Snow Day Down South

Just when I had near given up on having a snow day down south...surprise! 

And I mean this was a big surprise.  We have gone from the 30's and 40's, then to torrential rain with temps in the 60's and 70's, to snow falling down all in the course of four days.

I almost dismissed Maggie when she came flying into my bedroom at the crack of dawn to tell me there were flurries in the sky.  "yeah, yeah".  But before we knew it those flurries turned into real snowflakes and my kids were out the door all bundled up. 

Too bad it was a Saturday rather than a school day, but we will take it.

It's tough to tell from my late afternoon pictures, but there was plenty on the ground to build a snowman and get some sledding in before it turned to mush.  Not to mention, our little Shelton got his first romp in the snow!  

I'm certainly not holding my breath, but I do have my fingers crossed that we will get one more SNOW day before Spring!

Daddy -Daughter Date Night

As the co-director of special events at the girl's elementary school, I get to have my hand in all the fun stuff. But nothing has been sweeter than the Daddy-Daughter Date Night.  I have attended a few of these on the mother/son end, but this was my first time to have the opportunity to "spy" on my girls and my hubby.

My heart nearly melted.  Both girls got dressed up in their own way.  You would have thought they were attending two different events by the outfits they chose.  Long gone are the days of dressing alike.  But both looked beautiful in their own fabulous way.  And their date was pretty handsome too.

In between set up, decorating, and manning the check in, I grabbed a few under the radar photos of the event.  

Just as suspected Lucy could always be found on the dance floor, usually being twirled and flipped around by her daddy.

And Maggie was generally found running around being sassy and sweet with her girlfriends.

Love these little ladies and I love even more that they have a daddy who adores them.  All this love has me ready for Valentine's Day! 💗

Adios 2020 Costa

We spent our last day in Costa Rica visiting the town of La Fortuna.  We strolled up and down the streets and tried to get a feel for the culture.  We stopped at the farmacia, the grocery store, vegetable stands, the cathedral, and several tourist shops.

Yes, that's a giant carrot Maggie bought....and ate.

We ate a semi traditional Costa Rican lunch and saved all our scrapes for any stray dogs we would encounter.  Daddy's plate came out on Fuego and everyone got big kick out of it! So fun!

Our last late afternoon/evening we made it down to Club Rio, yet again, for the cat feeding.  That was interesting.  Those cats mean business when it comes to dinner time.                                    

And of course since we were down by the animal sanctuary we had to stop and say hello to some of our favorites.  #slothlove

After another fabulous day, we grabbed dinner, took one last swim and packed up.  Back home {and reality} REALLY REALLY early the next day.

More 2020 Costa

We woke up on day two to coast through Costa Rica on bikes.  Biking is always a win adventure with our family.  However, this one was a little rough.  I don't think there is one single flat surface in all of the country {or at least on our side of the map}.

We coasted past the volcano, around the lake and even through town.

We made a few stops along the way for picture taking musts {and to catch our breath}.

Sweet Lu did the best she could for as long as she could.  Her bike was 4 inches taller than what she is used to and the terrain had its challenge.  So thankfully a truck driver stayed on route with us and that is just where Lucy rode for her breaks.

We returned to our resort, changed into our suits, grabbed lunch and made our way down to Club Rio for Tubing.

And when I say tubing, this wasn't floating down a lazy river.  It was about 40 minutes of rushing white water.  It was the perfect preface to our next day's scheduled adventure.

The water was definitely chilly so as soon as we excited we bolted straight for the hot springs.  Awwww....absolutely amazing.

I'm pretty sure we ordered room service that night and rested our weary selves.  The following day turned out to be one of our favorites.  We woke up and had breakfast by the volcano and then met up with our driver.  We were going White Water Rafting down the Rio Balsa!

I seriously can't get enough of Maggie's face in this picture.  Ya'll she was terrified.  Poor girl.  I'm happy to report that she ended up loving it!

After that harrowing adventure we enjoying an authentic Costa Rican lunch at a sugar cane farm.

Lucy made best friends with Dianno, the owners daughter, within the first few minutes of our arrival. It was the sweetest.

During our visit, we got a nice demonstration and taste test of sugar cane and moonshine {the truth}.

Back at the resort, we had dinner, daddy and the girls swam, and Jack and I  braved a Night Rainforest Hike.  Let's just say my skin was crawling the entire hike!

Our guide was the most insect and snake obsessed man I've ever met.  He was nuts which led to great entertainment.  He pointed out the "most poisonous {fill in the blank} in all of Central and South America" way too many times.  I had a nice case of the heebie-jeebies.

But we did see a Red Eyed Tree Frog.  If that doesn't scream rainforest, I don't know what does.  We also saw lots other creatures that I wouldn't get near, much less take a picture of.  For one lots of snakes, including a Coral snake {eeeek!!}, Wolf Spiders, Termites, frogs galore, and lots of other slimy things.

I'm thinking I might deserve a Mom of the Year nod for braving that adventure with Jack considering I am terrified of snakes.

Okay, so I'm nearing max capacity on this post.  I've still got one more day of vaca, so stay tuned!