Let's get outta here...

I was planning on updating the blog last week...but then Jen and I decided to get the heck out of dodge for the weekend so we bombed down to the beach. We stayed at the second nicest hotel in Costa Rica (according to a guy we met at the pool)...the Marriott in Playa Hermosomethingorother. All in all it was a really nice hotel. Much better than the Best Western we stayed at back in March. But...the beach there was pretty terrible...mostly rocks mixed with sand...so we stayed at the hotel pool the entire time. Their pool was amazing....I think it was something like 25,000 sq. feet or something...all I know is it was huge...it was a maze of pools all connected...something like 8 in total with little canals between them and bridges over the canals. Of course we had to name everything....there was "spiders and bats bridge", "troll bridge", "monster bridge", "the big jets", "secret pirate treasure cove", "waterfall pool" and "dog park pool". Anyway...Kade loved it.

Also, Kade "swam" on his own for the first time which was a huge first. He put his arms over two noodles and just kicked his was around the pools with no help at all. He really enjoyed showing off how much of a big boy he was when mom finally came down to the pool with sister....and that leads me to the worst part of the trip...

Payton decided to start waking up at night again. Friday night she was up for a couple of hours and then really tired and cranky in the morning. So she ended up napping for the first 3 hours that Kade and dad were at the pool on Sat. Then they came down and we ate at the pool and all went swimming. Everyone had a great time swimming but it didn't last all that long before the rain came in and it was time to head back upstairs to get ready for dinner. Sat night Payton woke up several more times and was up for only about an hour...I guess that is progress. Since we have been back at home she appears to have settled back in but she is still waking up at odd times...

But...Payton has started doing the cutest thing. She has started to say "juice" when she wants a drink. It is really funny because she pushes out her lips, it looks like she is trying to kiss you and then out pops "jooze". We will try to get it on film and post it...but that is hard to do since she likes to pose for the cameras.

Oh yeah...on the way home I got pulled over by the local policia. Apparently I was going 90km/h in a 60km/h zone...oops. The police officer was really nice and spoke very broken English...to match our very broken Spanish. The "conversation" went like this:

Officer: "lkjadsfjkafdsjjfsdf license asdfadsf"
Rob: hands over CR license
Officer: looks surprised to see this gringo lives in CR...asks "Donde esta blalkjsdfljf?"
Rob: "Escazu"
Officer: "Ahh"...looking in back to see two sleeping kiddos..."your kids are beautiful"
Rob: "Thanks...but they are not for sale" (ok I didn't really say that one)
Officer: "lkjdsflkjflk adsflkjf asdlfkj" - which somehow we figure out is asking for car papers
Rob: remarkably remembers where the rental car papers are and hands them over
Officer: "lkjsdf asdflkj sdflkj?" which Jen and I think means something close to how long are you going to be in Costa Rica
Rob and Jen: "tres anos"
Officer: Looks puzzled..."and no Spanish?"
Rob and Jen: oops...he must have meant how long have we been in Costa Rica...everyone laughing now..."dos monthos"
Officer: "Ahh. sadfkl asdf l adsf lsdf?" Which we think means do you have any tickets already
Rob: "no"
Officer: look of confusion....repeats question slower this time...like that helps
Rob "no"
Officer: hmm..."velocido maximo 60...si?" (yup) ... points to speed gun saying 88 (ok) "me give ticket..."
Rob: "oooohhh...ok".
Officer goes back to write ticket...comes back quickly and says that we can go without ticket...but we have to go despacio...which is a word I actually know. And then he tells us again that our kids are really cute...did I mention that CR is a culture all about family and kids?

So Flogger...the moral of the story...if you want to get out of speeding tickets...just tell the officer NO when he is trying to tell you he is going to write you a ticket....and have cute kids in the backseat.

One last thing...school update for Kade. He is doing pretty good. He still cries a little when we drop him off but after that his teacher says he is fine...and playing with the other kids well. He is still having a few potty accidents here and there...but they seem to be getting less severe...let's hope.