Costa Rica!

We had a blast!!! We flew from Panama City to San Jose, an easy 1 hour flight! We rented a tiny little wind-up car and drove two hours to the coast. After checking into our amazing resort, we grabbed snacks at the snack bar and spent the rest of the day by the pool. It was a wonderful trip and a much needed time of rest and family bonding!

Every 90 Days... A Tribute

Tomorrow we leave for Costa Rica... again. Our 90 day tourist visas are expiring, and we gotta go. This time we are flying from Panama City to San Jose, renting a car, and driving to an all-inclusive beach resort in Puntarenas. Me very happy. I will be sure to post photos when we get back.

As I pack our things for this trip, I thought I'd reflect on the past trips we've made to leave the country every 90 days. I'm not going to lie... with a small child, mandatory international travel every 3 months is not super fun. But we've survived, and we've made some really great memories:

Our first excursion was to Esquinas Rainforest Lodge in Costa Rica. It was a pain to drive all the way up to Costa Rica, cross the border, find a chiva, drive 2 hours into the jungle, and check in to our little cabanas. But if you check out the website, you'll see it was totally worth it! Even with a 9 month old baby in tow!

.



The second trip was to the states to get some paperwork in order for a missionary visa we thought we'd be able to apply for. We celebrated Anna's 1st Birthday with family and friends, and even enjoyed a Day at the Wild Animal Park.






The third trip was back to Costa Rica. We flew from Albrook Airport up to David, and then a taxi to the border. We then took another taxi for 90 minutes to Golfito. From Golfito we took a 10 minute boat-taxi to a small rental house on a tiny private strip of beach, only accessible by boat. During high tide, the water came right up to the house. During low tide a great beach gave us lots to do!






Our most recent leave was back to California. We stayed in Panama for Christmas, but were able to spend a week with family and friends after the holidays. I was even able to meet my new nephew!





So please pray for us as we travel back to Costa Rica tomorrow! And be sure to check Monday for photos! And as an added treat, GRAMMY ARRIVES MONDAY! Stay tuned...

WHOA!

I stumbled upon this article on Yahoo about the worst fast food items in America. My mouth fell open when I saw this particular item (can you believe 144 grams of fat in one meal?!!) I'm no health fanatic, but still I just about had a heart attack when I saw this! Check it out:

THE WORST DRIVE-THRU MEAL IN AMERICA
Carl's Jr. Double Six Dollar Burger
with Medium Natural cut Fries and 32 oz Coke
2,618 Calories
144 g fat (51.5 g saturated fat)
2892 mg sodium

Of all the gut-growing, heart-stopping, life-threatening burgers in the fast food world, there is none whose damage to your general well-being is as catastrophic as this. Consider these heart-stopping comparisons: This meal has the caloric equivalent of 13 Krispy Kreme Original Glazed Donuts; the saturated fat equivalent of 52 strips of bacon; and the salt equivalent of seven and a half large orders of McDonald's French fries!

A Fitting Design

Some big changes are headed our way in the next months, and to celebrate I wanted a happy blog design. So here's to exciting new things and being bored on a Monday night!

Boring!

So... I have nothing to post. I am still pretty morning sick all day, and thus haven't been taking pictures or paying much attention to anything blog-worthy! So here's my post to say I have nothing to post!

Happy Wednesday!

My Baby Girl

Anna with her "bay-beeee" and "Raff"!

I adore the hair.

So Proud!!!

I was literally beaming with pride when the teacher handed us Anna's art book for the week. Each Friday we will bring home her art from the week, and then take the book back on Monday. There was a finger paint creation, a torn paper marvel, and several crayon masterpieces! You can rest assured that we will have these treasures forever!

Is it true?

So I've heard lots of Old Wive's Tales about predicting the gender of baby. I don't put much stock in them of course, but I have been wondering lately about the prevalence of morning sickness and having a girl. It is said that if you experience morning sickness, there is a greater chance of having a girl. Studies have been done to confirm this, although the findings are only something like 53% to 47%... so... not a huge difference.

BUT, with Anna I did experience considerable morning sickness, as well as a few other very specific symptoms. This pregnancy, thus far, has been virtually identical to the last. Down to what symptoms I have, when they started, intensity, etc. I am 12 weeks today, and still feeling nauseous, so this symptom does seem to be lasting longer than last time (I believe it subsided around 11 weeks).

Soooo.... I am feeling fairly confident that this is a girl. I think part of it is just intuition, and the other part, I must admit, is because my pregnancies are so similar. What do you think? Is that any indicator that I'm having another girl?