Our prayers are with you Maddie! We hope that you are back on your little feet in no time. We love you.
This weekend has been a lot of fun with the kids. Today was no exception. We ended up playing for most of the day and it was finally windy enough that Kade and Payton got to fly thier kites...twice (which they have been asking poor mom to do all week). But that was not why this was such a special day. Today was a special because while we were out at lunch, Payton signalled to me and thew out the old "Ka-ka daddy". Since we are in full potty training mode...I grabbed her and we were off to the twahlet. Kade decided that he had to come so we all ended up in the mens room. As I was getting Payton situated on the can...Kade decided he had to take a growler too. So there I stood in the mens room with both kids taking a duece in adjoining stalls...singing "Old McDonald Had A Farm" to each other and cracking each other up. Priceless...a double duece for daddy today!
Unbelievable...even in Costa Rica Christmas comes in September...Jeez!
Kade: "Daddy why did you change your shirt?"
Me: "Because." [squirt...squirt...put on a little colone]
Kade: "Ooooh dad, you smell good.....just like cheesy noodles!"So there you have it.
A week ago, it totaled just three pages — the White House's request for $700 billion to rescue tottering financial institutions by buying their devalued mortgage-related assets.
By Monday, after an intense weekend of negotiations, the draft of the bailout legislation before Congress had swelled to 42 pages.By Friday, after almost a week of marathon talks between Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and key lawmakers in both parties, the working version was up to 102 pages.
Along the way to Tortuguero, we drove through a Del Monte banana plantation. It was HUGE. We even got to see the entire process from trees to shipment. As you would imagine, it is a simple process...but I was amazed at just how simple it really was. It all starts in the fields where they place blue bags over the growing bunches of bananas to keep out insects and birds (picture 1). Given the sheer magnitude of number of trees...that is a daunting manual task for sure. When the bunches are "ready" the entire thing is cut 
down and tied onto a hook. 
Then that hook is put onto a long overhead "tram-line". They are then pulled along the line until they reach the "packing plant". You can see in the top-right picture (picture 2)...the bagged bunches being pulled over the street heading into the plant. 
tubs take a ride down to the 
packers who put them into a box. Then they put the boxes onto the conveyor belt heading down to the truck (pictures 7 and 8). And that is pretty much it. If you look closely at the 7th picture you will see a small white "7" sticker on the top of the box. That is to let them know which packing station it was packed at...just in case you ever see that in your grocery store. Also, it is worth noting that I saw quite a few safety issues which would not be tolerated at my place of work. From basic ergonomic issues all the way to loose apron strings almost getting caught in the conveyor belt motor. I guess I see the world differently these days....
Last weekend the fambly headed up to Tortuguero (extreme North-East of CR - see map) with the Rich and Gina show. The great thing about that is that Max and Kade are great buds from school and Payton and Tyler are also close in age so they could play together (although Tyler does prefer the boys). The whole event started at the Hotel Real Intercontinental 
near our house at 5:45am on Sat morning. The amazing 
part about this is that we ran into about 5 other families we knew while we were waiting for the bus. Apparently lots of people hang out with their families at 6am in Costa Rica...go figure.
mountains which were absolutely beautiful. Along the way we passed a really cool sight...there is a place where
two rivers come together, one blue (from the mountains) and one brown (from a volcanic region I think). It is the picture on the top right.
went into town to see what they could see. All the boys were mystified by this since
pretty much every town in Costa Rica is the same...a few markets...a few sodas...a few shops. Well, when they finally returned they gave us the status report....yup...a typical CR town indeed. At least they had the good sense to pick up some Rum and Coke along the way! A quick stroll along the beach before dinner and then time to get the kiddos down. At 10pm the boys went out to see the turtles. Luck was on our side and we got to see a turtle laying eggs, covering up her nest and then heading back into the sea.
Since no 
cameras are allowed I don't have any pictures to share but I can say that the pics over HERE pretty much cover it all. A few interesting facts: It takes the whole process about 2 hrs start to finish, the incubation time is about 2 months and they are called green turtles because that is the color of their INSIDES...not their outsides. It was very cool indeed to see it all. When they conceal their nests they sometimes kick out some of the eggs. The tour guide said that those never survive so I picked one up and checked it out. It felt just like a really big ping-pong ball to me...firm but would dimple with enough pressure. FYI - the turtle nests are
huge. You can see that from the picture at the right. Those craters are their nests!
with a 6:30am boat our into Tortuguero National Park...well, that is where we were supposed to go. We ended up not going into the park due to strict regulations regarding the number of motorized boats allowed...just 7! So we ended up heading upriver to Tortuguero mountain instead. We saw the typical 
Howler and Spider Monkeys, a few shore birds, poisonous frogs, Toucans, etc. Then it was breakfast and back to the pool for more fun. After lunch, Kade and I watched DVDs while Jen and Payton napped. Then it was back to the beach to see if we could see any baby turtles hatching. Unfortunately not...b
ut we did get to see a few dead baby turtles that did not make it to the sea. That night the girls went to see the turtles and they were also lucky enough to see the entire process.
Last Thursday was Family Day at Home Two. As usual it turned into an all morning affair with a distinctly Costa Rican flair. The Theme was Pirates so everyone had to get 
dressed up including the parents...well at least MOST parents...apparently Kentucky Royalty is excluded from these types of rules. Overall it was a lot of fun for the kiddos and a basic pain in the rear for the parents ;-) The only reason I say that is because it is not like you can just zip on over to a party store or Wally World and pick up some cheap pirate gear. Nooo...this is Costa Rica....so it takes a few days of planning just to come up with 4 pirate costumes. Overall, Jen took the lead on this one as my work has been ferociously busy lately and she did a great job. 
ended up having to take pics with my cellphone camera. Oh well, 
something is better than nothing. Anyway, we started with a treasure hunt which was a bit disorganized. It was one of those "you have to follow the first clue to find a bottle which would contained the next clue" type of things. The only issue, when we went out to find our bottle (Kade and I got to go first...which was interesting for us since the clues were all in Spanish) we actually found two. Now...since we were not sure what the hell the clue said to begin with we were not sure which was the right bottle. Ahh, your typical "can't speak Spanish but I live in Costa Rica" dilemmas. So what did we do...you know it...we brought back both ;-) The teacher looked at us like we were idiots...go figure! 
better since the last event there. Apparently someone got a panini maker for their birthday so 
they had cheese and tomato paninis which were not all that bad...just ask Rich...I think he had 5! Anyway, about half-way through the "killing time" section of the event the REALLY typical Costa Rica thing happened...a giant Pringles can came out. No shit. Check out the picture (and yes that is Kade punching the can in the nuggets...his "male or famale Pringle can" test). Now what a Pringles advert has to do with Pirates...one can never be exactly sure, but in the end you just kind of stare at it thinking WTF? But hey...now that we have been here over a year...you just kind of laugh and move on (and of course take a picture so you can blog about it later).
Last weekend we had
some unexpected visitors - Karen and Mary. So we headed up to Arenal with the EESAYs for a quick weekend trip. We started with a stop in Sarchi so the girls could get some small trinkets for the folks back home. Then we headed up through San Ramon and out to Fortuna. Along the way, we went through some beautiful countryside...complete with winding mountain roads. That was where we stopped for the second time. The first picture shows the essense 
of that stop...the EESAYs cleaning up from a car-sick Pi. Apparently, playing 
Nintendo in the backseat after eating Cheetos is a bad idea...go figure. Finally, we got to Fortuna and stopped for some dinner and then headed up to Los Lagos. I think we got up there about 9pm and lucky for us...the clouds had blown out and we could see the Volcano. So we hopped in the car and sped over to the bridge on the backside of the mountain. We were lucky enough to still be able to see the lava before the rain blew back in for the night. The drive in and out was fun...you can ask the girls ;-)
Kade did much better this time and didn't cry at all. He even was going over the bridges by himself by the end...way to go Kade! Payton is still in the backpack and loving the ride! The last time we did the hanging bridges Jen was in great shape and wasn't winded at all...but this time she was obviously a
little more tired but still did a great job all things considered. The EESAY girls also joined us for the hike...I won't comment on where Mr. Kentucky Royalty was at the time. After the hike we headed up to the Arenal Lodge for lunch...we were again lucky and the clouds blew out so we got to see the entire Volcano in daytime too. Lucky, lucky, lucky.
Then on Sunday morning, Karen and Mary decided to go zip-lining while the rest of us hit the pool. They had a great time but Mary was a little unsure about the whole thing. The good
news is that she DID survive to tell the tale! After the pool we headed back to San Jose and had a rather uneventful drive home. All in all, a successful weekend trip. The next day Karen, Mary and Jen headed down to the beach Punto Loena I 
think...apparently having another nice day...except for the drive back where it was raining heavily in the mountains and that always makes for a fun drive.
