Costa Rica - Day 4

Today was our last day in La Fortuna and we wanted to see one last this g before we left town. The La Fortuna waterfall is a tall and beautiful waterfall that’s just a few minutes outside of town and so gorgeous. Today was the perfect day to go with the sun shining and the air outside sooo hot! It was just the thing to cool us off. We got to the top of the trail and started down the 500 steps to get to the base of the waterfall. Luckily the trail is really nice and well kept and it didn’t take us long to get down. We sat down and enjoyed the cool mist that the waterfall sprayed out and then we all jumped in to the cool pool below! It was amazing! The water felt so nice and we just enjoyed every minute of it!

Rease and Rhen goofed off and started mimicking the people around us that were posing for selfies and “natural” shots of them with the waterfall. So hilarious to people watch at places like this! The girls came up with some funny poses and we all laughed and laughed! 

After we were done we made the long trek back up the stairs to the car. Within two minutes of getting to the top it started to rain. And rain and rain and rain! We were so glad to be in our car with the rain pouring down all around us. We said goodbye to La Fortuna and headed out to our next stop Monteverde. 

We had almost a three hour drive to get there but it was one of the most beautiful drives we’ve every been on! Big rolling hills of green, lush fields all around us on a windy country road. We passed big windmills and fields full of cows. Small farmhouses and tiny towns were dotted along the way and we loved seeing the gorgeous country we were driving through. We got to Monteverde tonight just as the sun was setting and know that we are in for a treat in our new home for the next coupes of days!

Costa Rica - Day 3

We signed for a white water rafting tour today and it was a blast!  It was such a fun day on the river.  Never mind that it was pouring rain when we started because it was still 85 degrees outside. And never mind that Rhen was super nervous thinking that she was going to fall out of the boat - she didn’t and none of us fell out either! We all survived and had THE BEST time doing it. Our guide Luis was the best and made our trip so fun and energetic. We laughed and joked and tried to learn some Spanish while working hard to get through the river. We had a break half way through and they served fresh fruit and let us cliff jump a little bit. Such a fun and refreshing day to be in the water. The rain stopped and it turned out to be a great and beautiful day. 

After we got done rafting they served us a delicious Costa Rican lunch of rice, beans, chicken, potatoes and homemade salsa. We relaxed for a while and then they took us on a tour of their organic farm which had pineapple, Cacau, peppercorns, lots of beautiful flowers and some brand new baby goats. We loved snuggling up to those babies. 

Overall such a fun day in beautiful la Fortuna! 

Costa Rica - Day 2

We slept as much as we could last night and woke up later than normal today - but we all feel so rested and ready to take on the day now that we’ve got some sleep in us! The house we’re staying at is about 10 minutes outside of the town La Fortuna and is just absolutely gorgeous. We walked around the house this morning and admired the flowers and all their colors, watched the humming birds flying around and listened to the sounds of the creatures all around us. Just amazing to be here! We got in the car and drove to town in the middle of a complete downpour. We realized we didn’t have enough rain gear so we searched for some rain jackets and umbrellas and were successful in finding both! We decided that lunch would get us through the rain before we had to decide what was next and we found a little local joint called Soda Viquez that was DELICIOUS! We had sea bass and two plates of casados which consisted of rice, beans, chicken and some other potato dish that is authentic Costa Rican. We snarfed every bit of it down and enjoyed doing it! And while we ate the rain did finally let up and we realized that we might be able to do something without getting soaked after all! We walked around the town a little bit and decided to drive up to the volcano national park. The town La Fortuna sits right at the base of a volcano called Arenal. When the rain stopped and the clouds cleared away we were able to see how close it was a decided to hike around and see it even more. 

The hike itself was not super long or hard at all and we had a great time just enjoying the scenery. It sprinkled on us off and on but mostly we stayed dry and just tried hard to dodge the mud puddles along the trail. One point of the trail took us onto some old lava flow which was cool and also a great place to see the Arenal volcano with the clouds clearing out of the way just a bit. 

Our favorite part of the trail took us by and old tree that somehow survived the last volcanic eruption that happened in 1968. This ceiba tree is huge and so incredible to see! They think it’s over 400 years old and reaches so high into the sky. It’s pretty amazing that something that big and old is still around for us to enjoy. Loved it. 

We grocery shopped and found a great fruit stand to stock up on fresh fruit for the next few days. We make tacos tonight and played a mean game of sky jo that Rease won by a landslide! 

Such a fun first day in La Fortuna!

Costa Rica - Day 1

A few months ago Josh and I stumbled across some insanely cheap plane tickets to Costa Rica and bought them on a whim. After a week or so we noticed that the flights were still available and even cheaper! So we bought two more tickets for Rease and Rhen to tag along with us. After all these months, it’s here and we’re off to Costa Rica! 

Day 1 turned out to be a day full of traveling and layovers. With the really cheap tickets came some long layovers and crazy routes. We actually ended up flying out of St George and had a long layover in salt lake which was just crazy. We then had another layover in Atlanta before we finally got on our last plane that took us to San Jose. 

We arrived to a rainy big city with lots of people and cars and we were glad that we could get out of town as fast as we could.  We rented a small suv and drove 2 hours up windy, beautiful country roads until we got to the town of La Fortuna where we will be spending the first 3 days of our trip. We are exhausted, hungry and just worn out but also so glad to be in this beautiful place! We can’t wait to explore!

April running

Two big runs in a row this month and I felt good about them both.  The marathon is just 6 weeks away and I'm getting nervous/excited for it!

 

Rhen's young women's class

Rhen has loved being in young women's this year and has a cute/fun group of girls.  Tonight they had a painting night and made these darling flowers on canvas.

 

Funny teeth

The kids take after their dad in the weird column.  Tootsie roll on your teeth? Oldest trick in the book...

 

Easter Sunday

We got together as a whole family for Easter Sunday and Papa's easter egg hunt.  It was the perfect way to finish off our Easter week - celebrating our Savior with those we love most.  

 

Easter Week

 

We may have found a house!

Josh headed down to Puerto Rico again to check out a few houses that we've been looking at online.  We have been looking nonstop since we got back in February and trying to figure out the best way to get "in" on a house that we may like.  Turns out the real estate market in Puerto Rico is pretty messed up and the realtors are not much help.  We've talked with a handful of them over the past few weeks and either get no response or find out that certain houses that say they are on the market, are in fact not available anymore.  We've had offers in on two different houses that have fallen through sadly, but we are determined to keep trying.  We decided the best way to get things done is to actually be there looking and finding in person, so Josh took the week and spent it there working and looking at houses.  He looked at LOTS of different ones in different areas, but we keep going back to Rio Grande and hoping to find something there.  This house is one that we had hoped to be able to see while he was there and today he got in!  The owner lives in the lower floor of the house and the upper floor is unfinished/not lived in and needs to be redone.  But as he walked through it, he thinks there may be a lot of good potential to it.  And we are looking for a project house that we can work on together.  So this might be the right fit!  He's talking with the realtor and owner and between them all I think he's going to put an offer in on the house!  Cross our fingers that this is something that might be for us. 

 

Desh preschool update

Desh LOVES his preschool class and has two little friends in there from our neighborhood.  Brielle, Lucy and Desh ride in carpool together and once a week have a play group after school.  They're all such cute friends and take care of each other in class!  Love this boy and all that he's learning.

 

Beck - term 2

Beck loves his teacher Mrs. Johnson.  And she loves having Beck in her class!  He is doing so good with his reading and math and she says he is kind and follows the rules.  So proud of Beck and what he's doing in 1st grade!

 

Keen - term 2

Keen has become a really great writer and his handwriting has improved significantly!  I so proud of this boy and his hard work.  Mrs. Kelly can't say enough good about Keen and how helpful and kind he is in class.  That's something I hoped he does the rest of his life!

 

Liev - term 2

Liev has really loved 4th grade and his teacher, Miss Buckley, has been nothing but amazing for him. She's positive, kind and encouraging.  All things that  you want for you child.  Liev is doing really good and knows he needs to work really hard on his reading.  That's always our goal and he is working at it!  Overall such a good report card for him.

 

Rhen - Term 2

Rhen had a great term 2 and, as always, had nothing but awesome praise from Mrs. Keller.  She said she is fun, social and really smart.  All things that I know and love about Rhen too :) 

 

Rease - Term 2

So proud of this 8th grader we have!  She works hard and long at what she does and excels at almost everything.  She is the best.

 

Liev's Style

Liev has a new way to wear his socks and rocks it at school, church and anywhere.  I wonder if he'll look back and regret these kind of decisions one day?

 

Work day in Delta

Justin and Steph were moving their final loads down to the Delta house and needed some extra hands to help unload.  If there's anything that we have, it's lots of hands!  We made the trek down and helped unload the trucks and trailers and made a day out of it.  The cousins loved working and playing together and it was so fun to see all the progress that has been made in their building.  They have certainly been working really hard.  We're so excited for this new adventure they're on and happy to help anytime we can!

 

Beck's outfit

Beck got all ready for school today.  He can't decide if it's spring, summer or winter.  So he put on one of each just in case.  

 

Rhen's 12th birthday

Miss Rhen officially entered "tweener" hood today when she turned 12!  She is the craziest girl and we just love her buns!  We threw an Amazing Race party and had a blast doing it.  The kids were on teams of 2 and rode scooters around the neighborhood finding clues.  They had a roadblock at the church that made them do a bunch of activities before they got their next clue.  In the end, they all had a great time and Talon and Calvin came away as the clear winners!  A great party for this 12 year old daughter we have.

12 year old stats from Dr. Erikson:

Height: 5'7" - 99%

Weight: 114 lbs - 80%

My favorite things about 12 year old Rhen:

1) Rhen is a tweener-going on teenager in all ways!  She is spunky, moody, boy crazy, sometimes zitty and even started her period this year.  She is growing up right before our eyes and, though I wish I could stop time, I love seeing who this girl is becoming and the personality that comes with it!

2) Rhen LOVES her downtime and is the best person to cuddle up to a movie, veg out with delicious food (especially dessert), or hang out at home and painting nails or playing a game.  She's the best to hang with!

3) Rhen is smart.  She works hard in school and cares about her grades.  She wants to go to college and she has some good direction.  I love that she is thinking about her future and doing good things to take care of that now.  She is loving her 6th grade year and being the oldest in the school but also can't wait for middle school next year.  I know there are good things in store for this girl!

We love you Rhen!

 

Rease's spring concert

Rease and her symphonic band and jazz band had concerts tonight.  They all did such a great job and have improved significantly over the year!  She plays the french horn in symphonic band and the trumpet in jazz band.  She does an awesome job juggling both things and has a great group of friends in both bands.  Love this girl and her hard work at something that she loves!

 

Ski Week - Day 4

Our last day on the mountain and we wanted to make it a good one! Unfortunately it was a Saturday so it was much busier than it has been all week with long lines and lots of waiting in between runs. It caught up with the little ones especially and Desh and Beck both had moments of breaking down a bit while standing in line. We still got some good runs in and actually had a really fun time over on Milly where the lines were just a touch shorter. On the last run of the day (literally we had just said, “This is our last run before we head back to the cabin”) Rhen found herself in a wrestle with a tree and unfortunately for Rhen, the tree won. We heard her calling/crying to us from above the trail and Josh took his skis off to hike and find her. Luckily she wasn’t hurt too bad and he was able to snap a picture of her before her helped untangle her from in between the tree. She had a good sized scratch up her back but nothing else permanent. A good old cup of hot chocolate back at the cabin solved all her problems! 

Always the tradition on the last day of ski week is to hand out awards for all those that participated in our week. Here goes:

Rease got the Duracell battery for having a never ending need and want to stay on the slopes. Literally she never wanted to stop skiing. 

Rhen got the tumbleweed award. And yes that was also her call sign for the week but it fit her so perfectly that we decided that was also the award she would be given. Some really epic tumbles from this girl this week!

Liev got the Evil Knievel award. Not really any explanation needed for that one. He’s. Just. Crazy. Good. And is not afraid to try new things. 

Keen got the underrated assassin award because he is so good at what he does but without a lot of fanfare. He has great form, hits the jumps, skis fast and hard but doesn’t make a lot of fuss about how good he is. Just loves to ski and ski hard!

Beck got the Termite award this year for just absolutely munching through his mask. It’s pretty gross and it looks awful but he just sucks on that thing all day long. So...we’re throwing that one away the instant we get home!

Desh got the rookie of the year award and it was well deserved. He did amazing keeping up with all the crew and did not want to miss out on any part of any run. Josh said he’s the best first year skier we’ve ever had and I agree! Such a great caboose!

Dad got the conductor award for leading this crew through an amazing week. We could not and would not do as much as we all do on the slopes without that guy leading the way. We love him for keeping us all together!

As we packed up the cabin and headed for home we all reminisced about the favorite parts of the week and the favorite funny moments. So many. We love this place up on the mountain that we get to call home for a week every winter and are so grateful for the time we get to spend making memories. Until next year ski cabin! 

Ski week - Day 3

Day 3 of ski week dawned bright and early and we were first in line at Crest. The snow cats were just finishing up their nightly work as we loaded on to the first chair lift of the day. We followed our usual routine of Crest-Snake and stayed there for a few runs before we headed back to Crest for the “triple terrain” route that has become a favorite of the kids’. They are fast and love all types of jumps so the terrain parks are perfect for them. 

It turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day with the sun shining on us and warming everything up. It was a “spring ski” day in all ways! We stripped off our heavy coats and wore jackets or t-shirts for the rest of the afternoon and loved every minute of it. We spent some time over at Millie which we don’t often do but the lines were shorter and it was fun to mix it up a little bit. Desh had a great ski hook right off the lift and he and I both got swept under the chair before they got it stopped for us. Nothing like looking like an idiot in front of a resort full of people. That’s my favorite. Liev lost his coat as he raced down the mountain “flying style” and he and josh had to hike back up to find it. Rhen took a break in the cabin and finished her book (The Hunger Games) and enjoyed some quiet time to herself. Keen showed me the secret passage way from Great Western through the trees to the slide and was my guide for the early afternoon while Dad and uncle Andy took some fast runs on their own. Rease and I found a ski/snowboarding double man trick that we want to try and duplicate somehow and Beck mastered the most annoying voice over the Walkie talkie. Rhen, Desh and I were lucky enough to stop on the rollers while on the crest chair lift and I think that means that we get a foot massage from the others when we get back and also a free lunch from the lodge? I’ll have to double check my facts on that one but I’m pretty sure I’m right. Desh finished off the night with an epic drop down onto Tantamount that scared the heck out of mom but didn’t seem to bother him a bit. His older brothers and sisters thought he was pretty cool. 

Papa Losee surprised us and came up for the night and watch our last few runs. We played Sky-Jo late into the night and laughed and laughed at the crazy things Rease and Rhen do and say. A visit from papa wouldn’t be the same without a night full of games. And we were happy to oblige! 

Ski week - Day 2

We woke up this morning to a few inches of new snow and it was as exciting as Christmas Day! There’s nothing like fresh powder first thing in the morning. Off we went and what a day it turned out to be! Our good friends Brad and Sharon Baldauf spent the whole day with us today and it was such a treat to have them along for the ride! We burned through a few awesome runs on snake creek (including our favorite spots - the slide and the ditch), and had a couple amazing crashes (Rhen and Desh), one of which ended with mom trying to get to Desh and getting t-boned myself in the process. Dad and Keen sat on chair #100 which is pretty cool. 

Our runs on Crest were probably the favorites of the day. We mastered Powder Hollow (which was actually renamed Momma Hollow after I successfully made it up there) and rocked Wren Hollow after that. The snow was so good today and we couldn’t get enough of the fun tree runs and powder spots. 

Liev managed to make it through the day without losing a Walkie talkie, Desh became a speed demon with no fear of the crashing, Rease worked on her “Jerry” jump and actually made a lot of progress, Beck dominated the jumps on the terrain parks, Rhen mastered the 360 and Keen climbed up the side of the snowy hill and rolled down it like a snowball. Dad, as always, dominated the slopes and looked good doing it! All things of note and ones that made the day amazing! 

I can’t help but feel lucky, as I sit here with a sleeping Desh on my lap, that these moments are ours and ones that we won’t forget anytime soon. 

Ski week - Day 1

We love and look forward to our week at the ski cabin at Brighton every year! Today we kicked it off in usual fashion, with a fridge full of food and heads full of adventure. We skied our hearts out today and had a gorgeous bluebird day to enjoy. One of my favorite things is to see all my kids out ahead of me charging down the slope. And finally all six of them are here for the full week and there’s nothing better than to be up here together! Desh is rockin it and just wants to keep up with the other kids. He has no fear whatsoever which is great for him and sometimes scary for mom. But I just have to let them all be who they are and go at it together! They each have their unique style but the thing they have in common is that they all love to go fast and find the trees and jumps whenever possible. It’s fun to watch all of them! And guess who’s out reading the charge! Their dad. Love him for all his leadership and for his sense of adventure. Our kids have gotten that from him. 

Today was full of laughs, jumps, terrain parks and funny Walkie talkie moments - along with an epic jump and splat by Beck in Wren Hollow, some back skiing by Desh, a lost Walkie talkie by Liev (twice), card playing, book reading and the first ever Brighton Derby! Everyone raced across the resort and had to ride all the lifts before making it back to the cabin. Rease (Pigeon) was the first one back but the others arrived just minutes behind her. I’m sure it’s the first of many Brighton derby’s in our future.

We can’t help but just feel so grateful that we get to spend the week up in this gorgeous place together. 

Walkie Talkie call signs for the week:

Josh: JaDaddy

Nat: Mommer Bomber

Rease: Pigeon

Rhen: Tumbleweek

Liev: Night Ninja

Keen: Skeletor

Beck: Mr. Cheese

Desh: Big D