There is internet at the Beach? Who knew?!

Hola everyone! I'd like to finish this year up right with actually getting to post things a little closer to when they actually happened. I remind myself about this all the time, because I am still working on a post about last, last summer... the summer of 2010. Yep. 2010. And it's almost 2012. But I digress... onto actual current events. That was the point right? Right.
Ok. So we're finishing this year with a long planned vacation to Costa Rica. After practically 24 hours of travel we arrived in the capital and were whisked off to Samara Beach, on the pacific coast.

 It's quiet here (except for occasional celebratory x-mas fireworks) and very relaxing.

We've rented the pool house at a lodge that is jungly with hints of Disneyland's Swiss Family Robinson Tree - Quite treacherous in the dark, but cool and relaxing, complete with howler monkeys and iguanas, oh and Canadians.


































It seems like everyone here is Canadian. I guess I'd come to Samara if I was from a place that snowed. Heck, we're from Northern California and we came here.

Christmas eve was pretty low key around here, we barbecued chicken (pollo!) and stopped by a carnival that was setting up in town. Real Churros cannot be passed up!
 The carnival really got busy on Christmas day though, with the bumper cars going and karaoke.



If there is anything scarier than carnival rides at home, it's carnival rides in central america. But M had her eye on one ride, passing up offers of cotton candy, churros and ice cream just to have the chance.

We're suckers.

Tomorrow we move further inland, to the cloud forest. We'll see what new adventures await us there!

P.S. -Gratuitous Photos of Monkey See, Other Monkey Do.

Our treasure find of the day - a mustache shaped shell

The big 5! (Birthday that is)

Because it was such a hit, we decided to do M's birthday at Fliptastic again. We invited all her daycare friends and a couple from school. It was quite a turn out. M probably had an even better time than last year and was much more into the activities.

M running the obstacle course

Max jumping into "the pit"

Kaitlyn's big jump

Everyone in the pit (it was obviously the pits)

 We finished it all up with some pizza and cupcakes, and of course presents!

Another good end to another good year!

Halloween 2011 - part 2...uh late?

We had a great time trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood this year! Uh... oh yeah, I should really post something about how we bought a new house, conned all our family into helping us fix it up and then moved, shouldn't I? FIRST THINGS FIRST - There are costumes involved here so I'm going to roll with it.
M got to dress up as a princess (her choice) and although I didn't make her dress, I did make her princess hat. I'm sorry, but in my version of princess, there is a cone shaped hat. None of this tiara business!

(Sorry for the bad photos- hadn't gotten my new camera yet!)

M had a really good time answering the door for the other kids and then going out herself. We met all kinds of neighbor kids - exactly the type of thing we moved to this neighborhood for! It was a very satisfying Halloween!