Beautiful Costa Rica

Nate and I really wanted to take a fun trip abroad this Spring, but didn't know if it would be possible because of Nate's new clinic. Our target date was the week after memorial day, so we could get maximum play time for minimum vacation days used. About 5 weeks before this date, Nate finally got the green light. One might think this is not a lot of time to plan a vacation to a foreign county, but luckily I plan imaginary trips all the time and was well prepared for this one. It was really fun that the anticipated day seemed to come so quickly! We chose Costa Rica because it was highly recommended, inexpensive, looked really fun, and promised green scenery and rain. Plus, Nate speaks Spanish.

Here are some random pictures from our trip. I'll post more about our adventures in a second post - we had a great time rapelling down waterfalls, kayaking behind a volcano, ziplining through the rainforest,  and white water rafting.

See? Green. And those clouds have rain in them!

We discovered that hotels like to fold your towels into animals. This was the most beautiful/romantic one.

And this one looked like it was the most difficult to create. It's an elephant.

Nate liked to stand here with his arms folded and say "Welcome to Jurassic Park"

This was the walkway to our hotel room. It was a giant luscious garden. I went around and took pictures of all the flowers one day and counted over 24 different kinds just by my untrained non-gardener eye. 

Red bamboo! Cool!

LOTS of cool looking lizards and iguanas

White faced monkeys. We saw these guys playing near the road (with about 4 others) on our walk down to the beach.

All of the fruit was as big as Nate's head. Exhibit A: breadfruit

Exhibit B: Mangos (this picture doesn't do it justice, that thing really was huge

 One day we were at the beach and these guys chopped off the top of a chilled coconut for us (with his machete!), put a straw in it, and we sipped cold coconut water (didn't taste that great, but it was nice to have something cool to drink). When we were done drinking he chopped the entire coconut in half and we ate the meat out for a snack - which was really tasty.

Nate joking with the locals in Spanish. People love him so much.

Pretty Sunsets

Pretty beach. I took so many pictures of the beach....they all look the same, but I just couldn't help it. It was SO PRETTY.

 One thing I found so interesting (and loved) was that everything there is made out of wood. Costa Rica grows a ton of wood, and everyone has the most beautiful solid wood doors, even the most run down shack. I wish I had taken some pictures of all the beautiful doors. I also noticed that in places one might expect to find plastic tables and chairs, like cheap roadside eateries, tourist offices, gas stations, etc, instead you find gorgeous wood tables and chairs. Wood benches everywhere. I didn't see a single plastic table or chair anywhere the entire time, everything was beautiful solid wood.

YES. We saw a sloth. A SLOTH. Several actually. This one happens to be a mama sloth with her baby. 

California Dreamin'

Nate and I had a BLAST in California. It started great (se previous post) and just got better. Not only are my parents the best hosts in the world, they're a lot of fun! And they like to do the same fun things that we like to do, which is an added bonus.

Exhibit A:  We all love to eat cinnamon rolls. Fortunately for us, my mom makes the best cinnamon rolls on the planet. Aren't these beautiful?

Exhibit B: We like to tromp around in the woods and see cools stuff. First we stopped by the Empire Mine and toured the visitor center and grounds. I tried to wrap my mind around going to work 11,000 feet below ground every day. The visitor center had a model of what the mine looks like under ground and it was incredible. The grounds were also beautiful.

Next we went to Malakoff Diggins and hiked around the rim, ending in the old mining town North Bloomfield. It was all very pretty, and here's the proof.

GREEN!

My dad and Nate wanted to hike through this tunnel even though there was a bunch of freezing cold water running through it. But eventually they decided against it, and we hiked around instead of through.

Sometimes my dad is silly

My parents are so cute

This is my favorite picture

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of it, but we wrapped the trip up with a little (and by little I mean huge) hamburger lunch at the Squeeze In:

Does it sound like we're obsessed with food yet?

Monday we went to Old Sacramento and had a great time at the Crocker Art Museum and looking at the little shops and the river walk.

Reminded me of the Tower Bridge in London....only not as crowded!

Hot fudge sundae in a waffle cone? Yes please!

Cute boy

We're dreaming of the day we get to come back and play more!

Valentines Day Happenings

We went to California to visit my parents over Presidents Day weekend, and just happened to get to spend Valentines Day with them too! I think I can safely say this was my favorite Valentines day I've ever had.

My mom is the cutest mom in the entire world and made Nate and I this adorable breakfast, complete with heart shaped hash-browns, bacon, and Belgian waffles. She also made these really cute wooden blocks, decorated with hearts and family pictures and they're the perfect decoration. And we had little valentines and favorite candy waiting for us on our plates when we came out. It really reminded me how important it is to do fun things like this - clearly extra work and preparation, but I felt SO loved and it made the day extra fun and special.

We also fulfilled the dream I have EVERY Valentines day and made heart shaped sugar cookies with pink frosting. I always consider it a success if the cookies actually get made, without me eating the entire batch of cookie dough first.

We decided it would be fun to cook our own fancy dinner that night and I must say, it did not disappoint. For me, this was due to three things:

1. My mom had scouted out these beautiful china dishes just the day before. It was a huge set of gorgeous  china for a smokin' deal, and therefore purchased (for me!). Using the newly acquired china was really fun, and make the table look extra fancy and beautiful.

2. Nate took the role of steak chef very seriously and with the help of YouTube and allrecipes.com, he made the most delicious steak I have ever eaten in my life. I'm not kidding when I say that I was still thinking about how good the steak was later that night as I was drifting off to sleep. And I don't even normally love steak.

3. Spending the night with my three favorite people. Obviously. They're SO much fun.

Oh yeah, and it never hurts to follow it up with a little cream puff cake (also a close up of the china - though pictures really don't do it justice)

If it sounds like we focused a lot on food this Valentines Day....well, you're probably right.  

It should also be noted that Nate conspired with my dad to have a dozen red roses waiting for me on Friday morning (tricky since we flew in late Thursday night). I wasn't expecting it. Sneaky Nate!

We Went To The East Coast

Here are a few pictures of our trip to New York and Washington DC....mostly for you dad! I'll post more and maybe some stories later.

This pretty much sums up our trip. It was really cold. Hot chocolate was a necessity. Every day.

Breakfast

Second Breakfast

Our incredible and amazing and fun and knowledgeable hostess (in DC)Tali. She even made me birthday cookies and we had a party! 

The Library of Congress

The Washington DC Temple. Even more beautiful (and large) than I had imagined it would be!

The Lincoln Memorial. The monuments were so beautiful at night! (but made for poor pictures)

Yankee Stadium

Museum of Natural History

Central Park (it was WAY colder than it looks!)

Blowing up balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We were so close! It was pretty neat.

THE UNISPHERE There will definitely be more on this later. It was probably my favorite thing.

911 Memorial

Stopped by NYU to scope it out for David....and I'm so glad I did. Now I can warn him that they can't spell "University" (with a "U").

Santa!

This really doesn't represent everything we did, but it's a start. We had a great trip and as we've come back we've discovered that we narrowly missed a couple possible tragedies and we're very grateful for the safety we enjoyed.