Costa Rica - Day 1 and 2

There is so much for me to blog about!  My older two boys have been here and I have pictures to upload.  We are in the middle of McKay's eagle project and have pictures to upload there also.  AND we just got back from being out of the country for a week, and I've decided to blog these pics first.  I took MANY pictures.  I'll try to share my most favorite ones.

We went to Costa Rica with Lincoln's brother (our benefactor) and his wife and Lincoln's sister and her husband.  I'll explain later about why we took this trip, right smack dab in the middle of our son's visit and right before our other son's eagle project. 

Lincoln and I arrived in Costa Rica a day before everyone else.  As we were looking out the window of the plane we realized that this was a very poor country.  Most of what we saw were towns made up of tin roof's (what is the plural of roof?? roove??? ha!) that sometimes don't even have space between them.  Just one huge big rusty tin roof.  I could tell this was a trip that could change our lives.  We got settled in our hotel, ate and then took a walk around the neighborhood that we were staying in.  OH MY GOSH! is all I can say.  People are living in what we as USA citizens wouldn't even house our chicken in.  So sad.  So simple.  So heart breaking.  (more pics later)

The next day, everyone else arrived and we got on our way to our first stop.  The roads were narrow and windy and soon our brakes just gave out.  We had to call the car rental place to send us a new van.  We weren't moving an inch without good brakes.  A very certain necessity!  People in Costa Rica are cRaZy drivers!  Two yellow lines and going up a hill doesn't keep them from passing in the least!

I actually was very happy to sit and soak up the surroundings.  I think it took 2 hours for us to get our new rental van.  What a treat it was.  It was BeAuTiFuL!!!!

A Costa Rican home across the way from where we waited.  This is actually a very nice house compared to some we saw.  I love how my camera zooms in!

Myself, Celesta, (Lincoln's sister) and Donna

We sat there long enough to see these milk cows herded into the barn to be milked. 

We luckily broke down by a little tavern and cafe.  The people inside were so nice.  The artwork was original, and the guy who painted them showed us some of his other stuff he painted.  I bought a magnet that he handcrafted using a tin can that had a parrot painted on it.  We ordered soda, Fanta and Fresca are popular drinks and chips and salsa.  The chips (all 10 of them!!!!) were freshly fried tortillas cut up into triangles.  The salsa was a puree of black beans I think.  It gave us a chance to use our Colones (money) and try to speak a little spanish!  (by the way, everyone was happy to take our dollars!)

As we were driving (again!), everytime we would see our destination, The Arenal Volcano, we would stop and get a picture.  It doesn't matter where you stop.  Anywhere is fine we found out :)  Can you see the volcano between Linc and I?

A little closer . . . . . We didn't realize how lucky we were.  Some visitors, in fact most visitors never see the volcano because of clouds and mistiness.  The volcano was visible the entire 3 days we spent there.

Driving through a town, with, of course, the volcano in the background.


At our hotel.  This hotel was in the middle of nowhere.  We drove off the road for 6 kilometers on a vErY washboardy, gravel road.  The views were to die for.  Absolutely beautiful.  We had to think twice before leaving to go somewhere because the road was so bad.  Thankfully most of the stuff we planned to do was actually on the 6 kilometer road our hotel was on! 

My hair got curlier and curlier while we were there.  Finally I just stopped trying to straighten it.  It was very hot and humid there.  Apparently it is that way all year round.  The sun rises at 5 a.m. and goes down around 6 p.m. also year round.  I guess this is because it is so close to the equator.

A view from the hotel of their man-made lake.  It was made by a dam (dirt) .  .  . . they generate their power with this lake.  (and yes, we had to make all the dam/damn jokes, when Lincoln gets together with his siblings, things get nutty!)

I liked this tree . . . . . 

We had no cell signal and no Internet.  We were truly cut off from the rest of the world .  . . . . WELL . . . . Lincoln's work did sign him up for international calling right before he left, DARN!  He was good though.  His blackberry stayed in the safe most of the time. 

More to come!

Flashback Friday

Journal Jar question:  "Tell about some of your first jobs."

I'm going to tell about some of my childhood jobs, since they might be more interesting!  My dad was the master of making up jobs for us to do which he would pay us for. 

~One of the first I can remember (and now I'm questioning myself, was this my dad or was this Lincoln . . . . hummm) was to pop off the heads of the dandelions in our yard . . . . one head one penny.

~Dad would often pay us a penny a root to weed.  The weeds HAD to have a root on them or they wouldn't count!  My brothers knew how to capitalize on this one.  They would go find a patch of thickly growing weeds that had a very small root.  In one shovel or hoe swoop they could get hundreds of weeds.  I remember counting weeds, and dad making good on the pay.

~I took care of our chickens and sold the eggs from them.  I kept my car in gas this way.  My siblings milked our cow and shared the profit.  I got 50 cents of the profit per gallon because I delivered the milk.

~Dad owned a machine shop.  We could earn money by sweeping the shop.

~Dad owned an injection molding machine in his machine shop.  There were times when he got big orders and would need someone to sit mindlessly making sure the machine continued to work properly and pull the plastic pieces out of it.  We got a dollar an hour for this.  We sat there for hours and made some pretty good money.  I remember listening to music while doing this and becoming very tired of the limited supply of cassette tapes we owned.  One of the songs I remember was . . . . Monday, Monday . . . . so good to me.  (singing)

~Dad was Justice of the Peace in our community for 8 years.  He paid me to sit at the front desk and greet the people who came in to pay their fines or talk about their crimes!!  I would greet the police officers and highway patrol officers and take the tickets that they had written for the month.  I would transfer them in to the court docket to await payment.  When the payments of fines came in the mail, I would record them in the docket.  I would keep track of those who hadn't paid their fines on time, and send them letters with notice of late fines.  I remember that their was some question of whether or not I could do this in my early teens by the officers and the county treasurer.  They took a look at my work and I stayed!  I probably earned a dollar an hour to do this one too.  I remember really liking this job.  When I was a senior in high school the county officer's gave me a small scholarship to go to college. 

~My dad wouldn't let us work at the normal places teenagers worked at and so when they forced me to get my first "real" job (I didn't want to work for anyone!) I went to Zion's Bank in our town to apply, and they gave me a job right away.  I earned $4.85 an hour, which was a lot more than my friends made at their jobs.  I checked signatures on processed checks to make sure they matched the signature cards and then I sent out the statements at the end of the month.  I made sure the check and deposit counts were the same as the statement.  This job made me feel important . . . . . as did being the court clerk! 

Pretty interesting . . . . . at least to me!  Sorry, I'm rushing today, but wanted to get my flashback done!

Have a great day!

Our cup runneth over

Last night we went and picked up our older two boys from the airport.  Two men greeted us at the curb.  Two rather thin men, both with facial hair!  One a full trimmed beard . . . . rather nice looking, and the other has a goatee.  One has always been able to grow a full beard (almost since he was 12!) and the other, lets just say, his beard has grown in quite a bit!  He was a late bloomer!

How did we ever fit 6 people into this house???  As the kids have grown up and left the roost we, the remaining ones, just scoot over and take their place.  We've had to pack things up and vary our routine's greatly in order to have our two most recent guests and since they haven't been here since November of 2009, it is very nice to have them.  If you'd ever asked me if I thought I wouldn't see one of them for over a year's stretch . . . . I'd think it would never happen, but it has.

I'm looking forward (since they are still sleeping) to see how they've changed, if at all.  Looking forward to picking their brains . . . . . . Too bad my brain turns into mush while thinking of questions to ask!  I'll have to write those questions down and refer back to them!!!! 

McKay had a dang hard time going to bed last night and going to school today, poor kid!

Not only our cup . . . but our house . . . . . and my heart runneth over.

Close to home

Saw this on facebook yesterday. Steve and Tiffany were in our ward before they moved to Japan. Steve was our awesome hometeacher before they moved. It is so nice to know they are okay . . . . this is a touching story.  Steve went on his mission to Japan and was so excited for this move.  He sent us a group e-mail the other day and talked about the circumstances leading up to the quake.  They had just put in 3 months worth of food storage, had plenty of water on hand, and had just purchase 100 liters of Kerosine for heating.  Awesome story.

Flashback Friday

Journal Jar question:  "Tell about a camping or fishing experience." 

We had a lot of camping AND fishing experiences!!!   My family would either borrow my grandparents trailer (pictured) or we would "tent" it in our rather nice Springbar 3 room/leisure port tent.  We would go to Minersville Lake, or Fishlake National Forest, or sometimes Utah Lake to fish and camp.  We went other places too for family reunions and camped.  We would camp in Leamington, or the mountain by Lehman caves, or wherever the family was having a reunion. 

Sid Jr., Dad and Myself, holding up our catch.  I don't remember where
we were in this picture.  (Our whole family had those indoor/outdoor glasses,
you know, the ones that change from light to dark . . . . the way they advertise
them today you'd think it was new technology!)

Some of my memories of camping are:

~having races putting up our section of the tent.  The girls on one team, the boys on another and my parents on another.

~freezing our patootees off at night.  Those were the longest nights ever.  I didn't learn until I met my husband that there were sleeping bags actually designed to keep a person warm.

~Trudy being warned not to eat a whole bag of dried apples.  She ate them anyway, and threw up a couple bushels of apples.  GREAT MEMORY!

~Calling to the fish . . . . heeeeerreeee fish, fish, fish . . . . . . .

This is me, holding, if my memory is correct a Walleye caught at Utah Lake.
I think it was the biggest fish caught that day.  I remember a big fish jumping
up close to us and everyone brought in their lines and started casting nearer
to shore.  I cast my line as far out as I could cast and pulled in this baby. 
I was sad that it didn't put up much of a fight!  It just swam right in to me!

~having to bait our own hook

~spitting on the bait

~bringing a friend along that drove my mom nuts. 

~the friend casting out her line while my mom was standing behind her and catching mom in the nose with the hook.

~dad getting out the hook.  YIKES!

~oh boy, was my mom mad!

~the fire--marshmallows, wieners, burning sticks and writing with the smoke, melting bottoms of shoes.

~my dad whittling utensils for my mom that she forgot to bring.

~the games

~at family reunions, Uncle Joe leading us on snipe hunts.  I'd always fall for this hook, line and sinker!  (no pun intended!)

~outdoor latrines.  For some reason dad hated for us to use the trailer's restroom.  Could it be he hated cleaning it out???  ;)

This is one thing we've missed moving out east.  Camping didn't take any planning at all in the west.  You didn't need to make reservations, you could just pack up and go anytime you liked to.  Maybe Lincoln and I will have to take it up again when we have grandkids . . . . .  a person can dream!

Calm before the storm

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day.  Temps in the 80's.  A little breezy.  A lot sunny.  

I decided that since it was so nice outside, instead of doing inside work, I'd do outside work.  I went out and cleaned my car inside and out.  It needed it badly.  It took me practically all day to do it.  Not because it was that dirty but because while I was cleaning it my neighbor came over for a chat.  While I was chatting with my neighbor, another friend came over to talk.  We talked, and talked and talked. 

My second friend has lots to talk about as she is preparing for her upcoming marriage.  By the time I finally looked at my watch, I couldn't believe it was already afternoon!  I finished up the car . . . . and because I was so exhausted from all that talking I pulled a chair onto our deck got my sony ereader out and basked in the sun for a little while.  Ahhhhh, Heaven.  Yes, this was the calm before the storm.

Last night a storm blew in.  It blew in with a vengeance!  I couldn't believe McKay slept through it.  I expected to wake up and see trees and branches all over the place, but all is well.  It is still blustery and raining and looks like dusk, but what I've noticed is that almost overnight the grass has become a vibrant green.  A green that is soothing to the soul.  Ahhh, blessed green!  With storms come blessings. 

Trees are blooming, bulbs are bursting, buds are popping.  Glorious spring is upon us!!!!  Yippeeee!

Good Read

Our book club book this month is Saving CeeCee Honeycutt.  I really enjoyed this book.  I needed a book that pulled me to it and kept me coming back for more.  It is also a quick easy read.  I wouldn't have minded having more of it to read!

In the book, there are a couple of spots that the author uses the color purple to describe things.  I loved the descriptions.  One:  "From behind me a woman spoke - - had it been a color, her voice would have been a velvety shade of purple."  Another:  "The same day I bought myself a purple velvet sofa . . . . . a purple velvet couch is a sign of  a gal's freedom."  And then later the vine Wisteria (we had one at our house in Salt Lake) which has purple flowers the author described as a symbol of strength.  I think this author likes purple!

How would you describe purple to a blind person?  soft as velvet?  a low sustained note on a church organ?  like the smell and taste of a concord grape? the force of two magnets pulling away from each other?

This book was purple to me.  A Comfortable, "feel good" book.  It does have it's struggle . . . . which any really good book has!  If I had to compare it, I'd say it was related to "The Help" or "Cold Sassy Tree" or something Fanny Flag would write.   If I had to rate it, because I know I have some mighty picky readers who read my blog, I'd say most of it is G rated, but there are some PG-13 things sprinkled through, but I wouldn't discard the book based on those. 

Happy reading!

Flashback Friday

Journal Jar question:  "List a few of the simple things in life that make you smile and tell why."

~holding hands with my sweetheart
~homemade freezer jam
~the first flowers of spring
~a visit with my parents
~driving down a road canopied in tree blossoms
~one of my children's names showing up on caller id
~a waffle loaded with butter and maple syrup
~my husband's smile
~a hug
~a compliment, either given or taken
~someone else's smile
~playing the piano
~tears of joy
~time with Trudy
~a job well done
~anticipation
~a clean house
~friends
~McKay coming home from school
~going to church
~a good book
~family
~red/maroon
~seeing my piano students succeed

There are soooooo many things!  The "whys" are self explanatory I'm thinking.  What are your simple joys?