Costa Rica ...

As I mentioned in my "Super Sawyer" post, we just got back from Costa Rica. What an amazing place!!!

Week 1: The 1st week was spent working alongside Students International within 4 different, run down communities there. Everyone on staff there had an amazing attitude about what they were doing. They said that they were just living in Costa Rica and doing little things to change lives and show God through spending time with the people. The simplicity of their mission was inspiring to be creative where I am at and with the people I live around and do life with.

Week 2: The 2nd week was spent enjoying the country. We traveled around with 2 other amazing couples, Allie and Jesse Penner, and Breann and Kris Kadieux. Here is a top ten count down from our trip...

10. Jaco Beach

9. Taxi Boat

7. Montezuma

8. Ivan's House (Our house right on the beach)

7. lounging on hammocks on the front porch

6. Waterfalls

5. A.T.V.ing around the peninsula

(Not sure where these pictures went??)

4. Crazy huge lizards on our patio

3. Breann breaking her ankle

2. Spending alot of time in a Costa Rican hospital

1. Taking a great trip with amazing new friends!!!

This is just a snap shot of our trip to Costa Rica.

Super Sawyer

We have spent the last 2 weeks in Costa Rica. One week with an incredible missions organization, Students International, and the 2nd week on vacation. The 1st week we were there we stayed with the head of the Costa Rica branch and his family. They had two kids who both had birthdays while we were there. Olivia turned 6 and Sawyer turned 4. One night Sawyer (who was suppose to put his clothes in his backpack for school the next day) brought his clothes into the living room and proceeded to put his pants on his head and use his shirt as a parachute to jump off of the steps. Before he could jump he had to run into his room and get his safety goggles. Eventually his shirt made its way to become a cape and finally the outfit was complete.

Jesse Penner was there with us and Sawyer thought that Jesse needed to give it a try as well. We definitely laughed a lot that night.

We are going to send them a thank-you care package and in it we are adding this official "Super Sawyer" cape that I made.

My Golden Breakfast...

I just came across these pictures from my birthday and had to put them on my blog. I have an amazing husband! Every year Andrew makes me feel so special on my birthday and this year was no different. You saw my golden party outfit/pictures but I forgot to mention the golden breakfast that he prepared for me that morning before school. Everything was golden (or yellow and orange).

My Golden Birthday

This birthday has definitely topped the charts of all time greatest birthdays for 2 reasons:

1. It was my golden birthday (I turned 26 on the 26th)

2. My amazing husband planned a semi-surprise party for me

When I got home from work on Friday I was greeted at the door by 2 of my most favorite people, Layne and Kim, both of whom were wearing 80's attire. I had to walk through gold streamers to get into the door and immediately noticed that the house was decked out in gold. Talk about golderific!! I was told I had to go into my room and put on my outfit which Layne had picked out for me to wear. (A HOTT gold sweater from Goodwill, a gold belt, gold ring, gold earrings, spray painted gold shoes, and my personal favorite, tights that looked like stone-washed jeans.) I was soon ready for the party.

I walked outside to 80's / 90's music playing (thanks Christian) and Andrew dressed in an incredibly outrageous Gold outfit. He couldn't have looked better. Friends started to show up wearing either gold or 80's clothing. I don't know how anyone could not have a great time when dressing up is involved?!?!? We ate amazing food and then moved the party to Cedar Lanes where, if I can remember right, the girls beat the guys in bowling=) I have amazing friends and an amazing husband who made me feel so special on my golden birthday.

Thank you Katie for sending up a cute bunting card and a delicious chocolate sheet cake. It was as if you were there!

More photos to follow...

Triathlon

Andrew and I did our 1st triathlon on May 23, up in Auburn. We had some friends and family, Sheila, Chad, and Uncle Ryan, do it with us which made it that much more fun. Andrew finished in 2 hours and 21 mins. Sheila and I stayed together the whole time and finished in 2 hours and 27 mins. As tired as we were when we finished, I definitely think this triathlon will be the 1st of many.

Auburn Sprint:

1,000 meter swim

18 mile bike

4.3 mile run

The swim: Can I just say that whoever invented the wet suit is my new best friend!!! Swimming a lake though was a new experience. Talk about confusing. Majority of the time I had no idea where I was going. I had to stop and look up after about every 5 strokes.

The Bike: We were told that the first 6 miles was all solid up hill, which they were definitely right. But why is it that when we finished mile 6 we were still going up hill.... they forgot to mention that pretty much the whole course was up hill.

The run: Beautiful course along a stream and through trees.

Great Experience!

1st Annual Tea Party...

...was up in Shaver a couple of weekends ago. I got home from work on Friday to see my 3 best friends leaning out the side door to my house. What a great sight! From there we were off for a girl's weekend. As life goes we are going to have to make time to hang out so what would be better than an annual get together.

Here are some pictures from our 1st...

(fun buns for life)

Thank you GSue for letting us enjoy your cabin!

San Francisco

Doesn't life fly by? In the midst of all that life brings, I decided to surprise Andrew with a weekend away in San Francisco. April 9-11 we took off and headed for the city. Our goal: to hangout, enjoy each other, experience the city, see Wicked on Broadway, and finish off the trip with a Giant's game. All was accomplished except for one thing. Sunday we woke up to a down pour of rain which kind of ruined our plan to enjoy the Giant's game. We couldn't give up that easy, so we bought rain ponchos and headed to the stadium. We walked around, enjoying the incredible view, but to no avail the rain did not stop. Finally we couldn't wait any longer and headed out. Come to find out later that the game finally started 4 hours late. I guess this means that we must go back.... darn

Here are a few pictures from our trip:

Andrew's amazing photography:

Farmers Market

Stow Lake:

Town's End: An amazing breakfast place

AT&T Park:

Spring Week at Reagan

The week before spring break was full of excitement. That was the week the 5th grade went to Sierra Summit, but even more exciting than that was our dress up days. Each day was a different dress up day and being an elementary school, I think the teachers got more excited about this than the students. Who doesn't love an excuse to dress up.

Thursday: 80's Day

Monday: Nerd Day

I love the people I work with!!!