13/52 Motivational Monday

Even if you fall on your face, you're still moving forward.

-Victor Kiam

This picture has nothing to do with the quote, but everything to do with me forgetting about motivational monday!  We were in AZ last week for our kids spring break, and I completely forgot about our quote.  Oops!  So instead of some inspirational picture, you get scenery. :-)

I'm sure Rachael did not forget about Monday!  Go see what's on her mind.

12:52 Motivational Monday

Spring is natures way of saying, "Lets party!"

-Robin Williams

In our household, spring can't come fast enough for this boy!  He waits with great anticipation for the day he can pull his mitt out (or mine for that matter :-)) and play ball!  Spring is Clarke's party!!

 Head over to Rachael. 

11:52 Motivational Monday

Just because it hasn't been done before 

doesn't mean you shouldn't try it.

-Howard Shultz

So folks, I have come up with another dandy. Ha, jk! :-)  

Our "big" puppy still has to be on a leash while we walk.  We have tried taking him off it, and it's a disaster!  He usually runs off and then pretends he doesn't know us. 

So, until he figures out the minding part of things, we will not be trying the no leash walking!  

Continue the circle to see Rachael's take on this quote.

10:52 Motivational Monday

You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.

- C.S. Lewis

On Saturday, Garrett,  Connor and I snowshoed up Williams Peak.  Our goal between the three of us was to make it to the peak.  We achieved that goal.  Here Garrett made it up first, and was celebrating the fact that he did!  

My dream (not a new dream) is that my boys will continue to come on these adventures with me, and love it as much as I do!

Continue on to Rachael.

Costa Rica, Part 3

The day before we left, we went on a tour of the Tempisque River.  On our way there, we stopped at various spots to view sugarcane, watermelon and cantaloupe fields.

Sugar cane fields.  Workers from Nicaragua come and cut the fields with machetes, and load them into those carts in the left hand side of the picture.

Herding some cows to a different field.

These goats were headed to a different field as well.

Cashew nuts.  The locals eat the fruit (orange part) for their daily iron.   

There are colorful paintings all over in Costa Rica. 

This is on our boat tour.  We saw these capuchin monkeys.  

Also alligators all over!  

Aren't they cute?!  

They were very curious.

Our tour guide got within inches of them.

More alligators.

The boat we were on.

Mike and Jess.

After our boat tour we stopped in at some local place and had the yummiest lunch ever!  They made it over this fire.

One of the chefs.

Chicken and pork, rice, beans, potatoes, salsa and home made corn tortillas.  This was the best part of the day!

For dessert, we sucked on sugarcane sticks.  Haha, nice face!

Pottery of some sort.

After we finished eating, we stopped at this guys house and watched him build some pottery.

His wheel was made out of motorcycle parts.

He did an amazing job. It was incredible watching him build a bowl!

We then shopped from their pottery collection.  We bought one large serving bowl. 

This family does amazing work! 

Later that evening back at the resort, Bear and I combed the beach for sea turtles.

We found plenty of tracks.  And actually watched one come out of the sea, but others saw it too.  They caused such a commotion, the turtle decided the sea was a safer bet.

Our last afternoon on the beach. 

Did plenty of reading.  

These ugly iguanas are everywhere!  

Cheese. 

The beach from where we sat.

You gotta love Bear's view. :)

Hey there.

Shadows and flowers.  The last 2 pictures I took on our vacation.

Some day, I would love to head back to Costa Rica!  Do more exploring and travel around the country.  We explored only one Province, Guanacaste.  The people are very friendly and very happy!  I highly recommend this place to anyone.  

Costa Rica, Part 2

These are random pictures from around the resort.  

This was the beach that the resort was on.  It reminded me of the Oregon Coast.  The sand was grey.  A major difference was the temp of the water.  It was quite warm and a person could bob in it for hours! The hills around the resort were dried out and reminded me of Phoenix.  This is their dry season, so everything was needing some water!  Supposedly these hills are lush green in the winter?!  Would love to see that some day.

Pretty trees that were in bloom.

This was a must, about a hundred times a day!  

Monkeys swinging to and fro from some trees by the resort.

Sunset on the hill.  

Going for one last swim before we call it a day.

Sitting in the pool area after sundown.  It was nice and quiet then.

The only pictures I got of a sunset.  We couldn't watch the sunset from our hotel, we were facing North.  The colorful sky is about all we could see.

Ordering us some iced coffees.

Enjoying them out on a balcony.  

So yummy!

Early morning walk around the resort.  Best time of day there, if you wanted some peace and quiet.

This was one of the calmest days there.  The ocean was like a lake.

Love early morning light!

Tide was way out, so we walked over to the next beach over.

This beach was totally different then the one we were at.  The sand was light colored and mostly made up of broken up seashells.  

There was quite a few cactus around the resort.  For some reason this surprised me.

Close up of the texture of the sand.

Self timer.

Turtle marks.  Supposedly turtles come out on full moon nights to lay their eggs?  That's what we heard anyway.  There was tracks all over the sand, but no turtles. 

Looking straight on at the resort.

Checking out the view.

What a poser. :-)

The people who cleaned our room, made these weird shaped things out of towels.

The room decor was quite interesting.  Purple and hot pink was the color scheme.

We did some  souvenir  shopping on the beach.