Playing Dirty

FRIDAY
Thursday night they called to let us know that all of the tours for the next day were going to be canceled due to rain. We weren’t really sure why though because when we woke up it had FINALLY stopped raining, and we could even see the sun!! Since we had no plans for the day, and didn’t want to just hang out around the hotel, we decided to go into Jaco and see if we could find something there to do. We found an ATV tour that was still running so we signed up. Ryan wouldn’t let me drive my own (and I’m pretty sure that there was no way that I would have been able to figure it out anyway!!) so we got a little two-seater buggy.

It was just the guide and us so it was pretty neat. We first went up into the mountains where it started raining and the dirt roads were pretty bad. We were splashing through puddles and getting covered in mud! We got up a little farther and found that a huge tree had completely been ripped out of the ground and was laying in middle of the street. Our guide thought about trying to squeeze under the branch but finally we just ended up turning around.




No worries though, there were plenty of more back roads and puddles for us to discover! He took us up above the city for an awesome view. The ocean right now looks pretty nasty because of all the rain washing into it. I was pretty excited about how dirty I got…but it was just the beginning!!

We then went over to Hermosa Beach where the 2009 national surf competition is being held. We went along a few miles right next to the beach on this little road that was completely flooded in several spots. It was fun though, we were racing around and trying to not get stuck in the sand and getting so dirty! I was stoked to walk out onto the black sand beach; it was so pretty even with all the driftwood washed up along the beach. Our guide found this little rock type thing as we were walking off the beach and gave it to us. It was called an Ox eye, and his Grandmother had always given them to him for good luck. Its really cool looking, I think I’m going to try to make a necklace out of it when I get back home.

Ryan was pretty excited about the ride back down the road to get off the beach, until all the sudden we were off in the bushes! It turned out that some little piece controlling the steering had snapped off so he lost all control.


We were so lucky that it happened when we were there as opposed to next to a cliff. I think it was because the little rock really was good luck! After waiting a little while (and getting bitten a few times by flies) they came to pick us up. Only issue was that we had to drive back on an ATV, which had a warning on the back that said “DO NOT RIDE AS A PASSENGER, INJURY WILL OCCUR”. I was pretty happy to read that since I was going to be the passenger!! But Ryan drove slowly and we made it back to the store in one very dirty piece!

They recommended this awesome little taco bar place for lunch and even though we were covered in dirt we stopped in for a bite to eat. The seats for the bar were swings! It was great, the food was so good and it was way fun swinging while we ate!


We got back to the hotel and had to take advantage of the sun (and wash off the dirt) so we went down by the pool to enjoy another beautiful day in Costa Rica.

Stay tuned for the post about Saturday-It was my favorite day!!

It Is Called A RAINforest!!

WEDNESDAY
It started raining Tuesday night and basically hasn’t stopped since. We woke up Wednesday morning ready for our cruise to Tortuga Island only to get to the tour office to hear the words “Tropical Depression”. Every other tour that day had been canceled, but the captain was insisting that the rain wasn’t going to stop us. We tried to reschedule for another day, but they wouldn’t let us without charging us for the one we were canceling. So we got on the bus amid a torrential downpour for a VERY scary ride. We made it about 45 minutes into the trip and stopped for breakfast where we found out that they had indeed canceled the tour. So when we got back to the hotel we rescheduled it for Friday and are just keeping our fingers crossed that the weather will cooperate!
With a full day ahead of us, and a lot of rain we decided to head into Jaco for the day. We had a good time just walking through all the little shops checking out the souvenirs. It never stopped raining!! We walked down to the beach, which is brown right now from all the rivers flowing into it, to check it out. When the rain really picked up we stopped at a little restaurant for some lunch and watched it pour on the streets. It was a good day to spend in the city since there wasn’t much else to do!
That night we went back into Jaco for dinner and went to Aberdeen’s Steak House. It’s an Argentine restaurant but sadly they were out of beef from Argentina! We were wondering if that was the one that you had gone to Dad? It was pretty good, but I think the other beef would have been better! At dinner this guy came in and made us a Toucan out of a Palm leaf. It was pretty cool how he did it, but he was a total creeper!!
We managed to keep ourselves entertained and still had a good day despite the weather.

At the beach in Jaco

After we got back to the hotel we walked the back holes on the golf coarse to see if we could find any monkeys. Sadly we didn't, but it was awesome back there!

THURSDAY
This morning was pretty much the same as yesterday morning. We woke up from the rain outside because it was so loud! We had been hoping that it wouldn’t be quite as bad today but that wasn’t the case! Luckily though, we had planned the only tour you can do in the rain for today. We did the Tranopy tour, which involved going up in the middle of the rainforest about 30 minutes on a tram and then zip lining back down. I was really only doing this because Ryan really wanted to, I didn’t have the best experience in Mexico so I wasn’t that excited about doing it again! Especially when I found out that the rain wasn’t dangerous at all, it just made you go faster!
The tram part was awesome, we saw monkeys swinging in the trees eating, and a Toucan on a branch, and a Sloth curled up sleeping. It was so pretty, and there were tons of waterfalls from all the rain they’ve been getting the last two days. When we got to the top I was a bit nervous, to say the least! The first one wasn’t too bad. I braked a little to hard in the beginning so I just had to pull myself a little at the end. But then the second one, which was much longer, I almost made it in and then all the sudden started flying back! I totally forgot what to do and didn’t know if I was supposed to grab in front or behind so I made it all the way back to the middle of the line! I then had to turn backwards and pull myself the rest of the way back it was quite a workout!! After that one they didn’t let me brake and had me hold onto a different spot so I wouldn’t be tempted!
After that I was good, they just would pull on the brake they had on the other end right before I got in and I didn’t have to do anything! The views while you were up there were beautiful, it was amazing how green everything was. Ryan had a great time; he curled his legs up into a ball to go faster on all of the lines! About half way through going down the zip lines the rain really pick up! And it was of coarse right before the longest and steepest line! The rain didn’t affect it though, it hit you in the face a little but if you just looked out to the sides it was perfect. When we were done we looked like we had just jumped in the pool with all of our clothes on, we were soaked! We got to walk around and look at the snakes (luckily in cages) and learn about how many poisons ones there really are here! It’s a good thing that they are so well camouflaged because I’m sure we’ve been closer than I would like to some!
It felt so good to get out of our wet clothes, but the rain still hasn’t stopped. Its definitely much lighter now and we are hoping that by tomorrow its better. One of the “Ticos” told us that it usually lasts about 48 hours and then clears up, which would be perfect for the rest of our plans! Dad- we can definitely see if you were planning on golfing and fishing the whole time why you wouldn’t want to come back again in October!

On the zip line tour

Look at me go!!

Since I couldn't get pictures to load last time here are just a few from the past couple of days...

MONDAY PICTURES

Ryan TRYING to be sexy


Relaxing in the pool


Posing for the camera


The windows here are awesome, they are totally open.

TUESDAY PICTURES

Proof that it really was sunny!!

An Iguana on top of the pool bar, I thought you'd like this mom!

COSTA RICA!!

MONDAY
We made it down to Costa Rica in the morning after flying all night. The flight wasn’t bad at all, I slept basically the whole time and Ryan got a little less than me because he watched a movie while I slept. We did get to sit together though (which we weren’t sure if we would be able to) and we even got the exit row so Ryan was really excited about that. Once we got here it was about a 2 hour drive by van to Los Suenos. The drive was a little scary just because you are going along these narrow roads right next to the edge and it was raining off and on the whole time. We got to the hotel and had a little time before we could check in so we just sat out in the patio area and played some cards, ate some lunch and watched the rain.
We decided that even though it was raining a little we would go out into the pool and check out the resort. The weather really didn’t bother us, it rained off and on, mostly lightly and wouldn’t last for too long. We thought that if it was like this the whole time we would be fine! The pool here is awesome, it is like 8 pools that are all linked together and the surrounding area is so pretty. We had a great time swimming and relaxing. That night we went to The Hook Up, a sports bar just around the corner. The food was so good!

TUESDAY
We woke up to the sun shinning so thought we better go out to the pool to enjoy the sun while it was out. While we were laying out a water aerobics class started so I made Ryan join in with me. It was fun and surprisingly it was also a pretty good workout! It started raining so we went and had lunch and then to our surprise it stopped raining and still hasn’t really started again! The day was beautiful, the sky was blue and the sun was out. It was so hot! We were going to go into Jaco today but decided to wait until Thursday because who knows if we will get another day like today. Another day of laying out, swimming and relaxing.
We’ve been having a great time. I can’t believe how humid it is here! But we definitely can’t complain about the weather, we were preparing for the worst so we’ve been so excited with how it has been so far. Tomorrow we’re going over to Tortuga Island for the day which sounds like it should be pretty neat. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that it will be another day like today! Now we’re off to Jaco for dinner, we’ll try to post more later!

I tried to put some pictures on but couldn't get the loaded on! I'll try again next time...

Summer '08 Part 3

THE TRAIN RIDE
While Mandy was here with the girls we decided to do a little train trip down to San Jaun Capistrano. It was supposed to be a quick 45 minute ride there, lunch and walking around, and then back home. It however, did not turn out that way! First we missed the train we were planning on taking when we got there and realized that you had to have your ID (who knew?) so had to drive back home to get Mandy's license. Then about 20 minutes into our train ride something happened to the brakes or something so we pulled off and were stuck for like 40 minutes!! When we finally got down to San Juan we had a quick lunch and had to get back on the train (which by that point none of us were looking forward to it!)

Trying to keep Emma and Sophie entertained while we were stuck on the train-a trip to the snack bar to get some candy seemed to work perfect!

At the Capistrano Depot waiting for our train

Waving bye to the train back at the Fullerton station after our exciting day

KERSHAW FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT

While everyone was home in August we got to debut the new outdoor movie screen. This thing is awesome! Its got the sound system, screen, and even a blue-ray player. Me and Ryan love watching movies outside now. Its a good thing we live in California and will be able to use this all winter!

The Trouble with Angels was our first movie screening, but we seem to pick more action films when its not my mom's choice!


After the movie, everyone was a little tired!!


Bugging Ryan because I was still wide awake


Trying to figure out how to take down the screen, we've got it figured out now though!!

RANDOM SUMMER PICTURES

At the pool...I think this was during the Olympics so we were all playing Michael Phelps!


We stayed at my aunts house for the weekend while they were gone and had lots of fun in the pool. I did not encourage this...but I am putting the pictures up so hopefully no one gets in trouble!!


Jumping off the roof


Me and Trixie at the concert in the park


Playing with our underwater camera-it works great!

Summer '08 Part 2

NORTH CAROLINA

In July one of Ryan's really good friend got married back in North Carolina so we made the trip to Asheville for the wedding. It was a long trip for such a short weekend but we had a really great time. It was nice to see everyone and catch up.

I insisted that we went to a southern BBQ restaurant for lunch so we went to the "Fiddlin' Pig" It was awesome and the food was amazing!

This was right after I saw a firefly for the first time. I was so excited to see one! I really wanted to catch one in a mason jar with holes on the top but I guess I'll have to save that for next time!

Ryan (the best man) and Aaron (the nervous groom) before the wedding


This is where the ceremony was, it was such a great location with so many spots for pictures

During the reception we went outside and walked around taking pictures-really it was because all the guys didn't want to have to dance but hey, they were all really excited about taking pictures so we weren't complaining!


Hiding in the willow tree


We needed change for the parking meters so me and Ashley went into the gay bar to ask for them to break are bills. It was definitely funny walking in and seeing their reactions, but they were really nice and gave us the quarters after they made sure that we knew it was a gay bar and that we wouldn't be staying! But really I think that the best part is that Ryan and Sean were too embarrassed to go in so instead the two of them stood together right in front of the gay bar...

TWILIGHT

I was so excited for the 4th book in the Twilight series to come out. It preparation I decided to re-read the first three which made me even more excited for the next book. Nicole invited me to go along with her to a midnight release party at Borders the day it came out. We of coarse had to dress up for the event so me and Sydney (who I got hooked on the books too) decided to make shirts. They turned out so cute!

In our shirts ready to go

The back view, me and Syd were so excited about doing this and got way into it. But we had forgotten how long it takes to make a shirt like this!!

I found out while we were there that I was actually related to a few of Nicole's friends. We figured it all out and I think that we are second cousins, its such a small world!

Me and Nicole so excited to finally have our books!

RYAN'S RAFTING TRIP

The weekend I was off doing the Breaking Dawn release, Ryan was at a weekend rafting trip with work. He had tons of fun going down the American River on the rapids.

Ryan and his friend from high school Nate, that just got hired on with his company

Going down the rapids

I'm sure there was an important business meeting taking place on the boat!!

Summer '08 Part 1

I know that summer ended about a month and a half ago but since its been up over 100 this week and still basically summer I've decided to do a few posts of summer updates! Here is Lindsey's wedding and all the events that went along with it!

First was Lindsey's wedding. It was such a beautiful day and everything turned out perfect!

Here are a few pictures the week of Lindsey and Matthew's wedding:

Meeting Logan for the first time

At the Strawberry Days Rodeo

A day at the beach! My Aunt Marcia had a beach house the week of Lindsey and Matthew's open house here in California so after all the stress and hard work of putting together the event we got to relax and have fun down at Newport