Tom and the big 5-0

Yep, that's right...Tom turned 50 this past weekend. YIKES! We spent the weekend celebrating his 1st 50 years and sending him good wishes for the next 50:)

We had an action packed weekend. Of course, coming into this big event was the debate...party? no party? travel? how do you celebrate? We opted for a # of small dinners with family friends (that is, our close friends that our whole family - kids and all -are friends with). Also interspersed in the plan? football and more football:)
Friday night was a family sleep over at Wade/Angelas. In true "the world" is small mode, it just so happens that Tom & Wade share a birthday. To make it even more auspicious, their foreign exchange student, Rica-from Germany, also shares the same big day. so, we celebrated a 17, 38 and 50th with fillet Mignon, crab legs, salad and asparagus (and CAKE!) Rica asked 'what can I do at 17 in the U.S. that I couldnt do at 16?' both thing was disappointed when the only thing we could think of was go to an R rated movie "legally". It was a super fun, relaxing kick off to the weekend and included gifts of beer & wine making kits for all (well all except Rica):)

Sat was Jimmy's 3rd football game and they WON! Jimmy was a monster out there, he was finally "up against" someone his own size and he held his own. Its even more fun that they won and they were short 4 guys. Uncle Pat even showed up and that was a big treat for everyone!

Saturday night was "date night". I told Tom I wanted him to myself and we were going to hit this awesome new foodie restaurant Travail. Little did he know that I had Mike & Libby planted in the restaurant as a surprise. It was amazing. We did a 10 course tasting menu, dinner lasted hours and each dish was better than the last. Travail is a cool concept. They cook whatever shows up from the co-op that day, the decor is local tavern and they dont have waitresses, just the 7 cooks. They greet you and then serve you the dish they made. Every day the menu changes and its definitely a labor of love. The best food I have had out in a long long time.

Sunday Tom took Jimmy to his 1st regular season Vikings game and while it wasnt pretty, the Vikes did win. They had seats in the end zone, 4 rows from the top of the dome and Jimmy thought he was in HEAVEN! They drank soda and ate junk food and basically had a grand old time. This was followed by the HFL (Hopkins Football League) family fund raiser and tug of war. Jimmy and Ben (who was pulling with 1 arm since he broke his other arm in playground football at school) were undefeated against 2 able bodied kids. Not only did the win, Jimmy & Ben literally tipped the other team over. We have a video.

Sunday night we ended the weekend at the Childrens Home Society and Family Services winemakers dinner and fund raising gala. This is a dress up affair with live, silent and pseudo silent auctions. We double dated with Jeff & Karen but ended up reconnected with other friends during the night as well. Of course dinner was steak, shrimp and chocolate cake (and another reason to sing Happy Birthday to Tom:)).

In between all of this, Kay had 2 birthday parties, Billy had a monster playdate with Cole and we managed to fit in a flooded basement and a few workouts to work off all the yummy food.

The voicemails, emails, texts, hugs (both live and virtual) from all of you from around the world were awe inspiring, THANK YOU! Its so great to know that Tom is loved by so many for the same reason we love him - he's kind, engaged, helpful, funny, and the glue that keeps us together.

If this weekend is an indication of Tom's next 50 years, lets get the party started!!

We love you - I love you!

Football Update #2

Monday evening as the fall sun begins to set over Minnetonka Badger Field, Jimmy and The Hopkins Blue Crush take the field, like sentinels casting long shadows over the opposition, Minnetonka #6.

We interrupt this football update to bring to late breaking news updates.....

Update #1:

Gordon is set free! For those who may not know, Gordon is a crayfish that has been the family pet since last June when Jimmy brought him home from a fishing trip. Gordon was known by some as " That creature living in the garage" by others as "the prehistoric animal in the kids room" but to the Loudamericans, Gordon was our pet. Named afterour dearly departed neighbor, the kids decided it was time to release Gordon back to the wild. So as the sound of taps could be gently heard around the local swamp, Gordon, with one powerful twitch of his tail, was free again.

Update #2

Kay Marie Jeon Murphy scores her first 100 and excellent rating on her second grade spelling test. Ms. Murphy put in long hours over this past summer studying and perfecting her grammar and mathematics skills and from all signs the budding student is applying that learned knowledge. Well done Kay!

Back to our regularly scheduled program.....

Football, as many know, is a game unto itself, demanding focus and discipline from the disciples of the game. Hard work and perseverance are key factors in the succees of any team. the third graders are no exception. The practice this week was centered around staying home and not letting the opposition run the deadly end around play. It worked. The Blue crush stayed home and lived up to their name besting the lads from Minnetonka 25-20. The first W is big for any team, the parents were so proud they formed a human tunnel for the Crush to run through and one of the Dad's commented that if this keeps up at some point we will have to start our selves on fire and make a flaming tunnel. There is enthusiasm and then there is Rudy like behavior!

Here is Jimmy (#42) running the ball carrier down and preventing the third down conversion.

What I love about Billy

2 quick things I love about Billy and just couldnt pass up posting...
~ he LOVES to get his haircut - #2 with 1/2 sideburns (not full, not shaved). He sits super still and giggles when she trims around his ears.
~ he always picks the mystery sucker at the barber. always, no matter what. I asked him 'why?' "I like guessing what the flavor is, its a good surprise" That's my boy, livin' on the edge!

The boys of Fall

The football season is upon us and over the weekend the Hopkins Royals 3rd graders took the field for the first time. The opponents, the Minnetonka Skippers. Jimmy walked into the stadium and in awe stated, " Dad, do we play here?" Yes son, will ESPN be here, not today Jim.

The games go something like this, for those of us unfamiliar with Football. Each team has two subset teams Jimmy's team is Orange and Crush, Jim plays for Crush. The Coin toss was won, Jimmy is a captain, and the Royals were to start on offense. So The first of the subset team is on the field for 4 plays and then they come off the field and the other subset goes on for four plays and then the sides switch. In the event of a tour over or a touchdown,( there is no kicking of the ball until 5Th grade), the teams stay on the field until they have played four downs.

The game is 4 quarters and two halves and you can not tell one kid from the other. I am sad to report the Royals fell to the Skippers 12 to 6. The game was hard fought and on a high note none of the points were scored against Jimmy and his squad. He plays center and guard on the offense and guard and tackle on defence. The kid hits hard.

The next Game is on Monday the 20Th more after the game.

A new addition to our family

Timmy is a guinea pig. He is a boy guinea pig. I have been BEGGING my parents for a guniea pig for 6 months. I researched them online and checked out books from the library. I even researched if people could be allergic to them because my mom is allergic to anything that poops in the house. She is going to have to wash her hands a lot with Timmy to make sure she doesnt have a reaction. After all this, my parents surprised me with a guinea pig starter kit for my birthday along with a gift certificate to the humane society. We decided not to look for a guinea pig until after our camping trip at Rock Cut State Park. We got home and my mom and I looked online for a pig and the 1st few days, nothing. Then, there was Timmy. He's a little over 2 lbs and has white/black hair that goes sort of crazy all over his body. That's all about Timmy. I will post an update to my facebook. Here are some pictures. From - Jimmy

Labor Day Weekend

The Loudamericans (plus Nikki) set out Friday afternoon to Rock Cut State park outside of Rockford,Ill to meet Tracy's sister Tammy and her husband Jeff and their kids Georgia, Joey and Herbie.

The trip down was uneventful.... if you call screaming kids, kids that are spitting at each other and tickling each other to the "state of pee", a DVD player that doesn't work and constant rain.... uneventful. We had planned to stop at a Chinese Buffet along the way for dinner (if you have noticed it is rare to find a Chinese Buffet along any interstate) however we ended up eating McDonalds in the car (every parents nightmare) due to: traffic, rain and the fact of actually looking at our reservation form (the park closes for admittance at 10:00 Pm - our ETA was 9:55 - we needed to make tracks!). We arrived at 9:45, way ahead of 10:00 deadline, and got to the campsite about a half hour ahead of the Basil's. We got the tents set up and the kids played and had a ball until 12:30 in the morning! It was great fun to see the cousins playing and especially for Kay, having another girl to play with.

Saturday was the Murphy's day for meals. We had sausage, sausage and egg and just egg breakfast sandwiches along with juice, pop, chips,candy and all the other great food items one can justify eating while camping! The boy's were playing football, the girls were in the tents playing dress up, coloring and practicing being interior decorators to the point they were banned from playing in the tents (note: suntan lotion, bug spray and markers are not a good combination with pillows, blankets and sleeping bags). We spent time exploring the park, Tracy and Tam took Nikki for long walks and we were all able to relax and enjoy the great outdoors. Lunch was more of the same however there were more fruits and veggies available. The afternoon gave way to fishing from the pier, hiking around the lake and football. Dinner was the world famous Chalupa's with all the fixing and it was an El Grande feast, followed by s'more's and more passing around the old pigskin. It was apparent after only a few minuets that showers would be a waste of time and water. The weather was awesome for sleeping, however the ground was not and we ended up in a bundle at the bottom of the tent... such as camping,.

Sunday was the Basil's food day and pancakes and bacon for everyone! We spent the day hiking around the camp and fishing in the fishing lake. I have never in all our travels experienced a State Park with the rules at Rock Cut. The park has two lakes, a fishing lake and a swimming lake and you can not swim in the fishing lake nor can fish in the swimming lake? The fishing lake rents water crafts including canoes, kayaks and fishing boats so the question is if you rent a water craft and it capsize,s are you forced to drown because you can not swim in the lake? Pass me another beer! The weather was not real helpful, the fish were not biting but that did not stop us from renting a paddle boat and a fishing boat, we had a blast. It was a good thing that Kay paid attention during nature camp earlier in the summer, since there were no fish, she taught us how to eat cattails, and eat them we did! (She was also helpful in identifying what was NOT poison ivy). Sunday night was a burger and hot dog fest followed by more football and a great bonfire and s'mores.

Monday we had a catch as catch can breakfast, broke down camp and readied ourselves for the Long ride home. In preparation for the homeward journey we walked to the park to get some energy out of the kids, I should say some of us walked. For the record from our campsite to the park is 180 cartwheel, just ask Kay, she added 53 (just to be safe) and hit her own personal record of 231 cartwheels.....in a row. ugghhh I feel sick just thinking about it, but she was fine!

It was an awesome weekend and the cousins had a blast, as did the parents and we are all set to hook up at Tammy and Jeff's for Thanksgiving!

Happy Labor Day.

Sue comes to town, Vikes Game and School starts

Aunt Sue has just returned from a quiet trip (not) to Costa Rica and came over to celebrate her birthday and Jimmy's birthday.

She didnt know what she was in for!

Tracy and I decided that a great birthday present for the two of them would be for Sue to take Jimmy to a Vikings game. Yep we got tickets to a pre-season game and when they opened the tickets, it was hard to tell who was more excited. The long time die hard Packer fan or the long time disappointed in the making Vikings fan? Either way off to the Mall Of America- Hubert Humprey -Metro Dome or whatever.

Jimmy could not even breath he was so excited. He had his Vikings hat, Vikings foam finger, Brett Favre jersey, face paint and the will to sit in his seat and not leave for one single play. Sue had to go up to the hot dog vendor because Jimmy would not miss one play. He was in VIKINGS TERRITORY- bring it on.!

Sue was not here to just watch Jimmy and his obsession, she was her to see the kids off to their first day of school. This is Billy's first year of school. aka, kindergarten and he is so excited that he gets to come home on the bus- that school is cool.

Kay is in second grade and is so looking forward to teaching her teachers, yes she has two, sometimes in the same day, sometimes not. Now you see her, now you don't, the proper way to do cartwheels and to mix paint to obtain the most delicate shade of brown.

The summer has drawn to an end, the kids are back to school, the house is painted and the loudamericans are looking forward to fall.

As stated in an earlier post, it is all about football check this out:

How do we know if Summer Vacation is to long?

Or what happens when you let an 8 soon to be 9 year old on the computer

Jimmy's first forray into graphic arts

Happy Birthday Jimmy

Another year has come and gone and Jimmy is now 9! He is growing up to fast.

Jimmy was so excited the day before he kept wanting to go to bed so he would wake up and it would be his birthday. As it was he woke up a 6:00 and was ready to go, trouble was that the rest of us were not. We managed to delay him until 8:30 and then it was off to the presents. The big gift for this year, and we can not believe we got talked into this, is a Guinea pig. Tracy managed to talk him out of actually getting the little critter until after labor day!

Kay,Billy and Nikki were more focused on Jimmy's other passion and gave him a Vikings hat, backpack and the needed accessory the foam finger. We had a big breakfast and then it was off to the party.

Jimmy had several friends join him for a day of roller skating,pizza and fun. The roller garden is the place to be when it is hot and humid outside, it is air conditioned and cool inside. The boys all got into the whole roller blading thing and enjoyed themselves. The old sound tracks from days gone by have been replaced with the current artist of the day the likes of Justin Bieber, Lady Gagga and several others I have no idea of, the kids seem to know who is hot and who is not.

The day ended with the Mike and Gretchen coming over for dinner and a dose of football. Jimmy had Mike in the backyard for a hour or so running plays, practicing kick offs and returns. The Vikings were playing a preseason game and we watched number 4 return tot he field. He played four downs, Jimmy could not believe it and when we tried to explain to him that pre-season does not count he launched into a Vince Lombardi type tirade that every game counts and the whole season is the meaning of football and team work, after that he was so exhausted he finally went to bed.

The final gift came on Monday at football practice, his first jersey!

Happy 9Th birthday Jimmy

We Love You!

Old Friends and a Birthday

This past week we had the great fortune to re-connect with our friends the Cady's. Pat, Mary Griffin, Marley and Pipper were just passing through on their way to Switzerland. Pat is on an international assignment for the company that he works for and they stopped over in Minneapolis to see family and friends before heading off for this 2-3 year assignment in SWITZERLAND! (jealous much?!)

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The Cady's moved to Arkansas while we were in India and we were all to happy to see them again. We laughed about old times, before kids and the new times, with kids. Speaking of kids 5 of them had a blast, Piper is still to little at 6 months to get into the mischief, however enough was had for her as well.

Kay took over as drill Sargent and had the kids lined up and down doing 20 in no time.We look forward to hearing of their experiecing in Switzerland and hopefully we can get them hooked up Debbie, Simon, Hope and Freddy our friends from Bangalore who are already in Switzerland and I may add are raising a pet pig!

Safe travel and God Bless!

Love,The Loudamericans

Our good friend and world renouned rock star Will Hale turned 50 over the weekend and we were invited to his birthday party/jam session. Will plays childrens music with a rock flare and our kids, along with a whole bunch more, love Will. His brother was the host there were several talented musicians at the party and when the signing/jam session started Jimmy was right in the middle.

He was beat boxing along with them and then at one point Will handed Jimmy a harmonica and Jimmy played Wills song "Meet me at the Library" to Will's astonishment. He commented that he never thought he would hear a kid play one of his songs let alone on a harmonica.

The whole night was great fun. Will likes cool hats so we gave him a cool hat from Shimla which is in Northern India in the Himalayans.

Happy 50th will rock on!

Love

The Loudamericans

Camp Christmas Tree

The kids began week two of camp - we have them signed up for camp three weeks in a row. (dont read too much into this, august can get long for parents and kids on summer vacation:))


Camp christmas tree is assocaited with the YMCA and the kids went to the day camp program.


The week was super hot (hottest week of the year) so being at camp on a lake proved to be awesome. (tornados and thunderstorms aside) They have all the typical camp stuff - archery, swimming, song, skits, gaga (dodge ball game played in a circle), dirt, camp store, junk food, teenage counselers, tie dye tshirts.... You name it, if you went to camp, you are probably re-living it all right now:)



The week ends with family night - the parents get to come out, tour the camp and meet the kids friends. Its a free for all. Really. Tasteless hot dogs and skits that are only funny to 7 yr olds. Jimmy was to cool to sit by us and Kay laughed at everything in the program. Billy was funny to watch too as he acted like he was seeing it all for the 1st time and seemed more interested in rolling down the big hill than participating in the program (well, who can blame him?!)



From a "lets wear the kids out" perspective, it totally fulfilled its purpose. We had them on the bus by 8am and they came stumbling off like drunks with a hangover at 5:30pm. For god sakes, my kids dont usually even WAKE UP until 8:45am, so this was a long long long day. They were filthy dirty, hungry and tired. Perfect kid week:)



Now, next up .... nature camp. We'll see how that goes:)

Are you ready for some football

Jimmy is more than ready. Monday night was pick up your equipment night and Jimmy was the first in line. The HFL, Hopkins Football League, begins official games on September 2nd, the season is 8 weeks long and the game schedule, which at the time of posting, has not been set... however there will be 8 games.

Jimmy has been practicing his moves and as you can see one of the most important aspects of football, from the defensive side is your look. Quarterbacks beware Jimmy will be bringing you down!

More to come as the season on folds!

Korean Culture Camp

The long awaited week has finally arrived and the kids are too excited to sleep. The daily cry "do we have Korean camp today?!" is answered with a resounding YES! and the loud cheering Korea Camp Korea camp.

The camp is a week long affair with the kids learning all about their culture and partaking in Korean food everyday.This year Billy was old enough to go to camp and Tom spent the whole week in the kitchen.

The camp separates the kids into age groups and then each age group gets a colored t-shirt that they have to wear each day and then the parents have to wash each night. There were around 315 campers, 100 teen helpers and 100 adult volunteers. The camp is for kindergarten age until 6Th grade, then what is really cool all the 7Th graders and older get to volunteer as jr counselors and teachers. It is great for the younger kids to see the older kids still involved and active.

The Van Meters car pooled with us and the Buckley boys and Shin Bee met us at camp. The kids have a ball learning tae kwon do, how to speak Korean and Jimmy's favorite class - self esteem. The lunch room is crazy with all these Korean foods and kids all eating plate full of kimchi, mandu, chap jae, etc. The kids eat like it is there last meal and the amount of food and rice that is consumed is unbelievable. For instance during the week we went through 20 - 40 pound bags of rice, 50 gallons of soy sauce and sesame oil and I can not even calculate the amount of sugar, small wonder the kids love it.

The week ends with a presentation/family day. This is perhaps to date one of the most pain full events to sit through. Each child has his or her moment in the sun and showcases something they learned during camp. It starts sometime around 9:30 on Saturday morning and ends roughly the day the camps opens the following year.

The week ended for us with two separate dinner parties. Leona, Bob and Shin Bee, along with Sandy, came over on Friday night and it was great fun to catch up with them. They have relocated to Connecticut and it is the first time we have seen then since the move last spring. Saturday night was another blast with the Van Meter's and the Buckley's. It is great to see the kids continuing their friendship over the years (remember, we were all in Korea together when we picked up Jimmy, Hayden and Joey) and spending time with each other, it is hard to believe that 8 years ago we all met in Korea and here we are still celebrating the gift of adoption together, to cool.

The kids would bring home different cultural experiences each day and they were speaking Korean to their Korean friends. Korea camp is a close second in the kids favorite things to do, Christmas is still in first place but the jolly Old Elf better keep an eye out.

Mid Summers Daydream

It has been hot since we returned from Costa Rica and our friends have been busy.

Wendy and Annamiek work quietly and patiently to raise money for AIDS awareness and to stop Aids forever. They participate in the Red ribbon Ride which is 400 miles in 4 days through Minnesota. The Saturday Night of the event is family night and the Loudamericans are blessed to be considered family. We went down to Northfield to have dinner with Wendy and Annamiek ( and the other riders), Target is a big supporter so both Tracy and Wendy have co-workers on the ride. Sunday we head over to St.Paul for the finish and a sea of hugs, and as you can see what a great group!!

The Minneapolis Aquatenial has arrived and with it many great Minnesota summer activities. We braved the heat and headed downtown for the Torchlight parade. The parade has been going on for decades and the tradition continues. It appears that the person in charge of getting participants did not have any real set expectations. I mean the parade lasted for over 2 hours there were no real theme sunless"band" is a theme. There was a band and alumni bands for every small obscure city in the state. It was hot which was expected and the cheese curds were awful, which is not expected nor appreciated.

The end of July means Tee-Ball, Flag football, and pitch by coach championship games. First up is Billy and the Lions Park Royals. The Tee-Ballers are a hard core and determined group of pre-kindergartners. The tension was thick, Bill approached the plate the crowd was holding it's breath, when all of a sudden Billy yelled " Hey guy's look a grasshopper" which emptied the benches. Finally getting the teams focused on the game they ended in a 12 to 12 tie.

The entire season of flag football caused young Jim quite allot of problems. He is a rules guy and a follower of old time football, similar to old time hockey as feature in the timeless classic, Slapshot. Jimmy could not deal with the lack of running plays, no huddles and the transparent ignorance of the rules, it is tough to be 8. The season ended with a goofing around session that made Jimmy exclaim, " I am so ready for tackle football", " I am out of here. He did have a couple of points.

In the second season pitch by coach Jimmy has developed a keen eye on the ball and has even hit a grand slam home run. The July Classic was held at Honeywell Field complete with an announcer, lights and a concession stand " Dad can I get....". Jimmy and the Lions Park Yellow Jackets dominated the season and posted an undefeated record. The program is centered around fun, team and outdoor baseball. In season one the coaches were able to pull off a tie as not all the kids could count. In season 2 not so and when the scoreboard"broke" and the score was 15 to 15 the Yellow Jackets had a few things to say. The controversy ended when Coach Ann announced a trip to the concession stand and snow cones for all. Next year Little League and every Saturday games, YIKES.

Summer is not complete without a trip to the local greenhouse for hamster races, really. We spent a quiet Sunday with the Miller's and went to the Rosemount Lepercan Days and the hamster races. I am going on record to say that we will not attend another hamster race, period. The event is cruel not only to the hamster but the parents who have to wait countless hours for what? At one point we were standing around waiting our turn when this lady next to us stated, " my is it hot in here1" to which Jimmy response was " We are in a greenhouse what did you expect?" Good point.

The St. Paul Saint's are a minor league baseball team here in Minnesota but if you were at the game on July 30Th two 8 year old boys created the atmosphere of the big leagues and just in that moment you could see the magic of baseball on their faces. The loudamericans plus Jimmy's friend James had a great time at the game. Jimmy and James first order of business was to get foam fingers. Little did we know that a foam finger can create a loud borderline obnoxious fan. The games have a carnival atmosphere with Nuns giving haircuts and massages, a pig that brings out the balls, a lucky fan gets velcroded to the outfield wall praying someone hits a line drive at them so they can catch it and win money along with Super Fan, a nerd and Muddonna the team mascot. This game was billed as the Night of the Dead so half the fans were dressed like zombies and driving Billy crazy. Jimmy and James fit right in and by the end of the game had Super fan, The Nerd and Muddonna's autographs with a sharpie on their shirts.

Now you may be wondering what Kay has been up to in all this sports related activities. She is doing great and is keeping her brothers in line. On one recent outing Billy was looking to get a toy or a treat or something that Daddy was not going to stop for. Billy announced " If you don't get me that I am going to leave" To which Kay responded " What are you going to find another owner that loves you more?". Kay is doing well.

Costa Rica! Finally!!!

Finally we made it to Costa Rica, or finally we posted our blog....hmm.... you decide:)

The flight from Chicago to San Jose was uneventful, with the exception that the kids were disappointed that the flight wasn't LONGER. As the captain come on to announce the 4 hour flight, our kids are "what?! you told me this was a LONG flight, no fair, gyp" Then on the 2nd flight, their response ? you are kidding? I thought we were going to another country, this is only a 2 1/2 hour flight?! when are we going to go on a REAL airplane ride?!!!!". I guess India changed their perspective on long distance travel. They still talk about the ride home from India in business class on British Airways "when can we travel like THAT again Mom?" I am with you kids. I am with you...

Spirit Airlines isn't bad. you have to pay for EVERYTHING, even water. There is no TV and its a bit of a Greyhound in the sky, but the people watching is fantastic and we got their safely (and at a pretty reasonable price - basically the same as a domestic flight - not bad for 5 people).

We then picked up our car (12 seater Central American "van", picture the comfort and luxury - bouncy seats, school bus driving, A/C that only worked in the 1st row, diesel, Nice.....) Julie was suppose to meet us at the airport but we ended up running into her at the car rental. Whatever, we are now on jungle time. Then came the 4 hour drive OVER the mountain, down the Caribbean coast and through the jungle to her village of Puerto Viejo. Its gorgeous and remote and not at all Western and reminiscent of India and majorly laid back. A PERFECT summer vacation get away.



We stayed at Aunt Sue's cabina, which sits on her larger piece of property with the house Julie lives in. Its a 2 bedroom, 1 bath enclosed space with a huge front porch and kitchenette that's "outside".

It was 25 ft from Julies and great to be so close.






This is Julie's house. 1 main elevated level with kitchen "outdoor" bathroom and a loft for sleeping. She enclosed the ground floor and Dan (her business partner) has a room, bathroom and kitchen. Its a bit communal but works out great. She lives on the river that leads to the ocean and so we were able to kayak down to the ocean 1 day to swim. Very cool.



The 1st day we were there, Julie's boys (Cedric - grade 3 and Solomon - Kindergarten) were in their last day of school and exams so we headed off for adventure. There is an animal sanctuary and rescue 1/2 mile from Julies and it was amazing.
As you know, Kay is a cheeky monkey and this trip proved it! The howler monkeys LOVED her. They crawled all over her and hugged her and basically wouldn't leave her alone. It was way cool.


Most of the monkeys are rescued from accidents (tourist/cars) and are rehabilitated to go back into the wild. They have had great success and take the monkeys out to the jungle everyday and let them play with the wild monkeys. There is 1 female that decided to join the wild monkey clan about a year ago, but she always comes up to the naturalists and gives them a kiss and hug. very cool.

This monkey has a death grip hug hold going on Kay.

Jimmy, on the other hand, didn't do so well. He kept freaking out and laughing every time one climbed on him so we never got a great shot (plus the monkeys started avoiding him - go figure)

They also had puma's, sloths, snakes, owls, birds, caymans (mini crocodiles) and just about every jungle animal you can imagine. It was cool.

This is Juanita. She is the neighborhood dog; meaning she is "owned" by 3 different families and she makes the rounds and hangs out, gets fed & fawned over at her leisure. She has 1 eye. The kids LOVED her. She hung with us ALL week. It was sort of cool to have a vacation dog. I think we won a permanent place in her heart when we gave her scrambled eggs. She won a permanent place in Billy's heart when .... he got a bug bite on his eye, his eye swelled shut for 4 days, he woke up and declared "look, I'm just like Juanita, I only have 1 eye too" They were fast friends the rest of the trip.

Different day, different swim suit, different beach. We packed 2 duffel bags of clothes. 1 for us, 1 for kids. We should have packed 1 carry one with 35 swim suits, 1 for each of us on each different day of the trip. We only wore 1/2 our clothes and the clean 1/2 even came back wet and smelling like the beach since it was way HOT and HUMID the whole time. In fact, if you ask Jimmy how Costa Rica was, he'll say "HOT!".

Jimmy, Ced and Bill

Ced teaching Jimmy to boogie board

Ced & Jimmy posing "rap" surfer style

Had to snap this photo for Angela in honor of her "ode to a hard freeze" blog in India. 1 of the top 10 blogs of all time. This locus was the length of my middle finger and 3 times as round. No wonder they were feared in the Bible. These aren't your Midwest variety crickets.

Birthday party for Stash (yep that's his name) he was turning 60 and there were "dancers" of the borderline questionable type that freaked Jimmy out (all clothes stayed on, but their moves were PG13) and some funny smelling cigarettes. The kids had a blast popping balloons, dancing and drinking soda.

And sweating

another beach - check out Kay, the only girl in the crew:)

more boogie boarding

pick up game of soccer on the beach before dinner

Billy's pretty ruthless and Kay can hold her own. Of course Jim and Ced "won"

Kay wins best dressed though

Dinner that night was an all you can eat beach grill in Manzinilla (about 1 mile north of Panama). WAY too good, included grilled banana's and french fries. YUM!! (oh and local beer:))

Kay with Juantia - I'm telling you, she hung out with us the WHOLE time, even went to the beach with us a few days.

My do over birthday celebration and cake (my actual birthday was a bust so I called a do over). Julie traded Salem a massage for a cake. I think I won on that trade. We ate this cake for breakfast for 4 days and we were ALL bummed when it was gone. Nothing better than stale homemade chocolate cake and fresh Costa Rican coffee. Really.

blowing out my candles

David (Julie's ex boyfriend and the boys father) took us to his "secret" waterfall on his property (also known as the farm). The kids climbed up the waterfall and jumped into a deep pool of clean cool water. They LOVED it!

We headed to south of Manzilla 1 day to hit the best surfing beach in Costa Rica. It entailed a hike through the jungle and some interesting characters (think Indian's out on a Saturday holiday) It was gorgeous!

Solomon, Kay and Ced

Billy joins the 'snap'

Great family photo if Jimmy would ever smile. The rapper gansta look has got to go.

Julie and her gansta's

The boys -'nough said

THE girl

I have never seen Julie surf and it was really cool to see. Amazing what your sister can do and you never really apprecaited it. There were also a few other surfers there that day, including the #1 ranked Costa Rican pro surfer. FUN to watch!

The best surfing beach is also the best hermit crab beach and the kids spent hours finding hermit crabs, making them a home in a coconut shell (including furniture and food) and then ptiching a fit when they crawled away (the NERVE, after all that WORK!) Too cute.

another beach

4th of July (no we didnt celebrate other than all wearing matching shirts, going on a botanical walk and making a spectacle of ourselves.)

Ced & Jim "posing"

hot hot hot nature hike

Zip lining or canopy tours. huh...how to best describe this....
we have a DVD of the whole venture but need to weed through it for a few key highlights. We'll load those later. Needless to say, it was Tom and I, 5 kids 8 & under on the hottest day of the trip. Billy was convinced he wasnt "blave" enough (see last blog on Billy) and Jimmy was giving him a ROYALLY hard time. Ced and Sol were totally stoic (why not, they've already done this 3 times, no biggie) and Kay was clueless. Before I knew it, they had picked up Kay and whisked her off. Billy was next (before he could pitch a fit) and they MADE me go as I was the "babies" mother. urhhh... Next up, Ced and Sol, the old pro's. in the final draft? Jim and Tom. No way, no how. Jimmy absolutely REFUSED to go. Fits were pitched, tears shed, negotations executed (both from Tom and Jimmy)- to no avail. He wasn going, no way no how. It turned into a good life lesson on peer pressure, choices, courage to stand by what you did ( or in this case didnt) want to do and patience (waiting for the rest of us to finish a 2 hour tour with NO entertainment). Cant say I really blame him, there were times on the ride where I wondered if I was going to live through it as I hung 10 stories up from a wire in the jungle. Billy and Kay, on the other hand, LOVED IT! Billy gave every ride a major thumbs up and yelled "whee" the whole way "awesome" "favolite" "do it again" were heard over and over. Kay had a huge smile on her face the whole time. Ced and Sol never changed their demeanor. Never a smile or yippee. Stoic the whole way, you have to wonder if they even had fun.

It was a great trip. There were no cell phones, internet, TV, newspapers, clocks or real contact with the outside world. You know its a good vacation when you have a dog, dont know what day it is (other than Clean Tshirt Day) and have your pick of a different beach everyday. The kids loved just hanging with their cousins and learning about the jungle (bugs, snakes, animals). Tom and I had a great time meeting Julie's friends, hanging with her and getting a glimpse of her life in Costa Rica (not to mention the awesome massage - THANK YOU!)

We packed up the family truckster with all 8 of us and headed back over the mountains to San Jose to catch our flights to the US. The loudamericans to get back into the swing of their US lives and Julie/boys to extend their summer vacation with more cousins (our sister Tammy's family), Grandma & Grandpa in Glen Lake and Aunt Sue in Green Bay. We wish we could have kept traveling with them, but all great vacations must end. (so that we can start planning our next!!)

Thank you Julie and Sue for letting us stay at your place and thanks for ALL you did to make this a fantastic trip.

We love you!