Happy Fourth of July!!

Happy birthday to our wonderful country! We had fun celebrating with family and friends.

Our town has an annual parade. We've never been before because traffic is usually a pain, but since we have a golf cart this year we decided we'd check it out. Unfortunately, we slept in so we missed it. 

Later on family came over to grill out and swim. The kids had a great time swimming and hanging out with cousins and we had fun sitting on the back deck chatting.

Sadly, this year we ended our 6 year tradition of "Jared's Redneck Fireworks Display". Since Jared has been so busy traveling he didn't have time to drive across the state line to buy  a truckload of illegal fireworks (I'm sure our neighbors aren't so sad). Instead of watching fireworks in our yard we drove the golf cart into town and joined our neighbors in front Partners Pizza and enjoyed the fireworks over the lake. It was a lot of fun, and the golf cart traffic was not as bad as we had expected.

4th of July is one of our favorite holidays, can't wait for next year! 

We got stuck in a little traffic on our way home.

Pura Vida! part II

The boys had fun surfing.

Zach's first ride, standing up!

The "big" boys got in on the fun too.

I tried it, and actually got up a couple of times! (Sorry, no pictures at this time)

 More fun in the sand.

We all enjoyed relaxing on the hammocks. Here's Zach taking a nap like his Mama used to when she was little.

And of course, the highlight of the trip . . . . the zip lines . . .

The trip was great! I think everyone had fun.

Pura Vida! part I

We just got back from our trip to Coast Rica. We had a great time! We stayed in Playa Grande with Carlos, Heather, Abby, Charlie and Mamita.

 

Here we are waiting in line for the potty at the car rental. We flew in on June 20th. We left our house at 4a.m. and arrived in Liberia at noon (Coasta Rica time)

This is our trusty van. Not the most comfortable ride, but it did the job. We took turns sitting up front. Those were the only seats that got any of the A/C.

The boys had a great time playing in the sand, and getting pounded by the waves in the "washing machine"as they called it.

I think Charlie really enjoyed his first "taste" of C.R., don't you?

 

I spent most of my time sitting out on these chairs reading Gone With the Wind. It was so nice. Somehow, Heather managed to get some reading in too. Abby took these pictures, I think she did a really good job.

When we weren't outside enjoying the beach we were inside eating. We went out for breakfast a couple of mornings, but mostly we ate breakfast and lunch at the house. We had cereal, pb&js, and lots of fruit. We went out for dinner every night and had some typical Coasta Rican food. Thier typical dish is called a Casado. It consisted of gallopinto (rice and beans) a meat (usually mahi mahi, chicken, or steak) and fried plantains. The boys wouldn't eat it though, they ate the usual (chicken and fries, hamburgers, and spaghetti). We also ate at a couple of really good pizza places, yum!

This huge rock was just down the beach from our house.  Jared and Carlos took the boys up there to explore it. This picture was taken at low tide, at high tide the water covered half of the rock.

Two wheelers, triathlons, and back dives

It's been a big couple of weeks for us around here. Full of action.

Zach is riding a two wheeler! Meranda and I took the kids on a bike ride a little while ago and Zach was not happy that he had to ride in a stroller. So, as soon as Jared got home he asked him to take the training wheels off of his bike. He has definitely been the fastest to pick it up. Jared took the training wheels off and off he went. He loves it! Sam was easy to teach too. Jared's theory is that they learned how to balance and steer from the razor scooters. Maybe?

Last weekend Jimmy, Sonny, and Rollin participated in a mini-triathlon. It was for kids 7 to 15. This was their first year to participate (Jimmy says it's his last). They had to swim 50 yds., bike 3 miles, and run half a mile. Sonny was nervous about not winning. I told him it wasn't about winning, just finishing. They finished! The swimming was a little harder than we had expected and they could have used more training there, but they did great! Sonny had fun and said he would do it again and Sam says he's going to try it next year.

And, since summer means spending lots of time in the pool the boys have been working on perfecting their dives. Sam has even learned how to back dive. We like to play "diving contest".

The boys dive and Jared and I rate them on a scale from 1-10. The smaller the splash the higher the score, just like the Olympics.

Sam's Dive

Happy Birthday Jared!!

Happy 35th Birthday!!

We love you!

First week of Summer Vacation

We are in the middle of our first week of Summer Vacation. The boys are having fun staying up late and sleeping in. We've just been hanging out in our pool and going on golf cart adventures.

We can pretty much go anywhere on a golf cart (it just takes a lot longer). We've actually had a golf cart for about a year, but I've never ventured very far. My goal this summer is to use it as much as possible, you know, save on gas. Plus, the boys love it, and the scenery and fresh air are great. 

Yesterday we went to the grocery store. Even with four kids, we can fit four large bags of groceries and two gallons of milk on the golf cart. I know, it impressed me too. Today we went a lot further with the help of our trusty cart path map. We went jogging at the soccer field and then on to Target (which is on the other side of town). The whole trip took us about 4 hours, but we stopped for lunch and to play at a park. With the map I only got a little lost, I'll have the paths figured out in a few more days.

Since there is no radio on the golf cart we like to entertain each other by singing songs, or telling jokes. Well, the boys do most of the song singing and joke telling. Their favorite song at the moment is "Staying Alive" by the BeeGees, they know almost all the words, funny huh? And to tell you the truth the jokes are not at all funny, but you'd never know that to hear them laugh. They really get a kick out of each other.