Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Catch up #5: Visitors Round 2

John's brother (B), his wife (S), and their daughter(A) came on Thanksgiving and stayed for 10 days. I'd never met A and I was so stinking excited to meet her, she's so cute and sweet. She didn't like being held by me at first because she didn't know me, but she warmed up.

We had a great time with them. We took a day trip to see Volcan Poaz, an active volcano crater. The walk from parking to the crater is about half a mile, and we also decided to walk up a hill to the lagoon - which I think used to be another crater. That walk was tough! And B & S brought A in the stroller (John did not bring Simon) which wasn't easy for them! The walk back down was so much easier and faster. Then another half mile walk to the parking area to meet John and Simon. On the way home we found an amazing restaurant. John and I both said it's some of the best local food we've had since we got here. I think the volcano and lunch trip will become a regular thing for our guests.

While they were here John and B had to work a lot (not together) and their five month old daughter still spent a lot of time eating and sleeping, so we actually spent a lot of time at the house. S and I did go on a couple of walks, and we hung out with the babies while the daddies made the money. Then we went away their last weekend to Jaco. It's a town about an hour and a half from here with a beach. A lot of people at the Embassy talk Jaco down, but we had a great time. John rented a 3 bedroom 3 1/2 bath condo for us, so we brought our maid - best decision ever! This was our fourth beach trip and it was the most fun I've had at a beach because I wasn't stuck on shore with the baby. I was able to have fun in the water with John and Malachi, and I really enjoyed it.

One of the reasons we picked Jaco was because B really wanted to learn how to surf...like it wasn't an option, the boys were surfing. Right outside of our condo building (which was on the beach, btw) there was a surfing school set up under a couple of collapsable tents. John and B talked to them when we got there on Thursday and set something up on Friday. So Friday afternoon at 12:30 everyone but Simon and P (yay P! (also, it turns out P doesn't like the sun and she loves Simon, so she wasn't upset at all)) headed out to the tents. Guess who else got lessons! No, not me...I'm pregnant! My Dr. would have killed me. My five year old, however, has no such restriction. He learned how to surf right along with daddy and uncle B. Malachi even stood up on his own and surfed once! It was totally worth the $25, and he loved it. John and B had a fun time surfing and I think they'll both do it again. I got video of the whole time Malachi was in the water (including a time when a wave took me down - we have a water proof camera) and S took really good photos of John and B surfing. Unfortunately we had to leave before they could get out into the water again the next day.

We had a really good time with them here and we hope they'll be able to visit us again before we leave.    

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