::toesies::

 I got a piano book that has a bunch of songs from Tangled, Frozen and Enchanted.  Lucy was very happy with me about that.  She was thrilled that we could play her favorite song from Tangled (albeit slowly and badly).  After I got done playing (which didn't take long since she wanted to "play along" the whole time), I went to do something else.

When I came back to the guitar room, there was Lucy, trying her best to play the song.  In her little "Let it Go" nightgown and with her darling little toesies sticking out.

Think she might let me teach her to play piano at some point?  Nobody else has yet.  We'll see I guess.  Maybe if I ply her with enough Disney showtunes she'll have no choice but to learn.  I'll keep trying.

::sandy haircut::

We don't document every single haircut because not only would that be boring but it would also be silly.

However, a haircut like this one does deserve some attention.



Sandy had been cultivating the Luke Skywalker hair for quite a long long time.  He was very proud of it, and refused to even think of cutting it for a long long time.



As it got longer and bushier though, I had to insist on grooming it more often.  And I think maybe Sandy inherited a soft and tender head from his parternal grandmother.  He can't STAND having his hair brushed if it's in the slightest bit tangly.



So we came to a decision between the two of us.  It was time for the long locks to go.  So we went to see Patrick.  Sandy was pretty stoic about the haircut, although he did keep saying "I sure hope we're almost done."



And he may not actually trust Patrick at all, when it comes down to it.  But anyway, it's done, and the new haircut is cute and short and easy and he's delighted that we don't really have to do anything to it at all.



But I have to say he does look like a different kid, and that's always a little fun but also a little sad at the same time.



And then here are the goofballs.  Such silly people.



We went to see Zootopia together right after hte haircute and it was super fun.  I like these littles.

::::

On Weds I had to take the car down to the dealership in Albuquerque for some servicing.  Sandy got to come with me.  He's getting some special treatment as he tries to recover from his tonsillectomy.

We went to Target (of course, when don't we go to Target?).  He really wanted a hot dog, but it was breakfast time.



I offered him a slushy, but he turned it down.  It's insane.  He's been all treated out almost.  It blows my mind a little bit.  ANYWAY, we walked over to the cafe so I could get him a hotdog.  That's when we spied these delicious cinnamon pretzels.  He told me later that he saw them and thought they were doughnuts.  "So weird!" he said, "Who eats doughnuts for breakfast?!"



But really Sandy, the real question is who eats hot dogs for breakfast?

We got home in time to pick up Max from school, and the car is all refreshed, so it was a succesful trip.

::new building update::

These aren't even good photos, frustratingly, but they're the best I could do when I was driving down the road!  Or maybe I think Max took these for me?  Same problem though--questionable quality.

The walls and ceilings and everything are all up!  They put the stucco on the outside of the building which is exciting!  The scaffolding is up there because that big wall that sticks out there is going to be painted an exciting bright orange.



It's so crazy to see the building going up, to realize how humongous it is, and also realize what a frighteningly huge project it is!  Yikes!

We're excited because the location is awesome and super visible.  It should be great for marketing.  And the building is going to be so fun looking.

I'll try to get a few more photos next week, and maybe some interior photos!!

::day one Costa Rica::

Day one!  Of course the kids were up early so we weren't late for breakfast.
Our routine was pretty much the same every day on this trip which made it easy.
Here we are on our way to breakfast.  We had breakfast at the hotel every morning--a small one, basically just fruit and toast.



We came to breakfast early and ready to go to the beach.  Right after breakfast we would go over to the board locker, or the "board room" which is what Kris liked to call it and get things together so we could walk over to the beach.  It was maybe a 10 minute walk down a bumpy rutted dirt road to a jungle path, past a little weird cemetery.



Kids sure do love getting sunscreen applied, they're usually so cooperative too.



Oh boy, Lucy was ready and raring to go.  She was excited to wear the little swim outfit that the Surf Diva ladies picked out for her.

Below is the whole group.  On the far left is Izzy, she's one of the owners of the surf shop in La Jolla that runs the camp, and she was in charge of everything.  Her daughter Annabelle is standing in front of her.  Annabell LOVED Lucy and spent lots and lots of time playing with her which was nice.


Next to Izzy is Eki.  She's a native Costa Rican and was there to teach the kids.  She was very kind and gentle with the kids and they had a great time with her.  Halfway behind Kris is Todd, Izzy's husband.  He was only able to be there for a couple of days.  The guy with the HAIR there is Steve, he was Kris's and my surf coach, and he was great.  Super kind, really unintimidating and a good teacher.  We had a lot of fun with him, and Sandy loved him more than words could say.


And there we are.  Kris and I traded off taking lessons.  We had a two hour session in the morning and a two hour session in the afternoon.  Theoretically if there weren't littles to watch we would've had a two hour group lesson for every session. But since we DID (and do) have the littles, we decided to just switch off.  And becuase of the amazing fact that we were the only family there, we each got to have privates for half the session.

I had a great first surf session and got to stand up which I hadn't accomplished yet.  I was so excited!  It was pretty thrilling to pull it off.

After the surf session we went back to the hotel and rinsed off and had a bigger breakfast/brunch.  Eggs, rice and beans, plantains.  Oh yum it was good.  Especially after all of that physical activity.



Since this was the first day, after breakfast we took a little tour of the town (town is a strong word--village maybe?)  The kids got some ice cream and I got dropped off at my yoga class--yoga was another thing that was included on the daily schedule.  Kris and I decided to switch off on that too.

By the time I got to yoga I had an insane heat headache and I thought maybe I wouldn't survive.  But I drank a lot of water and powered through.  It was a great class but it really made me tired.  When I went back to the hotel Lucy fell asleep on me and I got a little nap, again something that feels so incredible after working so hard!

Luckily the hotel room did have a cooler, so that kept me going that first day.


After the break we got all ready again and headed back down to the beach for the afternoon surf session--usually around 3 or 3:30.

The kids somehow both squeezed into the stroller.  Amazingly because they're both big, but also amazingly because they can't be in the same space without trying to push each other out usually.

This fisheye photo is the cutest ever of Lucy.  She's such a good sport.  Evidently life was just a little too bright for Mr Sand.



And pretty bright for Ms Lu too I guess.



Fashion plate:


Sandy was vehemently against doing any surf lessons. I knew he would eventually give in, so I didn't push him.  He just played in the water the first day and really enjoyed himself.



Lucy was a little better in the afternoon, but she spent the whole morning of the first day scaring the living daylights out of me and trying to join the mermaids at the bottom of the ocean.  Being a two year old, she naturally thinks she's invincible.  And she's a super brave little girl.  Nothing slows her down.  So I just had to follow her and pull her back out of the water when she got too deep, pick her up quickly before a wave took her out and try to talk her into staying closer to the edge of the water.  It was impossible.



Luckily she settled down some in the afternoon though, and we were able to have a better (less stressful for me) time.



Sandy HATED the beach at this age.  He was afraid of the water, he hated the feeling of the sand.  Everything was scary--and sorry, I can't help but insert a illustrative photo here:
Oh man he was so cute!  And he hated the beach so much!!

But the point of this story is that I'm proud of us!  We worked him through his issues and he loves the beach now.  He's comfortable in the water and he's happy to be there.  It makes me feel good.



The baby footprints!!


Another good surf session!  We are back at the board room here. We were supposed to hurry and get cleaned up so we could head out for dinner at a local place.



But look at these guys.  Think we wore them out?????  Holy cow these kids look tired.
I also think this may have been the day that Kris tipped them both out of the stroller on a little sand hill.  They weren't too happy about that.







We did make it to dinner, and it was delicious.  They also had photos of the beach from a local photographer running as a slideshow up on a monitor.  We were in a few of the photos which was really fun for the kids.

This huge bug came to visit a neighboring table and Max ran over to get a picture.



After dinner we all collapsed into bed as quickly as possible--I was soooooo tired!  In a good way though.

::heading out to Costa Rica::

Saturday morning we ran around finishing up the last few things, running errands, cleaning up and finishing up the packing. Then around lunchtime we took of down to the airport. We flew to Houston Saturday afternoon, got there evening time, took a taxi to a nearby Marriot and spent the night. 

Hauling all of our piles and piles of junk from the airport to the hotel and back to the airport wasn't super fun, but it was nice to get a good night's sleep. Kris took the boys to Denny's while we waited for Lucy to fall asleep.




Waiting for the airport shuttle early in the morning. See that super full luggage caddy? It's a lot of stuff. Plus the crazy kids.



And me.

The international check in line for Southwest was very short--they're just starting their international flights. And we were off. It was about a 3.5 hr flight to Costa Rica. The plane wasn't too full. The boys sat together in one row and Kris and I got to sit with Lucy.

 

Lucy is a good traveler. We actually didn't have trouble with any of the kids on the way there.

When we arrived it was a little stressful. The airport is really small, which helped, but the lines for customs were confusing, and getting our luggage was slightly complex. There were free luggage carts, but we weren't supposed to take them out of the airport, so as soon as we stepped outside we were supposed to pay some guy to load up our stuff and push it a few feet.

Our shuttle driver was waiting for us, and with just a few words of english, we were off, stuffed into a tiny van with all our junk in the stifling 90 degree weather! It's a 2.5 hr drive.











There was a lot of interesting scenery. Not a lot of jungley scenery though, it was "dry season", their version of winter I guess. Lots of trees looked dead and brown but I think they were just dormant.
We drove through some little towns and past some hills and mountains.

When we finally got there the driver ran over a big rock in the hotel parking lot, and so it was a pretty dramatic arrival. The camp organizer and the surf coaches were there waiting to greet us, and the guy at the check in desk gave us all cups of maracuja juice.

It was dinner time (Where we were in Costa Rica is central time). But the kids HAD to get in the pool before we could head over for dinner. Of course. So while I tried to get us organized for a few minutes, Kris let the kids go crazy.



After that we quickly got dry and headed over to the hotel restaurant for dinner. We met everyone officially and got an idea of our schedule for the next week.

At that point it was pretty much bedtime and everybody did a good job going to sleep. Sandy had his own little cot that we brought, Max got the second bed and Lucy had a pack & play. I was happy because the room had an air conditioner that could be used. Makes a difference!