We found a litter of Brazilian Mastiff/Boxer mixed pups and quickly scooped one up!
So without further adieu, here is Stella!!
(Totally not dog related. Just a great pic of Jax jumping into the pool!)
6.02.2010
Meet Stella
Meet Stella! After having to put Nacho down a few months ago, we decided to get another dog... big dogs scare the crazies away, and Lily needed someone to romp around with since she is a little too big for Roxy!
We found a litter of Brazilian Mastiff/Boxer mixed pups and quickly scooped one up!
So without further adieu, here is Stella!!
(Totally not dog related. Just a great pic of Jax jumping into the pool!)
We found a litter of Brazilian Mastiff/Boxer mixed pups and quickly scooped one up!
So without further adieu, here is Stella!!
(Totally not dog related. Just a great pic of Jax jumping into the pool!)
Grown-up for a day...
Aaron and I joined some friends and headed to San Jose for a wedding a couple weeks ago. Leaving the kids with Judy and Giff, we were able to partake in grown-up activities for the night including getting dressed up without the worry that your child will leave a trail of half eaten graham cracker crumbs all over your dress as you are on the way out the door! The groom, Sebastian, works for us as an architect designing all of the houses and buildings for the project. He is from Belgium and his wife is Costa Rican.
This was the dressiest we have been in ages. I don't remember being so excited to wear a dress and fancy shoes in all of my life. I live in shorts, flip flops and tank tops with built in bras so I don't have to wear too many layers... I think I tried my dress on three times the week prior to the wedding. Anyway, my dress was purchased the week after my own wedding, in 2003, luckily the quintessential "little black dress" never goes out of style. I wore it one time, to our good friends Ted and Rachael's wedding and have been holding on to it since. The shoes, ahhhh the shoes, were a stellar purchase for an event I did while at the Redskins and like the dress, have only been worn once... those sparkly wonders were dying to come out of the closet.
Aaron's ensemble on the other hand, was the icing on the cake. His suits, shirts, ties, shoes, everything for a formal occasions, as well as an entire wardrobe plus some, are in totes in my moms shed in Wyoming. Soooo, Aaron got to borrow clothes from his dad! Now Gifford doesn't have many formal occasions to attend and thus doesn't need to update his attire, and Aaron has maxed out the storage capacity of my mom's shed, so Giff has his duds on site. The shoes, a size too big, slipped and slopped around Aaron's feet, giving him a great excuse not to dance as he might fall down (not by the fault of the open bar). His pants, a couple inches too long, hung out and dragged around the bottom of the shoes; the shirt, a bit too big but unnoticed underneath the 1982 Mr. Rogers jacket! He looked like he was playing dress up...in his dad's clothes:) The good news is, he is so darn handsome you didn't even notice, and the fashion police weren't there, so no one was the wiser... he managed to pull it off well:) A great time was had by all and the next day we came home to our little graham cracker loving boys!
Here are some pics of the evening...
This was the dressiest we have been in ages. I don't remember being so excited to wear a dress and fancy shoes in all of my life. I live in shorts, flip flops and tank tops with built in bras so I don't have to wear too many layers... I think I tried my dress on three times the week prior to the wedding. Anyway, my dress was purchased the week after my own wedding, in 2003, luckily the quintessential "little black dress" never goes out of style. I wore it one time, to our good friends Ted and Rachael's wedding and have been holding on to it since. The shoes, ahhhh the shoes, were a stellar purchase for an event I did while at the Redskins and like the dress, have only been worn once... those sparkly wonders were dying to come out of the closet.
Aaron's ensemble on the other hand, was the icing on the cake. His suits, shirts, ties, shoes, everything for a formal occasions, as well as an entire wardrobe plus some, are in totes in my moms shed in Wyoming. Soooo, Aaron got to borrow clothes from his dad! Now Gifford doesn't have many formal occasions to attend and thus doesn't need to update his attire, and Aaron has maxed out the storage capacity of my mom's shed, so Giff has his duds on site. The shoes, a size too big, slipped and slopped around Aaron's feet, giving him a great excuse not to dance as he might fall down (not by the fault of the open bar). His pants, a couple inches too long, hung out and dragged around the bottom of the shoes; the shirt, a bit too big but unnoticed underneath the 1982 Mr. Rogers jacket! He looked like he was playing dress up...in his dad's clothes:) The good news is, he is so darn handsome you didn't even notice, and the fashion police weren't there, so no one was the wiser... he managed to pull it off well:) A great time was had by all and the next day we came home to our little graham cracker loving boys!
Here are some pics of the evening...
Putt putting around
A few weeks ago Aaron and I took the boys to play putt putt golf at the beach. The place wasn't great by any stretch of the imagination with no paths and cactus all over the rocks, but we managed to have a great time anyway. Jaxon had fun golfing, Riley enjoyed grabbing golf balls every chance he got and running away from me for the fun of it!
Enjoy the pics!
Enjoy the pics!
4.28.2010
A great day with the monkeys!!
Last Sunday I was very lucky to be able to join my friend Weibke (sounds like Vivka) to visit the Capuchin Monkeys (white faced) in their natural habitat in a nearby reserve called Lomas Barbudal. Its a park about 30 minutes from Bagaces.
Weibke is the resident manager of a 30-some year ongoing project that studies the Capuchins and runs 8 or so interns plus a couple other employees year round. Their home base is in Bagaces (where we live) and they go out into the field each day from sun up until sun down and follow the monkeys all along the river studying everything from social structures to their poo. They work seven days a week taking turns in the field and at the house working with the data, and each gets one day a week that they are responsible to cook for the entire house. They work every day for the entire month until the last five days, which they all have off. What an amazing experience for the lucky ones selected to be a part of the project!!! Albeit a lot of work to say the least!!
Anyway, Weibke invited Jessica (one of our interns for Chile Town) and I for a visit out in the field. We geared up with all of the hiking gear, water, snacks, boots, pants, bug spray, sunscreen, etc. etc. etc. and met at her house at 6am. We drove to the park station and got ready to head out. As we were heading to the trail, we came across a large group of howler monkeys, the same that we have on the farm. It was a large group and they were very loud which is just fun to see! After watching them for about 10 minutes or so we kept going and ended up finding a group of Capuchins in a clearing before the trail. There were two of the Monkey people studying them and I was just amazed at how socialized the monkeys were. They went about their business without a care in the world that we were there.
Weibke did ask us to turn the flash off of our cameras as the light did disturb the monkeys. This particular group was one that they study daily and are very used to the humans in their faces:) The hardest part was restraining myself from trying to pet one:) So there we were, watching these guys eat their mango's and play, groom each other, sleep, etc... We spent about an hour or so just watching them, taking pictures, and just drinking it all it. It was a truly amazing experience!
After the clearing, we headed for our original destination, a path along the river called "Riverview" which we hiked for about 20 minutes to a spot that they typically find Monkeys but none were there at that particular time. We hiked back and went the other way along a different path which took us to a small waterfall. We climbed down and stuck our head in to cool off before heading back for the afternoon.
It was an amazing experience to say the least. I am so lucky to be here and do and see all of these amazing things and I am truly grateful. A BIG thanks to my lovely hubby to got to brave an entire day with the two boys!!
Here are a few pics and a video of the monkeys playing! Enjoy:)
These two were showing us their teeth - a sign that we are annoying them!
Brother grooming sister (picking bugs off and eating them)!!
Weibke is the resident manager of a 30-some year ongoing project that studies the Capuchins and runs 8 or so interns plus a couple other employees year round. Their home base is in Bagaces (where we live) and they go out into the field each day from sun up until sun down and follow the monkeys all along the river studying everything from social structures to their poo. They work seven days a week taking turns in the field and at the house working with the data, and each gets one day a week that they are responsible to cook for the entire house. They work every day for the entire month until the last five days, which they all have off. What an amazing experience for the lucky ones selected to be a part of the project!!! Albeit a lot of work to say the least!!
Anyway, Weibke invited Jessica (one of our interns for Chile Town) and I for a visit out in the field. We geared up with all of the hiking gear, water, snacks, boots, pants, bug spray, sunscreen, etc. etc. etc. and met at her house at 6am. We drove to the park station and got ready to head out. As we were heading to the trail, we came across a large group of howler monkeys, the same that we have on the farm. It was a large group and they were very loud which is just fun to see! After watching them for about 10 minutes or so we kept going and ended up finding a group of Capuchins in a clearing before the trail. There were two of the Monkey people studying them and I was just amazed at how socialized the monkeys were. They went about their business without a care in the world that we were there.
Weibke did ask us to turn the flash off of our cameras as the light did disturb the monkeys. This particular group was one that they study daily and are very used to the humans in their faces:) The hardest part was restraining myself from trying to pet one:) So there we were, watching these guys eat their mango's and play, groom each other, sleep, etc... We spent about an hour or so just watching them, taking pictures, and just drinking it all it. It was a truly amazing experience!
After the clearing, we headed for our original destination, a path along the river called "Riverview" which we hiked for about 20 minutes to a spot that they typically find Monkeys but none were there at that particular time. We hiked back and went the other way along a different path which took us to a small waterfall. We climbed down and stuck our head in to cool off before heading back for the afternoon.
It was an amazing experience to say the least. I am so lucky to be here and do and see all of these amazing things and I am truly grateful. A BIG thanks to my lovely hubby to got to brave an entire day with the two boys!!
Here are a few pics and a video of the monkeys playing! Enjoy:)
These two were showing us their teeth - a sign that we are annoying them!
Brother grooming sister (picking bugs off and eating them)!!
3.31.2010
New Eyes!
After the destruction of my prescription sunglasses (mom ran them over when I accidentally left my purse next to the car while buckling the kids in)... I knew I was in trouble. Riley had twisted my eye glasses so much that one side was bent enough that I had to tighten it into lockdown... I was out of contacts, my sunglasses were super glued together and in order to get any of the above I would need an eye exam... all that would total close to $1000 to replace and so we decided to get my eyes lasered:)
Last Friday Aaron and I went to San Jose for the procedure. My appointment was at 9 and I had a few short exams before they were to cut my eyes in half. Okay okay, nothing that extreme. It actually took only 15 minutes for both eyes. There is some pressure and some slight pain at one point but all in all the procedure was not bad at all. After I was finished it was only 11 or so and we couldn't get into the hotel until 2pm...I didn't even think about that when planning, oops!
We decided to go have lunch and chill out for a couple hours. The restaurant didn't open until noon so we had to wait in the car... at that point I was pretty uncomfortable, I hadn't taken any of the meds and it was really bright outside. I had to wear the plastic shields they taped to my face, my sunglasses on top and a towel on top of that, no fun. Finally we got inside and the nice lady unscrewed the light bulb for me. Normally when you have laser eye surgery you are supposed to go home after it, take the meds and go to sleep for a few hours. I see why. My eyes were unable to open. If I even tried it felt like they were being stabbed with ice pics so I kept them closed. I had a lunch in a blind mans shoes and Aaron messed with me the whole time, moving my drink, making me think he had gotten up and left me talking to myself like a crazy person, you know how he is:):) I was pretty uncomfortable so he got my meds and I topped it off with a glass of wine and life was good again:)
After lunch we went to the hotel and napped for a few hours, then got up and went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D. I exchanged my plastic shields for 3D goggles and my eyes worked! The next day we ran a few errands and came home. Its weird not having my glasses and at times I find myself looking for them or trying to take them off after reading before going to sleep... but it's an adjustment I am happy to live with!!!
Second pair of glasses. I really liked that short hair...hmmmm.
Third pair of glasses, much like the second.
Post surgery, that's tape above my eyes holding down my plastic parts... not wrinkles.
Although those ARE real wrinkles on my cheeks! YIKES!!
Ahhhh a happy place!!!
Last Friday Aaron and I went to San Jose for the procedure. My appointment was at 9 and I had a few short exams before they were to cut my eyes in half. Okay okay, nothing that extreme. It actually took only 15 minutes for both eyes. There is some pressure and some slight pain at one point but all in all the procedure was not bad at all. After I was finished it was only 11 or so and we couldn't get into the hotel until 2pm...I didn't even think about that when planning, oops!
We decided to go have lunch and chill out for a couple hours. The restaurant didn't open until noon so we had to wait in the car... at that point I was pretty uncomfortable, I hadn't taken any of the meds and it was really bright outside. I had to wear the plastic shields they taped to my face, my sunglasses on top and a towel on top of that, no fun. Finally we got inside and the nice lady unscrewed the light bulb for me. Normally when you have laser eye surgery you are supposed to go home after it, take the meds and go to sleep for a few hours. I see why. My eyes were unable to open. If I even tried it felt like they were being stabbed with ice pics so I kept them closed. I had a lunch in a blind mans shoes and Aaron messed with me the whole time, moving my drink, making me think he had gotten up and left me talking to myself like a crazy person, you know how he is:):) I was pretty uncomfortable so he got my meds and I topped it off with a glass of wine and life was good again:)
After lunch we went to the hotel and napped for a few hours, then got up and went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D. I exchanged my plastic shields for 3D goggles and my eyes worked! The next day we ran a few errands and came home. Its weird not having my glasses and at times I find myself looking for them or trying to take them off after reading before going to sleep... but it's an adjustment I am happy to live with!!!
My first pair of glasses, about 2004 sometime.
Incidentally it seems I won at poker:)
Incidentally it seems I won at poker:)
Second pair of glasses. I really liked that short hair...hmmmm.
Third pair of glasses, much like the second.
Post surgery, that's tape above my eyes holding down my plastic parts... not wrinkles.
Although those ARE real wrinkles on my cheeks! YIKES!!
Ahhhh a happy place!!!
Philly Visit - Part 2
Our last day in New Jersey we went into Philadelphia and did what any good tourist would do, we had cheesesteaks! There wasn't any counting of weight watchers points that day, that's for sure! After our cheesesteak we walked around South Street and did some window shopping, followed by a nice cold Rita's Water Ice! A "water ice" is sort of like a snow cone, but a bit, I don't know, wetter...juicier...better?
The next day we made it home safe and sound. It was a great trip but went way too fast. The boys and I hadn't seen Ted and Rach for almost 2 years, actually Rachael hadn't ever met Riley before. We can't wait to see them again!!!
Here are some pics of the festivities.
Love at first bite!
Okay the truth is, he ate most of it but mom and dad helped!
Riley had some bread, his sandwich needed help getting eaten.
He isn't into meat or all that grease. Weird.
Full bellies!
Enjoying his Rita's Water Ice!
The next day we made it home safe and sound. It was a great trip but went way too fast. The boys and I hadn't seen Ted and Rach for almost 2 years, actually Rachael hadn't ever met Riley before. We can't wait to see them again!!!
Here are some pics of the festivities.
All the boys outside Jim's Steaks on South Street
Love at first bite!
Okay the truth is, he ate most of it but mom and dad helped!
Riley had some bread, his sandwich needed help getting eaten.
He isn't into meat or all that grease. Weird.
Full bellies!
Enjoying his Rita's Water Ice!
Philly Visit - Part 1
Okay okay, I know I am in serious need of a blog update... my apologies.
We returned from yet another trip to the States a couple of weeks ago. Aaron and I flew into Denver, where we met and dropped the kids off with Saint Grandma and took off for Albuquerque for one of the country's biggest Hot Sauce Festivals. We stayed two nights there, returned to Denver and parted ways for a couple days. He went on to New Jersey and I went to Wyoming to pick up the kids, only to return to Denver the next day and fly the three of us to New Jersey. NJ is the home to our good friends Ted and Rachael, Ted was having a surprise birthday party so we flew in for the occasion. Aaron and Ted golfed for 3 or 4 days and by some miracle had great weather!
I think this was my quickest visit home to date. I arrived around noon and went to lunch with the kids, my mom, dad, grandma and my sister was able to meet us for a few minutes. Later that night everyone came over for pizza and the next day I packed the kids into the car and hit the road.
We arrived at Newark Airport (aka the pits of hell) in the early afternoon and by an amazing act of god finally made it to the rental car area... if you haven't had the pleasure of flying into Newark, don't do it. Just don't. They didn't have any signs when you got off the plane to tell you where to go, we found an elevator but it too, was sans signs to tell you what floor you need to be on, and after getting off the elevator Jax told me he never wanted to go on that elevator again. It stunk like pee. We finally made it to baggage, which amazingly did have signs, which I read and told me to go to the opposite side of the baggage area to get over-sized bags, car seats and the like... so I hauled the stroller and our luggage cart on down, only to be told that those things will come out on the turnstile. Really. Thanks.
Got all of our stuff and realized that we needed to get on their train to go to the rental car area. I read the sign and it said I needed to be on platform 2 for Budget. Okay great, get the stroller and luggage cart onto the elevator and squeezed into a train car and a helpful man informed me that platform 2 was closed now and I needed to be at platform 3. Okay thanks. Well whaddayaknow... when I got off on platform 3 the man there said no, you need platform 2, it's not closed he must have meant platform 1... awesome!!!! Turn around kids, stroller, luggage cart and back into the train we went. We made it, had no issues after that point and it was smooth sailing the hour drive to Ted and Rachael's...
We arrived on Wednesday and just hung out. Thursday the big boys went golfing and I took the kids with me to meet up with a friend that lived in Philly. Friday we all squeezed in the car and took the kids to Philadelphia's "Please Touch Children's Museum." It was a lot of fun, we all enjoyed a puppet show and afterward went to lunch at a great Mexican restaurant.
Saturday was the day of the surprise party. It started raining on Friday and by Saturday things were flooding. They have had so much snow that the ground was already completely saturated and there was no room for the water to go. At some point the power went out, as did the sump pump in the basement, and Ted spent much of the day filling up buckets to dump outside while Rach went and drove to 3 or 4 Home Depots finding a generator. We worried that the power wouldn't come back on and there was no way we were going to get Ted out of the house to go out when his basement could flood. At 5:00 we decided to break the surprise and tell him that there was a party and 70 or so of his closest friends would be waiting for him... about 15 minutes later the power came back on! After some babysitter snafu's we dropped the kids off at a friend of theirs and off to the city we went. In the end it all worked out and the night was great but getting thru that day was stressful on everyone:)
Here are a few pics, will post more in part 2.
At the museum
Rach and Jax playing the keyboard
One of Ted's friends brought a box of donuts the
day after the party...they sure didn't last long!!
We returned from yet another trip to the States a couple of weeks ago. Aaron and I flew into Denver, where we met and dropped the kids off with Saint Grandma and took off for Albuquerque for one of the country's biggest Hot Sauce Festivals. We stayed two nights there, returned to Denver and parted ways for a couple days. He went on to New Jersey and I went to Wyoming to pick up the kids, only to return to Denver the next day and fly the three of us to New Jersey. NJ is the home to our good friends Ted and Rachael, Ted was having a surprise birthday party so we flew in for the occasion. Aaron and Ted golfed for 3 or 4 days and by some miracle had great weather!
I think this was my quickest visit home to date. I arrived around noon and went to lunch with the kids, my mom, dad, grandma and my sister was able to meet us for a few minutes. Later that night everyone came over for pizza and the next day I packed the kids into the car and hit the road.
We arrived at Newark Airport (aka the pits of hell) in the early afternoon and by an amazing act of god finally made it to the rental car area... if you haven't had the pleasure of flying into Newark, don't do it. Just don't. They didn't have any signs when you got off the plane to tell you where to go, we found an elevator but it too, was sans signs to tell you what floor you need to be on, and after getting off the elevator Jax told me he never wanted to go on that elevator again. It stunk like pee. We finally made it to baggage, which amazingly did have signs, which I read and told me to go to the opposite side of the baggage area to get over-sized bags, car seats and the like... so I hauled the stroller and our luggage cart on down, only to be told that those things will come out on the turnstile. Really. Thanks.
Got all of our stuff and realized that we needed to get on their train to go to the rental car area. I read the sign and it said I needed to be on platform 2 for Budget. Okay great, get the stroller and luggage cart onto the elevator and squeezed into a train car and a helpful man informed me that platform 2 was closed now and I needed to be at platform 3. Okay thanks. Well whaddayaknow... when I got off on platform 3 the man there said no, you need platform 2, it's not closed he must have meant platform 1... awesome!!!! Turn around kids, stroller, luggage cart and back into the train we went. We made it, had no issues after that point and it was smooth sailing the hour drive to Ted and Rachael's...
We arrived on Wednesday and just hung out. Thursday the big boys went golfing and I took the kids with me to meet up with a friend that lived in Philly. Friday we all squeezed in the car and took the kids to Philadelphia's "Please Touch Children's Museum." It was a lot of fun, we all enjoyed a puppet show and afterward went to lunch at a great Mexican restaurant.
Saturday was the day of the surprise party. It started raining on Friday and by Saturday things were flooding. They have had so much snow that the ground was already completely saturated and there was no room for the water to go. At some point the power went out, as did the sump pump in the basement, and Ted spent much of the day filling up buckets to dump outside while Rach went and drove to 3 or 4 Home Depots finding a generator. We worried that the power wouldn't come back on and there was no way we were going to get Ted out of the house to go out when his basement could flood. At 5:00 we decided to break the surprise and tell him that there was a party and 70 or so of his closest friends would be waiting for him... about 15 minutes later the power came back on! After some babysitter snafu's we dropped the kids off at a friend of theirs and off to the city we went. In the end it all worked out and the night was great but getting thru that day was stressful on everyone:)
Here are a few pics, will post more in part 2.
Uncle Ted and Riley on the bike
At the museum
Rach and Jax playing the keyboard
One of Ted's friends brought a box of donuts the
day after the party...they sure didn't last long!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
