Thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving was great this year.  I started the day running the Earlysville Turkey Trot with a friend and watched the end of the parade with my family when I got home.  I don't particularly enjoy the course for this race but do love running a race on Thanksgiving morning.

We invited a family from our ward to eat with us and enjoyed celebrating with them. We have tried to get together with this family a lot and have been unsuccessful so I was happy it worked out. The food turned out really well.  It just tasted better than other years.  I can't say why exactly, maybe because they were telling some really funny stories of Thanksgiving fails they had had over the years.  After eating we played  "Don't Eat Tom!" a festive twist on Don't Eat Pete and did a few Thanksgiving Mad Libs together.  We did this last year with my family and it's a great thing to do with a group in a setting like this.  Mark had to be at the airport at 4:00 (he kindly covered for another coworker) and they left about 30 minutes after him.  I finished cleaning up the kitchen and then did a Thanksgiving scavenger hunt with Lydia and Jared.  It was a new way to talk about things we are grateful for. After we put all those items away I realized I was tired!  So we all laid down in the front room and read our books for about 45 minutes.  It was lovely.  I'm so grateful they love reading, it was very Hygge of us and it was great. 

Gratitude Scavenger Hunt 

Piles from Left to right April, Lydia, Jared (Front)

2019 Gratitude tree 

The next day we got up early and drove to Raleigh to go to the temple.  I did sealings for the first time since changes had been made and enjoyed hearing the changes and being a witness.  As I sat in the sealing room I just kept thinking about how right it was to be in the temple and that we had made the right choice in coming there.  It was really nice.  Mark was signed up to do sealings after me but ended up getting a spot in the session so he did that.  Lydia, Jared and I did some shopping while he was inside.  (He took them to a nearby park while I was inside) We bought toys for the Charlottesville Toy Lift and books for the library book giving tree.  By the time we finished it was time to meet up with Mark so we headed back to the temple to pick him up, stopped for lunch and then headed right back home to Charlottesville.  Normally we try to do some fun things in Raleigh but we had just gone in September and there was an event I wanted to attend near home so we got on the road.

On the way back we took wrong turn just after Lynchburg and had to back track about 30 minutes on some crazy back roads which was not fun but we made it to Boars Head Resort in time for their Christmas festivities which included hot chocolate, luminaries and a carriage ride.  Their decorations were beautiful and festive and the carriage ride was fun. I was happy we made it in time.

Today Lydia and I watched Frozen II and loved it!  We met up with Jen from work and had a great time. Lydia and I both liked it more than the first one and are so glad we went.  Neither of us wanted it to be over. We stopped by the library to drop off the books we got for their giving tree and when we got home we broke out the Christmas decorations and got them all up.  This meant taking down the Thanksgiving ones and cleaning up a bit but I got it done.  For whatever reason Jared was super grumpy about decorating the tree so that was annoying but it does look beautiful and festive.

I was super happy to find these matching Christmas Pajamas on sale, so fun!

After dinner Mark cut Jared's hair and Jared's reaction was so extreme.  He was so upset about getting his hair cut.  Loud sobbing and moaning during it and in the shower after.  For over 20 minutes! He hates his hair short and now refuses to be without a hat.  I made it very clear that he will not be wearing a hat outside of our house when we are in buildings like school or church or anywhere really.  He is even sleeping with the hat on.  I truly don't understand him at times.  And I was annoyed that he would not take it off for this picture!  Now the story is recorded for us to tell his kids one day.

I also ordered Christmas cards, did some shopping for gifts (I'm about half way done buying what we plan to give) and Mark and I planned some Christmas events to attend throughout the month so we are ready! It was a good holiday weekend, minus Jared's craziness, which was really just half of today.  Not that he can't have bad days because that is ridiculous but wow was this a rough one for him.

Birthday recap

It was a fun birthday weekend.  Mark and I went out Friday night to see "Peter and the Star Catchers" at Albemarle High School.  It was a fun play and they did a nice job.  We tried to get Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshakes at Chick Fill-A on the way home but when we got to the register they told us their ice cream machine was broken.  That was super disappointing.  We stopped at the grocery store to buy all the ingredients to make one at home but waited until Sunday to do so.

For my actual birthday we spent the day in Harrisonburg.  We stopped for lunch, but ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel, made a quick stop at Hobby Lobby and then went roller skating.  It was a great way to spend my birthday.  I always thoroughly enjoy roller skating.  It makes me feel young and cool. Mark left from the roller skating rink to go to a leadership meeting for Stake Conference but skipped the adult session to come home and make me dinner (brazilian black beans and rice) which was nice.  He also ordered some red velvet cake pops for me from a friend who bakes really well and they were delicious.  I hope to perfect the art of cake pop making one day.

 

One day they will be able to skate without these walkers.  They made a lot of progress by the end of the 2 hours. I am actually thing about making "teach Jared and Lydia how to roller skate" one of my goals for the new youth program.  There is a place we can go for free in town every Friday so that is where we will be this winter. I haven't ever gone and have heard mixed reviews but need to put my snobbish skating views away. They just need more consistent time skating. 

Basketball, Pumpkin Treats, Turkeys and cupcakes

Last week Mark and I looked at basketball tickets for UVA Men's team. We saw that the game on the 16th was at noon and really cheap so we decided to go for it.  It was really nice to have it early in the day.  Lydia was not that excited but she is a good sport and when I assured her she could bring a book she was good to go.  (I'm really grateful Jared and Lydia both love to read.  Besides all the benefits that come from reading I think it has really made our traveling work out so much better than it would otherwise.)  So we made it to the game found our seats and enjoyed the first half and half of the second.  UVA was playing Columbia.  Halfway through the second half UVA took out their starters so the bench could get some time on the court.  After that not much happened, from either team.  UVA did end up winning which was good.  During the first half Lydia kept compliainig that it was too loud so she couldn't read.  She did not really have that problem the second half.  She did really enjoy the stunts by the cheerleaders and the half time show which was this guy who balances crazy large and heavy things on his chin.  She and I got up to take a walk at half time and could not make it out of the arena until he was finished because she was so mesmerized by him so taking her along did turn out pretty well for her. After the game we walked all the way to the court and took a few pictures.  As we did so, Ralph Sampson the former UVA player, retired NBA player was by the court and kindly agreed to a picture when Mark asked him.  Mark has always loved watching basketball and while Ralph Samson was little before Mark's time he is well aware of who he is and was happy he got to take a picture with him.  It was a fun outing.

 This is a piece of the actual floor from the championship game!  

And the trophy.  We aren't crazy fans or anything but if it there why not check it out? 

This picture makes me smile.  The one time Mark is actually not the tallest person in a picture. I looked it up and Ralph Sampson is 7'4 so he has over a foot on Mark. 

Sunday we had friends over for pumpkin treats and the treats were delicious.  It was nice to get to visit.  I'm grateful for the awesome people we know here. They arrived around 2:30 and Mark made it home shortly after that.  Tithing settlement takes some time. 

Most Sundays we try to spend as much time together as we can. We have a whole list on the fridge of activities we can do together.  For whatever reason we almost always end up playing board games.  I don't mind board games but Jared and Lydia always want to play the same games, Jared especially.  He always wants to play Settlers of Catan and while it is a fine game I do not want to play it every week.  Often he and Mark will play and Lydia and I will do a puzzle or play another game most often Candyland which is only marginally better.  This week I put my foot down and asked if we could please do something else instead of a board game.  Lydia suggested an art project and Jared took it another step and suggested "Disguise a turkey". They do these most years at Baker-Butler and I think its a really cute project.  I was so happy he suggested it.  We all made our turkeys and had a fun time creating and being festive.  I was happy not only to skip a week with board games but that we did a project and I didn't have to come up with it.  Win Win.  That being said, nobody could figure out my turkey so maybe I disguised it too well?  They kept guessing corn on the cob which I totally see but it was a pineapple.  Lydia worked on three turkeys.  A penguin, popcorn bucket and a peacock.  I am not sure what Mark's was but he played along with us which was good of him.  My sister in law guessed it was a UN turkey which works well for Mark so he went with that.  I thought he should make a suitcase or something to cover the turkey but he used up his creativity with the flags.  I am happy we have them to hang up for the next little while. I have yet to put up our Thankful tree, I printed the leaves but am stalling cutting them out. And I have left them at work the last few days on accident.  Maybe we will get it up this week. 

Mark, Jared (tree), April (pineapple), Lydia (peacock). 

Jared's second to last "Cub Scout" activity was last week.  Next month we are caroling and then it's on to the new program. We watched the church broadcast last night and it was nice to hear more about the program.  For the activity last week they decorated cupcakes.  It was really nice of a sister in our ward to get everything ready and show them a few tips.  She bakes/decorates on the side.  I stayed to help out and picked up a few tips myself.  Cupcakes are pretty fun to frost.  When Lydia saw Jared's cupcakes she was sad she didn't get to decorate any and Joni kindly offered her the mini cake she had brought in to demonstrate on but did't get too.  People are so kind and I appreciate it so much.  The idea was to take your decorated cupcakes and give them away to someone.  Maybe a family we don't see at church much or a neighbor.  Earlier in the week Lydia had told me that Calvin, one of Mrs. Jeong's and Mrs. Shafran's guinea pigs had died.  Lydia was really upset and Jared ended up giving each of them a cupcake.  He also gave one to his teacher and Ms. Peterson the Assistant Principal.  Mark walked him in to help distribute the cupcakes.  Mrs. Peterson was not in her office so Jared left it on her desk with a post it.  He wasn't going to add his name but Mark made sure he did.  Not for credit or anything but if I walked into my office I would like to know where the cupcake came from. 

She was particularly pleased with her L and S in the middle. 

Hacienda Guachipelin

Our last full day in Costa Rica was all about outdoor adventures.  Mark found this place online and really wanted to go. Their all day pass included: horseback riding, tubing on a river with class 2 rapids, lunch, a canyon tour with: zip lining, rappelling, a Tarzan swing, and hanging bridges, 4 waterfalls you could hike too along one path and relaxing at the natural hot springs. We were there from 8:15 until 4:00. We had such a fun time, everyone was so glad we went.  Lydia and I overcame fears of tubing, and zip lining for her, and we all tried new things. It was such a fun day that gave us all kinds of memories.

That being said getting ready to go was incredibly stressful for me.  No one else seemed bothered but I could not wrap my head around what to pack and how many changes of clothes/what clothes/pairs of shoes to bring and what we would wear while doing all these activities.  I was in the worst mood Sunday evening and Monday morning trying to figure this out not only for myself but for Jared and Lydia too.  I also felt bad spending more money since we had spent so much on Friday.  Its hard to explain but I also just couldn't quite figure out what we would be doing when.  For Friday's adventure I knew the outline of the day and what we would need when. For this place I didn't know what order we would do the activities in which is why it was so hard to figure out what to wear.  I didn't want to wear my swimming suit horseback riding but where would we change and what would I keep my stuff in while tubing?  Would there be places to store phones and what not while tubing? I really enjoyed all the activities but not knowing what we would be doing when was really hard for me. We sadly don't have a ton of photos from this day. We didn't even take a phone with us to the hot springs so we don't have any pictures of us all covered in special volcanic mud! Oh well. The staff was really helpful and I should have just talked to them more but I was in too bad of a mood.

Horseback riding:
Lydia was so excited about riding a horse.  This was her first time riding one and she loved every minute of it.  She was so sad to leave her horse Santino when we finished.  We rode for about 45 minutes.  The horse I ended up with seemed to really like to be the leader and I quickly ended up leading all the horses which is hilarious because I know next to nothing about horses and definitely did not know where we were going.  We had 2 guides with us and one stayed close by my horse most of the ride.  There were about 10 of us in our group and a lot of horses between me and my family. I would have liked to ride with them more but it seemed like the three of them were pretty close together for the ride.  We ended up on a great vista with a beautiful view of the volcano.

A short bus ride later and we were at the river for tubing.  I was so not looking forward to this activity. Way back in the day I had an awful experience floating down the Provo River.  I hated it so much and have never wanted to go tubing since then.* I am so happy to say that this was a completely different experience and I had a great time.  Lydia was also not looking forward to this activity.  We walked down to the river and she so did not want to get in her tube. Mark went in first and I looked at Lydia and told her that there was really no other option she had to get in. There was nowhere else for her to go. She tearfully did so and had the best time ever! I went in next and Jared followed after me.  And then I did not see Lydia again until we met up at one of the waiting points.  There were a couple of areas where the guides waited until all the people tubing were together so they weren't too spread out. She was basically in the front of the whole group the whole time.  The lead guide stayed close to her and she loved every minute of tubing. A few minutes in I heard her say to Mark, "This is the opposite of terrible!" Really we all had an awesome time.  The water was chilly but you quickly got used to it and it felt refreshing.  The guides were amazing and the scenery was so beautiful. The water was a beautiful blue at times and being in a canyon was so cool.  Not to mention is was just really fun.  It was basically bumper cars on a tube in a river. The tubes were really sturdy and what I loved about them was there was a seat.  It seemed to be made of a material like trampolines and it helped keep you from bumping your bottom on hard rocks.  The rapids were great and if you did get stuck a guide came along and helped you out.  There was one larger drop near the end and Mark and I both fell out of our tubes but we manged to get back in. We all had an awesome time and were sad when it was over.

(I found these online.  It was so fun and pretty. )

We changed for lunch and enjoyed rice and beans and some great fresh fruit.  Lydia probably ate 6 -8 prices each of watermelon and pineapple. The fruit was great in Costa Rica.  The food was a better at the other place but we all had plenty to eat.

Next up was The Canyon Tour.  We enjoyed zip lining at Diamante but this was a completely different experience.  There were some long lines very similar to Diamante but the whole canyon aspect was so cool.  We rappelled down and landed on a bridge above a river, we swung across the canyon on a Tarzan swing, zip lined from one platform in the canyon to another all above a beautiful river. There were 2 sections where you rock climbed up to the next zip line. We had to go up about a 50 foot wall that had plenty of foot and hand holds but I have zero upper body strength and felt like I was going to pass out.  I had asked one of the many awesome guides if it was hard and he said yeah, a little bit.  It was so hard. I was exhausted.  People who rock climb are so strong.  Lydia was pretty nervous to do this but did awesome.  She had a great time.  Jared was not nervous about any of our adventures in Costa Rica and loved it all.  After a few smaller zip lines we ended the experience crossing a long hanging bridge.  It was so great.  I was so impressed with how safe it felt while still allowing you to feel like you were doing something adventurous.  The guides were so helpful and
nice. They are great at their job!

You can just see the river in the bottom left corner and the platform we are standing on. 

Lydia getting ready to rappel

Looking down to the bridge you land on.  Then swing across to the other side. (not my photo)

Tarzan Swing: Lydia is waiting to begin rock climbing behind me on the left. You can see the foot and hand holds by the guy in the orange.  Lydia made it up almost half way and then lost her grip so they pulled her up. I am swinging above the river from one side of the canyon to the other.  I got a few extra swings because they had to wait for the person above Lydia to finish so she could start so that was fun.  It was a great outing. 

We hiked back to reception a sweaty mess and changed back into swimming suits so we could go enjoy the hot springs.  The hot springs are on the same property, about a 15 minute drive down the road. To get to the hot springs you walk through the jungle on very nice gravel paths for about 7 minutes. They basically built pools above and around the river.  The pools were different temperatures and we enjoyed them all.  It was so beautiful.  I was so disappointed we did not bring our phone because it was such a pretty setting.  We had fun painting ourselves with the special volcanic mud.  To get the most benefits you need to let it dry on your skin and after a quick rinse in the outdoor showers you hop in the chilly river before choosing a pool. It was really nice to be there when we were.  I can imagine it being super crowded in the high season.  We were so lucky with the weather and the time we were able to go.

River on the left hot spring pool in the front. (online photos)

To end our day at Hacienda Guachipelin we took a quick hike to check out the waterfalls. It was amazing all the things we were able to do in one day.  This was Jared, Mark and Lydia's favorite day by far.

As I've been writing up these posts and thinking about this trip I am really grateful we had the chance to go. I was not very excited about Costa Rica, the weather, the beach, the money but it was so worth it.  Jared and Lydia were great ages to do this trip and its nothing like we have done before.  I will look back on these posts and smile at all the memories.

*It was Summer, the water was so slow and I got stuck more than I moved.  Because I got stuck so much I was constantly paddling and the tube was so big my arms were rubbing against the material and I got horrible rash burns.  It was the worst ever.

A day in the jungle

Sunday we drove to Liberia, the biggest city in Guancaste Province to attend church.  We didn't stay too long as we were trying to make it to Tenorio Volcano National Park and beat a storm in the forecast.  We had read a lot about this park the night before and I was so excited to check it out.  A hike in the jungle to a beautiful waterfall with crazy blue water?  That was Costa Rica to me. In our reading we learned that rain and this hike do not mix well so we wanted to make sure we beat the storm if possible.  Rain makes the trail incredibly muddy and a lot of rain dilutes the bright blue color of the water.  Lucky for us we made it in time!  We only felt a few raindrops on our hike back.  This spot is so popular in the high season that they limit the number of people on the trail to 500 at a time or 1000 a day.  There were a decent amount of people there when we were hiking but it was not overly crowded. 

Beginning of the trail. This trail took you over 2 or 3 hanging bridges which is always fun. I can't imagine how hard it would be to maintain this trail with the amount of rain they get in Costa Rica. 

The hike was not difficult.  To get to the waterfall you have to walk down and then back up around 275 stairs that are not equal in height but both Lydia and Jared did great.  I was so excited that I did not mind them at all. Lydia was less excited and did not love our hike but was able to do it well.  I was so happy that we went.

First glimpse: Rio Celeste 

There have been a few different ideas as to why the water is this color blue.  Local traditions claim that God dipped his paint brush in the river when he was painting the sky blue. (I love this idea) The latest research supported idea is that the water in the river is actually transparent.  Scientist from the University of Costa Rica found that the river and the rocks along the river bend contain aluminum mixed with silicon and oxygen and when the sunlight hits the river those mix and cause an optical illusion.   Whatever the reason it's gorgeous.  

Continuing on the hike takes you to the spot where two rivers meet.  This is particularly interesting because you can clearly see where the two rivers mix.  The river Rio Buena Vista and the Quebrada Agria.  We also climbed up a mostly safe lookout tower and enjoyed a lovely view of the jungle surrounding us. 

Lydia was a little nervous on this bridge.  It moved quite a bit for the first 10 steps or so.  

I love how clearly you can see each river. 

This is one of the volcanoes. (the cloud line) We never saw the tops of any of the volcanoes we drove by, they were always covered with clouds even it if was a sunny day. 

After our hike we stopped at the restaurant near the ranger station and ate some delicious hot off the grill chicken.  It was so tender and flavorful.  And it was so nice to just walk over to the grill pay our 1000 colones and grab a skewer.  We ended up going back for more and got 2 smoothies.  It was the perfect little meal, probably my favorite of the trip.  A friend saw this picture and asked if it was a deconstructed taco which was a great description.  We just called it meat on a stick.

It was a great day trip and I am so glad we went and had such great weather.  We were all a sweaty mess during and after but it was so worth it. 

Pictures from the drive back:

Countryside

I always want to take pictures of the cemeteries in Central America.  I think they are so interesting.