Month: December 2010

  • firsts: ocean

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    first feet in the ocean, paradisus playa conchal resort, guanacaste, costa rica
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    firsts: ocean, playa conchal, costa rica
  • parents of the year

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    at dinner tonight, the waitress came running up to us:

    excuse me! excuse me! nuestros cuchillos muy afilados!

    we look down at sparklet, and she is knawing on a set of cutlery wrapped up in a napkin, which is a relatively normal part of her dining routine.

    we were just about to say, “oh that’s okay” when we noticed instead of the usual table knife (the ones that can’t cut butter) she was gnawing on a steak knife.

    frankly, i’m surprised that the waitress didn’t call the costa rican version of Child Protective Services.

    she watched us let sparklet eat a steak knife, spoil her dinner with a blackberry smoothy, and adhere loosely to our version of the “five second” rule (which really works out to be more of a “minute and a half” rule).

    not our finest moments — but also sadly not our first.

    this morning on the trail to arenal, we had three separate groups of people stop us to “let us know” that sparklet was chewing on a stick (yeah, we knew).

    to make matters worse, perhaps you’ve noticed a new gash on sparklet’s head from a couple of days ago? yup, she ran into a wall in our hotel room.

    there’s also a (less noticable) bruise under her chin, which she got when she tripped over her own feet and landed chin first on the tile floor. oh, and when she fell she bit her lip, so that’s been bleeding on and off, too.

    and then, of course, there was that double gainer off the deck into the pool.

    come to think of it, maybe i should call CPS myself.

  • “prepare to feel the wrath of my pool noodle!”

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    the blue ninja, weilding her terrible pool noodle, with her fearsome companion “el pato” at her side.
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    “prepare to feel the wrath of my pool noodle!”
  • hike: parque nacional volcon arenal, costa rica

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    we are lucky people.

    putting aside the fact that we can afford to come to costa rica, that we both work with such awesome people that we can just dissappear for 10 days during the run up to year end, and that we have a (mostly) happy, healthy and charming little girl …

    … during the roughly 108 hours that we’ve been in Arenal, we’ve been able to see the very top of the volcano for exactly six hours — and three of those hours happend to be when we were hiking around the base of the volcano.

    i don’t want to run the statistical odd of this ever happening again, but i do feel like i should buy a lottery ticket.

    the main hike in the parque is about 2km from the primary parking lot to a (now fully cooled) lava flow from the 1993 eruption, which goes through a whole series of overlooks of both the volcano and the lake beneath.

    we knew nothing about how strenuous the hike was, but started feeling good when we saw two Russian grandmothers hobbling off the mountain as we made our way to the trail head.

    sparklet was a happy (and well fed) camper in throughout — and even hiked a bit herself on the way back.

    she’s a good egg.

    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    hike: parque nacional volcon arenal, costa rica
  • firsts: drinking straw

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    first drinking straw, with a blackberry smoothie at la choza del laurel, la fortuna, costa rica.