Laowai

Oh my did Brian and I have a great trip to Costa Rica last week! It’s amazing that we can fly out of Chicago, looking out the window at the white cold land, and then just a few hours later step off the plane and get smacked in the face with deliciously hot air.

We went directly to the beach after we checked into our hotel. 

Costa Rica is teaming with dogs. They like to stand in the middle of the road like they own the place. This skinny old one sat down with us at the beach.

Here’s our hotel. The restaurant was in the open air round part. We ate lots of papaya and watermelon and mangos. I’m not an all inclusive big resort kind of girl – we were really happy with our small well kept hotel and it’s quiet beach. The Swiss owners added to the charm too.

Here’s the little path that led from our hotel to the beach.

We hiked on two of the days. Great hikes, beautiful woods and waterfalls and plants – but I surprised myself by being a bit skitterish. Here in the midwest I feel comfortable in the woods. I will sit down on a log and relax. I know the plants and the creatures. But in Costa Rica they have big snakes and spiders and strange insects, so I was always on the lookout. Every curvy branch or funny shaped shadow caught my eye. The sound of howler monkeys didn’t help – they sound like something out of a haunted house (here’s a YouTube clip). 

The plants all seem like overgrown houseplants. The trees are so very different.

We saw lots of creatures on this trip. Lizards and iguanas, monkeys, crabs, some sort of overgrown guinea pig type thing, tons of butterflies, bats, colorful birds, big toads, grasshoppers the size of my hand, columns of busy ants, and one great big spider – ewwww!

One park was known for it’s caves – but we stayed above ground.

Here’s the dinky car we rented. If we ever go to Costa Rica again we will rent a 4 wheel drive vehicle because the condition of the roads is horrendous. It is a miracle we didn’t get a flat tire or break an axle considering the huge ruts and rocks that we had to drive over to get to the national parks. That was an adventure!

They raise cattle in the part of Costa Rica that we visited. Long eared white ones – they were kinda cute.

My favorite part was simply sitting on the beach watching the waves. I also loved being lazy every afternoon – while Brian went for a run in the heat I sat in our room and let the breeze wash over me while I read. Thanks Mom for watching the girls and letting me have a whole week without laundry and dishes – a luxury!

 

I bought this dusty old sewing box the other day. Not sure why I had to have it – I just liked that it was such a personal item. Some lady kept all her handy sewing bits and bobs in there and a sweet little note from a friend too. She seems to have never unthreaded a needle. I like the old wooden spools and the designs on the packaging. I’m hopelessly sentimental.

Here’s my big girl Claire – just returned from a birthday party.

Baby steps, baby steps.

The light fixtures that I purchased finally got installed today. Now Brian won’t be bumping his head on a flowery chandelier when he goes in our bathroom. I also had an overhead light installed in Bea’s room and my sewing room. I think I’m learning that nothing is straight forward when it comes to updating our old house. We have only just begun, but I think my eyes glazed over when the electrician talked about rewiring options and explained what is behind our walls. I do feel good that we’ve made a small start.

The other small improvement – two duvet covers that I finished for Claire’s bedroom. I wanted them to match but not be the same. The fabric is Briar Rose by Heather Ross. It has quite a lot of purple, but it doesn’t repulse my purple hating self. The prints are very summery, but I guess a little girl’s room should be summery shouldn’t it. Now I just wish that 80s wallpaper would remove itself.

After we got home from Michigan I was really anxious to finish painting our TV room. Brian was home – he entertained the girls and answered every “I’m hungry” so I could paint uninterupted. As I painted it started to snow and it just kept snowing for two days. The most snow I’ve seen in a long time. I was so pleased with the bright white paint and the white outside was lovely too. 

We walked to the grocery store and pulled the girls on the sled. So much giggling – especially when we would go over a big pile of snow and the girls would fall off the sled. 

And here’s my bright white room – I’m so proud off all the work we did to prep the walls. 

Here’s a sneak peek of the one wall that we are finishing up. It will be covered in cork so I can put up lots of kid artwork.

And here’s where we started just a little over a year ago when we first saw our house.

I’ll make some better photos after I pick up the cork cutting mess and all the toys. For now I am so pleased with the bright white inside and out.

My favorite Christmas moments:

– sledding with cousins – watching Claire eat up all the attention from Maddie and Sophie – watching Bea love the snow

– The beautiful snow! Driving over to Jennifer’s house one morning the trees were sparkling with a layer of ice and the snow was so bright, bright white with all the sunshine on it.

– Playing board games and letting the girls stay up super late with their cousins.

– Getting to spend Christmas Eve with Great Grandma Dice

– Christmas morning breakfast – eggs and pork pie and citrus salad – so yummy.

– Aunties making Claire’s hair so pretty. 

– Standing next to the fire and watching Jenna and Bea skating on Jennifer’s pond at night. So so special and fun.

So I guess we have decided to call our raclette cheese dinner and family Christmas our “Swiss Christmas”.

We got our raclette maker out and hooked it up to the electricity converter – it works – yeah.

We had a bit of a wild goose chase trying to find Swiss raclette cheese. Turns out we didn’t have to go all that far – they had it at the Evanston Whole Foods. Mmmmm – yummy.

There are the stockings – and the rocking chair that Aunt Garlene gave me. I can’t figure out why she wanted to give it up, but I won’t ask any questions because I just love it.

Here’s Brian with the gift I made him. I glued all his wine corks to a board so we can hang them up and ponder how much he’s been drinking… Ha.

After all the fun toys the girls got they still spent the largest chunk of time playing with a box. So it goes.

I took the girls to the Wonderland Express – it’s the wintertime model train that the Chicago Botanic Garden sets up. The girls oohed and ahhhed when we walked in. We were fortunate to be able to go when it wasn’t busy. 

 

The trains and the lighting, the plants and all the miniature buildings were amazing, but I think they liked the fake snow falling INSIDE the building the best. Claire is trying to catch some in her mouth below.

It’s nice to change up our decorated cookies – from sugar cookies to gingerbread – it makes the house smell so nice. The recipe is not overly sweet – they are really good with a cup of coffee in the afternoon.

Claire made this one – it’s my favorite:

Brian made this management consultant gingerbread man:

Standing outside my door stomping the snow off my boots makes me happy.

Kid masterpieces like this make me happy.

The crazy exuberant light show at a house in our neighborhood makes me happy. 

The rock down the street that gets repainted every few months makes me happy.