Volcano Poaz

So waaay back at the end of June we went on a day trip to one of the closest volcanoes to San Jose...Volcan Poaz. As you can see from the pictures the day started out just as any other hiking day for the fambly...lots of smiles and excitement on the car ride up. You can actually drive pretty close to the top since it is a dormant volcano...so the kiddos were able to huff it themselves with a little help. Unfortunately, just as we got to the top...the fog started rolling in which was soon followed by rain. I at least got to see the lake in the crater for a minute but was not fast enough with the camera and lost the chance. So we headed back to the car just slightly disappointed. We stopped at the cafe for a quick bite and a cup of java to refuel. Then we got back in the car and drove over to the La Paz waterfall gardens. It was a really nice setup with the typical CR zoo fare (butterfly farm, hummingbird area, snake area, frog area and stuff like that). They also put on a pretty good lunch which was all you could eat buffet. Then it was off to go hike the waterfalls. Here they have well groomed paths and for the most part it is all downhill (a bus takes you back up to the main entrance when you are done). In the end it was a really nice hike...but my pack was way too damned heavy. I had Kade, 2 water bottles, a cooler, 2 umbrellas, the SLR and a bunch of snacks and diaper stuff....the thing must have weighed 70 pounds in the end. Anyway, we persevered and as you can see from the pictures of the return car ride...the kiddos were totally wiped out. Kade even fell asleep while he was drinking his juice...now that is a good hike!

Maybe that one was too obvious...

So the last poll results are in...and it was a landslide...and yes, I hit my first motorcycle. Here in CR the motorcycles are everywhere - kind of reminds me of Penang. I was turning left and he was trying to pass me on my left...he ran out of room. That dent is from his helmet...yikes. I actually saw him at the very last minute hit the car and flip over his handlebars. Amazingly he was fine and with the help of some other folks who stopped, we got his bike patched up. Then he was off...apparently no harm no foul. Since I am driving a rental car with full insurance I didn't care...one benefit.

Other than that things have been pretty tame the past week or so. We went for a hike last weekend but couldn't find the turn-off...so it ended up being a really long drive to eat lunch. At least the place was up on top of a mountain with awesome panoramic views...can't believe we didn't take a pic. As you can see from the pictures...Payton has started to climb. She loves to climb and I caught her in the act...standing on the chair. She also loves to go into the fridge on her own and pull out apricots. She will just go grab one and then walk around the house eating them...leaving a nice trail of apricot goo everywhere too....the ants love that.

I came home today and took the picture in the upper right hand corner. Now, people blame me for Kade showing signs of being a geek...but I have proof that Jen is ruining Payton!

Lastly, a picture of Kade caught in the act of "playing" in the pantry. For some reason he loves to line the juices up...it is quite fun apparently. Hmmm - compulsive disorder in the making? Oh yeah...Kade's school. It is going awesome. He now leaves Jen in the morning with no tears and apparently plays fine all day long. This week we officially sent him to school in big boy underwear vs. pull-ups...and he hasn't had an accident all week. He is doing really well and now looks forward to school every morning. Thank goodness! And as you can also tell, the potty training is also going very well. Very few accidents now.

Great Scott!!!

So Kade has been on a Superman kick lately. When we were back in Albunukie we decided to buy him a 2 disc DVD set of classic Superman cartoons. They are great! It is amazing how much cartoons have changed in the past 30 years ;-) I can easily see that in another 20 or so years they will all be banned due to their controversial content regarding warlocks and sorcerers. It is also funny to hear some of the one liners...like the classic "Great Scott", "Grabbing the top of a conical mountain", "This must be lead paint and blocking the kryptonite" and "That must be fleet from Pearl Harbor" ;-)

And while I am saying Great Scott....take a look at this picture of our rental car:

What the heck happened to the car dude?
	Kade was pretending to be a Lava Man and got out of control
	Payton was pretending to be the Warlock and got a spell wrong
	Jen was giving Rob her best Luis Lane impression, he got weak in the knees and hit the car with his head
	Rob was turning left and a motoroctclist hit him
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Name that object....

If you said a green pea then you are mostly correct. In reality this is the pea that Kade got stuck up his nose tonight at dinner. Don't worry though...with a little help from Dad he was able to "blow" his nose and it came shooting out across the dinner table. Jen and I were cracking up as we tried to tell him that he should not do that again because it is not safe. Yeah...I am sure that got through to our 3 year old who got everyone to laugh...

Also, I got some more pics of the trip last weekend. I embedded a few in the post below. Enjoy.

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.

No we are not dead....

Some people have been concerned lately due to the lack of communication and blog updates...so I am here to let you know that we are not dead ;-) Things have been unbelievably busy these past few weeks.

Two weeks ago we celebrated our 2 month anniversary in Costa Rica. The only odd thing about it was that we were in New Mexico at the time. Jen decided that we needed to go back to the states to do some shopping for things that you either can not get in CR or for things that are stupid expensive in CR due to the import taxes. So we spent from the 3rd to the 10th back in the states. It didn't start so well, we got stuck in Dallas for a day due to "weather" a most joyous time for all...made infinitely more miserable by American Airlines.

This week, Kade started his new school in Costa Rica...Home Two. It started off as expected with some normal hesitation but after we left he stopped crying almost instantly. Unfortunately, the poor kiddo developed some diarrhea and mom had to pick him up after just an hour and a half. At least he went on the potty three out of four times which is pretty good for the squirts. It's a good thing we put him in a pull-up for his first day of school...we didn't want to risk it with all the "stress". In the end, he did say that he had a good time but he was disappointed that he did not get to be an artist...something he was looking forward to.

Payton is finally over her night issues - we think. She woke up twice last week in the middle of the night. The first night she was up from 2:30-5:30 and the second night she was up from 2:00-4:30. Very uncharacteristic of Miss Payton...and a huge toll on the parents. I am pretty sure it is what sent Jen right back into her "I hate Costa Rica" phase. But the past few nights she has either slept through the night or gone back to sleep after waking up...a wonderful development. Oh yeah, the first night she decided to start sleeping through the night again the next door neighbors decided to have a party...and there was a guy out on our front lawn about 4am dry heaving...wonderful.

I will post more to catch things up over the next few days...