Costa Rica- days 1 - 2 ish.

Our blessed land has been . . . blessed . . . with a storm which has blown away the toxic air (temporarily), which means I am no longer grouchy, so I can finally update my blog with happy pictures.

So without further ado, here is a recap of our first few days in Costa Rica:

We had to fly on 4 different airplanes before we arrived in Costa Rica (oh, the joys of flying standby), so the first night of our trip was spent in the Washington DC/Dulles airport like this:


and this:13 hour layovers are not fun. Especially if your next flight leaves at 6:30 a.m.

Needless to say, once we arrived, we didn't have much energy to go see many sites. So we hung out around the house and played Foosball while the girls pretended to be beautiful mermaids.


The next day, we drove to La Paz Waterfall Gardens. Here are some pictures of some stuff we saw:

Fog (on the drive up there):

Bamboo.
Toucans (and many other birds). I actually held it on my arm and fed it some fruit. It was pretty freaking cool:
Butterflies:
A pretty jaguar:
...who clearly did not like it when my mom meowed at him:
Coati (they were really cute and they let us feed them):
Darling little frogs:
So darling, in fact, that they get 3 more pictures.

Awwww.

And of course, waterfalls:
We also saw monkeys, a puma, lots of hummingbirds, macaws, and we drank fresh dulce agua (and met the cow who so generously donated her milk for that tasty drink).

After we spent a few hours there, we were on our way back to my bro's house.

Traffic was as slow as a herd of cows. Oh wait- traffic was a herd of cows. Hm...


So... that wraps it up for days 1-2. Up next- more waterfalls and some zip lining! WOO HOO!

Short rant

I know that each and every one of you were anxiously waiting, sitting on the edge of your seats, anticipating a mind-blowing blog update with an array of scintillating photos from my vacation.

But, alas. Today is a day of disappointment. And, as the Dread Pirate Roberts says, "Get used to disappointment."

Instead of seeing pictures of sunshine/beaches/jungle/happy faces, you get to read my rant, once again, of the *$#%&*^!@! which is negatively affecting my physical and mental well-being. This picture makes me want to vomit.

And this makes me want to vomit twice, because I am sitting in that tall building right under the words "Cold Air," breathing in all that grey stuff:

"This is the place"? Really, Brigham? THIS is the place?!? Couldn't Hawaii have been "the place"? Or Seattle, perhaps? Maybe even Colorado?? Because THIS place has the worst air quality in the nation 4 months out of the year. However, to give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe when he made that historic statement, the last part of his sentence wasn't written down correctly. Maybe he actually said "THIS is the place...where you will all inhale sickly amounts of nasty, nasty pollution and where the young children and older adults and people with asthma should not go outside the winter months for fear that they may die of lung poisoning. Amen."

End rant.

Lessons learned

In case you weren't aware, we just returned from a trip to visit my brother in Costa Rica. While there, I learned a few things. And, being the generous person I am, I will share them with you:

1: You can spit on crocodiles if you're standing on a bridge 30 feet above them and they really don't seem to mind.

2: Sunsets are even more spectacular in person than on camera.

3: Never eat a banana in front of a wild monkey. Unless you like being scared for your life.

A very talented mother.

Is your mother talented? Well... I don't mean to brag, but mine is pretty much the most talented one in the world. Not only is she super smart, but she can draw, sing, sew, do awesome web-design, paint glow-in-the-dark stars on ceilings, play the piano, plus she's a fabulous photographer, she's extremely creative, and I think that being generous and thoughtful are some pretty sweet talents she possesses, as well.

Just look what she made for our family for Christmas:

Made. Yes, made. Sewed. Stitched. Created. Collected little tiny ornaments over the last 4 years. It is the cutest advent calendar I have ever seen. And Kennedy had SO much fun every morning last month putting the new ornament on the tree. I show this off to everyone who comes in my house, and now I'm showing it off to you.

So... yeah, maybe I do mean to brag.

My mom is super talented.