October Stuff

For King & Country: 

The boys got to attend their first real concert with Roger at the end of September. They were thrilled for a guys night out watching their favorite Christian band, For King and Country. 

I just love hearing his little voice on this video!

Hustle Factory Select 10U:

Cruz is settling into his new baseball team. He really likes most of his coaches and his team mates have been incredibly kind and welcoming as a good chunk of them have played together before. 

They had their first fall tournament last weekend and Cruz had a great hit along with several great catches in the field. Cruz has been alternating between right field and second base. 

We've been learning a lot about Cruz as a player so far this season. He is a great encourager to his teammates and has been called on that already by his coaches. He is happy to play wherever he's needed, even if it's a "less desirable" spot like the outfield. 

So, this picture is really kind of gross because besides the seeds coming out Rowan's mouth, you can also see spit. But this is what Rowan & Roger spend the majority of their tournament time doing. It's been different for Rowan to be at the tournament as a spectator as opposed to the one playing. Cora, as usual, found herself some friends and was busy socializing for most of the day. 

Halfy Birthday Cruz:

Cruz turned 9.5 at the beginning of the month and had his last half birthday celebration (we officially stop those at 10). Cruz chose to get Baskin Robbins for his treat since his half birthday fell on a half day of school. 

His gift was a magnetic chess set that is great for travel or taking to school to play during indoor recess. The fourth grade boys have been into chess recently! 

Favorite Color: Orange

Favorite Sport: Baseball

Favorite Pro Sports Team: Cubs

Favorite Food: Plain Pasta

Favorite Restaurant: Freddy's

Favorite Movie: Pokemon 

Favorite Book: Dogman

Favorite Subject: Math

Favorite Bible Verse: "Jesus wept"

Favorite Bible Character: Jesus

Favorite Animal: Monkey

Favorite Friend in Fourth Grade: Gabe, Tate, Peyton, Benjamin 

Favorite Person to Play With: Gabe, Tate, Peyton, Benjamin 

Favorite Fruit: Watermelon

Favorite Dessert: Ice Cream 

Favorite Candy: Butterfinger

Favorite Place to Go: Europe

Bedtime: 8:30

Favorite Thing About Yourself: I'm funny!  

Happy Birthday Ben & Elsa! 

Ben's half birthday is on the same day as Elsa's actual birthday so the kids wanted to celebrate them both together this year. Ben turned two and a half on 10/7 and Elsa turned three. They celebrated with wet cat food "cupcakes", party hats and extra snuggles from the kids.

I guess it's safe to say that we are officially a cat family. These two sweeties have blown away my cat stereotypes. They're friendly, snuggly and love their family almost as much as we love them. 

50's Day in First Grade: 

First Grade celebrated their 50th day of school by dressing up in 50's gear, chewing bubble gum, drinking root beer floats, reading special books and playing games. We are thankful for a wonderful first fifty days full of fun, learning and friends. 

Diamoniques Jacket: 


Our little Diamonique got her company warm ups the other day. She was thrilled! 

Pumpkin Carving:


We didn't make it to the pumpkin patch this year for the first time since before Rowan was born. That made me a little bit sad but we also had the most fun carving pumpkins that we've ever had so I guess that's just how life goes. We went to Kroger after church and the kids chose their pumpkins. Then they carved their pumpkins on their own from start to finish (with the exception of Miss Coco Bean).




Cora saw this pumpkin with tons of green spots and a flat backside and said, "I want that one. I'm afraid that no one else will choose it. God just made it unique." She can be a tough one to parent but she also has such a sweet, tender heart. I just love her and her sweet freckled pumpkin.






















Dance Halloween Party: 




Trick or Treat: 


My sweet little Magician, Lifeguard & Audrey. It was pretty chilly out but we had fun going to a neighborhood Trunk or Treat at the barn and then hitting up a nearby neighborhood for some classic trick or treating.


That wraps up October! November, here we come. 

Fall Break: Costa Rica

Costa Rica has always been at the top of our list of places to visit so we were super excited to find out that SW has daily flights there. When researching what area of the country to explore, we decided to spend our time near the Arenal Volcano. We had heard that the beaches of Costa Rica are beautiful as well but we decided to focus this trip on more adventure and exploring the rainforest. 

Sunday: Travel Day

We had a bit of a rocky start to the trip. Cora's ears tend to get clogged badly during flights, which has happened before. This time though, they were so clogged and she was in so much pain that she was crying. At one point, the plane banked sharply and she turned and threw up all over me. Roger and I managed to get most of it cleaned up while only having to throw away a couple articles of clothing. Sis continued to feel kind of blah on our three hour, windy road, drive to Arenal. She threw up once more in the car but after her ears finally unclogged, she was back to herself. 

This picture is from the last day but we stayed at the cutest little resort called The Lost Iguana. Our room was fabulous with two bedrooms,

two bathrooms (one of which was outdoors),

and the most beautiful view, along with a private jacuzzi and porch with four rocking chairs. 

The grounds were beautiful with plenty of pretty flowers, walking trails and animals. 

Finding treasures on our walk from our room to the restaurant was a lot of fun. This big leaf proved to be useful later.

We headed to grab some food at the hotel restaurant pretty quickly after arriving. All the staff was so kind and accommodating. Our waiter even brought the boys yummy smoothies (we still weren't allowing Coco to eat at this point). 

We got to watch these coati while we ate. 

Rain in the rainforest was hard, fast and fun! 

Her leaf came in handy! :)

Monday: 

The sun was up early! I enjoyed watching the sunrise  while rocking on our porch in the mornings. 

Coco was feeling much better which was such a blessing. Breakfast was included at our hotel so we ate there each morning. 

Our first stop. 

Rowan plotted out our course over the 3.2 km of walking trails. 

We saw some pretty birds and a few lizards on our hike. The kids were hoping for a monkey sighting but that didn't happen. 

There was green everywhere and lots of moss. 

I loved seeing God's creativity in all the beautiful plants and flowers.

The hanging bridges suspended over the rainforest were the favorite part of this stop. 

Tarzan

While we may not have seen any real monkeys, the kids did their best monkey impressions.

We drove a bit farther to a town called La Fortuna for lunch at Pizza Ranch.

Cruz is not a fan of anything toasted (doesn't like the texture) but was willing to try this toasted garlic bread. He was very excited to find that the liked it! 

Next up, we hiked down to the La Fortuna Waterfall. This was the kids first visit to a big waterfall and they were amazed at the power of the water.

The kids climbed all over the rocks

Rowan helped direct everyone through the places with fewer rocks and gentler currents. 

Only Daddy ventured out towards the waterfall. 

The boys spent a little bit longer climbing around than Miss Coco wanted to, so she and I dried off and headed up to take some pictures.

Since we're all really busy while at home, we wanted to be sure that we built in time for rest on this trip. We kind of patterned our days to be busy in the morning/early afternoon and then take it easy the rest of the day until dinnertime. 

This particular afternoon, we lounged around by the pool. The kids swam while Roger and I just sat and chatted. 

Mermaid Coco

We went out for a fun steak dinner at the cutest restaurant with the most beautiful view. 

October is rainy season in Costa Rica so its generally not as popular with tourists. It was wonderful for us though, we were blessed with unseasonably beautiful weather and the crowds were low. 

There were a pretty little sitting area right outside the restaurants with swings.

After they finished eating, the kids went back out to sit on the swings. Roger and I loved relaxing, chatting and listening to them giggle and chat together. The kids are always pretty close but I absolutely love the special closeness that traveling together brings. This moment is one that was so special.

Tuesday:

This morning's find on the walk to breakfast was a giant flower! 

Our little car served us well on the trip. Roger is always amazing at navigating the roads in new places. I'm so impressed and thankful that he's willing to do that. 

After breakfast we headed to Ecoglide Zipline for our zipline adventure. The boys gave it two thumbs up before they even started. Coco was a little more nervous.

The workers were so incredibly nice. Although, if I'm being honest, I kind of did a double take when I saw how young the guy harnessing Cruz was. He was amazing though! 

Everyone had the best time! I'm really proud of the kids for trying something new and intimidating so bravely. The boys even did the Tarzan Swing. Coco and I stayed safely on the ground.

We headed back to La Fortuna afterwards for lunch and shopping.

The kiddos chose their souvenirs. Rowan got a dominos set in a wooden box, Cruz chose a monkey magnet for his locker and Coco got a magnetic sloth stuffed animal. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool. A highlight for the kids was ordering a sprite at the swim up bar. 

Wednesday:

We spent Wednesday morning at Proyecto Asia which is a wildlife refuge and rescue center. The program rescues animals who have been injured by cars, electrical wires or other things and rehabilitates them (if possible) and gets them back into the wild. They also take in animals that have been living in homes illegally as pets. These animals generally cannot be put back into the wild due to their domestic nature but the center aims to give the animals a better life than the one they would have in small cages in people's homes.

Our guide was wonderful and so full of information. 

Cruz was beyond thrilled to be able to be so close to the monkeys. 

We also saw beautiful birds including Toucans, McCaws and Parrots.

As a part of their volunteer/education program, we got to help prepare and deliver the animals food.

The kids were able to help chop up the animals foods which was all portioned out in labeled bowls by the resident veterinarians. 

We also got to stuff two egg cartons tied together with little bits of food and treats for the monkeys. The kids got to go in the cages and hang the little "pinatas" and then watch the monkey's come out and find their treats. 

Cora got to feed the Toucans 

Cruz fed a hard boiled egg to the cutest little spotted skunk. I didn't get a great picture of him though because he was in and out of the cage quite quickly, ha.

Rowan helped to feed the Parrots. 

Hanging more monkey treats 

Pretty sure he's making this face because someone mentioned that a monkey may have gone to the bathroom on that branch he's touching. 

On our way back, we stopped for lunch and a candy treat! 

The afternoon was super rainy so we all read for a little bit on our porch.

Cruz discovered some fish, tadpoles and frogs in a tiny little pond right outside our room.

It was still raining so the kids changed into their swimsuits and grabbed mugs from our hotel room and spent a good amount of time trying to catch fish. We were all full from our late lunch so we did dessert for dinner at our hotel restaurant. 

Thursday: San Jose

On Thursday we had one last breakfast at our hotel restaurant before heading back to San Jose. It was a solid three hour drive so we decided to make the drive the day before our flight and spend our last day in San Jose. 

It's always fun to try McDonalds in other countries.

We stayed at a Marriott in San Jose with pretty city views.

The hotel was built on an old coffee plantation.

We had three small balconies in our rooms which was fun. 

These two tried their hand at grinding coffee beans. 

The hotel had a hot pool, lukewarm pool and cool pool so we spent the afternoon rotating between the three. 

We got dressed up for a yummy dinner at our hotel. 

Our travel home was fairly smooth and uneventful. We returned to a very chilly Nashville (about 40 degrees chillier than when we'd left five days ago). I think we all feel refreshed and ready to take on these next school weeks. I'm so beyond grateful for this good solid family time with my four favorite people. I cannot believe how quickly time is going now with the kids and I love soaking up every second.