A New Dog and Silly Pics

Matt picked up our new puppy on September 7th (pictured below the day we got him, 8 weeks old). His full name (picked out by the kids) is Blackie Thunderballs Blaster. We just call him"Blackie" even though he is brown.

The school year is off to a great start and it has been a good month so far. Some random picturess ...

Kids at at UT game:

Goofing around in the backyard:

 

Kara took this pic of Jack and Ainsley in the grocery store when we didn't know she was snapping pics. I love the pic because Jack and Ainsley are particularly close lately and this kind of sums up how cute they are with each other:

 

This past spring Matt and I jotted down our family values and I found a site on Etsy that makes these cool boards so we had this custom board made for our kitchen:

 

Matt and the kids are overly excited for Halloween and bought some decorations early. Now our neighbors can enjoy the Pumpkin Reaper for a full month:

 

New School

The kids started their new school this week! Jack and Kara were excited to start kindergarten; Ainsley was proud to move up to 1st grade. All were excited to be in the new school and had a great first day. New friends, new adventures, new memories!

Picture outside of the house before we walked to school:

Right before we went inside:

Costa Rica - Week #4

Our final week in Costa Rica we tried to spend as much time as possible at the beach. The kids still participated in camp, but in the evenings we headed to the beach. Oh how we all enjoyed the beautiful beaches!

Playing at Playa Danta:

Surf lessons at Playa Grande:

On the final day of camp the kids had a performance highlighting special aspects of Costa Rica, along with notable things they learned.

Local dance:

National pride:

Things they learned special to them:

 

As thus ended our month in Costa Rica. We had a truly amazing time. We asked the kids what they liked most about Costa Rica and this is what they said:

Ainsley: "Zip lining and riding horses"

Jack: "Zip lining"

Kara: "Blackie" (our adopted stray dog)

As for me and Matt - We could make a long list of everything we liked, but our favorite part was spending genuine quality time with the kids and having an adventure as a family. Priceless memories were made!!

Pura Vida!

Playa Danta

It has been really amazing to have constant access to the beach. We are walking distance to Playa Flamingo, a short five minute drive to Playa Protrero and Playa Penca, and a short 10 minute drive to our favorite spot, Playa Danta. One of our favorite things to do is load up the kids in the car at 5pm, drive to Playa Danta, play on the beach until sunset (~6:15), eat dinner at the beach, and get the kids back home and in bed by 7:30pm. We will miss this!

Pic of Jack playing on the beach as the sun sets (you can barely see him in the foreground):

Costa Rica - Week #3

This week Costa Rica celebrated a religious holiday to celebrate the Virgen de los Angeles. The celebration takes place on August 2nd in Cartago, at the Basilica (San Jose). For the region where we are staying (Guanacaste), that is ~4 hour drive so a town near by (Cartegena) held its own day of celebration. We stopped by briefly to see what a local festival looks like.

The food was all prepared by local peeps. Here is a woman making tortillas and soup:

The first portion of the festival was a service (mass) in the church:

Snap of the street (the horses were for a parade, not transportation):

Traditional ox cart:

The kids only lasted an hour before it was too hot and they wanted to leave :-)

Exchange rate: $1USD = 500 colones

This game was intriguing... Each person holds onto a string, connected to a card. They draw a card to announce a winner (there was more to the game but we were totally confused). This was definitely a hot spot of people wanting a piece of the action!

The winner won a chicken:

Super fun xylophone players:

For the weekend we took a trip to La Fortuna to see the Arenal volcano. Unfortunately the weather was cloudy, rainy, and we didn't get many pictures or a full view of the volcano. We took a horse ride that took us to a great viewing area to see the volcano, but just as we got there a massive storm popped up and we got drenched. Total downpour, lightning, thunder....the works! We stayed on the horses to make the trek back (total time 2.5 hours) and even though we were soaking wet the kids had a great time. They told us it was the highlight of their weekend. Meanwhile we were happy when it ended!


The one photo I got of Arenal (top is covered with clouds):

Exploring the critter park nearby:

A Tucan!

View from a roadside stop on the way out of the mountains:

Matt sharing a bloody mary with our friend, Annette, who made the trip with us: