Celebrating 34 Years with "The Music Man"

Last weekend, Ken and I celebrated thirty four years of marriage. As we often do, we celebrated by going to the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City. We went with Pam and Roger and had a great time. First we went to my favorite Rusty's for dinner. The coconut shrimp is SO good!

We decided to forgo the restaurant dessert, because it seems that our anniversary is the same as Dairy Queen's, and they were celebrating with two for one Blizzards. We wolfed down our blizzards, then headed to the play. We saw one of my two all-time favorite musicals, "The Music Man." I love that show. When I was in high school, I played the part of one of the "Pick a Little" Ladies. Being in a show makes you love it. It was so fun to be with Pam and Roger who love it as much as I do.

This couple could dance! They were so fun to watch.

It's impossible to beat Robert Preston as the Music Man, but this guy was really, really good.

I'm still on a bit of a high from the evening! Thank you, Pam and Roger for a wonderful evening!

He's a Biking Fool

Ken enjoys biking in the summertime. He's always gone on long bike rides, but the last couple of weeks, he's really pushed himself beyond his furthest previous limits. He gets up early on Saturday mornings and rides before it gets too hot(though it's still in the high 80's). The picture above is of him with his mountain bike. The last couple of weeks, he's ridden his road bike- last week 54 miles, and today, 61.85 miles. He did the Gunlock/Veyo loop. He's a biking fool. Last week, he did it on water alone, but this week I insisted he take gatorade and some calorie chews. He did great, though he's a little sore. We won't talk about where! I'm proud of my biking fool!

The proof on his biking odometer:

Rehydrating:

He's already making plans for next week's even longer ride. I'm hoping summer ends before he does!

Vicarious Joy

Last Sunday, baby Lily was blessed by her Daddy and some of her uncles. Kristen, Jared and family drove from Wisconsin to be there and Michelle, Brian and Gabbi drove from Washington DC. So, they had a little reunion. It was kind of sad not to be there, but Brian was good to immediately send pictures, so we could experience the joy vicariously. Here's some of my favorites from those he sent:

This is the morning of Lily's blessing- my precious family:

Pretty darn good shot considering it's using a timer.

I love the red stains on every little face. Obviously those kids loved Blake's homemade pizza:

The girls:

Brian, Michelle, and Gabbi

Blake, Shonna, Caleb, and Lily

Kristen, Jared, Jacob, Brielle, and Nathan

On Saturday, they visited a farm. I love this shot:

And this is one of my all-time favorite pictures. Our four oldest grandchildren:

Aren't they cute? I'm so glad they could be together.

My Favorite Things: Fiestaware

I know I've told you before about my love for fiestaware. I love, love, love these dishes. I've had some of them (the red, orange and yellow) for several years and added the other colors last Christmas. There really is no difference between the older and the newer in appearance. The older show no sign of wear. I've only had one piece break. And yet, there is no lead in them. But what I like most is they are gorgeous. Every single day the beautiful colors make me very happy. As you can see, my dish cupboard is full to the brim, which is a shame because if there were more room, I'd want to keep buying more and more of these beauties. My favorite color, you ask? I've pondered this question way more than I should. I vacillate between the apple green, the red, and the purple. Can't choose. Which do you like best? I love Fiestaware.

Awesome!

I know that's an over-used word: Awesome! But I just can't think of one that better describes what happened here Saturday. We participated in an LDS Regional Service project in honor of the 75th anniversary of the welfare program. It was a HUGE humanitarian project. I wish I had statistics, but we did hundreds of school kits, hygiene kits and quilts. It was a huge undertaking, very well organized. Wow. Like I say, Awesome! As I didn't think to take my camera, I’ll try to describe it to you:

As I approached River Road to turn left to go to the stake center where the event was to be held, I saw that River Road from the right was a steady stream of cars. We have lived here 26 years, and I literally have never seen that much traffic on that road. The light finally stopped them and I had my turn. Then I realized they were ALL going to the stake center. One after another turned in. It was difficult to find a parking spot in the parking lot. Our stake and Little Valley Stake were assigned to work from 9-9:45am. When I got in there, it was packed to the brim with people busily working. The gym was filled with tables set out to put together the kits. Ken was put in charge of a table assembling hygiene kits (there were many such tables) I was at a table folding towels for those kits. There were young men whose assignment was to walk through the aisles, picking up boxes and waste we threw on the floor from opening the toothpaste or the rags or whatever. There were men hauling out boxes of completed kits on dollies. There were people everywhere quilting, assembling, folding, ripping. When the set up tables were full, they sat on the floor or went into the foyers to work. It was just amazing: Hundreds and hundreds of people working shoulder to shoulder to help others. There were older people who walked on canes or walkers (Ken had two 88 year olds at his table) to little kids (I had a little 8ish or so boy whose job it was to take our folded towels to an assemble table. He felt SO important.) We finished our shift by ten in time for the next two stakes to come in and do the same thing, then on and on for a couple more hours. What a huge, huge undertaking to have all those supplies there and ready and organized. How did we pay for it, you ask? Our stake, and I assume all the stakes, were asked to donate $8,000. Our ward was asked to donate $800. Our ward turned in over $1700. It was simply announced and people responded with great generosity. It brings tears to my eyes to think of the sweet feeling of service. Isn’t it a joy to be a member of our church? Later that day, when I was driving to the temple, I drove past that stake center and saw a huge flatbed track with a trailer loaded with palettes of boxes containing the quilts and kits, all ready to ship to Salt Lake City. Awesome! Really, it's the only word to describe it. We're so glad we could be a tiny, tiny part of that AWESOME undertaking.

We Kamalu-ed!

We have a nice retired couple- the Kamalu's- in our ward that have a cute tradition. Each Saturday night, she sets out his clothes for the next day. She chooses his clothes so that they will match what she plans to wear to church. If she is wearing a purple dress or blouse, he wears a purple tie. If she is wearing something red, his tie is red. He even has a green sport coat for the day she wears green. It's fun to see what they're wearing and how they match. Ken commented to Rod, the husband, about it one Sunday. He explained that if he gets in the wrong color, she says, "Uh uh!" and he has to go back and change. He's from Hawaii and she's from Germany, so that kind of explains it.

So, anytime Ken and I accidentally match (I'm not organized enough to plan it,) we say, "Hey! We Kamalu-ed!" Here's a couple of pictures we took when it happened. Well, actually Kristen took the first one when she was here last spring. We met Ken for dinner and discovered we'd Kamalu-ed. The second one was just last week.

So now, next time you match with someone you can exclaim, "Hey! We Kamalu-ed!"

Angle of Repose

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


"Wow! Oh, Wow! Wow, Oh, Wow!" I kept whispering after finishing this book in the middle of the night yesterday, even though my husband was sound asleep and there was no one to hear me. The last sentence of the book was what I call a "Sting Zing." Remember the movie, "The Sting," and how you felt at the end- that surprised, wow, oh wow feeling? That's how I felt when I read the last sentence of this book. It's a sentence that I'm sure I'll remember the rest of my life and moved my rating of this book from a 4 to a 5 star. One sentence. Just four or five chapters from the end, I had decided this was a 4 -star book for me. But that one sentence bumped 'er up. I thought it changed the central theme of the book. When you start reading, you think this is a magnificently written book about the beginnings of the western United States. About half-way through, you realize it's really about a marriage. It's the story of the marriage of a displaced Eastern socialite (Susan) to a rugged western man (Oliver). You get to know the characters intimately and live their lives with them. It’s the story of a marriage that starts- like an helium-filled balloon- full of hope and joy, and gradually, ever so gradually, deflates and loses air and becomes sad and even hopeless. I hated that. In fact, I got a few chapters from the end, and left the book sitting on my table for a couple of weeks. I didn't want to read the sad, foreshadowed parts. But, I guess the fact that I cared so much tells me how very, very good the book was. I loved these flawed, imperfect characters and wanted happiness for all of them. Then you come to that last sentence and realize that the book is about forgiveness in marriage. (I hope that doesn’t spoil it for you.)
I went to Wikipedia and found out that the letters in the book- the ones from Susan to Augusta, her socialite best friend in New York City- were real letters written by a Mary Hallock Foote who was a famous author/ illustrator in the Victorian age. These letters dictated the settings and basic story line for Stegner, who built this marvelous novel from them.
There is another main character in the book. This is a novel within a novel. Lyman Ward, a man in a wheelchair with a bone disease, decides to write the biography of his grandmother- a famous author and illustrator, Susan. So we read his novel as he writes it, learning about him and his life along the way. So it’s really two historical novels in one as we see a little of what’s happening in the late 1960’s and his views on that, as well as his own personal concerns.
I see why this book won the Pulitzer Prize. It is beautifully written and has great historical significance, but it’s greatest value is the exploration of marriage, hopefully causing the reader to analyze and improve their own marriages by looking for the good in one’s spouse, loving them for what they are, and mostly, forgiving them. Anyway, that’s my take away from this great book.


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Call Me

A couple of weeks ago, Ken and I went out to dinner at Applebee's. After dinner, we came out to find this crumpled napkin on our car windshield. Puzzled, we checked for dents. Nothing. We conjectured all the way home on who it could be and what they could want. I personally think some girl saw Ken in the restaurant and thought he was hot. Anyway, we didn't- - - call, I mean. Would you?

November, 2010 Conference Report

I'm hoping "better late than never" applies here. I am really late with this report. Studying these talks is an involved procedure, I guess you'd say. I had maybe ten left to do when I left for Ohio. I really didn't want to take everything I would need to finish studying them there, so I didn't get them done until after I got home. So I just finished last week and am ready to make my feeble attempt at reporting general conference of November, 2010.

It seems to me that this conference had a focus on agency or choice. We were reminded again and again of the gift of agency. Elder Edgley's talk used the words "choose" and "choice" 22 times! One of the things we can choose is "Faith," another oft-repeated theme of this conference (and the next one). There were seven talks on faith. Are we choosing "faith?" Obedience is always a theme of conference, and this one was no exception. We also were taught a lot about service and given concrete helps in raising families.

Elder Neil L. Andersen has become the apostle who uses the most scriptural references. He had 44 scriptural references, with Elder Hales using 39 references. It used to ALWAYS be Elder Russell M. Nelson with the most, and he still does use a lot. I love how he puts additional insights in his footnotes, as well.

Here's the tally of references, in case you're interested:

Book of Mormon: 131

Doctrine and Covenants: 105

New Testament: 102

Latter-day Apostles quoted:69

Other literature: 40

Old Testament: 39

Pearl of Great Price: 27

Hymns: 6

The Book of Mormon nearly always is the most-oft referenced book of scripture in general conference. The New Testament was quoted more in the conference before this one, but The Book of Mormon the most in this one.

An observation: President Hinckley is remembered for, among other things, his love and appreciation of church history. An appropriate legacy of him is the Nauvoo temple, built under his administration. He quoted a lot from the Doctrine and Covenants in his conference talks. He felt a strong connection with the Saints of the Latter days and reminded us of their sacrifice continually, "lest we forget."

President Monson has always quoted the New Testament a lot in his talks. In fact, I've thought of him as the "New Testament Apostle" for years. It's evened out a bit since he's been the prophet, but it used to be he always quoted most from the New Testament. This conference he quoted from the New Testament 13 times and the Book of Mormon 10 times. But, my point is this: I think it's appropriate that one of his legacies will be the Rome, Italy temple- heart of the New Testament lands. It shows me that the Lord prepares the hearts of each of his prophets to do the work he should do. I get chills all over when I think of a temple in the ancient city of Rome.

I reluctantly close this Conference Issue. I feel a deep sense of gratitude for these good men and women who pay the price to bring me the words of the Lord in general conference. I have a strong testimony that if we read, study, ponder, and then try to live what we're taught in general conference, we can go forward with faith in these troubled times. We have all we need. We will be fine.

I Love to See the Tempo

I want to share a sweet experience I had when I was in Columbus with Shonna's family. First, some background: Almost every night of Caleb's eighteen months of life, he's heard the song, "I Love to See the Temple." That is part of his bedtime ritual: Whoever is putting him to bed sings him that song while they rock him, then he goes into his crib, gets tucked in, and that's it. He doesn't fuss; he just goes to sleep. It's his routine.

Well, for FHE one night while I was there, Shonna pulled out a picture of the Columbus temple. "This is the temple." The kid came alive. "Tempo. Tempo. Tempo!" It was like a Helen Keller "Wa Wa" experience. Suddenly he knew what it was they were singing about all that time. Oh. my. goodness. He was excited. They pointed out other pictures of the temple around their house. He was thrilled. Spontaneously, we decided to get in the car and drive fifteen minutes to show him the Columbus temple. Blake set up the picture of the temple in the back window where he could look at it and say "Tempo, Tempo, Tempo" the whole way there. When he saw the real thing, he was absolutely thrilled. "This is the tempo. There is the tempo. . ." over and over and over again. When it was time to leave, he was so sad, "Bye, bye, tempo. Bye, bye, tempo." He cried half the way home. He didn't want to leave.

Since it was a Monday night, the gates were closed. It reminded me of that song, "Open the gates of the temple!" Blake and Shonna have since taken Caleb back when the gates were open so he could touch the temple.

Caleb is just learning to walk. The story is told (I don't remember it) of when my little sister was learning to walk, my parents and older siblings would put ice cubes in their mouths to get her to walk to them. She LOVED ice cubes, so was motivated to walk to get the ice. Guess what they use to motivate Caleb to walk?

You guessed it; a picture of the temple.

I learned a lot from little Caleb. Do we feel that way about the temple? Are we SO excited to see it, to go there; do we cry when we leave? Are we willing to do hard stuff (like walking is for Caleb) to get there? " . . . And a little child shall lead them."

My Favorite Things-Garlic Salt

It's been a long time since I posted a favorite thing. We both like it, but Ken is addicted to garlic salt. He LOVES it! I was recently gone for 5 weeks. I came home to find the garlic salt, not in the spice cabinet, but in a place of honor next to the salt and pepper on the table. He puts it on everything- well, nearly everything. We've tried different brands, but McCormick is his favorite. It's the most garlicky, I guess. Just before I left for Ohio, Ken and I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things. As we discussed what we needed, he sheepishly asked, "If I get a container of garlic salt for the office, does that mean I'm addicted?" I said yes. He bought it. So, now even the leftovers he takes to work can be sprinkled with this- one of his most favorite things!

When Crickets Cry

When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a clean, well- written novel with Christian (though not preachy) undertones. The setting: Georgia. The theme: self-forgiveness. It is the story of a little girl who needs a heart transplant, and a man who is the only one who can help her get it. It's about how their lives' intertwine and how they help each other with what they need most.
What I liked about the book:
1- Beautiful quotes from literature throughout the book. Shakespeare, Helen Keller being the most used.
2- The characters. Martin creates a group of very likable, though flawed characters that the reader comes to know and like.
3- The story. It's a good story. It is actually a really good story.
4- The Christian slant of the book. I especially loved the speech the narrator gives to a young man he's befriended who is looking at pornography. It's a speech every dad should give his son.
What I didn't like:
1- Too much tragedy/ conflict. The story just didn't need the tornado. The list includes: tragic car accident, little girl getting hit by a truck, flood, arm to arm transfusions, surgeries with kitchen utensils, man being blinded by a falling accident, and the tornado. I'm sure I'm forgetting some . . . It was just too much. The story didn't need all of that. It really didn't. Had I been editing, I would have cleaned a lot of that out. And while I'm fantasizing about being the editor, I would also suggest that the delightful, precocious seven-year-old girl, was maybe a bit grown up for her age. The author even had her making her own medical decisions. That just wouldn't happen in real life.
2- The author had obviously done much research into hearts and how they work and how they transplant, etc. as well as other medical facts. That should really be in the "what I liked" section, because I did appreciate the thorough accuracy. But I didn't think we needed all the details. I sometimes felt like the story provided a backdrop for the author to spill everything he had learned on us. Again, too much.
Though this book takes awhile to "get into" and to figure out the back and forth from present to past format, it is worth the effort. It is a book of healing and relationships and acceptance: Acceptance of others, of circumstances, and of ourselves. Oh, and as a nice bonus, there's a bit of romance in there, too!


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Enna Burning

Enna Burning by Shannon Hale
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had a very hard time getting into this second book in the Bayern series. I nearly gave up several times. I found it to be dark (even though it's dealing with very bright fire) and I didn't like how it made me feel. But I'm glad I persevered, as it comes to a very satisfying conclusion for both Ani and Enna. It again, is full of suspense, action, and romance.

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The Goose Girl

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale My rating: 4 of 5 stars Though fantasy is not my favorite genre, I really enjoyed this delightful, well- written book. It was fun to watch Ani grow and learn to assert herself. It was full of page-turning action, suspense, and romance. Though I felt that the ending got a little thready, it certainly came to a satisfying conclusion. It's a more wholesome choice for fantasy-loving young adults than that vampire stuff. I concur with what Allison said in her review, "It reminded me of why I absolutely love to read." View all my reviews

Crossing to Safety

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've found another author to add to my list of favorites. I find this book, though, difficult to review. The plot is simple: Two couples meet at graduate school in Madison, Wisconsin in the 1930's. They become close friends, more like family to each other. Larry, one of the husbands, is our narrator, and through him we become intimately acquainted with these four people. There are other minor characters, but the book is a study of these four characters, their friendship, marriages, and lives. The book starts with Larry and Sally, now in their sixties, visiting Sid and Charity, to bid farewell to Charity as she is dying of cancer. Through flashback, we read the story of these two couples. “How do you make a book that anyone will read out of lives as quiet as these?” Larry asks. It is a quiet book about four lives, and yet it is intriguing and even life- changing, as you watch how they interact and handle life. Oh posh, I'm making it sound boring! Let me just say this: Deep in my heart, I long to be an author. If I could write a novel, I would want it to be just like this one. I would want it to explore people, living their lives the best they can, interacting, loving, and caring about one another through all the ups and downs, tragedies and joys that life brings. I would want it, just as this book did to me, to make a difference in how someone views life, how they interact with loved ones and friends. I would want them to feel different and act different and be different- better, because they read the book. That is what this book did for me.
The title, "Crossing to Safety" comes from a poem by Robert Frost. The last stanza of the poem is the introduction to the book:
I could give all to Time except — except
What I myself have held. But why declare
The things forbidden that while the Customs slept
I have crossed to Safety with? For I am There
And what I would not part with I have kept. -Robert Frost

That is what this book is about and mirrors my own beliefs. When we "cross to safety", when we leave this world, we can only smuggle through "customs" what we've become and the love we have in our hearts for our family and friends. Everything else will be confiscated. But these are the things with which we simply will not part.
This is a book I will want to reread in a few years- after I've read everything else Stegner has written.


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Costa Rica

Hang on to your hats, folks, ‘cuz we’re going on a WiLd! ride to Costa Rica- land of the unpaved road, monkeys, exotic birds, beautiful jungle, and dogs. . . everywhere dogs.

We left early on Saturday, July 2^nd, just one day after I got home from Columbus. It was a crazy day between: doing laundry and repacking to head out again.

Costa Rica is in the Mountain time zone, so we thought by arriving at 7:30pm we’d have some daylight before the black of night started. But, no, it was black dark when we arrived, already exhausted from a long day’s travel. We got out of the plane onto the tarmac. It was hot and very humid. We waited in long, inefficient lines at immigration, baggage claim and customs, all housed in a hot, humid airplane hangar. We then waited a long time for the rental car shuttle, only to wait a REALLY long time to get the rental car. Nothing in Costa Rica is done efficiently or by USA standards. It was 10:00pm before we started the long journey to our resort on the coast.As soon as we got on the “highway” we knew we were in for a long trip as the road was terrible.But believe me, that was the good road. The last hour of our journey was basically an off- roading adventure, though we were on a dirt road- I use the term “road”loosely- oh, so loosely. If you know me, you know I have always hated anything "off-roady". When my family would go in the jeep when I was a kid, I would BEG to walk, and sometimes my dad would let me. It’s just not my thing. So, traveling through a dark jungle on a bumpy road was not my idea of fun. I begged to walk, but Ken wouldn’t let me. Adventure, I know, adventure! I found that the only way to survive the jolting was to plant both feet on the floor boards, grasp the shoulder harness on the seat belt with both hands (practically pulling it out at the root) and press my back into the seat . . . and pray. Oh, and count. That’s my defense mechanism for surviving difficult things- I count. I don’t know why, but it works for me. Like when my babies wouldn’t go back to sleep at night after I fed them, I’d rock, and count. I’d say to myself,” I’ll count to 50.” And I would and then if they still weren’t asleep, I’d do it again. So I was counting, baby, I was counting. I got to 200 when Ken announced he thought we were about ¼ of the way there. Okay, I can do that. And he was pretty close to right on.He had studied and studied the map, and did a great job navigating in the black of night. 600 counts later we saw the sign to the resort. Ah, relief. The condo was very nice. I’m sure I was asleep before my head hit the pillow after midnight.

The sun rises at 5:00am in Costa Rica, so we were up early. The resort was beautiful, carved out of the jungle right on the coast. It was called “The Sanctuary.” Here are some pictures we took of the resort:

Yes, those are iguanas!

Our first day was Sunday, but there was no way we were going back on the road an hour and a half to attend church by 9:00am, so we made our own little church, studying “Jesus, the Christ” together. We enjoyed visiting with the restaurant staff and other guests, though there were few of those. We enjoyed dinner that evening with a couple and their college-graduate son from Sacramento, California. I forgot to take a picture of them, but they were very fun people.

On Monday, Independence Day, we ventured down that road a piece to a village- again, I use the term loosely- where there was a small market. We purchased fruit, yogurt (why is it that every country has better yogurt than we do? Man, this stuff was yummy! Here we are, out on the remote edge of the earth and they have this delicious yogurt!), bread, etc. to make breakfasts in the condo.

Every little village is centered around a soccer field. That is their main source of entertainment, I guess. Their homes are open, cement or dirt floor structures. They spend their time out in front of their homes, gathered around a cooking fire or where a fire could be. It was interesting to see the life style and to reflect again on how blessed we are to be born in the United States.Happy Fourth of July to us! It really was moving to be away and to see how many ways we are blessed to live in the United States- on that important holiday.

The week was restful and relaxing. We swam in the pools, read, ate at the five star restaurant at the resort and just enjoyed being together. Ken started each day with a four hour or so birding adventure. He hiked around the jungle and saw about 50 new species of birds- added to his life list. He was in bird heaven.

Our camera doesn't have a scope, so he doesn't photograph birds (his brother, Don does that), but we did stop along the road and snap this picture of a Mott Mott. He says this is one of his favorites from the trip:

On Wednesday, we braved that old road again and went back an hour and a half to the town of Santa Cruz. I made Ken snap this picture of one of the ruts to document that I'm not exagerating: This road was bad!

There is no gasoline station out where we were. You have to go back 1 1/2 hours to get gas. We bought a few groceries, got gas, and had an adventurous lunch. We had been told that you can always find someone who speaks English, but we never found them. We had read in a magazine about a café in Santa Cruz that made delicious Costa Rican food and tortillas. We tried to find someone who could give us directions, but had no luck. My mouth, by then, was watering for fresh tortillas with rice and beans. So we just stopped at a café that looked alright. Oh man. It was, well, less than clean. I tried to communicate to the man (I think he was the owner) that I wanted rice and beans and chicken. I got a bowl of rice, a bowl of beans, a bowl of squash, a platter of tortillas, and huge platter of chicken, salad, and this yummy saucy vegetable sauce. We laughed at how much food it was. It actually tasted really good, but we were just praying we wouldn’t get sick. Ken’s meal was also very tasty, other than the rubber band he found in his salad and the chicken bone he found in his mixed rice.

We ate out two other times at restaurants away from our wonderful resort. All three were adventures. There were dogs in every one. Yes, dogs; just roaming around, begging your food. At one, there were two huge German shepherds.Another dog ventured in and they had a huge dog fight under the table, knocking over all of the food. It was scary.

At another one, we walked in to find the biggest screen television we have ever seen in a private residence.The place looked pretty clean, but as we ate, a cockroach ran across the table and hid under Ken’s plate, a dog begged food under the table and a bat flew back and forth across the big screen television. I was so glad to get out of there. After that, we decided to just eat at our resort. We felt so blessed that we didn’t get sick from our eating adventures. Here's a picture of that huge tv with a very dramatic soap opera-ish show on. We drove out to a little village, Guaitil. The drive out there was absolutely gorgeous. Ken commented that this was the land of the Book of Mormon. The pictures are beautiful, but don't completely show how beautiful it was.

Guaitil is famous for their native pottery making Many of the homes had little pottery stands set up. We stopped at one and bought a piece of the pottery with a monkey on it to remind us of my favorite part of the adventure- the monkeys!

This was their home (this is the only picture I took of a home, and believe me, this is one of the nicest we saw.)

The process for making this pottery has been passed down from generation to generation. This young mother is now running the shop.

Now to those monkeys! All around our resort was jungle. Howler monkeys lived in that jungle. We hiked up to see a troop of them sleeping one day.

Then on the last evening, a troop of them was in the trees right by our hotel. They howl. It sounds like a guttural dog bark, kind of like “Ho! Ho! Ho!” They were right above us. In fact, if Ken had been over a step or two, as he was taking pictures of them in the tree above him, he would have been pooped on. We watched them climb around, howl, copulate, poop, and carry their babies on their back. We were closer than if we had been at a zoo. The sunset that night was gorgeous and the lightning bugs abundant. We had such a gorgeous view from our back porch of the ocean, jungle, and resort. We loved sitting on our back porch: soaking in the view, reading, and listening to the waves crash below. We were there during their rainy season. Wednesday evening, returning from our trip to Santa Cruz and Guaitil, we arrived back at the resort just as THE MOST AMAZING rainstorm I have ever seen, hit. Man, oh man . .. sheets of rain were falling from the sky. We were under the metal parking covering, hoping it would let up a bit so we could make it to the condo. But the lightning and thunder were SO loud and virtually simultaneous. We decided we needed to just go for it or risk getting fried by a bolt of lightning. By then, a raging river, okay raging stream, had formed that we had to cross, before we could run for the safety of our condo. By the time we went the 30 or so yards, we were both soaked to the skin. Like I say, I have never seen anything like it. Once we were inside the condo, I really enjoyed watching it pour, though that thunder was scary. Another day, we spotted a little sign on the road that said, “”Wood Carving” in English. So we parked the car and ventured down the path into the jungle. Imagine our surprise when we found this: This man, who could speak no English, was carving native birds and animals into this tree. It was s intricate and gorgeous.

It was so fun to see his beautiful carvings. He had set up a little shop where you could purchase his carvings, and imagine my joy when I discovered they also sold jewelry that his wife makes. I bought an onyx ring. I have a nose for jewelry, I think. Even in the dense jungle, I can find a jewelry store!

All week I teased and begged Ken to go skinny dipping with me, well in my case, fatty dipping. Right below our condo was a beautiful little pool surrounded by much foliage. The resort was only sparsely occupied. I thought we could sneak out in the dark of night and cross something off my bucket list. Did we do it? I’ll never tell, but I will say that when they are showing the movie of my life, you might want to fast forward through the Costa Rica part!

I’m kidding, I’m only kidding. I’M JUST KIDDING! I did have fun teasing Ken about how easy it would be all week. Here's our secluded little swimming pool:

We were SO impressed with the employees at the resort where we stayed. They all did all they could to help us be comfortable and have a nice time. As we said, the restaurant was really, really good-the quality was better than and just as fancy as cruise food. We had some great meals. We really bonded with especially a couple of the employees there. Pedro was a twenty-three year old chef. He has been trained since he was ten years old and really has a gift for cooking. He was so eager to please us, often bringing special unordered dishes to the table. Waiting for lunch: One of the dinners- I don't remember the name, but it was stuffed chicken breasts: Ken LOVES crème brulee. He loves it. It is his favorite treat. He tried ordering it a couple of nights, but they would say, “We don’t have it. The dessert tonight is the Costa Rican brownie.” So we finally ordered the Costa Rican brownie. Oh my, that was good.It was more like a dense frosted chocolate cake with some sort of brittly nut glaze over it. Again, I should have taken a picture, but it was gone before I even thought of it. But Pedro caught wind of Ken’s love for brulee, so the last night, he especially made three lemon brulee’s for us. It was so cute. We also bonded with our frequent waitress, Tatianna. We found out she had three children, and was a single mom. On the last day, she brought her two oldest daughters to work with her and we got to meet them. The little one cuddled up right next to me and fingered and admired my jewelry, chatting in Spanish the whole time. Oh, she was cute. I think of them often and pray for them.

I was so impressed to find out in a little village some beautiful American young adults. They were there building a community building for the people. They were with a group called “Students for Humanity” They said they stayed with families. They all had beds, but most got wet when it rained, some of them slept outside. I can only imagine their living conditions, yet here they were, miles and miles from civilization, in the humid heat, bug infested jungle, serving others. They all had a beautiful light in their eyes and faces. I group hugged them and thanked them for their work.

Saturday, we left for the airport. Getting out of Costa Rica was even more of an adventure than getting in. The “airport” was really just a big hangar with chairs. They had no idea how to do security. The metal detector screamed at my artificial knees. “No problem!” they said and waved me through. But then, in that miserable heat, they confiscated our water bottles! Water we bought AFTER going through security. They had ten or so uniformed policemen digging through everyone’s bags, taking their water bottles. They had huge garbage baskets full of water bottles. We think they probably filled them back up and sold them to the next group of unsuspecting tourists. I was SO glad to get on that plane and get out of there. It was good to be on U.S. soil again. We arrived home at 2:30am on Sunday morning. Ken had to be at a 6:00am high council meeting.

So there you have it, our Costa Rican adventure. Would I go back? No. Would Ken? Yes. Maybe he should have written the story. I guarantee it wouldn’t have had the “fatty dipping” part in it- if he had written it, I mean. And it would probably have had more birds in it. So until our next adventure (this time in the United States) Adios!