When it gets quiet you find your two year-old doing awsome things.

COSTA RICA

So for those of you who remember- we planned on going to Costa Rica last New Years but missed our flight by 24 hours. Here is the link to last year's blog about it. http://mikidees.blogspot.com/2008/01/costa-rica-we-have-been-planning-to.html We actually made it this year. And it was awesome!

The night before we got a little scare. I picked Lily up by her arm and her elbow dislocated. So here I am at the ER 2 hours before we were supposed to leave thinking. It is happening again we won't make it and it is ALL MY FAULT! The doctor popped her little arm back into place and every thing turned out okay but I learned

NEVER PICK YOU KIDS UP BY ONLY THEIR ARMS!!!!!!!!

When we got our boarding passes we were SO excited because we were actually going this year. My dear friend Mandy came and was awesome enough to watch Jensen, Lily and Brooklyn, Celeste's daughter, for us. And it was a good thing too.

We flew from midnight till 5 am then drove two hours to a volcano and then 6 hours after that. The kids would have gone crazy! The Volcano was pretty awesome. I'll have Dave, the resident Geologist tell you more about it.

And Costa Rica is in the middle of the Jungle. So it is pretty cool to see things you don't normally get to see. Like plants with leaves that are bigger than I am! We walked out on crocodile bride. And WOW just sitting there was a swarm of crocs! In the wild! It was awesome.

We went to a reptile zoo. It was so much fun there were awesome snakes and a kimono dragon.

The dragon's really smart. She is as smart as a dog or a pig and responds to her name. But also has over 50 killer bacteria in it's mouth.
A huge turtle eating.

And Dave and I being turtles.

Two male lizards that hung out by our pool and fought all day long. ZIP LINE through the jungle!

During our Zip line tour our guide pointed out the leaf cutter ants. They were awesome. They have quantity control ants who reject the leaves that won't grow the fungus that they eat.

He then brought us to the ant hill, which was literally an entire hillside. And he banged on the side. Big huge solider ants came crawling out. He explained that the ants don't bite but instead they pinch. And their heads, after they had been removed from their body, were used as stitches. He asked for a volunteer. And really would it be me if I didn't volunteer? So I HAD A SOLIDER ANT BITE ME! :)

A cool little waterfall we walked to.

Dave and I and Celeste and Brad drove on an ATV tour. I LOVE DRIVING ATVS! On our ATV ride. Went to a waterfall. and of course 30 seconds after arriving I slipped down some rocks landed in the water and cut up my hand! I have come to a conclusion. I know I am klutzy and so when I fall I'm not disappointed.
Mom and Dave and I rode horses through the jungle. It was so beautiful! I hadn't rode horses for such a long time before. I was sore for three days afterwards.

We rode horses to this amazing waterfall. The tour guide swam out there with a rope and climbed up through the rushing water and tied off a rope to have us to climb up. It took a little gathering of courage. But it was so much fun. Watch the red shorts.


Touching Tucan Sam:)

Merry Christmas!
It was so nice to have Christmas in our own home and with a TREE! Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Don came over to open presents. It is nice to have Don aroundfor a little while before he heads out again for another tour with the Marines.

Lily was the first to wake up, all she wanted to do was snuggle with Grandpa.

Good Morning. This is the stunned pre-presents "what are all of you staring at me for" look. . Lily got a glow-worm from Grandma McDonald. She loves it!

Jensen got lots of trains. He was so happy

Grandma Barrand got her a little purse with old beads. She loves being a girl.

Boy stuff!

Daddy and Jensen playing with the new train set. I made Christmas dinner. It turned out really well. Lily helped me make the french silk pie.

OOPS IF GOOFED

So being the genius that I am I erased all my links the last time I changed my background. So I need you to leave a comment so I can find your blogs!

Happy Birthday to Dave!

The big 26. He is finally as old as I am ( for a couple months)

We went to a thanksgiving with Dave's family. Josh, Dave's brother in law, smoked a turkey. It was DELISH. Then we had a Thanksgiving at my brother's house. Marcia got an awesome pottery barn setup. It was so fancy:) Here are all the cutie grandkids. And this is how we kept them sitting for the picture.

We went to see Tiana try on her wedding dress it is BEAUTIFUL! And No I won't show a picture of it. But to keep Sam and Jensen from putting sticky hands on everything in a pristine bridal store we had to shove snack and goodie one after another ant them:)

We saw the Santaquin parade of lights then waited in line to see Santa. We told Jensen if he sat on Santa's lap he would get candy so he did pretty well. Santa asked what do you want for Christmas - Jensen said Candy.

Lily on the other hand- I'm just glad Marybeth got the picture:)

Jensen found my christmas return labels.
I sewed a dragon and couple of other patches on Jensen's coat. He loves his dragon coat!

Dave decided he wanted a nice hot chocolate to leave the house with in the cold winter mornings. Se we bought a little coffee maker with a timer. It works pretty good. Needless to say our hot coca consumption has gone up dramatically. And my friend Herm, Shani, I mean Shannon came for a visit. It was so fun to see her and meet her husband.

And anyone that actually had the time/stupidity to read the whole blog here is a little treat. We took the Barrand fam photo over the weekend. Here is the rough draft. http://warnerphoto.blogspot.com/2008/11/star-wars-mix-up.html

WOW We switched from Comcast to Qwest for phone/ Internet service this week to save money. The end result was a week and a half with out Internet. I hadn't realized how often I use the Internet for EVERYTHING. My bill paying schedule is all wonky now, I'm way behind on email, not to mention blogging. Do you know how often during the day you go to the computer just to look something up. I apparently do it all the time because I felt completely lost with out the ability to look up if that guy in Fringe really is the same guy in The Lord of the Rings movie. Any way here is me catching up.

It has been gorgeous weather here in Colorado. Most of the days it doesn't drop below 50. It has been so nice to have an extension of summer. It did snow one morning only to have melted away by the afternoon. We took advantage and went and played in the snow while we could. WE BOUGHT A VAN!!!My parents were nice enough o let us borrow one of their cars but when it needed expensive repairs we sprung for the van. It is a Toyota Sienna. I often have a hard time finding it in the parking lot because Every 4th van in a beige Toyota Sienna.

What do you get when you mix adorable kids and messy cookies?

And what do you get when you mix a strawberry jelly face and playing in the dirt?

(Lily still eats the dirt- even after a yummy lunch:)

Dave was really tired and tried to go to bed early. The kids wanted to help him relax.