Costa Rica>>Day Three

Our third day in Costa Rica was quite busy.  I grabbed a brochure for the different tours that were offered through the hotel, and we just decided to drive ourselves to a couple of the places that were offered, because we're smart like that (and cheap).  This was a huge benefit of having our own car.  It saved us a whole lotta money.  So, on this day, we visited a waterfall, a national park....where we saw 2 more waterfalls, and some hot springs.

This waterfall was amazing.  It was the perfect location to swim, swing, and picnic.  It's also not super popular, so there were not a ton of people there, which was nice.  We swam out and walked behind the waterfall and sat underneath it.

And Nick got himself some coconut water.

When we were done at Llano de Cortes, we drove to Rincon de le Vieja National Park.  Here we found a waterfall, some hot springs, and another waterfall.

This one was my favorite!  While we were there, it started pouring down rain (it is the wet season in Costa Rica, after all.)  That meant that when I got in the water and froze my butt off just so that I could have a picture of me with the waterfall, the picture did not get taken.  I was slightly perturbed. Just ask Nick.  It was all HIS fault...duh.

Of course there is a picture of him though.

After the rainy waterfall, we decided to check out some hot springs to warm up.  This place was so cool.

There were 7 pools like this, all at different temperatures.  And if you got too hot, you could always cool off in the stream that ran through the hot springs.  I did not get too hot...Nick did.

They also had hot volcanic mud to take a mud bath in.  And now, we are working on getting the mud out of our bathing suits.

When we were done at the hot springs, we decided to hike to one more waterfall, because why not?

We ended the day with dinner at Papagayo in Playa Coco.  We loved this place so much, we ate there twice.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

<< I know I've used this picture for Father's Day in the past, but how could I not repost it?  It's too good!

I am feeling particularly sentimental today about my dad.  My dad has walked with me through some rough times these last couple years.  He gets me (probably because we are a lot alike), and he knows what I need.  He knows what I'm thinking before I even say it, and he knows just what to say to me to make me feel better.  He'll talk through anything with me, he'll listen, he'll encourage, and he'll pray.  I know that he would do anything for me.  He has always fought to protect my heart, and even now as an old married woman, I still need my dad very much.

He loved our sweet little Belle as much as I did, and I leaned on him when we lost her. (I still am leaning on him).  She was one lucky pup to have him as her dad.

Thank you Dad for always being there for me.  We are all blessed to have you.

I love you! 

Costa Rica>>Day One and Two

We are back from Costa Rica, but we wish we were still there.  Costa Rica is a beautiful country, and we packed our days full, but there is so much we did not see. We will have to return again soon. So as not to inundate you with a million pictures at once, I will break the trip up into parts and post a couple days at a time. I also highly recommend visiting Costa Rica, so this will be my little Costa Rica travel guide should you choose to visit Costa Rica yourself sometime....which you should.  

We stayed on the Pacific Coast side of Costa Rica, in Playa Hermosa.  There is a lot to do on that side of Costa Rica, but in Playa Hermosa specifically, not so much.  We wouldn't stay there again.  It was close enough to plenty of places we wanted to see though, so it worked out fine.  We spent Friday (our technical first day) driving the 6 hours it took us to get from the airport to our hotel.  Yes, it was a long drive, but it was beautiful, so we didn't mind.  We definitely recommend renting a car there.  So, we are considering Saturday to be day one of this trip.  We spent that day mostly at the hotel and around it, just relaxing, exploring, and recovering from a lot of traveling.

On day two, we drove to Playa Grande, which is a popular surf spot about an hour south of where we were staying. You can rent a surfboard for only $2.50 an hour from Frijoles Locos.  That was Nick's activity choice.  Mine was sleeping and reading on the beach.  I did manage to get one shot of Nick out there though, despite how busy I was on the beach.

Dinner at Mar Bar in Playa Grande was awesome, and there were crabs everywhere.

Nick just walked up and saw my post and said, "Oh no! You are not posting all seven days, are you?"  Oh, but I am.

Stay tuned...

And we're off....

Nick and I are off to Costa Rica tonight!  Now that we are done with all of our adoption stuff, we desperately need this vacation, especially since it is pretty much free thanks to frequent flyer miles and my parent's time share.  I can't wait!  I have multiple blog posts planned out in my head, mostly about Belle, because I am one of those annoying dog people.  It's been 5 weeks since we lost her, but I am still have some sort of melt down about it at least every other day. We miss her like crazy. But for now, we are going to enjoy a nice break from reality.

I'll be back to regular blogging next week, after a week here...

Adoption Updates

Just to keep you all posted with where we are at, I will give you a little update.  Our home study has officially been approved!  Yay!  And it was so much easier than I thought it would be.  We have sent everything in to our agency and are just waiting on a couple of letters of recommendation, then we will be officially waiting to be matched!  So, we are almost there!  The agency we are working with told us that we will most likely be matched within two months, so we are hoping that this waiting part will go fast.  Or I should say that I am hoping it will go fast.  Nick is going to bed every night saying that he just really wants to enjoy his sleep right now.  As if he is going to be the one getting up in the night anyways.

Now that our home study is approved, we are applying for a couple of grants.  We still have a lot of money to raise and are hoping to get some of it that way.  I also added a couple new options to my sidebar for ways to help out.  I am selling all kinds of stuff in my etsy and storenvy shops and am continually adding new stuff, so keep shopping there!  And there is our Just Love Coffee shop that you can buy from as well.  Everyone needs their coffee (except me....I don't like it).  You can read about how much of the proceeds will go towards our adoption here.  

I also have a new section selling bracelets that are made in Haiti through the Apparent Project.  The money for the bracelets goes towards our adoption and back to Haiti. Here are some examples. You can see more and read more about it here.

Thanks so much for all your support! We will keep you posted with more updates.  Hopefully the next one will be a match!

A Birthday

Today my sister Kristina is 27.  Funny....I always thought she was 5 years younger than me, but I guess she's really only a year younger.  Somehow she caught up to me.

We are very excited that she is going to be having her first baby this fall! And it's a boy.  Crazy!  I'm not sure this family of all girls is going to know what to do with a boy, but I suppose we will figure it out.

Happy Birthday Kristina!

I love you very much!

Our Adoption Profile Book

For our adoption, we had to make a profile book for the birth parents to look at.  I started this back in September because, at that point, I knew we would most likely be adopting sooner, rather than later.  I'm glad I started then because it took me forever to finish.  But, I am really happy with how it turned out. I designed each page in a separate photoshop-esque program (since I have never really learned how to use photoshop.)Then I just uploaded them into the book. I ordered the book through blurb, and I am really happy with the quality.  I originally ordered one from a different company and was not impressed, so I tried again with blurb, and it is much better....

For some of you, those pictures may be enough.  But, I am sure that most of you would like to spend half your day reading all about us.  So for you guys, I have uploaded each individual page  of the book just so you can really soak it all in.

So, Belle is still in our book, as it should be.  She will always be a part of our family, and our children are going to know all about her and the source of joy and comfort she was to me while we waited for them.