Fathers day! Basically the second pie day of the year! ha! Max loves some pie and I love making him pie! But that's not the point of this post. This was well over a month ago and the main thing I remember is playing one sided dodgeball but I'll get to that. It was a lovely Sunday. We made Max feel special and only gave him a couple small gifts and things the boys had made at school. I'm pretty sure we made a special breakfast but I don't even know what it was.
We enjoyed church and the men got some good pie at the end. In the evening after dinner, which I'm sure was amazing yet I can't remember, Max said he would like to spend the rest of Father's day reading books in the hammock and jumping on the trampoline with his kids.
After some book time, we all jumped together but it turned out that our kids loved us throwing mini dodge balls at them so we ended up just pelting them with balls for a long time while they ran in circles around us. Everyone was laughing hysterically and we felt like it was a good way for us all to let off some steam.
Anyway, it was the perfect Sunday evening and we let our kids stay up way too late. I have known Max for the majority of my life, I've seen him as a gawky middle schooler, a determined high schooler, a missionary, a college student, a newlywed husband, a father, and now trying to balance it all. By far, my favorite is to see him as a father. I love seeing the way he interacts with our sons, he is fun and silly but also gentle and strict. He sets high standards and expectations for our boys and models the kindness he would like to see from them. Parenting these wild ones would be a whole lot harder (ahem...impossible) without his extreme patience! Thank goodness for the manly and gentle fathers of the world!
In June we had our annual Rose Garden outing. We invited some friends to come with us so we could get some family photos of them before they moved and so they could take our photo of us under the arch. It's always a fun summer activity. Edwin quickly informed me that he is never going to hold my hand again as he was going down the stairs...luckily I think he forgot about that already!
I thought they were being all cute but found out later Max told them that they could go roll down the hill if they held hands while they walked there.
It's pretty rough getting a decent picture of these children, plus I just let them wear whatever they wanted this time.
Edwin's turning into quite the goof now too!
We did some photos with Nathan, Kerri and baby Reagan for a bit.
Then they took our photo in our archway. I'll spare the annual sequence, and maybe only share it on the blog every three years, so as not to make the blog books I'm going to print in the future over a million dollars. But I love this tradition and it is super fun to see how we've changed in 15 years. Here is the sequence if you must see it.
My kids did some good rolling...
We only lost Edwin a couple times.
Max was actually shoving his child's face into the flower...it made for some good laughs.
This drinking fountain is always a popular attraction!
My boys took turns with Reagan's stroller...
So, we had been at the Rose garden for about an hour and some people came up to us asking if I was Rebecca, we were sort of startled but then saw that they had my purse. I scanned my mind and remembered that I had set it down when we did our rose arch photo and never picked it up. Once I put my camera around my neck, I had the false sense that my purse was hanging on me too. Anyway. They had found my purse and had been searching the garden for me, worried that I had already left. And guess what? I don't usually carry lots of cash in my purse, but on this day I had a significant amount of cash in my purse that I had meant to drop off at the bank the day before but it had not happened. When they gave me my purse, every single dollar, and bank card and credit card was still in there. What a blessing, I also consider it a blessing that I didn't know it was lost so I didn't have to deal with that stress. Thank you for wonderful people in the world. Even in Portland Oregon!!
Anyway, we stayed later than usual spending time with out friends before they moved to Utah. And we got to witness this spectacular sunset!
And the glowing cranes on the opposite side of the sky!
A little more hide and seek in the dimming light...
And then we went home. This was one of our first activities once both kids were out of school so it has been fun to keep them up a bit later than usual, (it's only fun because they sleep in too) And it was a perfect beginning to many summer adventures!
As long as I have any sort of memory of my life, I have had thick glasses or a strong contact prescription. It's just been part of my life. I got used to swimming blindly or not being able to see the clock in the middle of the night, or never being able to fall asleep during a movie at a slumber party because it would take a conscious effort to remove my glasses. Anyway, once I married my perfect-eyed husband. He kept asking if LASIK was appealing to me, mostly because he could not fathom the idea of being blind part-time, and how that must be so hindering. We checked into a couple LASIK places and asked if my eyes would even be eligible. (I'm super super super far sighted.) About 10 years ago, my eyes weren't eligible to be lasered. Technology was not ready to do eyes as far sighted as mine. Near sighted was fine but not my crazy eyes. I checked again throughout our marriage to see if technology had advanced enough. And Max and I had discussed that we would love to make that happen once the technology was available. After talking to so many friends and family about it and realizing that it is so much more common than we thought and the common consensus was "I'd wish I'd done it sooner," we decided to look more into it again. A couple years ago a friend of mine with equally horrible far-sightedness got his eyes done at Lasik-plus. I asked him all the questions and he gave me a ton of info but it just wasn't in the budget for us at that time. This year, we felt like it may be a possibility and I should go do some consultations at a couple Lasik places. I went to one and they were quick to tell me they could not fix my eyes with my extreme farsightedness. Then I went to the Lasik Plus office where my friend had gone. They felt confident that they could do my eyes, but it may take 2 procedures to get my vision perfect. This was the first time anyone was willing to work on my eyes . You can only correct so much at a time so since my eyes were so far from perfect, they could do one procedure to get my eyes close to perfect then re-evaluate to get them all the way to perfect if that makes sense...And oftentimes, people with my vision don't need the second procedure because our brains can compensate for the discrepancy. Anyway, they had availability before our trip and I almost did it, but decided I didn't want to worry about eye drops and less-than-perfect vision on my vacation. So we made an appointment for the Friday after we returned from our vacation. I was super worried since they couldn't "guarantee" i would have perfect vision after 1 or 2 procedures. I knew I would be disappointed if I couldn't get my vision as good as I see with contacts or glasses, after all, I've had contacts or glasses my whole life and I'm grateful for that technology that allowed me to see, and read, and graduate high school, and college, see my children, and enjoy the beautiful world we live in. If contacts or glasses didn't exist, I wouldn't be able to drive, or read, I doubt I would have succeeded in school, and I'd have one heck of a lazy eye. Point is, I'm grateful that I've been able to see but loved the idea of not having to deal with contacts or glasses. The optometrist gave me a set of contacts that could closely simulate what my vision would be like after the first procedure. After trying out the contacts i was somewhat disappointed because it seemed to decrease my vision significantly, I couldn't read anything on my phone or books. I could still drive a see things in the distance. It was a little discouraging but I also realized that the surgery would work slightly better than the contacts and that that state of vision wouldn't be permanent. Anyway, after a lot of questions and e-mails with the doctor, i decided to go through with it. I picked Max up from work and we went to the clinic. I had to wait for a bit so Max went for a walk with the boys then I called him when it was time for me to go in. The procedure was relatively quick and painless. There was some weird suctioning of my eye. Then I moved over to another machine and I just had to try my hardest to stare at a green light and worry that if I looked away, the laser would miss my eye. Only to find out later that the laser moves with my eye. haha! I came out of the room being able to read name tags and signs. Then Max drove me home and I got to do the part that I looked forward to the most, the 4 hour nap! Max dropped me off at home and got me all situated, then took the boys out to dinner and to get a movie. He did an amazing job keeping them quiet once he got home. One of my eyes started stinging so I didn't sleep super well but I got rest and I got to keep my eyes closed without worrying about my boys. Once Max put the kids to bed and then came to bed he helped me do my first round of eye drops and the stinging went away and I was able to sleep well all night. I have become a lot more proficient at eye drops through this all! Anyway, the next morning, I could see!!! Better than expected!! I drove my self to my follow up appointment. The healing has been relatively easy, and it will take up to 6 months for my eyes to be all the way better and for my vision to stabilize. Sometimes I need some light reading glasses and other times i can see my phone and computer screen just fine without glasses. After the 6 months, we will determine if I want to do the second procedure. as of now, I can tell my vision isn't as clear as it was when I wore my glasses but as it continues to recover it should become more clear, so sometime around November we will decide if the follow up procedure is necessary! And yes, that was a long elaborate post about my eyes, and I'm sure the only people that will find interest in it are those considering LASIK for themselves. haha. But really, Technology giving sight to the blind is a straight-up modern day miracle!
Rebecca with goggles-the early years
The morning before my surgery, Miles was still asleep when we took Charlie to the bus stop so we got a "3 blind mice" photo. Luckily my boys aren't nearly as far sighted as me so LASIK could be an easier option for them in the future.
So overall, I'm super happy with the results, and I just recently had my first rafting and camping trip which involved lots of swimming. It was amazing to swim without worrying about losing a contact or being blind. It was incredible to not have to stick a dirty finger in my eye at the end of the day while camping. I love waking up and being able to see the clock, or my phone, or my husband! Probably not in that order! ha!
For anyone that has actually been reading these posts, this will be the final chapter reminiscing about our trip. I'm sure I'm more sad about it than anyone else but here it goes. We arrived in Uvita just as the sun was setting. For one of our airbnbs, we decided to try out a "treehouse" experience. We slept on an upstairs open air yoga deck with a mosquito net around our bed. It was a shared house with the hosts, which was a new experience for me, definitely not my favorite, but the people were great. We dropped off our stuff then left to explore the city and get some dinner. We ended up eating nachos and a smoothie at a nearby restaurant, then wandering around some grocery stores. This was a much smaller city, it had a jungle and it was on the coast. We really liked it.
We ate on the patio and reminisced of the best parts of our trip, which was pretty much all of it, minus the purse thief! We laughed about getting to spend more time together than we will in the next couple of years, and planned to not wait too long before our next trip!
Anyway, after exploring the little city a bit, we made our way back to our tree house! The bathroom sink was a shell, so that was exciting!
We woke up to the sounds of the jungle. The weather was wonderful and it was pretty enjoyable being outside!
Most (all) days, I woke up before Max so I went around taking photos.
Once Max was awake, we packed up everything back in our car then checked out the river that went along the property.
When we walked back up to the house, Andre, one of the hosts, was still there and he gave us a tour of all the fruits growing on the property. We saw pineapple bushes, ate some starfruit, saw different varieties of coconuts, pomelos, and lots of other things we hadn't heard of. We then got in the car and left.
The only things we had scheduled for the day was a horseback riding tour and driving back to the house where we started, near the airport. We had some time to do a couple other things. We had heard there was a cool waterfall near the airbnb, so that was an option then there was also a cool beach called the Whale Tail, where there are 2 converging currents that form a whale tail in the sand and when the tide is low, you can walk very far out into the ocean. I figured we would only have time for one of those things if we wanted to start our 4 hour drive back at a decent time. I figured we should skip the waterfall but max said we were so close, we should just check it out. And I am so glad we did. It wasn't very busy, the water was beautiful and its the kind of secret spot you hope to find when you go on vacations like this.
When we parked, we were told they were building a butterfly sanctuary, so we checked that out first.
It was cute....and muggy.
Then we started the little hike to the waterfall.
Huge fronds
Someday I will have Rapunzel hair like this.
There ended up being multiple waterfalls and beautiful blue pools. It was gorgeous. I wasn't wearing my swim suit since I didn't plan on being there very long, and I instantly regretted it, then ended up swimming anyway.
We were sitting watching this waterfall, then saw a man go to the top and slide down. It was terrifying because it looks like you will just run into the rocks. After some peer pressure from a couple people that already slid down, Max decided to try it. And even though I had seen a couple people do it, I was still scared for Max to do it and hit his head on a rock.
Thankfully, he came out alive! I had no desire to try it. haha!
Then we played around some of the other pools for awhile. I was still a wimp about jumping in but at least I was there to take the photos.
I could have stayed there longer, probably because I waited so long to get in the water then didn't really want to get out, but we decided to make our way to our horseback riding appointment. I've only ridden a horse once in my life and it was bareback for just a couple minutes at a friend's farm. Max rode horses all the time at his uncles' property and at a summer camp he used to go to when he was a kid. So I've been wanting to try this out, especially on the beach. (and it was much cheaper to do it in Costa Rica as opposed to Oregon) Luckily we got to ride through the jungle a bit before getting to the beach so it was a perfect experience!
When the panorama doesn't work so well for the horse.
I was not prepared for how uncomfortable the trotting would be or how the stirrups would cut into my ankles (I completely understand why people wear cowboy boots now) But once we got the horse cantering, it was so exhilarating. We were free to run the horses up and down the beach as much as we wanted. So Max and I had fun riding together and racing a little bit. And Max was talented enough to get these videos to send to our boys!
We rode around for a couple hours. And man were we sore in the end. But it was so much fun. We parked our horses and were given muffins and lemonade back at the ranch. We chatted with the girl and her grandma who were on the tour with us for awhile. The girl just graduated high school and her grandma has lived in Costa Rica for the last couple years so coming to visit her was a graduation present. Anyway, when we parted ways we debated about just starting our long drive back or going to check out the whale tail. I knew we wanted to see a beach one more time before going home so we decided to do it even though the tide would be coming in.
It started out as a lovely walk on the beach. Collecting shells for our boys, and once again, being startled by the warmth of the ocean!
Then the storm clouds started coming in!
We still wanted to go see as much of the whale tail as we could so we kept walking along the beach, and even though we couldn't go out all the way, we could still go out pretty far in to the ocean and still be on land so that was pretty exciting. The rain had us soaked by the time we got to the whale tail our eye brows were dripping into our eyes and there wasn't a dry piece of clothes on us. So the rest of the photos were taken with a soaking wet phone.
Over and over we just kept saying "I love this" It was just such a perfect experience! Who needs hot sun and a cool breeze? We're all about enjoying the storms, as long as they are warm, haha! Anyway, there was the water bottle whale as we were leaving the beach.
And then it was early evening and we knew we had to start our long drive back to the house. So that is what we did. After about 1.5 hours of driving, we stopped for dinner and to put on dry clothes. And slowly but surely we made our way all the way back to our friend Lori's house. We wanted to go night swimming one more time but decided we were way too tired so instead we got our luggage all organized and went to bed so we could get up early in the morning to go to the airport. We woke up and left on time! We stopped at the bakery to get breakfast then returned our rental car with ease ( we were expecting this to take longer) so we made it to the airport on time. We even had time to check the shops and finally found the right kind of drinking glass we were looking for! It has little lizards on it and it's perfect! Someday I may do a blog post on our glasses from our travels! Anyway, once again we were flying standby and weren't sure if we were going to get on the flight, especially with it being memorial weekend.
We made it on to both flights and got home a little bit early. And during our travels that day (in LA and Costa Rica) , it turned out that Oregon had the best weather and the most spectacular sunset when we got home. My dad drove us home from the airport and my boys were going to stay up at my moms house for another night so Max and I had some time to unpack and tidy up and get a good night sleep. My mom brought my boys to us the next day. They were actually really excited to see us. They had so much fun with their cousins and grandparents but they gave us huge hugs when they came in. Edwin had been a bit sick so he was more cuddly than usual, I didn't mind! We gave them their souvenirs which included sloth t-shirts, wooden puzzle boxes, a sloth stuffed animal, pandito gummy bears, some costa rican candy and some shells and rocks. So, we made sure they were happy to see us. ha!
Then my sleepy sick baby fell asleep in my arms and all was perfect in the world
After seven blog posts, I still don't feel like I can explain how perfect this trip was. Or how eternally grateful I am for Elizabeth, James, Grandma Sharolee and Grandpa Don. The number one hesitation for why I didn't think I could do a trip like this was childcare. I didn't think it was fair for someone to watch my kids while I was prancing around a foreign country having the time of my life. I do love my children and the purpose of this vacation was not to get away from them. But thanks to those that took care of my children I was able to reconnect with my husband (of 10 years) and best friend (of many more than 10 years) in a way we haven't been able to do since having children. I was surprised by how much fun we had together. I was almost expecting us to annoy each other since we aren't used to spending that much time together but we didn't. It was like a honeymoon, only better because we knew how valuable that time together is! I loved when Elizabeth would send me polos of my kids and I could tell that she loved them by simple gestures like caressing Miles hair or telling me something they did that made her laugh.
And a huge thanks to Max, I was so skeptical that we could do a trip like this so he took matters into his own hands and made it into a perfect trip and amazing surprise! I sure love that man and all that he does for me and our family!
