may to june

I'm definitely playing catch-up with summer, so here goes!  We came home from Costa Rica and jumped right back into all the busyness May had in store for us.  First up:  Brody and I completed a fun run the school district put on.  The run was a little over two miles and he did absolutely great!  He's been in running club the past couple months and really worked hard to run hard!  We ran past this dad walking with his middle-schoolerish son and the dad told him "come on, you're going as slow as a kindergartener!"  I wanted to yell over my shoulder "actually you just got passed by a kindergartener!"  But this wasn't a race, it was only to promote fit families in the district, so I withheld my comment.  Here's me and Brody after the race:

About two minutes into the race I went to retighten my ponytail and my band broke!!  So I did the rest with the lions mane, that part was dreadful!

A week later Brody had his end of the year running club party, he logged 15.5 miles over the course of the 2.5 months he joined the club (40 mins running once a week.)  I was proud of this little guy!

The next week the twins had their last days of preschool, here's Kade with his teachers:

The assistant teacher Mrs. G holding Kade was Kade's ultimate favorite!  Oh, how he loved his time with Mrs. G!  She will definitely be missed next year!

Here's Crew with one of his teachers:

The next week these guys turned 4!!

They were so excited to be bigger boys!  They got to move up to booster seats, and loved it!!

They got to eat gigantic cookies for lunch!

They had a gacc cookie with darth vader on it- they were in heaven!  And yes, they kept the masks on while we sang happy birthday to them!

A couple days later we had mormon ranger night at the ballpark.  

At the start of June we celebrated Father's day early with a surprise party for Justin so he could open his new gift:

The boys love going on the electric scooter with dad, and of course Brody loves having dad cruise him up to school in the mornings!

A week later this big guy finished kindergarten- do you think he was excited?

His school had a little kindergarten promotional ceremony so we took a little family picture together afterward:

And here's a pic with his teacher, the fabulous Ms. Bradanini!  We loved Ms. B, and I hope one of the twins get in her class for kindergarten!

This month month had so many big things for our family- I glad we were able to pack it all in!  Now we're off to pack our stuff to head on vacations!

Costa Rica- a picture overload!

Nearly 12 years ago I took a geology class and lab in college.  It was super fascinating, and totally made me want to be a volcanologist.  Mom and Dad said no; something about being too close to death. I still think volcanoes are amazing and I remember learning about the Pacific's ring of fire and my teacher  mentioned that in Costa Rica there are natural hot springs at the bottom of the volcano, and while sitting in hot springs you can relax and stare out at a volcano.  I was enthralled!  Since then it's been a dream to go, and Justin happily obliged!  This is probably one of my most exciting boarding passes ever:

We had a quick flight to Houston, and then a little over 3 hour flight to San Jose.  With turbulence.  With lots of turbulence.  I was worried, to say the least!  I was so relieved when we landed!  We met our driver and then had a 3 and-a-half hour van ride to La Fortuna.  With bumps, twisty turns, and gravel roads.  My stomach was totally growing more squeamish by the minute.  I tried to just look out the window at the amazing beauty of this country, I was amazed!

They plant lots of coffee and fruit, so it was so green and lush!  Our driver learned we grew up in Los Angeles and pulled over to take this picture:

Finally we reached our hotel.  It was so pretty!  The rainforest is so thick!  It's like they literally have to cut into the bush to make roads and houses.  We got to our room and this was the view from our balcony!! I was seriously in heaven!

This was Justin's view:

I could stare at that volcano for hours!!  It actually had two peaks, one old with green hillside, and one younger that still steamed and had a gray/brown hillside, naturally without vegetation.  So interesting!!

The next day we had a canopy (rainforest) walk and zipline tour.  I should start by saying that the word "walk" was greatly disillusioned.  It was a 3-hour hike through the rainforest.  A literal hike.  Beautiful!  But a beautiful hike!  We did three suspension bridges, which Justin liked, two lookouts and two waterfalls.

Here's look out one:

Waterfall one:

Just down from the first waterfall was the second:

Both waterfall were so pretty!  Our guide told us he knew a great spot for a picture, this was it:

A couple in our group said we should definitely include it on our Christmas card.  I thought I'd just slip it in here.

Caution falling trees:

Justin on the suspension bridge.  There was one bridge that really swayed and they said its hard to get across without holding on.  I lasted like a quarter of way without holding on, but this guy:

made it across the whole thing! Bazinga!

After our "walk" we took a tram up the mountainside to start our 8 ziplines down.  Here's some views from the top.  These were some of my favorite views of the trip:

Here's a quick video our guide took of the zipline views, it was sunset and it was gorgeous!  It's quick, but really loud from the zipline, maybe mute would help.

The next day we went into La Fortuna and walked around and then went to some hot springs.  We stopped very quickly at another more public hot spring the next morning too:

 This pic is me, sitting in a hot spring looking at a volcano.  Life dream: met!

 Waterfalls

 Later that morning we sadly left La Fortuna, and my Arenal volcano to head to the beach.  Our trip coordinator gave us the option of a 6 hr van transfer or a 30 minute flight.  We obviously chose the flight.  Here's the 12 seater ride:

 This plane was so small they weigh your baggage and each passenger.  Nothing will make you rethink your breakfast options like standing on a scale in front of the rest of the other passengers!

take off

views from the sky

We arrived in Manuel Antonio and checked into our second hotel, we immediately checked the view.  

 That will definitely do!  It was so relaxing!  

We had an extra day at this hotel, and we took some time to enjoy the beach!  Our hotel had two beaches, one private with a restaurant, and one that led to public beaches, and eventually the town.

 We hiked on some rocks, but this was not a 3 hour hike, it was more of an "at your leisure pace."

doing some swimming

I love how the rainforest stops at the sand of the beach, it's so pretty!  With the hotel being in the rainforest, there was lots of wildlife, like this guy:

these iguanas were all over the place.  They're big, and fast... I was worried.

This little guy was in our room, thankfully it was a little crab, and not a gigantic spider!

One day we went into town and got some shirts for the boys, another day we went to the national park and a guide helped us find the monkeys, birds, lizards, raccoons and sloths.  Here's some sloths, it was actually a mom and baby.

 As you exit the back of the park there's an amazingly beautiful cove that looked like something right out of Pirates of the Caribbean.  The water was so warm and perfect for a little swimming.  I can't remember the last time I "played" in the ocean, it was fabulous!

 some more views (these are my other favorites)

 We had a light hike back to our hotel and had to take a mini boat through this creek.  I thought, tiny boat, little creek, no big deal.  I was surprised no one was swimming in it!  Oh, then he explained there's crocodiles, so no swimming allowed. Suddenly the tiny boat seemed very collapsable.

We made it through!  The next days we enjoyed the beach and were sad to pack up for home, but we really missed the boys.  This trip was amazing!!  We really loved our time visiting a new country!  It was so beautiful, we definitely miss these views:

 and this:

 We took one more mini flight to San Jose.  Then back to Houston.  Then back to Dallas, and our boys!  As a side note, I loved the re-usable, laminated board passes from Manuel Antonio airport!  

We really recommend a Costa Rica trip, the boys now are asking to go!  We're especially grateful to Clarke and Diane for watching the boys for a week, and keeping up with those three!  I really loved this trip, mostly I come away from this feeling overwhelmingly blessed to visit such a beautiful place.  It has, yet again, made me in awe of the beauty our Father in Heaven has given to us on this earth.  

the races

So Justin was working on a patient who gave him some tickets to the Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.  There was only two tickets, so Brody was the lucky one to accompany Justin.  While discussing the upcoming races, Brody started reciting driver's names and car numbers.  Baffled, we asked how he knew so much info (clearly not from us!)  he responded "My teacher at school has a nascar book in class, and I read it one day."  After fact checking online, we realized that Brody had correctly identified various drivers and numbers.  At least one of these guys was prepared for the race!

 Brody was super excited to have some one on one time with Dad!  They got some head phones that allowed you to listen in on the drivers and pit crews.  Kinda like overhearing what doc's saying to McQueen during his final race of the movie Cars (at least that's how I understood it.)

They had a great night out and Justin said after taking in the crowd: "There were tons of potential patients out there!"  Now that's exactly what I expected to hear!

Straight to Vegas

In honor of SYTYCD, which started this week, I thought I'd show you some of Brody's sweet dance moves, this is his moonwalk:

forget choreography, that deserves a ticket straight to Vegas.

best buds

crew and kade call each other best bud.  i absolutely love it!!  so instead of "go get your brother!"  we say "go get best bud" and they know exactly who your talking about. it's heart melting.  i don't think i've ever once come off like i think twins are a piece of cake, or super manageable, or that i'm some kind of twin expert.  but i do know the major blessing of twins is to watch the amazing bond these two have.  their whole world is each other.  it's one of those things that can't properly be caught on film, but it's the snippets of conversation or play that i get to see or overhear throughout the day.  i love it!  i took the pics of the boys playing the other day and i love this little sequence of crewkade.  

 they've been in separate classes in preschool this year, which has had it's ups and downs, but it's made them miss each other during the day and they enjoy playing with each other so much more now.  i love these two to absolute pieces and feel so blessed to be able to watch them grow together!

lovely

Last month we recieved a letter home from Brody's school saying he had been chosen as student of the month!  I was excited about that, but then I noticed that each month has a theme, and Brody was selected for the theme "caring and respect" and that made me super proud!!  He got to design a poster about himself that was displayed at school:

and he received a ribbon at the PTA meeting

shortly after that high, he got sick which eventually led to an ear infection.  then about a week later crew got sick, and a couple days later kade was under the weather too, lovely.  crewkade both had ear infections that required drops so a couple times a day they looked like this:

so cute, but so sad!  all the boys were troopers and completed the rounds of antibiotics.  (and as a side note, can i just quickly mention how irritating it is when you bring your kid into the doctor and they have a "bulging" ear infection and the doctor talks to you like you're the worst mother on the planet because you didn't know your child had an ear infection.  i mean hello!  it's not like i have one of those ear-looky-into tool things at home!  i'm still bringing them in aren't i?  ok, rant over.)

In other news, my little crewser has developed a sneaky strategy to gain one-on-one time with mom.  he wakes up 45 minutes early from his nap, and ever so quietly comes downstairs so he won't wake kade. this is how he looks during our "secret" time together:

I'll ask him if we should go wake kade up to play too, and he always replies "no, kade need to sleep."  it is nice to have a little cozy time without it being a battle of shared space.  (and on another side note, it's amazing how well behaved kids can be one-on-one.  if i ever wanted to have a perfectly proven research project it would be titled "the perfect behavior of a singled out child vs. the monstrous behavior of a sibling child.")

valentines day came and the boys handed out these gems:

brody loved the glasses card, and we made a double batch of love bug valentines for the twins classes.  the bug cards seemed to be a success, hence the post preschool loot:

and as you can see brody was extra excited to get candy that was "just for me- no sharing."  his school decorates boxes for valentines day and apparently it's a pretty big deal- i didn't know, i still remember sponge painting hearts on our white lunch sacks in elementary school.  anyway justin helped him make this:

a giant lego!  the day it was due he carried it into school and these gigantic 4th graders stopped him to inspect his lego.  and apparently the vice principal stopped him in the halls to tell him how much he liked his valentines day box.  apparently an oversized lego catch the eyes of both boys and men.  so that's a wrap up of the past little while here, we hope you have a lovely valentines day too!