Costa Rica

Ok - so I am a little behind! We went to Costa Rica in February for 10 fabulous days. It was a bit of a cultural shock and first but we adjusted and had a great time. We stayed with Chris's Uncle Luis and Aunt Lenor for the first couple of days. We went to the Rain Forest and toured the city of San Jose. Then we stayed at the Marriott (near Jaco) on the beach for the rest of the trip. It was beautiful! We saw a lot of iguanas, some crocodiles, monkeys, toucan's, frogs and snakes. The beaches were mostly black sand from the volcano's.

Grandma Nayu came with us and was a big help with the girls. They stayed in and order pancakes for dinner a couple of nights so Chris and I could go out.

Chris, Taylor, Carley and I all went zip lining. There were 14 platforms so it took an hour or so but it was a lot of fun. We spent a lot of time in the pool just relaxing. The best part about our trip was our PHONES DIDN'T WORK!

ALOHA

After a year of saving and planning we finally made it to Hawaii.

• DAY ONE: The trip started with a limo ride to the airport. We stopped at Dunken Donuts and girls felt like movie stars. They were so excited to get on the airplane. The flight there seemed to take forever. Because of a strong head wind it took an extra hour and that was a long time with three kids. Once we got there and got checked into our hotel we went and has some yummy fish and chips while watching the sun set.


• DAY TWO: The next day we headed to Hanaumu Bay. This has been one of my favorite places to snorkle but this particular day the water wasn't very clear. The girls were kinda freaked out about the reef and the creatures living on it. The girls loved playing on the beach and we all had a great time.


• DAY THREE: We spent the first half of the day at the beach playing in the sand. Later that afternoon we took a bus to Paradise Cove Luau. The luau was the favorite part of the trip for the girls. They got to take hold and take pictures of some tropical birds, go canoeing and play some games. During the dinner show Chris and the girls went on stage and learned the hula.


• DAY FOUR - We took the circle island tour that went to the north shore and the Polynesian Cultrual Center. We also go to go by the Mormon temple which is being totally renovated and will not open until 2010. At the Cultral Center we visited, Somoa, Tonga, Tihiti and New Zealand. We also watched a canoe parade.


• DAY FIVE - We were going to go whale watching but after a couple of hours on a bus the day before we decided to just relax by the pool at the hotel. Much to our surprise when we went down they had drained the pool! So we went to the beach and then to the pool at a sister hotel across the street. The tide came in later that day and the girls had a blast body surfing. Boy did they giggle.


• DAY SIX - Up at 5:00 AM to catch an 8:00 flight....what was I thinking! The flight home only took about 5.5 hours.

We enjoyed having Grandma Char with us. It was a big help to have one child per adult. She even let Chris and I go to dinner by ourselves one night!

I need a vacation from my vacation!

THE POLAR EXPRESS

We took the kids to the Polar Express last Friday in Williams AZ. They had a blast. I decided not to tell them until the night before we went so they wouldn't drive me crazy AND it would be a fun surprise for them too. They watch the movie on the way there so they were ready when we arrived. Carley couldn't wait to see the train and put her PJ's on. When we finally got on the train they served us Hot Chocolate (our favorite) and cookies. Then they read the Polar Express and we sang Christmas carols until SANTA finally showed up. He gave each child a bell just like in the movies. Once we got off the train, the kids were able to go and have their picture taken with Santa.....what a night! We went with our good friends Kyle and Jen. They have kids similar is age so everyone had a great time.