December Traditions

The month of December FLEW by! I can't believe its over in 15 more hours. Then on to 2016. Well, here is a bit of what happened in December 2015.

Grandma Karen came to visit and bought Norah her first Nativity set. And of course, she loved it!

A yearly tradition with my friends, Sarah and Darla. Cookie decorating. Each year it gets a little more full with kids. So fun! Here is Calvin, Brian and Norah.

Gabe decorating his cookie

And here is Wedley decorating his!

Can you just see the mischief they will be getting in someday? Only one week apart in age, I hope these two have some fun.

Sarah, Darla and I...and our cookies!

NEXT tradition: Our second year of gingerbread houses and sushi. And this year we added another genre of food: German Raclette

Brian and Jeremiah being silly.

Starting the houses! Loads of candy and marshmellows and other decorating items! Everyone is hard at work.

Becky expanded hers a little, she built an addition. .

Gwyn, Miah, Monty and Isaac.

Sushi and raclette time!

Thanks for coming everyone! I forgot to take pictures of the houses after they were finished. Whoops. So, here is my house right before I put it outside for the birds and squirrels to eat.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Irazu Valcano National Park

Irazu Volcano stands at 11,260 feet. We were definitely up there in elevation. The road driving was pretty curvy and steep. But the scenery was phenomenal. The soil is very fertile from the eruption back in the 60's, so they are growing many things up there. We saw a lot of onions and strawberries on this particular drive. 

Here we are at the top!

It wasn't a clear day, but at least we could see in the crater when we arrived. And when the sun did come out it was REALLY hot! This was the only day I got burnt a little on my shoulders.

The drive down was lovely, here we are meeting up with a teenager who has gone to collect the cows with his bike. 

I love the hill in the background. Looks like a quilt on the hillside!

I think it was amazing to see the road and then 4000 feet down is the city and community of San Jose! These roads were steep and curvy to get all the way up the mountain!

The communitys/towns are just built on the side of the mountain.

This concludes our Costa Rica trip. It was a fun country to see and visit. Always fun to see how other cultures live and realize America isn't the only way to be. 

And Norah got her first stamp in her passport! Like she cares...

More Sand

Norah continued to enjoy the sand the following day in Costa Rica. She promptly got it everywhere! 

Lisa must have been missing Juneau and the snow, because she made a sandman. 

The next day, after Nathaniel and Lisa's brother, Sean left, the four of us (plus Norah) decided to drive up a mountain. Literally. I didn't realize Costa Rica was so high in elevation. After leaving the ocean, we went back to San Jose which has an elevation of 3800 feet. 

Anyway, we decided to drive up an old volcano. 

Irazu, a quiet giant, last blew in 1963. It is the highest active volcano in Costa Rica. And has a road all the way to the top!

The drive up was beautiful! The farms, the views, the small pastures, cows, sheep, everything was enjoyable.

Next post will have some more about Volcano Irazu.

Rainmaker Preserve

Costa Rica has many nature preserves, some with zip lines, suspension bridges, and a lot of jungle! We decided to explore one.

Right when we arrived at this small, private reserve we quickly saw two poisonous creatures. Made me a little more nervous about walking around.

See the yellow in the middle of the picture? That would be a nasty venomous snake called an Eyelash Viper. We stayed far away from it. 

And a cute little frog, the green and black poison dart frog. It has enough poison to stop a human heart. Except they only release poison when threatened. So, you could hold on in your hand! We didn't though. 

I really enjoyed these trees. Mostly the roots! Brian and Brian.

Norah survived the whole hike in the Ergo. It was very humid this day, didn't rain on us, even though I'm using a leaf umbrella.

There were a series of suspension bridges. Not the most sturdy looking things. But they were pretty fun to walk across!

This was the longest bridge we crossed. And the highest! Fun!?!?!?

These were little mushrooms! Almost like a plunger for the toilet! Commonly referred to as Cup Fungi.

After all the bridges we found the swimming holes. Norah and Lisa had a little lunch while some swam.

Where's Brian in this picture?

We had a good time on this little hike, we didn't see any animals other than the one snake and a few frogs. But it was enjoyable.

Sand, Waves, and No Raccoon This Time

Day three: We ventured to a new beach, a little bit down from our little town of Quepos. Playa Ventana. Translation: Window Beach. 

This beach was a bit more for the locals. Small, the water was just as warm. And there were two long tunnels that went through the rock to the ocean. When the tide was high, the waves would come crashing through. When the tide was low, you could walk right into the tunnel/caves.

Norah finally enjoyed herself. She sat in the sand and played with sticks, rocks and whateve else I could find for her. 

Brian and Nathaniel stayed at another beach to surf, getting tumbled around by the waves since it was a bit stormy.

I took a series of pictures of Norah as she was walking towards me. I like this hip and arm action. Had to put it on the blog for cuteness purposes.

One of the "windows" I was talking about. As you can see we were here with the high tide, so we couldn't walk through the tunnels. That came a few days later. 

Big smile!!

Crazy Raccoon!

Our second day in Quepos found us headed to Manuel Antonio National Park. A small park along the ocean with some nice beaches. Norah wasn't too happy about the beaches though. Here is her first experience in the warm waters and sand of Costa Rica. 

After hiking around the park for an hour, we headed to this beach. Some lovely looking raccoon were sitting on the beach, enjoying the view as we wanted to...or at least we thought they were. They were scavengers. Every time anyone would eat anything on the beach, they would come right up to that person! Norah and I were sitting calmly looking out and up comes two raccoons right from the start looking for the crackers we were eating. It was a little nerve wrecking  attempting to get them to go away. They didn't respond at all to waving of the arms. I tried to use a stick until a local yelled at me to kick sand at them instead. 

So, picking Norah up, I start flinging sand at them with my feet. Norah is laughing with each kick of the sand and the raccoons finally go away. 

But, they came back. Every 5-10 minutes they made their rounds from group to group, looking for food. It made for a stressful beach experience. Fun story though.

Norah, sitting calmly eating her crackers, unsuspecting of the raccoon who would soon come up behind her.

Monkey!!

 A very slow moving sloth! Not the best of pictures, but he is up there.

White faced monkey