Family Dinner

While we were in Disney World, Izzy took her naps in her stroller or wherever we were.  Needless to say, they were not as long as her usual naps.  So when we got home she was exhausted.  On Saturday she fell asleep at 10:30 am (she had just woken up at 8).

She fell asleep in my arms while I was talking to Mike.

I held her for an hour, just because I love to hold her.  I laid her down thinking she wouldn't sleep much longer.  Surprisingly, she woke up at 2:30, 4 hours later!! She knew what she needed after a long vacation!  

We went to Dana's graduation.  We are glad we were able to be there for it!

Derdle helping us keep Izzy entertained.

She loved the baby's carseat.  It's funny because when she was a baby she didn't like her carseat!

Family dinners are my favorite.  This is our last one before Dana and Guillaume move.  It is so crazy how fast time goes by.  I remember when Cat and Blake were here and we had family dinners with them and Celeste.  Thankfully, Derdle, Danny, & Kathryn will be coming back in the Fall so our family dinners can continue. 

Mommy & Izzy

 Izzy & Danny playing in the front yard.  She loves being tossed around.

 Izzy is not sure what will happen next

 Izzy and Guillaume.  I love how she says his name.  It was actually one of the first words she learned last summer.

 Izzy pushing Dylan in the swing.  She doesn't understand to let go of the swing, so it usually comes back and hits her in the face!

 Dana and Izzy.  She loves Dana.  She always tries to go downstairs to be with Dana and Guillaume.

 Izzy and Guillaume riding the horse.

 These are my favorite pictures.  Izzy has become quite the girly girl.  She loves to play in my closet and pull out high heels and purses.  This morning she picked out my tallest heels, grabbed a purse and was walking around the house.  She does all this on her own; I don't help her put the shoes on or anything.

 Had to get a top angle picture to show the shoes.

 She wears these most often because they are the shoes that are usually lying around the house.

 She's wearing the shoes and carrying her bear, which she calls baby.

 I love this outfit, plus she has her shoes on, pacifier, and baby--that is totally Izzy!!
I love this girl she is so cute and funny!!

Disney World

It seems like life has been a whirlwind lately, so much going on.  We had a trip planned with Mike's work to Orlando.  I thought about not going with everything that has been going on, but I decided it would be nice to relax.  On Sunday we woke up to a snow storm and I was so glad we were flying to the sunshine state.  We got in around 4, got checked in, unpacked and then we were off to dinner.  

Getting Izzy's shoes on, all she wanted to do was explore.

That night they had a dinner with Disney characters.  Izzy wasn't too sure of the characters; she didn't know if she should laugh or cry.  

She didn't want to get close to the characters, but she would say, Woof Woof.

Minnie and Izzy.

Monday morning Mike had meetings so Izzy and I headed to the pool.  I loved the 85 degree weather.

Izzy has no fear, she was off to the pool before I could even get my coverup off.

She wasn't sure if she wanted to lay out or swim.

That afternoon we went to Animal Kingdom.  Izzy loved seeing all the animals.

Waiting in line for the Safari Ride.

On the safari ride.  We had to take Izzy out of her stroller and she woke up, so she was not super happy.

Watching the gorilla was awesome.

That was some kind of cool looking tree behind us.

Monday night was Awesome!! Sea World was completely reserved exclusively for our group.  We watched a dolphin/whale show, rode all the rides as many times as we wanted, ate food galore, and played all the games for free.  It was seriously a dream night!!

This ride was crazy!  Such a fun night.

Izzy standing on the fish aquarium.

Tuesday we went to Magic Kingdom, but the camera was temporarily lost, so we don't have any pictures.  Luckily, Mike found the camera in a Sea World bag.

Wednesday we went to Hollywood Studios.

Waiting in line for the Toy Story movie.  They claim this is the most popular ride at Disney World.  Izzy enjoyed except for when puffs of air came out, she got scared.

Putting on the glasses.

Stephen's son, Zach, came on the trip too.  Izzy loved playing with him.  She was trying to climb into the fountain to get into the wahwah (water).

Wed night the group had a special private place to watch the fire work show.  Izzy didn't like it too much; she got scared with all the noise.

Thursday we went to Blizzard Beach.  Izzy wore her cute bathing suit and cover up that Derdle bought her.

She loved being in the water.

Surprisingly she actually enjoyed the slide.

Riding on Minnie.

They had small kiddie slides that she could go on by herself.  She would have done it all day if I let her.  She kept saying swide, swide, please.

She played in the arcade for a bit at the hotel.

Her kid's meal was so cute so I had to take a picture of the Mickey plate.

Pictures at the hotel.

Last night, Smile!  

It was a great trip, so glad we got to spend time together as a family!

Craig, a loving brother

I have avoided writing this post because I know it will be emotional, but it is now a part of my life.  My brother passed away March 22.  My dad called to tell me the terrible news.  It is a phone call I will never forget.  Craig was just 2 years younger than me, my sibling closest in age.  We had so much fun growing up together.  He set up my first email account back in 2000, when I had no clue had to use the internet.  He would burn CD's for me and I thought it was so cool I could choose the playlist.  In high school he would come on dates with my girlfriends and I.  He was so much fun to talk to; he knew something about everything.  I could call and ask him questions about politics, health, computers, whatever..he always had something to say about it.  He was juvenile diabetic so when I had gestational diabetes he was the first person I called.  During the 12 weeks I had it, I called him regularly to ask him what I should eat, what to do when my blood sugar got too high, etc.  I will forever miss him, but the memories will live on forever.

This was when we went to Hawaii

Dennis and Craig in the elevator on our Hawaii cruise.

I have experienced a wide of emotions during the last 10 days, anywhere from disbelief, saddness, thinking I couldn't get through this, comfort, peace, guilt, hysterical sobbing, the list goes on and on.  This has been the hardest thing in my life.  However, at the same time I have never felt so much love and comfort from our Savior.  I know that I will see Craig again and that my family will be reunited together.  I know that our Savior loves us and brings us the comfort and peace we need during the most trying times.  This does not mean I don't have my moments where I sob thinking I can't live without my brother, but I know he is close around me.  Every morning it is a challenge to get out of bed as I am reminded that my brother is longer on this earth.  But I know that I can work through this and I have family and friends who love and support me.

Costa Rica-Things I learned

Whenver you travel you always have certain expecations or how you think things will be.  So these are the things I learned about Costa Rica:

• The crocodiles were brown, not green like I expected.  It might have been the mud all over them, but they looked brown.
• You could not put toilet paper in most of the public restrooms.
• I was surprised how many people spoke English, they said it is pretty common to learn in school.
• People were very happy and helpful.
• Many of the homes were made of tin metal sheets.  There were also homes made out of concrete, but all homes had gates around them.
• Only the main roads were paved, all the side roads were dirt. 
• Dogs were everywhere, even in the restaurants.
• Drinking the water or maybe it was eating the food, can do strange things to your stomach!
• There are no road signs anywhere.
• There were lots of bus stops and it sucked if you got stuck driving behind a bus.
• There was not a lot of negotiation in the stores, unlike Mexico.
• The food was comparable in price to the US, I thought it would be cheaper.
• Their money system is crazy.  500 colones was about 1 dollar, so it was common for a meal to cost 6000 colones, about $12 dollars.

It was a great trip, with great company. I can't wait for our next adventure!!

Scariest Day of my Life

So today was a crazy day.  We headed out at 7 am to Esperos to do some white water rafting.  I have gone several times before in Montana and it was lots of fun.  So I thought we would enjoy some scenery, go down some rapids, and have a great time.  My day did not go according to plan.  When we signed the waiver they told us we had to swim a class III rapid; I thought maybe they were joking or they wouldn't make us do it.

After our 45 min drive we got to the river and sure enough we had to swim the rapid.  It was pretty scary, I swallowed some water, but I survived it.  I thought it was weird because no other company had made me swim a rapid, I should have known at this point that something was not good.

I'm not sure who this is, but this is the rapid we had to "swim down."

So we started down the river with Rambo, our guide, Suzette, Jon, and myself.  Jen, Chris, and Mike were in another boat.  We went down a couple rapids and then were chatting while watching the other boats come through.  The rapids thus far had been fun, but the river was narrow and there were lots of rocks.

You can see Jon and Suzette here.  I am on the other side of Jon, going through one of the rapids.

Mike, Chris, and Jen's boat.  This kind of shows how you have to manuever through the rocks.

 Everyone headed through the next rapid and this is where the craziness begun:

We started going down the next rapid, but I could tell the guide was trying to get us to turn.  Next thing I know we went straight onto a rock and were stuck, I thought this cannot be good because we cannot go down this huge rock.  I look back and notice the guide is out of the boat trying to pull us out.  That did not work and he started yelling something.  Then I feel Jon coming on top of me, thinking what is he doing.  Then under water I went.  From what I was told, Jon was pinning me down under water so he said he had to jump out of the boat so I could come up.  Suzette tried pulling me up at one point and then jumped out before Jon.  I didn't get swept out into the current instead I got pushed toward a cliff.  I stood up my shoulder was up against a jagged edge and I had my feet planted in the river bottom.  The current was strong and I didn't know how long I could stand there and I didn't know where Suzette and Jon went and if they were ok.  The guides were yelling at each other in Spanish trying to figure out how they were going to get me.  Their first two plans failed and I didn't know how long I could hold on.  I started yelling at them to hurry.  Finally they carried a raft upstream and rode it back down to me.  Then I held onto a rope and they led me to the other side to safety.  Seriously I have never been so scared in my life.  At one point I didn't think I could hold on any longer and I didn't know what would happen if I let go.  It was about 5 minutes, but felt like forever.  All I could keep thinking about was

I wasn't the only one worried.  Mike said he was freaking out.  He couldn't see anything that was going on.  All he knew was Suzette saying I was stuck under water, but then Jon said he saw me standing against the cliff.  He said he was getting more worried because of the look on the guides' faces.  He could tell it wasn't good, but didn't know what was going on.  He said he had some crazy thoughts going through his head.  After I was rescued I got the heck out of there.  Luckily I was able to hike out because I was down with that river.  I think I will stick to safe adventures from now on!!

Hiking out.  I know such a pansie, but not worth the risk!!

Costa Rica Friday

On Friday we rented ATVs and headed to the mountains.  They accidentally misquoted the price so we got a great deal.  We had a great time seeing lots of the country side of Costa Rica.  

Jennie and Penny in front of a little water fall.  

The Bergerons in the Costa Rica mountains.

We stopped in a little village because we had to pay a farmer so we could hike to a water fall.  There was a kid playing soccer so Jen decided to go show him some tricks.  Lots of guys play soccer in Costa Rica, but not girls.  While she was doing her tricks some guys from the village walked over to watch her and one had his camera out taking pictures or something.  They were pretty impressed with her skills. 

Beautiful

We stopped at this little restaurant on the top of the mountain and Mike wanted to relax in a hammock.  They had a great sign that said, "Mountain side, Relax, No World Crisis."  We also ate some sugar cane here, not what I was expecting, but ok.  Mike ate a tamale, I was a little sketched out by the food. 

Hiked into a waterfall on our ATV adventure.  They said the water is usually blue, but because of the rain  it was brown. 

That didn't stop Jen and Chris for going for a swim. 

I couldn't decide, the water was cold and I didn't want to hike back out wet.  So I decided to not swim.

We had a great time on riding through the mountains.  It was fun to see the small villages and the countryside.  

Costa Rica

On Thursday we drove to Manuel Antonio.  Mike woke up with a headache so he decided to stay home.  Danny, our guide, found us some sloths in the trees, we also saw some rare bird, and then this really cool bird on the ground that looked like a log.  

Sloth, hanging in the tree.  Very lazy animals, hence the name.  They only come out of the tree once per week to use the bathroom.  Crazy!!

Close up of the sloth.

Monkeys, I loved these things.  They put on quite the show for everyone.  They tried to get in anyone's bag who left them unattended on the beach.  It was funny watching them.  

The two troublemakers.  There was a great beach at the end of the hike.  For some reason I don't have any pictures.