Costa Rica

Finally the rest of the wedding trip from October.

Almost there!

Shuttle ride to the resort.

 

The first morning we were there, everyone hit the pool.....

....Except me.  That's me, the nerd with the umbrella trying not to get my notepad and brochures wet.  It should be no surprise to anyone that's ever traveled with me, or knows me for that matter.  I gathered all the info and organized our activities for the week.  It was about 4 hours worth of running around, getting input from our crew and schmoozing the travel desk, but it was well worth it and it's what I do.  I can't help myself.  We had an itinerary for the week and wouldn't end up sitting around the resort all week.  Not that the resort wasn't nice, but it's just not my style.  I need to get out and explore.  Plus, I got Ty and Nikki all their activities for free because I did all the leg work and brought a bunch of business to my new buddy Gilbert.  Yep, his name was Gilbert....how could he not be the man!?  He gave us discounts because our group was so big, but I'm an envelope pusher when it comes to freebies.  Those guys can do just about anything.  You just have to ask.  Having a bride and groom in the mix made it a pretty easy sale too so I didn't even have to pull out my best bargaining skills.  I was in the pool right after lunch, which was perfect because I need to be 4 hours behind all those youngsters in drinks anyway!

 

We loaded our vans the next day and headed to Coco Beach for the day. 

Just looking at all these pictures again reminds me what a fun group we had.

 

 

Sometimes you just need your drink to match your outfit!

Pinterest idea......nailed it!

Brian practicing in case she needs a back up hair dresser.  Turns out all she really needed was an interpreter.

Wes and Jana snorkeling

 

Shorty can't even touch

 

Catamaran for the snorkeling trip.  This is where we learned who should not be going out fishing on the smaller boats.  There were a lot of sea sick people!  We saw a lot of cool fish and I saw some Eagle Rays.  Of course I got washed up on to the rocks and cut my hand and arm because I always think I can hold on and the wave won't push me in.  I do it every time!  There were a lot of cool shells on the beach so I got some good souvenirs for the kids.

 

Getting ready to board

Our resort

Clayton's sweet tan lines from his mesh hat.

Fishing was next on the Agenda:  Cam, Shad, and Meghan's boat

The fishing derby winning boat!

Sweet Captain Harry around your waist there Brian!  I joke, but by the end of the trip we had caught so many fish, I was wearing one too otherwise the pole was constantly digging into my hip or belly!

They would put these fish in one side and they would flop around and pop out the other.  It was so funny to watch these guys try to contain all these fish on such a little boat.  Plus, they were trying to keep it clean and rinse all the blood, ect since it was a charter boat.  Kara and I could care less, we were having a great time and Captain Harry (aka Brian) was in the back with them most of the time.  Half the fun was trying to get out of their way when a fish came on board or keep our lines from getting tangled.  We had to trade poles a lot and if we lost a fish, these two often had an extra pole with a fish on it to hand off to us.  This fishing trip was all around fun!

 

Tuna

Sea turtle

 

Kara, you should post this pic on Hayter's FB page to show you representing in Costa Rica!

We got really lucky and happened to go on a day when there were a ton of mahi mahi.  It was so fun and really hard fighting them.  We also caught some tuna which were also fun until we got into the mahi mahi and realized how much better they were to catch.  They fought hard and jumped out of the water a lot.  The only thing that sucked is that there was no bathroom so we had to limit our beers. 

Clayton, Ryan, and Casey's boat

Dinner the night before the wedding at the steak house

Nikki's Fam

 

I should have gotten a picture before we devoured most of it, but I was too eager to eat it and forgot.  This is the Mahi Mahi we caught that day.  It was delicious!  It probably didn't hurt that it was cooked by an awesome chef that knows what to do with it, but if this is what it always tastes like, I may have to start purchasing it.  Thankfully a nice guy with a Spanish speaking wife, saw the run around I was getting from all the restaurant staff and helped me get it into the right hands to be cooked for us that night.  Kara and I were about to give up and thought about tossing it in the garbage because Kara had been standing outside with the dripping bags of fillets and we didn't really want to walk around the resort with it for much longer.

Clayton took a couple bags to the Italian restaurant for the reception dinner and it was spectacular as well.

Mom, Renee and the rest of their group made it back after their volcano tour.  It was all day and the same day as the earthquake.  I was getting a little nervous when they hadn't gotten back before dinner.  I checked with the travel desk to see when the shuttle would be back a couple times and when I finally found them in the bar, they didn't even know there was a earthquake.  Maybe they were just messing with me about knowing there was one, but they really hadn't felt it.  Guess maybe because I was on the 4th floor when it happened it felt bigger than it really was.  The buildings are also made to sway to withstand the quake or so I was told after the fact.  I would still high tail it out of my room leaving my key and shoes behind if it happened again.  Just thinking about it again shocks me that there were people getting on the elevator as I was sprinting by in the stairwell.  Haven't you ever seen an earthquake preparedness handbook people!  It was a 6.5 tremor and when asking a bartender if they have a lot of quakes or if that was a big one, his response was "no it wasn't big and they don't have that many, it's been over 8 days since the last one."   Oh yeah, 8 days, that's sooooo long ago.  Bottom line:  They happen frequently, aren't too big of a deal, and there usually isn't a ton of damage, probably due to how things are built.  There were cracks in the building, but it was a cement or stucco looking in most places so they probably just fill in the cracks.

Nikki getting a present from Ty before the wedding.....

Pearls!

Kara, with all her kick ass foresight, bought champagne while we were at Coco Beach for Mimosa's while getting ready.  Kara and I, with our kick ass math skills had to look like bonehead's at the checkout asking the non English speaking clerk via hand gestures and actions much like charades to return the bottle of $400 champagne that we accidentally rung up thinking it was cheaper.  We looked like a couple of dorky Americans but it was highly entertaining for us on the walk back to meet back up with the group. 

View from Nikki's room

Such a good zoom!  Shouldn't you boys be getting ready?!

Cheers! 

Disclaimer:  All children and pregnant ladies in this picture have non-alcoholic drinks.

Pre-wedding cocktails

 

 

Senior picture.  The only thing missing is his letterman's jacket!

 

 

That's a wrap on the wedding day.  Presenting Mr. and Mrs. Zinda....and me, because it's my blog....

Back out for some more adventuring

This photo is from the other Adventure tour some of the group did while we were out fishing.  This is Ty hanging upside down.  This was the most fun way to go.  I wish they would let you do it every time.  Zip lining isn't that great, but this makes it much more fun!

Ty being dropped into the canyon.

Time to hit the trail.

Shad and Clayton got donkeys.....hmmm.....is there a double meaning somewhere in here?

Comin' out hot!

Yeah Cowboy!

 

Jumping off the falls

 

 

 

After lunch, we found these waiting outside.

I always thought the humps were hard, but they are soft and fleshy meat.  Now I wonder about a camel....

 



 

They adventure continues.  We went to a hot springs next. 

These were the changing rooms.  Kara was bitten by a tick walking down the trail.  It hurt so bad that she pulled her pants down to see what was in her leg.  Nikki picked it off her and luckily got the head.  I felt kind of bad about chanting "ants in your pants" over and over the whole time she was pulling her pants off and dancing around in the trees after I realized it was a tick and she could get lime disease.  It immediately made a big bruise and was bleeding.  Costa Rican ticks don't mess around!  It's been a few months now.  I think she's in the clear so I can laugh again.

 

Surfing at Tamarindo Beach.  Maybe I should rephrase that.  Trying to surf at Tamarindo Beach.

Nikki could get up pretty good.  I had to debate each time whether to enjoy riding the wave all the way to the beach on my belly or knees and having fun or trying to get onto my feet feeling 99 percent sure I would immediately fall off.  Now that I've experienced it, next time I will get a lesson and get to my feet at least for a couple seconds.  I'm working on my core right now so I'm ready!

 

Until next time Costa Rica....

I always say that, but honestly, I'll probably never be back.  It was awesome, but there are so many other places that I'll need to see first that once is probably enough for me.

 

Underwear!

So Kya is now wearing underwear.  Hopefully I did not jump the gun on this one because I will die if she poops herself at the gym while she's in the kids area.
 

Here are a few observations from the bathroom.  These are old except for the last one that happened last week.  Oh yeah, and Kya only had 2 accidents in her diaper since our big blowout a few weeks ago.  One was when we were at a friend's house for dinner and I think she was too busy playing plus there was someone else in the bathroom when she tried to get in.   It wasn't much and she finished up in the toilet.  I'm going to give her a pass on that one, but we didn't have her end of day celebration.  I don't think she minded though because she had already gotten dessert at their house and she was ready for bed when she got home.

"Poop smells stinky.  Poop sometimes does not smell stinky."  (For the record Kya, your poop is always stinky.  You just get to run out of the bathroom high fiving everyone and don't have to stick around while I clean out that little potty chair.)

 

"Sometimes pee is yellow, sometimes pee is clear."

 

Kya went through a phase where she thought she was going to grow a penis when she got bigger.  She has been pretty disappointed every since it finally sunk in that it was never going to happen.  She was really upset for about 2 days and even now, a month later she sometimes asks me if I'm sure she won't grow one when she is bigger.  She REALLY wants to be able to pee standing and pee "outside on the garage wall like Ryker."  So much so that she often tries, even though it always ends in a mess and a lecture from me.   I'm guessing this is pretty common with girls that have older brothers, but who knows.  Just wait until she starts using a lot of public restrooms.  She'll really wish she could stand!

Last week at the gym:  "Mama, you get out.  It will be stinky."  I stepped out of the stall to a lady giggling.  She said, "I wish my boys would have been that considerate.  Heck I wish they were in that considerate now and they are in college." 

 

Her favorite:  "Wait outside Mommy, I need some privacy.  You don't watch me push."  (I think she picked this one up from Ryker.) 

 

"Come look Mommy.  It's a really big, huge one."

I'm not sure how I do away with the end of day celebrations now. She's been "celebrating" every night for over 3 weeks.  Every once in a while, she forgets but Ryker is quick to remind us...ugh.  The funniest part is that she picks pretty healthy snacks when Ryker is not helping her decide.  Sometimes it isn't even something to eat, she just wants to blow up a balloon or me to make her some new clay in the color she chooses. 

She was on a frosted pretzel kick for a while, but now she's back to blueberries frozen with yogurt.  She also asks for popcorn quite often or a strawberry smoothie.  If we are at the grocery store, she'll grab things like tomatoes and kiwi's and ask if she can get them for her potty celebration.  Heck yes!  I can't wait to see your brothers face when I hand him a slice of tomato.  He always tries to talk her into asking for something else and I remind him that it is Kya's choice and if he would like to choose, he needs to flush and put the seat down all day.  (He's given up.  He's not even trying now.)

This picture was just to show that chubby little hand.  Look at that cute little thing!

I LOVE this girl!  She asked for a green smoothie in a fancy glass.  Ha ha, Ryker did not partake in the celebration.

 

Eagle Blunder

A few days ago, we took a different way home because Ryker wanted to count eagles again.  There are too many cows to count and too few hawks, ect.  He's into the eagles.  There were 3 in trees along the Sammish river in the morning and we contemplated whether they were looking for fish in the water or rodents along the built up bank because the farmland was so flooded that the rodents had taken to higher ground.   Anyway, we saw so many right outside of Edison on Farm to Market Rd on our way home that we actually had to stop because Ryker was having a hard time getting an accurate count.  Yep, we looked like bird watchers out there.  So again, all males (or so we thought).  The next morning, we happened to see 2 females in a field so I stopped to show Ryker what they looked like.  This began a half hour conversation as to why the females were showing up now.  Ryker concluded that their eggs must have finally hatched so they didn't have to sit on them anymore.  When would we see the babies?  How many eggs do they lay?  How long does it take them to hatch?  When can they fly?  ect, ect, ect. 

 

Well like I said about a week ago, I needed to get on the Internet and get some eagle info before the questions got too hard.  I still hadn't done that so I picked up some eagle books at the library today while he was at school.  I was telling Seth today that we had gotten the books so we were going to get to the bottom of this mystery of where the females have been and why they are showing up now.  He asked me how I could tell the difference.   My response:  Because the males have the white heads.  He said they both have white heads.  (Note to Seth or anyone else for that matter: feel free to mention any inaccurate facts I post on my blog immediately, especially if I am spewing them to our children!) When I got off the phone, I ran for my eagle books.  What a dufus!  I have no idea why I thought this, but I thought this was a female.

By now I'm sure you've guessed, it isn't!  This is a juvenile.  They don't get their white heads until they are about 5 years old.  I gathered Ryker and Kya up on the couch and read them both eagle books.  They answered all of their questions and then some and we put all of our "theories" to rest regarding what the females have been up too.  What a dork I am!  I didn't see bald eagles until I was in college and started going to Alaska.  I can see myself just assuming this was a female if I saw them together, but I can also see my joke-ster fellow crewmen messing with me as they did with everything else my first year.  They used to tell me stories all the time about everything just to see which ones I would believe, because I was in a whole new world totally foreign to me.  I wish there was google back then.  I would have to go ask an old skipper because it seemed like every crewman or younger skipper around knew my own crew was always messing with me and didn't want to give me a straight answer and spoil their fun!  The older ones seemed to take pitty on me because I was such an easy target amidst a sea of guys who had grown up around fishing and the ocean and it was clearly not second nature to me.  I'm not a naive person, but I remember falling for a few.  I had to check my facts that entire first summer and I was very careful about what I repeated, just in case.  I remember sitting for hours on the Blue Pacific getting a lesson from Jerry Holmstom about tides and the salmon life cycle.   I'm wondering now if this one slipped by me or if I came to this conclusion on my own.  Either way I've thought that only the males had the white heads for as long as I can remember.  Luckily, Ryker is still young enough that he won't start googling every fact I tell him just to double check!  Maybe he should though so he doesn't end up being the dumb kid spouting inacurrate facts about America's Iconic bird!

Crabbing: Seth's Semi New Gig

• I took the following from another lady's blog.(http://fishingblues.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/the-moment-weve-been-waiting-for-ready-set-crab/)

I wanted to copy it and not just provide the link because I print this blog and use it for my kid's scrapbooks and don't want them to end up with a bunch of links that go nowhere when they are older.  This is the same crab fishery Seth is doing right now so it explains his situation too, minus the drama of loosing everything if they have one bad crab season.  (No one needs to worry!)  We have other fisheries to fall back on.  Sometimes one is good, but another is bad.   Sometimes they are all good and you reinvest and prepare yourself in other ways for a year that they are all bad.  Also, I could always end my 7 month job hiatus and get my butt back to earning some cash! 

The Moment We’ve Been Waiting For: Ready, Set, Crab!

Dungeness crab season begins on the Washington coast tonight at midnight (January 24, 2013), and for hundreds of Washington crabbing families (including ours) this is the most important moment of our year. We have all spent months, if not years, preparing for this moment — rigging up crab pots, measuring lines, painting buoys, grinding rust off boats, painting boats, replacing boat parts — and it has all come with a cost. The price to invest in the crab fishery is not cheap. Between leasing or buying fishing permits, crab gear, and boat maintenance and repairs, we have all invested many many tens of thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of dollars. Our blood, sweat and tears go into these fishing operations (literally), and if we have one bad crabbing season we could lose everything we have worked so hard for.

The Robin Blue in shipyard earlier this month

We have essentially been preparing for this moment for the last year and a half and we now find ourselves at the point where we could begin to make money instead of borrowing and spending money. The excitement and the tension are indescribable.

The first “pick” (or “set”) of the season is an important one. The entire coastal dungeness crab population is scuttling around out there, so the first set will likely be the best. With every set the crab fleet makes from then on, the crab population grows smaller and smaller, and catches grow smaller and smaller, until it no longer remains cost-effective to continue fishing. This year there are quite a few boats crabbing in the same area, off of Westport, Washington, so there will be some competition to set pots in the prime fishing grounds.

Late night at the dock, loading crab pots on to the boat

I apologize for my lengthy explanation of the crab season (especially for those of you already familiar with the process) but I really want to drive home the point that this moment — the first day of the crab season — is a very important and very scary moment. I will be a nervous wreck for the next week, waiting to hear how the first trip went. Unfortunately, I could be waiting all week if Zed is out of cell range.

As a fisherman’s wife, it is necessary for the maintenance of my sanity to keep myself from worrying about things that are out of my control (boats, weather, danger, prices, etc..). Sometimes this works for me, but I have a feeling that this week my mind will be reeling out of control with questions like “what if he doesn’t catch any crab?” “what if it’s a horrible season?” “what if they get trapped in a storm?” “what if the (fill in the blank with any of the major parts we just installed) doesn’t work?” I’m already biting my fingernails and the season hasn’t even started yet!

All I can do at this point is to wish my husband — and all the other crabbers out there off the Washington coast tonight — prosperous and safe crabbing! And I will leave you with this message from the Washington Dungeness Crab Fishermen’s Association:

FOR THOSE FISHERMEN HEADING OUT TO SEA, WE WANT YOU TO KNOW YOU WILL BE IN OUR HEARTS AND ON OUR MINDS.
AS YOU RETURN BACK TO WORK, RISKING YOUR LIVES TO SUPPORT YOUR FAMILIES AND TO HELP FEED THE WORLD, WE HOPE YOU KNOW JUST HOW MUCH “COMMERCIAL FISHERMEN HELP ALL OF US LIVE BETTER”
MAY THE WAVES AND THE WINDS OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN BE CALM, YOUR JOURNEYS SAFE AND YOUR HARVESTS PLENTIFUL.
MAY GOD BLESS YOU, KEEP YOU, AND RETURN YOU TO THOSE OF US LEFT BEHIND. BE SAFE… GOOD LUCK…

Five Eagle Kind of Day

We've been counting stuff on the way to school and back the last couple weeks.  Mostly animals and a LOT of birds.  Too many ducks, geese, swans, seagulls, and crows to even keep track of, but we estimate and try.  Blue Herons were much tougher, but we saw a few.  And today, we spotted 5 eagles and 3 eagle nests (2 of which we already knew of and one new one that Ryker spotted because he was really focusing on looking for eagles).  This is the part about not working that I love the most.  We don't race from here to there and back again.  We have a lot going on and are always headed somewhere, but we enjoy the ride much more.  We allow plenty of time to get there and if we have to pull over for an "emergency," it is no longer an inconvienience. 

 

 

It's an opportunity to count ducks,

and swans, 

 

and try to guess what day the Sammish will crest and flood the farmland on Thomas Road or Colony Creek will get just high enough to where it spills over the road, flooding the blueberry fields forcing us to drive back and go up Bow Hill Road.

 A lot of contemplating goes into it.  How much snow is in the mountains, has it rained a lot, is it going to rain tonight, what's the weather for the next couple days, what it the temperature in the mountains?  These were all questions Ryker and I talked about while waiting for Kya to do her business.  After our discussion, he made a bold prediction that both will flood tomorrow.  I'm willing to bet he's right on about Colony Creek but there's no way the Sammish will flood tomorrow.  He said, "we'll just have to wait until tomorrow and see."  Yes, we will.  We will drive slowly, count stuff, sing songs, and make more observations.  Hopefully it's another laid back 5 eagle kind of day.

 

This was our first one counted this morning, but we knew he'd be there.  He's in this same field every morning.

He lives nearby....

Ryker and Kya are very curious as to why we only see a male here all the time.  They think there is a female up there sitting on eggs.  I have no idea about eagles and their eggs, but I should probably do some research on the Internet before the questions get too hard for me to answer.  For all I know, this guy is a bachelor and the only thing in that nest is a mess and some old beer cans!

What?! No T-ball

T-ball was cancelled one Saturday and we didn't find out until we got there. We had an hour to fill before heading south to Asa's birthday party.  What to do, what to do?  Let's hit Home Depot.

Lucky us, big fun going on in the parking lot today!

Then off to Kirkland for Asa's pool party!  No shots in the pool because Seth and I both swam too.

Birthday boy

Present time is always such a claustrophobic affair at this age.  Back it up kids, give the boy some room!