Vacation, Part II

Todd & I are back from our nice vacation. It was really a great week. SO hot, but a lot of fun. Here are some more pictures from Costa Rica:

This Iguana joined us for breakfast one morning:

We ate at this restaurant in a nearby village. It was really pretty.

Here's our hotel from the ocean. It was very isolated, as you can see. We took a small boat across the water about 15 minutes and hung out in a local fishing village. I really enjoyed the boat ride, as well as the locals.

This picture is funny. My friend Candace is a Pharmacist. She wanted to see the local pharmacy, where you can buy some Dove soap, Gillette razors and a bottle of Viagra all on 1 shelf.

These little boys were riding their horses on the shore. So cute.

The sun sets at 6 every night. My favorite part of the day was when we went down to the water to watch it set. It was much cooler and so pleasant & relaxing.

Costa Rica, Baby!

Todd and I are in Costa Rica this week (sans children), having a blast!! Here are some pictures from our first 2 days. More to come...

We went canopy ziplining yesterday. It was unbelievable. This is a picture of Todd ziplining. We did a few different combinations because there were 10 platforms where we'd stop and change positions, change partners, go upside down, go alone, do a belly-down superman, etc....It was SO awesome. Todd was really impressive doing a few supermans...even alone! As you can see, it looks a little dry & brown. This is the dry season. Most of the canopy/jungle was dry, but there was a lot of green jungle down under that first layer, it was really beautiful.

The tour guides would play bad jokes on us, like shake the line, move the platforms, pretend to drop us, jump around on the bridges. You know, totally freaking me & Candace out. But it really was awesome. This is a picture of us with our friends, Mike & Candace. We had a blast!

Here's the walk from our hotel to the ocean.

The sand is really dark, like charcoal. Here are Todd's feet Monday night after he walked around. There are 12 hours of sunlight, and 12 hours of darkness, since we are close to the equator, so the sun sets at 6:00, we were sitting on the beach right around that time, so that's why it is dark in this picture. Tomorrow we're taking one of those boats out to another part of the island for a little local flavor!!

Here are some of the animals we saw yesterday. This is either an Anhinga or Vulture? We couldn't figure it out.

This is one of the many howler monkeys we've seen. He's in a mango tree! Yesterday while we ziplined, they were out there. It was pretty cool. I felt like a monkey myself!

Allie Girl

Allie really loves hats. Most days, she'll pick 1 hat and wear it all day. Each day is different. I love this about her. Here's one of my favorites from last week.

Big Game!

Today was Zachary's first baseball game! It was a beautiful day and a lot of fun for everyone!!
Here's Zachary with his friend Timothy:

Pregame prayer time:

I was Queen of the dugout. It was a fun challenge:

Zachary was in the "ready" position most of his fielding time:

The most hilarious part of this game was when our team was fielding. EVERY kid on the team would run toward the ball. They'd all dog pile over it and it was chaos to see who actually got the ball. We laughed every time. But Todd was so proud that the kids were aggressive to go after the ball. It really kinda looked like football a few times.

And then afterwards, they all walked back to their places in the field. So cute!

Zachary batted successfully 3 times:

A funny special Daddy-son coaching moment caught on camera - Zach ran to third and told Todd, "I have to go peepee!!" so Todd told him he'd have to run super fast to home after the ball was hit and then he could go to the potty. It was really cute.

...he really had to go!:

...and he ran super fast to home!!:

Todd gave them a post-game pep talk and their weekly Bible verse. I was proud of how well Todd coached the kids. They really like him and the game was a huge success. Our team really showed their understanding of the game today. We are super proud of Zachary!

There's no crying in baseball!

Every mother knows that motherhood can be emotional at times. For me, I've been pleasantly surprised that the tearful moments have been fewer than I expected. But they do arrive unexpectedly.

Like on a Sunday afternoon when your almost-4-year-old gets his first baseball uniform.

Why this particular moment brought tears, I am not sure. But it did. He put his uniform on, started jumping and running around in genuine excitement. Suddenly I saw this big boy I hadn't noticed until that moment.

So far, he loves baseball. I love watching him love baseball.
Baseball. A game he plays on a field surrounded by a fence.
A fence he confidently chooses to allow separation between him & me.
A separation that is necessary and essential for his future.
A future that is in God's hands.

I love my confident baseball-playing boy.

Love his little mind

Zachary: "Daddy, why did God make us able to talk?"

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Zachary: "Mommy, who can I marry?"
Mommy: "Well, when you grow up and become a man, you can find a lady that you love and marry her."
Zachary: "I think I want to marry Allie."

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Stranger at church: "Hey there! Welcome to church. It's a nice day today! Did you bring the sunshine?"

Zachary: "No, God brought the sunshine."

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Zachary: "Why do birds not have ears?"

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Panda Hammock

Yes, I was told (by Zachary) that this is Panda's Hammock.

Perspective

Zach saw a very proper & well-dressed-but-over-the-top woman the other day and asked this question just as he looked at her.

Zachary: "Mommy, why do some ladies wear costumes and have red lips?"


(...said the kid whose mom wears jeans and no lipstick.)

Big Girl Bed

We transitioned Allie out of her crib and into a big girl bed in February. She was really getting too big for the crib and too crammed in there! For numerous random reasons, the transition for Allie was completely different than what we did with Zachary.

I found an antique iron bed and negotiated the owner down to 50% of her asking price! (I am super excited about that.) The first couple weeks were a little shaky, but once we settled into a nightly routine with the new bed, she has handled it like a super star. I think my favorite part of the whole change has been hearing her say, "big girl bed" over & over.
Here are some pictures of the first week (before we had her new bedding). Instead of spending money on a bed railing, we just stuck one of her bumper pads under the mattress sheet. That has worked wonderfully. She has never fallen out.

They were so excited!

Here's the bed as of now (below). Since she handled it so well, we went ahead and put the whole bed up, including the box spring. She climbs up & down like it's no big deal. (I love this girl.)
This picture is funny because I asked her if I could take a picture of her on the bed. I have no idea why this request made her mad...but it did. And this is the best I could get.

Lil' Cuz

Allie loves babies. We had everyone here a few weeks ago and Allie really enjoyed baby Ari. Here are the two of them and their heart pjs.
Allie decided to take her socks off:

Showing Ari the penguin:

Sweet little girls!:

First time at the movie theater

On Sunday, we made a last-minute trip to the movie theater.
After spending four days cooped up in the house with the flu (kids & Todd were all sick), Todd & I looked at the clock and realized we had 5 hours to entertain the kids before bedtime.
Normally, they take a long nap from 1-4, but because they were sick their nap started before noon and ended by 3. If you have kids, you know that 5 full hours with no prospect of going outside is a LONG time. While I sat there, feeling a little terrified about the 5 hour window of time I had to fill, I remembered the $1 theater.

The $1 theater where kids 2 & under are free!
The $1 theater that had a 5:20 showing of "The Princess and the Frog."
The $1 theater that saved my sanity on Sunday.

As we were getting the kids ready, I realized we had not yet taken them to the movies. Zachary was probably ready to sit through a movie awhile ago, (although he isn't a good whisperer...I knew he'd be talking at a normal volume the entire time, asking questions...the entire time). I guess we had unintentionally postponed movie-going until Allie was ready.

"The Princess & the Frog" turned out to be a good first-time movie. There were lots of cute little characters and several positive elements (although the Voodoo was tough to explain to Zach). My favorite part was the fact that, in the end, the prince chose to follow the girl's dream, which involved a lot of hard work and commitment.

The kids enjoyed themselves immensely. And we made it through day 4 of the flu.