Back to basics...

Well the vacation is over, we took my mom back to San Jose and she flew home Thursday. It was so fun to have her here without being pregnant or having a brand new baby...we did so much in the 3 short weeks she was here the time just flew by. Here are some pics of the rest of the trip.

This is the waterfall just a few miles out of Bagaces. This was my first time going since I was here 5 years ago, it was beautiful and next time I will bring my swimsuit!




We also took the boys to the hot springs up the road which was a lot of fun!


This is the BEST Mexican you will ever eat... truly authentic and cooked over an open fire. Just a little hole in the wall taco joint, but they are always the best!!



If you ever come to visit, it will be marked in cement... Aaron's parents have a fantasic border around the pool with hand/foot prints and whatever else you want to write in there...here is moms.



We went ziplining again at a local place. They didn't have as many cables as the first place but it was still a lot of fun.


And here is just a cute picture of Riley playing at the doctors office while waiting to be weighed in...:)

So... THANKS MOM for coming to visit, it was a GREAT trip and it went by too fast. I love ya!

Crash Boom Bang

Jax was messing around yesterday and fell thru some chairs on which he was crawling... as the front chair slipped out from under him, his face sort of smacked the chair then the floor. His eye got a nice gash, and his mouth was a bloody mess. He has a cut from his tooth all the way up to his gums, split his lip/gum connector thing, and has a tooth hole in his lip...its nice and swollen, here are pics.

Needless to say he got to sleep with mom and dad last night and stay home today... it seems to look worse than it feels though so its back to school tomorrow!

Look inside on the gum above the teeth, its nearly black.

Zipline-a-dee-do-da

Whoo hoo we finally went ziplining!!! I am not even kidding how long I have waited for this. When Aaron and I came to CR with Ted and Rachel in March of 2003, Rach and I begged to zip line... the guys conveniently managed to get out of it each time we brought it up...as we were in the airport on the way home we heard people telling their ziplining tales and how it was "the best part of the trip." Fast forward to our move here, I was dying to zip line then wham bam, guess who was prego?? So now that my mom is here and I have someone willing to zip with me, Aaron watched the boys and we went, and it was wonderful...it was fantastic, and I won't wait another 5 years to go again. Here are some pics and videos.

Hiking up the trail.

Getting ready.

Mom getting saddled up

White faced monkey

Me zipping

Mom zipping

Cheesy cheese

Flying Superman Style

The Very First Zipline - Mom

Monkey in the Tree

Me zipping upside down.

Mom Zipping

Granada the Beautiful

Well we made it to Granada and back without any major catastrophes. Day 1 (Sunday) started with a bang. We were told to be at the bus station at 4 and had every intention of being on time, actually the plan was to be early, HA! So we get to the bus station and come to find out we were supposed to be at another hotel that this particular bus stopped at, so we roll in there at 4:01 and the bus had left 10-15 minutes earlier...oops!!! Gifford drove us the extra hour + to the border where we met up with our bus and jumped on after quickly getting our passports stamped out of the country. Aaron did get in a slight argument with the bus guy who tried telling him since we missed the bus and someone sat in his assigned seat, that he needed to stand...HA! Needless to say she found another seat. We arrived in Granada unscathed two hours later.

Here are some pics from our hotel:

After getting settled in the hotel we ordered delivery pizza (a rarity where I live so it was a treat)!! The next morning was time to hit the streets! We started with a horse carriage tour around town which invigorated Aaron's allergies so he had a blast!


Granada is the oldest city in Nicaragua and we saw a lot of history, beautiful old buildings and countless churches. Here are some photos from on top of a look out we had to climb up a steep steep ladder.





In the midst of our carriage ride we stopped at Lake Nicaragua for an hour boat ride to see the 365 islas (islands) which was amazing.



People actually have their own private islands. Now most of these islands are a stones throw away from the next but they are there nonetheless. Some are empty, some are home to Monkey families as their sole inhabitants, some beautiful multi-million dollar homes, hotels, rentals, etc... So if anyone wants to come visit we can literally rent an island...how fun! Jax complained a bit about the boat and how "this isn't very fun" during some big waves getting to the islands and I thought he was going to barf, luckily he didn't at that point, save that for day 2!

The next day after our fantastic hotel breakfast we jumped in a cab and drove about 30 minutes to a town called Masaya in search of a hammock. We went to the market which was stuffed full of touristy stuff and played our part! After purchasing a skirt one lady gave me my change in a $5 bill, when I went to use it at another store they wouldn't take it, after a closer look Aaron determined it to be FAKE, it was a terrible photo copy. Luckily we were able to return it to the store that gave it to me for real money. Three hammocks and some random junk later we went down a windy road to Lake Nicaragua outside of Masaya, it was beautiful!!!



Unfortunately Jaxon's motion sickness took hold and after Aaron said, "I think he is going to barf" and after Jax turned down a piece of candy from Grandma, he did. All over the cab, yuck. Poor thing. The cabbie was quite good about it, took off the seat cover and we were off again. The next morning we had to wake up at 5:30 as our bus left at 7, miraculously we managed to get there early and made it on the bus!! Granada was a charming little town and the people were very friendly. I will definitely go back some day. Here are just some more random pics.

Jax eating ice cream...

Lime Kisses

Okay I had more but the internet isn't cooperating so I better end the post for today... as if it isn't long enough already!!! So thats it, that was Granada, it was great, come visit and I will take you there!