Routine Stuff (mostly)

So, every week I'm in a meeting for my section at work. It's the unit heads in the section, plus a few other special people. I'm not a unit head. Apparently I'm special. When we're at the meeting and someone doesn't have anything to contribute they usually say something along the lines of "Just routine stuff."

And that's how I feel about my blog. Our life is mostly routine stuff right now. This is part of the reason why I haven't blogged much lately. The other reason is that we're busy. We're really busy, but it's with work, and school, school activities, and seeing friends, and day-trips to the beach (today we went to a beach that's only about 45 minutes from home, it's not super-nice, but I've been to worse (and it's only 45 minutes from home!).

We did something that is both routine, and not routine. John and I went to Negril (the farthest resort town from home (only 3.5-4 hours away, seriously...if you love beaches, you must live in Jamaica)) to celebrate our anniversary. Last week we'd been married for 13 years (we've been together now for over 17 years - what?!). It's amazing to me that he's stuck with me for that long. This is not routine, because it's not common for us to ask my in-laws to come down for 10 days so that we can go away for six nights. It is routine because we have celebrated the last five anniversaries on an island. True - the last two have been on an island that we've lived on, but they're still islands! 

My  view on of my days.
Most other days looked similar to this.

Another thing we're doing right now that's not routine (but still sort of is), is Malachi getting his Epilepsy testing done. This year we're doing blood (routine), EEG (routine), and MRI (not routine). We've taken the blood (end.of.the.world.people. it was actually pretty torturous for him), and we did the MRI yesterday - yay for Saturday hours! This was his third MRI, and the first I've been in. He went under for his first one - and I was pregnant. John went in for the second one - because I was pregnant. This time I wasn't pregnant, so I went with him. I expected the noise, but I wasn't expecting him to have a hard time with it. But the machine is big - and really, really noisy. He had ear plugs, and then two layers of padding outside of his ears. He got really nervous, and about ten minutes in he started crying from the ear plugs. He said they hurt. The technician (who was amazing with Malachi), fixed him up and Malachi made it the last 40 minutes like a champ. He was so brave, and mature. I was so proud of him.

Tuesday he's going in for the EEG. We have to sleep deprive him, so he'll sleep. The sleep deprivation won't have to be too strict. This kid falls asleep almost every morning on the bus.

Other than our vacation, and Malachi's somewhat routine Epilepsy testing, life is "just routine stuff,"

Our last CR vacation

The topic for the BRU  this week is vacations.

In February we went to Tamarindo for our third and last time. We dubbed it our favorite place in Costa Rica, and chose it as a good place to meet John's parents who flew into the Liberia airport.

It was fun, but a bit bittersweet knowing that it was our last trip there. We didn't get awesome photos from that trip unfortunately, but I'll share a few.

Simon climbed into Coen's bed

Yes they are...and they're amazing

A cold beer on a hot day

A cold lemonade on a hot day

Simon being awesome

Coen copying Simon

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.    

Catch Up #2: Roatan Honduras

On Wednesday the 10th (our anniversary) we got up super early and creeped out of the house at 4:30am to make our flight at the San Jose Airport. We went to a special desk by the ticket counter, flashed our diplomatic passports and got a waiver for the exit tax, and made our way to the gate. I did a little shopping at the Cafe Britt store for a magazine to read, a magnet for my mother-in-law, and some bottled water. 

The flight to San Salvador was great, we had a really nice plane with TV's in the back of all the seats. John watched Date Night with Steve Carrell and Tina Fey, and I watched Valentine's Day (which I STILL haven't seen the end of!). After a 1 hour and 20 minute flight we were in San Salvador. We waited for a little bit and walked out to the next plane...a prop plane. I wasn't very happy about that at all. However, except for the noise, it wasn't as bad a trip as I expected. It wasn't nearly as bumpy as we thought it would be, and after about an hour and a half we landed on the island of Roatan.

Our B&B was ok. We got the top room (read: biggest), but it needed some work done on it, and we only had maid service one day out of five. We'll definitely go to Roatan again, but I think we'll stay somewhere else.

Unfortunately their rainy season was just starting, so we saw more rain than we would've liked. Fortunately for us we brought umbrellas! We did have a great time though. We had a guided tour of the island, just the two of us and our guide, it was awesome. The Eastern side of the island is very rustic still, but beautiful non the less. During the tour of the island we went to a restaurant called The Hole In the Wall. It's only accessible by boat, and is run by a couple of retired US Navy men. After lunch we went on a tour of the mangroves which were pretty cool, we saw some wildlife there, and we saw a cove where pirates used to hide.


We had a realtor take us out to look at properties that are for sale that would be good for renting out. We are very interested in owning this kind of property. With our lifestyle it would be the best way to own since we wouldn't be occupying it. Roatan is a great place to buy right now because it's still developing, and the properties are still very reasonably priced.

Then on day three the sun came out! This was perfect timing because this was the day we planned on going snorkeling. We had already made reservations at a spa for treatments and massages, and the owner said that we could go early and snorkel with their equipment, so we did. It was beaufitul! We had to swim out a ways to get to the coral, but once we did, we saw so many fish, and the coral was so great. The coral was really close to us, at times I thought I was going to cut my belly on it. After swimming back (and wanting to collapse because of how much work that was), we went to a restaurant down the beach from the spa and they gave us a free appetizer because we're guests at the spa and we had a good meal.

Then to the spa...ahh...it was so nice. We ordered a choloate wrap. Neither of us had done a wrap before, and it was very decadent. After we rinsed off, we got hour long massages. They were so nice! I had issues with my shoulders and neck, and I swear he worked on that area for over half an hour. John and I had a great time, and would like treatments again some day.

We had food at an Argentinian restaurant four times, the first two just being dessert. Their food was amazing though. We ate at the noodle hut once and had great asian style noodles, we had dinner and brunch at a seafood restaurant right on the water (the candle-lit dinner was actually on the deck that was over the water), come to think of it, the noodle hut was over the water, and the Argentinian restaurant was just across the small road from the beach.

On our last full day, we decided to swim with the dolphins. We did the typical encounter where we were in the water with the trainer and a dolphin. But after that we paid a bit extra and we literally swam with the dolphins. For 30 minutes with snorkeled with the trainer and eight dolphins, who wanted to play catch with us and seaweed. It was an amazing experience.

It was so nice for us to just have five days with us by ourselves. Meals were a breeze, since we didn't have anyone that needed help. We watched a lot of Glee, and a few old movies on their VCR. Thank you so much to my mother-in-law who made this possible!

The island is beautiful, and we really enjoyed our time. It was a great way to celebrate nine years together since for our 10 year anniversary we probably won't be going anywhere since we'll then have three kids. Three kids!!

This weekend

I'm going somewhere in here with about 20 other families and singles from the Embassy.



This lady needs a break from everyday life, so I'm very excited about this.

Memorial Weekend

I'm sorry it took so long to post about our weekend. I haven't been overly busy, but I've been overly lazy! In reality I've actually done some housework this week - speaking of housework. We're one step closer to getting our maid! We have to do a few things to make sure she has insurance and social security. We probably won't be able to have her start by next Monday - but we're on our way!

Ok...the weekend.

We decided pretty last minute to go for a trip. We were looking originally in the area of Jaco but when John contacted a tour guide that he met at the Embassy he was told that that area is too built up and we should look farther south in the Manuel Antonio/Quepos area. He said that he'd try to get us a good deal. And a good deal he did get! We got half off the room and we were upgraded to their best room. From our balcony we could see the ocean, it was gorgeous! From the outdoor jacuzzi tub we could see the forest and the ocean - amazing! We had the top room of a building three rooms high and it was a perfectly picturesque view.

The resort is very nice! It was one of the first green hotels in Costa Rica. Only one tree was removed purposefully to build the resort. In this part of Costa Rica the mountains go very close to the coast, so the resort is built into the mountain which means lots, and lots of stairs. I certainly worked out my legs and rear end at the resort. But it was so beautiful! Because it's built right into nature you're completely surrounded by it. Malachi even saw a monkey outside of our window on our last morning. We frequently heard a critter on the roof which we think was a lizard, and I think he had friends sometimes. One time we thought we heard bats - that was a bit freaky.

On Saturday we got off to a bit of a slow start. We didn't leave until about 11am. It was John's first time driving in Costa Rica - and the first time he drove in six weeks. The longest break from driving he's ever taken. He was a bit nervous - but he did really well! We stopped in Jaco for lunch and had very tasty traditional Costa Rican meals.

We drove the rest of the way enjoying the amazing views and then got checked into the hotel. We found our room and had a great time checking it out - it's huge! After the initial picture taking and room checkingouting we put on our swim suits and headed to the pool. I fed Simon while John and Malachi got in. They enjoyed the pool and then Simon and I got in to join them. The water was really chilly! Simon started shivering after a while so we got out. I wrapped him up in a towel and let him nap. When the other boys were done, we went back to the room and changed for dinner.

We went to one of their restaurants and had a pretty tasty meal. We tried to get a movie going on their super slow internet in our room, but it wasn't working out so we all went to bed.

Sunday morning we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel (included in the room), and then headed to the National Park in Manuel Antonio. We got a guide with a bunch of people we didn't know and really enjoyed the tour he gave us. We saw birds, monkeys, sloths, crabs, a super, super tiny grasshopper with seven different colors, and a deer walked out onto the path in front of us. Elias, our tour guide, told us that they're tame and Malachi should try to pet it. Unfortunately we couldn't catch it because it wouldn't stop. He was sad - but probably not as sad as me, I really wanted to pet the deer. That was pretty exhausting for us, so we went back to the hotel for a period of rest - during which Malachi fell asleep.

After we were refreshed we went to El Avion - a very cool restaurant about a 2 minute drive from the hotel. It's built in/around an old airplane. One of the two that was used during the Iran Contra Affair. It's the one that wasn't shot down in Nicaragua. It's really cool to be sitting so close to such a big part of American history.

After lunch we took the car back to the hotel and rode the shuttle bus to the beach. Oh the beach! We had such a good time! Simon was sleeping when we arrived and he continued to do so once we settled down with our chairs and umbrella (I was prepared to pay a pretty penny to protect my baby's skin, but we only had to pay $8 - not bad!). He napped on the chair for quite a while and then had a bottle. John and Malachi went into the water as quickly as they could! They had such a good time! Malachi LOVES the ocean! When daddy needed a break - Malachi played in the sand for a while until I was ready to take him into the water. We did that for a while and then he played in the sand by the water by himself for a bit. He loved throwing the sand into the water. He was very obedient to stay behind the imaginary line - only needing to be called back a bit (a very little bit) once.

We went home when the sun was setting and desandified ourselves. This wasn't a very easy process because our shower was really lame and the water didn't come out very well. The boys went into the tub to clean off, I dealt with the lame shower.

We went to the nicer restaurant at the hotel that night and enjoyed a delicious meal. I was very full after it and took my desert to go and ate it the next morning. Simon and I were both very tired after dinner so we went to our room and crashed (this was at 7:30 mind you) and the other boys went to a common area to try to run the movie that Malachi hadn't been able to run very well in our room. It didn't work there much better, so John brought Malachi back, put him to bed and then went to the movie theater at the resort. He wasn't that impressed with it, and had seen the movie so he came home to read about an hour into it.

The next morning after another delicious breakfast (although their pancakes weren't as good as the French toast we had the morning before) we went across the street to the resorts butterfly farm, and reptile lagoon. Both of them were very interesting and very informational. We were the only ones in both of them until the very end when another family came in. Our tour guide was great, we all had a really good time. We saw some beautiful butterflies as well as crocodiles, boa constrictors, caymans, turtles and fish (I realize they're not reptiles, but they're food for the reptiles). We had a lot of fun there.

We then packed up and headed out. We had a really great weekend! We have a friend and her friend coming into town next month and I'm going to try to convince John to let me and the boys take them down there for a night or two. Just to see the beach would be great! Check out my flickr for a great collection of pics that John took.

VA Beach

I figured it was about time to blog about VA Beach. We had a really great time, thank you Matt and Julie for letting us stay with y'all.

We left the North VA area around 4 o'clock on Friday. Matt told us to take the "back way" because the highway would be really bad that day. We did so and saw some really beautiful stuff. It still took us about five hours to get there though. Aryn (their daughter) was in bed so we quickly put Malachi down and talked to Matt and Julie for about an hour before we all went to bed.

After a relaxed morning getting ready and letting the kids play we decided to go to Mt. Trashmore so the kids could ride bikes and play.




The Gills

Despite the name of the park (and yes it used to be a landfill) it was a very nice park. We had a great time walking to the big playground. We passed the skate park on the way there and stopped to watch a bit. Some of them were really talented. After letting the kids play for a bit at the playground we decided to start the walk back to the car so we could go home, have lunch and put the kids down for a nap. The parents enjoyed this kid free time to chill and talk. Shortly after the kids woke up it was time for the Gills to go to a birthday party and the Roys to meet a friend.

We hadn't seen our friend Curtis in years. I didn't think he'd even met Malachi but apparently he saw him when he was itty bitty. It was so nice to sit and talk and catch up. We sat at Starbucks where I didn't get a drink I enjoyed. After that we went to the boardwalk to see the beach and the touristy area because we didn't plan on beaching there. We went to a tourist store to buy a couple of souvenirs and then headed to the beach.


The Roys with Neptune at VA Beach


Curtis and me on VA Beach


Malachi on VA Beach

We then went to sushi with Curtis for dinner...mmm...shushi. It was very delicious. By the time we got home it was bed time for Malachi. The adults stayed up talking again and then headed to bed.

The next morning we went to church with the Gills, afterward we went to Ruby Tuesdays for brunch. After which we went home and all the girls and Malachi napped. After naps we beached it up! We went to the military beach thanks to Matt being in the Navy. There was body surfing done by Matt and John, sand playing by the kids, and I did get into the water but not for long. We had a really good time at the beach. There was also body burrying. Who can go to the beach and not be burried?


M is for Malachi


Malachi and Aryn

We had a delicious dinner at Texas Roadhouse (haven't been to one since we left Dallas...so tasty! We put the kids to bed after getting home. Then the adults enjoyed a game of Settlers of Cataan and a couple of rounds of Scattegories. The next morning we put our things together and after a group picture headed off. We decided that since we were leaving in the morning we could take the highway. There was a tropical storm off the coast so we got quite a rain storm in the beginning of the trip. It made for some really stressful driving. After about three and a half hours on the road we stopped at Chick-fil-A (another first in VA) for the free sandwich deal. As it turns out, I was the only one who had a team shirt (John's didn't make it to VA). After eating delicious CFA we drove the last hour home. Ahhh...home sweet home. Thank you so much Gills for letting us stay! We had a wonderful time with y'all.


Group picture take 3 - yay it worked!

Baltimore

Friday John got home before noon, and since it was Friday we discussed going "away" for the night. Somewhere not too far that would be fun to spend the night. My first thought was Historic Williamsburg. Then I thought it would be more fun to go somewhere closer so I suggested Baltimore to John who apparently was thinking Baltimore too. John got a good price on the Hyatt Regency in the Inner Harbor area of downtown Baltimore. We took off before 1:00 and were unpleasantly surprised to run into a thunderstorm on the way there. It got pretty bad at some points. This picture doesn't really do it justice.



Before we left we made a reservation for Friday afternoon at the Baltimore Aquarium. We scheduled a Dolphin show at 3:30, a 4-D show at 4:15, and then after that we could go do the rest of the aquarium. The Dolphin show was great. Malachi really enjoyed it!





After the Dolphin show we headed over to the 4-D show. Basically that's a 3-D movie with physical involvment: water spraying in your face, a poker in your back, a "snake like" tube on the floor, bubbles, and snow. Unfortunately Malachi really didn't enjoy the physical aspect of the show, so we had to leave. We thought it would be really fun for him, but we were wrong. Here's Malachi with his 3-D glasses on. They're a little different then I remember them.



After that we had dinner at a restaurant that I really didn't like. I'm not going to put up a picture or devote any more time to it than this.

The next morning we got up, decided on breakfast at the hotel restaurant which was pretty good, expensive, but good. We didn't know if it was going to rain or not (rain was in the forecast) so we decided to stay in doors and go to the Children's Museum. We had a lot of fun there! Malachi really enjoyed it and was sad when we had to leave.







After lunch at McDonald's we started on our trip home. With clear weather on our trip home we got home in one hour and one minute. We really enjoyed our time. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the whole set of pictures up on Facebook.