Pura Vida

A very early morning flight landed us in Costa Rica pulling out of the rental car parking lot at noon. Winding roads took us to Arenal and a fancy hotel the Tabacon. Dinner at a tourist hot spot (we didn’t know) and a drink that made Sarah’s eyes open wide! Went to the beautiful hot springs and called it a night.
Rio Celeste was a goal for the day, located in an unused park with no signs…GPS is great but the routing program seems to be flawed…. We turned around at a water crossing, fast moving water and large rocks did not seem to be an option without a second truck or winch.

Beautiful views on rough road while retracing our steps.

Two more detours on terrible roads and finally we found our way. Stopped at a neat little place for lunch.

No guide for us, the trail was straightforward, plus we had GPS and with GPS you can’t get lost……

The water is colored by volcanic silt, it is very blue!

Monkeys in the trees high above us!

One the way back to the hotel we were suprised with a flat tire. After hearing the stories of tourists being robbed after getting their tires slashed (not our case) I changed that tire with the efficiency of an F1 pit crew. Right before this picture 5 guys walked around the corner....as my heart sank, they offered help and Sarah replied that I was her mechanic and we were just fine.

Proud Parenting Moment

First Step? First word? Sending the little one off to (puppy) kindergarten? Nope. Our proud parenting moment was when the little guy mastered the trick of retrieving a beer out of the frigde. "Isn't that risky?" you might be thinking. "Doesn't he browse while he's in there?" Well, so far so good...but I'm sure it's a matter of time. I would just say that you should be careful opening that beer right away - its trip isn't the smoothest and Radar won't be held responsible for too much foam. Check out his skills in via the link below:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlWlBmb1bL4

Live-in Help

Since Radar easily mastered "sit", "stay" and "shake", Jonathan has moved on to more advanced puppy training - we're working up to "get me a beer out of the fridge"....so far we have the fridge part down...

He is also helpful with our landscaping endeavors...
Next, we are hoping to teach him how to iron and do dishes.

Frisbee!

Mr. Radar loves the Frisbee...don't even say the word unless you are serious!

Radar Love

We got a puppy!!! He is a border collie and his name is Radar. Lucky for us he came with extra critters - worms and fleas! They didn't charge us for those. After a rough week of trips to the vet and treatments he seems to have his puppy energy back and has been a bundle of fun. Here are a few videos of the little stinker....

We bought the farm.

As a result of some idealistic dreams, an optimistic assessment of our free time and perhaps a minor lapse in judgement we bought a farm house on an acre in Fairfax Station, VA. The house was built in 1890 and its ownership traces back to the Fairfax family. Lots of character!

As expected, the house needs some TLC. For the past month we've been our very own version of HGTV. Jonathan rigged his climbing ropes to the roof and cleaned the gutters. We've cleaned up the landscape and painted a lot! The first weekend we decided to gut the main bathroom (please see "optimisitc assessment of free time" noted above). The transformation has been amazing, but not without its moments - Jonathan called Sarah one evening and said "I only hit one pipe with my saw and flooded the kitchen". The professional plumber was a help with that one - but since then it's been all DIY. We now own more power tools than Sarah knew existed (including a chainsaw, air compressor and a ride on lawn mower).

On a more relaxing note - the landscape is amazing and it is hard to believe we're only a few miles from DC. We have a herd of deer who visit us daily. Butterflies, birds, raccoons and lizards abound and we have enough gophers to make Carl Spackler's head spin.

Our families and friends have been a huge help thus far and we look forward to hosting more friends and family in the near future....especially any who are particularly handy with plumbing or electric work :)

SNOWbody's going anywhere...

We have 2 feet of snow and it is still falling! We might not get out till March.





This is from 8 AM


8 AM



Last night - walking back home from dinner


This is from around 2 PM....and still coming down!