GUESS WHO'S HERE?!?!?!

Guess who came? Nope! No! Guess again!


O.K. I'll tell you!




Isn't that so exciting????? Wes and his sister Rusti said I had a photo shoot at a condo for a picky lady. When we got there they opened the door and it was my dad and Rosie!!! What a treat. Our first visitors!!! We had them pick up Dallin from school he was so shocked he came running down the stairs and got a swing around, pick me up hug from grandpa. When we arrived home where Troy was they knocked on the door and asked him, casually if his mother was home. He paused for a minute, closed the door and said, "Mom, grandpa's at the door" with the largest grin!!!! They came for Paige's baptism, which is Sunday.

We took them to see Crocodile bridge. It's a bridge that you can walk out on and look over to see ton's of crocs. We saw about 12. We went to a town to buy a baptism dress for Paige. That was an adventure. Note: Toyota Privia’s don't 4x4 well! Last night we had a rowdy game of Sequence. {One of our favorite board games!} The women won of course. Sometimes it gets boring ALWAYS beating the men. :) It can be pretty TOUGH on Rosie and I "always" winning. We still need to act excited when we do, but it really gets tiresome.


Paige and Grandpa in front of a restaurant in Los Seunos.


Aiden and Grandpa when they first arrived. (He just jumped to his grandpa and held on for about 5 minutes. He hasn’t stopped smiling since!)




When we were leaving their "gorgeous" condo, my dad jumped a few feet when he saw this move. Too bad my video camera wasn't running. Isn't this the most interesting crab??? It reminds me of a cross between batman and the joker with all the colors.



This is just before the crab's demise.

Just kidding, my dad was trying to keep it from running away so I could get a picture! As long as it made it across the street, it's on to a happy life.


So, who's next to visit? My aunt Sheila and her daughter Joanna are coming in January!!! Can't wait.

Want to Look at the Photo Album...

Here are some pic's we finally retrieved off of Wes' camera.



We took this after the croc tour to prove we all survived.
Oh no, where is Landon???? Wes, do you see him. I wasn't watching him, I thought you were watching him!!! Oh, that's right. We didn't bring him. Whew!!!


Paige and I at one of our favorite restaurants, Tsunami Sushi.


Wes teaching the boys how to show the "pure life" sign.

Is it a Geico or Gecko?

Paige, our "survivior" girl caught this. Can you see what it is??? Look closer. It's a baby gecko. See how tiny it is? She caught it just outside our front door. Which amazes me because I think it's parents live in our house.

Whenever I see our geckos run up our wall, I just smile. Did you know that they keep the insect population down? As far as I'm concerned they can move their entire family tree into our home. Bring uncle Bob, aunt Janie the whole crew. As long as they munch on the bugs trying to invade my cozy living quarters, they can party behind my fridge all they want!

They also make the most interesting noise. It sounds like a baby bird chirping. Not too loud, just a reminder that they are protecting me and my youngin's.

The View from Down Here is Different...

Things have changed for me dramatically. For instance, I remember a story Wes told me when we were newly married. On his mission a sweet women had made him and his companion lemonade. However, when he went to drink it was full of ants. They must have gotten into the sugar. Do you know what he did??? He drank it anyway. Yep!

When Wes told me this so long ago, I was disgusted. Do you know what I did the other day? I drank lemonade with 3 ants in it. It wasn't because I didn't want to offend someone. I just didn't care. It was going to take too long to try and fish them out and I was hot and tired. As I was drinking my {ants} lemonade, I giggled at how silly I was to be horrified with his story.

Now don't worry, I won't feed you lemonade ala ant if you come visit me. And I certainly won't do it back in the states. But if I make another glass of lemonade for me and see a few ants floating in it, I probably won't fish them out.

Oh how this beautiful country has changed me.

We've Had to Be More Creative...

We all have, including me. I've had to come up with ways to keep my little ones attention.

We've:
1. made play dough {3 times}
2. colored salt
3. made tents, forts, clubs and houses
4. cooked cookies
5. played with noodles
6. filmed a play
7. made a cake
8. captured bugs
9. took apart an alarm clock {on purpose}
10. fed a dead dragon fly to our killer ants
11. made an obstacle course
12. made clouds
13. finger-painted


and now we add number 14

14. built our own train track


I'm sure to my ultra creative friend Cindy, this list might not seem to interesting. In fact she is such a good organizer of play, she even has one of those "cool" aprons with all the pockets. {I've tired not to covet it}. For me, it's been a challenge to come up with things for my guys to do everyday. They each brought 2 toys so I've had to use the things that we already have to make it more fun. I have enjoyed the challenge!!!



Aiden loved to play with his GeoTrac train in the states. So we used Landon's train set, packaging tape and household items to create this world. The kids played for about 3 hours with this. Do you see the HIGH heeled shoe? (tan) Wes' sweet sister Rusti gave me these. They are so cute, but let's just say in a country where women are so short, I look ridiculous in these.

Ridiculous!

So we used them as garages for the cars. They are perfect with their peek-a-boo toes.

The other day Aiden was entertained with dental floss, 2 matchbox cars, 3 pencils a shoe and an ice cream scoop. Now, to some of you that might sound sad, even bring a tear to your eye. {Don't worry we could buy more toys if we wanted to} But for me it was beautiful! His little imagination was just blossoming. I didn't set it up for him, he found these specific things that he needed and went for it. Creativity is a beautiful thing. Don't you love it when your little ones play like this?

Do you have any easy ideas for creative play? What has worked for your kids?

Oh my, Oh my, I have found a new LOVE!

I wonder how many new loves I will find here in Costa Rica? {Besides my one and only "true" love, my honey}

A few nights ago, we had "Bananas Foster" at a restaurant for dessert. Oh my! Have you had that before????

Bananas for dessert, I can take it or leave it, but THIS, this was fantastic! For father's day I looked up the recipes on www.allrecipes.com {another love of mine!}. Mary Dejour had the recipe posted and it received 5 stars out of 5 stars by 319 people. WOW! It can't be that good, can it????




I'm pleased to announce it is. It's drop to your knees, wipe the drool and lick your plate clean, "good". And the best part is it's so easy!!! So here's the recipe, courtsy of Mary Dejour. Thanks Mary! Go here to ALLRECIPES.)

So of course I can't leave a recipe alone. This is what I did differently.

1. I omitted the rum and used orange juice instead. It's only 3 teaspoons, so it won't affect it much.

2. I used chopped pecans instead of walnuts. However you don't need to use nuts at all.

3. I sliced the bananas instead of halving them.

4. I served it in margarita glasses which made it tastier of course. It's all about presentation!

5. Also I used caramel ice cream> {yum, I think I need to go dip into it again.}


Oh, that was delish!!!!

I doubled the recipe and tomorrow I will use it to pour over their French toast. It can't be worse than pouring syrup on them. At least this has bananas.

Happy Father's Day!!!

This is for all you father's who influence my little ones; Grandpa Krepps, Grandpa Banagas, Great Grandpa Banagas, Uncle Danny, Uncle Dave, Uncle Randal, Uncle Kris, Uncle Adam, Uncle Ty and Uncle Robbie. May you get extra hugs and squishes today! Wish we could be there to apply the hugs!