and the only two that saw the shark before it split. It was more afraid of us, than I was of it. Honestly, I am a little sad I never saw it; as terrified as I am of sharks and whales and most oceanic creatures-- I am also very intrigued and love to face my fears. 

I kind of fulfilled a bucket list wish to swim with sharks, I just didn't see it is all! 

After the shark [near] encounter I was too scared to be alone. 

I just don't like the ocean and how things can be swimming underneath and around you and you can't see them. I also don't like that it is their territory-- I mean, in basically any altercation with a sea creature, they are at the advantage. They totally have the upper-hand, as they are more familiar with their surroundings and oh-- they      breath      water! 

 Jordan implied I was holding him back from being a real Steve Zissou so he swam me over to the beach to chill there while he explored the reef. I was very bored on the beach and the tide kept getting higher. All I could think about was that shark waiting for me! Finally Jordan came to my rescue with two kayaks. The catain said the two seater kayak takes on water and it was better to just take two seperate ones so Jord tied a rope and towed the second one out. We got THRASHED on the beach. They were hard plastic kayaks, not blow ups like we're used to, and once Jordan crossed into the wave he got toppled twice before getting to shore. I helped him pull both kayaks ashore, but a wave hit one into me, knocking me over and underwater! It was very intense. And a little scary. The waves kept crashing and knocked the oars out of the kayaks as well as our camera; it all started floating away. Luckily we'd invested in a floating water proof camera case, but we still had to deal with dragging the kayaks to shore before we could go after the small things. Thankfully we got it all! 

Then we had to head back out to the ocean to get to the boat... back into the wave! 

Jordan helped me into my kayak and got me started out past the wave, but then he was left to fend for himself [which I felt really bad about because it was my fault I even required a rescue team!] 

We both made it back to the big boat in one piece although Jordan and I had a few scratches and bruises to show for it!

After all that, one of the other younger couples on the boat wanted to try the kayaks. They had seen what had happened to us!! Everyone had. The captain told them there was just about 15 minutes left until we had to leave [everyone was already back on the boat and settling in for sail], but the guy insisted they'd be back in time. So the captain begrudgingly let him take the kayaks, but asked him to stay near the boat. The guy took his girl over to the beach anyway [I could have told him it was not much to look at but sand and one dead crab over there!] And they got thrashed hard! I couldn't help but laugh! I think he thought we were idiots when we were out there and somehow wanted to show how easy it was to do what we had done... well, he lost an oar and came back with two gashes on his back and leg. I only wish the shark would have smelled his blood!! Muahaha! 

We ate lunch and relaxed as we headed back.

We saw two sea turtles [doing it!] and a whale from a pretty far distance, 

we tried to catch up, but lost it. No dolphins.  

The sunset was absolutely wonderful!

Can you say STUD!? 

What a babe! He could be the new cover for the brochure! 

All good things must come to an end. 

Now I know I said only 5 installments, but Rocky didn't quit at "V" so neither will I. My stories are like crack and you know you want more you crachead, 

so just one more to end it all... 

Close to Heaven-- Costa Rica Part IV

Our view from the Flamingo Beach Resort

The second hotel we stayed at was so swanky that while Jordan was inside checking us in, an attendant brought out a frozen fruit daiquiri to my car as I chilled in the air conditioning! Curb side service-- what a treat! 

What a LUSH! 

We could hear the waves from our room! 

 So we went for a late afternoon stroll on the beach.

The water was unbelievably warm! 

But not very clear. 

So I didn't go out too deep because I'm afraid of underwater creatures! 

We watched the sun set on the beach, maybe our first time together! 

Later that night we ventured into town and had dinner at this sushi shoppe, Temptation Sushi. The internet reviews raved about this place; a local gal runs the place and works it all by herself during the slower season. It was a really quaint place, but the sushi was so bland. She did not have any culinary creativity in the rolls at all. No taste. I joked with Jordan that with my luck this would be the last sushi I would get for at least 9 months [since we were trying for Baby]... little did I know, I was unfortunately correct!! Ugh. 

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The next morning we went horseback riding through the foliage

 and ended at the beach.

Bernardo

Esotto 

After about 45 minutes we took a "water break," which I thought was for the horses, since we had been able to easily drink, ride and take pictures at the same time, the guide said it was a water break for us, not the horses. Our whole trip was about 2 1/2 hours and we didn't stop for the horses to drink or rest at all. I was really shocked at the treatment of these wonderful animals. I mean, I know they are very big and strong and were ridden across rough terrian back in the day with few stops for water or breaks, but I certainly wouldn't be a very happy animal, carrying 130 pounds of extra weight under the hot, hot sun without a drink for 2 1/2 hours! 

A regular John Wayne! 

I was a little scared! 

My horse was an old horse. A tired horse. And he stumbled to his knees twice, shifting me higher on his back right on top of his shoulders. At one point I was practically riding on his neck! I asked the handler if we should stop and adjust, but he said the horse was fine. I guess they've got a schedule to meet, ya know. So silly! 

Our hotel endorsed this horseback riding company, so we didn't check reviews. I was quite disappointed with the treatment of the animals, so I would suggest you find some good internet reviews if you ever go riding. 

Horseback riding seems like it would be easy and calming. But all that galloping is rough on the body. My inner legs were burning and my thigh muscles were sore the rest of the day! 

We were so exhausted from riding that we just lounged around 

the hotel pool for the rest of the evening.

Of course our hotel wouldn't be complete without it's own random lizards roaming the grounds. I wonder if anyone's ever been bitten?  

Think: Hawaiin gecko infestation but worse. 

Luckily all the lizards stayed outside our room! 

 Ultimate Lounging! 

Mr. Grumpy Bottoms was not enjoying the hammocks! 

The ends were hung too close together, so it was hard to find an angle 

where the hammock wasn't just sandwiching you. 

 If you've made it this far you'd might as well continue... 

one more post to close our summer getaway!