12.27.11 Life

Heres the Hot Air Ballon that hangs out in Winter Park all the time!

12.26.11 Friends Matter

Today was a great day of seeing friends who I haven't seen since before I went to Costa Rica! I love my friends! I had breakfast with Dixa, which is always a good time. Then I went over to Brett's house and watched him cut up an Elk. Kinda gross, but very good conversation and he LOVED his Christmas present I got him!!! Then I went over to Jeremy's house and gave him and his two boys their presents! An alligator whistle from Costa Rica is the best gift ever when you want to annoy the parents! Ha. While at Jeremy's I wanted to hold his new snake. Never held one and thought it would be cool! It was kinda weird, but kinda cool at the same time.

This is ASH.

Crazy huh!

After that I spent time with my sister and took a nap! I liked hanging with all my friends and family today! Its really what matters in life. 

Pura Vida!

12.25.11 -Christmas!

Feliz Navidad everyone!

Merry Christmas! Today was nice, but not drama free! We had a very nice breakfast prepared by Aunt Marian. And then we decided to take Jessica and Carries dogs to the park to run and play. Everyone was getting along great, playing and laying in the sun. We decided we wanted to go to the grave site to wish Gramps and Uncle Craig a Merry Christmas. As we were there Jessica noticed Carries dog Kona had a HUGE gash on her side. Skin was hanging and you could see the inside. Gross. We went home as fast as we could and called all the vets. Luckily one was open in Granby and Carrie rushed there. Kona had to get put under 2 times and got a lot of stitches. Poor little girl...
We finally made it to Grandmas. Our cousin Dane was there and it was really nice to see and hang out with him. What a difference a year makes in a 14 year old, he's actually kinda likable now!
We had a nice turkey dinner, drank wine and opened presents! I got everything I wanted including an AWESOME Juicer! I can not wait to use that!!!

Heres a pic of this plaque Grandma had made for the Timberhouse! I think its awesome and Grandpa would be very happy about it! This is what he used to tell the guests before getting on the van to go to the ski area! Miss you Gramps!

Maybe you guys noticed that I didn't send out christmas cards this year because I didn't have a picture to put in them :( I used to get Aumoe's picture with Santa every year and this year I couldn't. So heres my favorite picture of me and Aumoe from last year! I miss my precious little doggie so much. I hope he's having fun in heaven! Mama loves you Aumoe boy. (You will see this picture again, don't worry!)

Merry Christmas to all of you! May all your Christmas dreams come true! 

12.24.11 - Christmas EVE. Not good.

Everyday of my life I say to myself "Can I please have ONE drama free day?" Well the answer is mostly NO. And today, Christmas Eve was NO exception to that. The bottom line is this, IT SUCKED. 

Carrie and I knew that we had 3 house cleanings to do today and we were going to get them all done by 5pm so we could have a nice Christmas Eve, opening presents and enjoying life like we always do. WRONG. The day started out fine, we left Fort Collins 8 minutes early and the drive was nice. We went to the shed to get the cleaning supplies, that were frozen, but we had a plan for that, and then went to our first house to clean. This house is so nice and SO easy to clean, well not today. I walked in the door and it was FREEZING. Colder than outside. I dropped my things, ran to the thermostat and it was OFF, ran to the kitchen sink, it was FROZEN. Shit, shit, shit. Ran back to the thermostat, turned it on high and ran around the house to check the other thermostats and they were all OFF too. And none of the sinks or showers were working. OH NO. It was 32 degrees inside, I didn't think this was a good thing. I stripped all the beds and hoped that the pipes would magically thaw! Ha. Nope, I called the Management company and they came right over. Not good. We went to our other 2 cleans got the laundry and started cleaning. Nothing else could go wrong right??? WRONG. 

The 1st house went fine, but the 2nd house was a dirty mess. Hadn't been professionally cleaned in over a year. GROSS. So we cleaned. The sink stopper wouldn't come out, so we did some magic tricks for an hour and it finally came out. It was now 6:30pm. Way past our 5pm deadline and 1 house didn't even get cleaned.  I was done, wanted to cry and everyone was in a VERY bad mood.

I finally was able to take a shower and get some food. Drank some wine, that helped but not that much. I wanted this day to end and be out of my mind forever. 

I got to see some of my friends and that was nice! This is my friend Heather! Love to hang with her always!

 Everyone wanted me to go out, but I wasn't going to. I needed to relax! This is Dixa and Krzysztof trying to get me to go out. Love you, but NOPE. 

Opened some really great presents and had a very nice time with Carrie and cousin Jessica!

Merry Christmas Eve everyone. Tomorrow will be a great and drama free day! 

12.23.11 HOCKEY!!!

After sleeping in, YAY, Carrie and I went and ran errands again and got some lunch. We went to a fish place called JAX, where they had $1 raw oysters! YUM. Something I just started liking this summer, and I think about very often! Carrie tried them for the first time and liked them as well. :)

Then she told me we were going to a Hockey game! YAY again. I love hockey. It wasn't professional, but it was semi professional and it was HOCKEY!!!
The Colorado Eagles!

Eagles Score again!!!

FIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!

The Eagle!

Eagles WIN!

Shut out!

That was fun. Im still freezing!

12.22.11 Freezing!

Carrie and I went to Fort Collins today. I had no winter clothes and of course it was freezing. I dropped her off at work and ran my errands. Still really cold. And Fort Collins got 7 inches of snow and they don't have a proper plowing system! 

 Heres a picture that always makes me smile and makes me warm!!!

This is a good thing to read. I love when I read it!!!

Carrie and I went out to play trivia with her friends tonight! I knew a lot of the RIGHT answers! But the best one I knew is how to spell "R E N D E Z V O U S" Yes thats right, how do you spell Rendezvous! I think I have only spelled it 1000 times so of course I got that one right in 2 seconds!!!

12.21.11 -Flying around the World

Leaving Costa Rica is always hard. I love my little beach home a lot. I knew that I was ready to go back to Colorado because of being sick and all the drama that happened last night, but when I got to the Liberia airport I was NOT ready anymore. I sat out in the sun knowing that this could be the last time I would be able to be warm, speak my broken spanish and love the life of being a Costa Rican. I will try to take Pura Vida back into Colorado, but sometimes it doesn't work. 

Here are some pictures in the plane going to Miami...

After I landed in Miami, I went through customs, freaked out, and had a panic attack. My phone wasn't working right and the people I needed to call were not helping me in anyway at all. I talked to my friend Jeremy and he told me to sit down and go get a drink, it will calm your nerves. I went to the mexican restaurant next to my gate and drank the most expensive gin and soda I will ever drink, $11.49 to be exact. It calmed my nerves so that was good.

I went to my gate, but we had moved, found out where I needed to be and then went there. The guy on the speaker said we were running a little late. I called Carrie, who didn't want to pick me up in the first place, and she of course was mad. Finally got on the plane. We weren't going anywhere. Then the guy came on the speaker system again and told us that some guy had SMOKED on the plane ride before us so the flight attendants used ALL the fire extinguishers to get it out, so they had to be replaced and recharged before we could move again! IDIOT.

We finally left. It was the longest flight ever and I finished my book, so I had nothing to do. The captain guy finally came on and said we were landing. Then after about 45 minutes we didn't land. WHAT??? So the guy came on the speaker again, said we couldn't land in Denver and we were running out of fuel, so we were gonna go to Albuquerque. WHAT? REALLY? Albuquerque? Isn't that in another state, a long ways away? Yes it is! 

So in New Mexico I called Carrie again, she was NOT happy. I told her to get a hotel room and I would take the shuttle there. So she did. But we stayed in New Mexico for 1.5 hours re-fueling and then we were finally on our way back to COLORADO, our original destination. We landed, at 3 am. We were supposed to be there at 11pm. It was AWESOME. Finally got to the hotel at 4am, slept for 3 hours and couldn't sleep anymore. 

AMERICAN AIRLINES will be getting a call.

I miss my small beach home in Costa Rica.

12.20.11 - Last day in Coco :(

I knew that I did not want to do much today as its my last day in the sun! I went for a morning bike ride on the beach, got a few last minute things, and said goodbye to my fruit guy Miguel (sad). I am reading a really good book too, so I didn't want to not read on my last day! 

Just a mama and baby monkey came and said hi to me today!!! I wish I could take them home with me!

My last sunset was nice. My friend Jorge joined me and we got to talk! I loved it. The sunset wasn't that great, but the company made up for it. Thanks Mango!!!

A fishing boat getting taken over by birds!

My girl friends and I decided we wanted to go for dinner at a nice place on my last night! It was called Citron and the food was SOOOOO good. I should have taken a picture, but didn't. I want to eat that meal over and over again!

Here are the girls! Jenny, Sarah, Sarah, Gina!

Sarah and Sarah. I will miss this girl so much!

Gina and her Sarah's

This picture is SO SPECIAL. My friend Selecta Twist. I haven't seen him at all this whole trip cuz he works too much and then he came out just for me on my last night! Thanks Mr. Twist, you mean the world to me!

Shots for the Sarah's

This is my new friend Kevin. We met on my first day here and it has been wonderful ever since. He is a really great friend and person! (Needs to open his eyes)

Gina and I! So proud of this girl. She is really doing GREAT things for Coco and herself. 

Thanks to everyone who came out. I will miss you all so much. I will also miss my little beach town so much. I love COCO. It has changed my life again, for the better. 

Until next time Coco. Thanks for the memories, I will cherish them for a lifetime. 

PURA VIDA. 

12.19.11 Tortillas, Monos

Since everyone knows I love to cook and I really LOVE Costa Rican food, Michelle wanted to teach me how to make TORTILLAS! Oh wow. They are great! And kinda super easy to make, but very time consuming! 

Heres my FIRST homemade tortilla! It was a little thin, but it tasted SOOOO great!

Slaving away on vacation!

After making tortillas, Michelle noticed the HUGE Iguana that sometimes crawls up in the tree. It was HUGE. I don't know how the branch held him!

Look at his ARMS!

 Finally it was pool time! Of course the back yard monkeys wanted to make an appearance! YAY I love monkeys!

Almost going home. Sad, but kinda ready. I don't deal with being sick well and it has really put a strain on my vacation. 

Pura Vida.