Celeste's Month Long Visit.

Brad and Celeste have been here for a month. I think it's different when you know you only have a month with a grown child and then they go away for years to far away Maryland.......
almost every day she and I and Danica get together and do something.
First, as you know, we all went to Costa Rica without the grand babies.
Then we had a baby shower and wedding shower for her and Tiana combined
We went swimming a few times at the rec center
Then Brad finished up his first draft of his Thesis and flew to Illinois to visit with the Professor in charge and then drive their car to Maryland.
Then we went to the aquarium
And the stock show
Sledding at Lonesome Pine Park in Acres green

We have been shopping for her new baby boy due April 7
Then we went to the Children s Museum

Wow, Children under 3 are very messy, demanding, noisy, and really, really cute and fun. I have decided it's good you have them when you are young because I feel really, really thankful to have had this time with them and really, really tired.

Costa Rica II

We were so relieved to actually get our boarding passes to Costa Rica, since we missed the flight last year by 24 hours and couldn't go.
Our first stop was Irazu, an inactive volcano. Here's the crater at the bottom and all our bottoms at the top.

The Manuel Antonio National Park has a gorgeous coastline and acres and acres of preserved jungle. Our guide pointed out lots of sloths. Tiana was particularly excited about the leaf cutter ants.
So, these faces are awake and happy, but most of the 7 hour trip in the Nissan Van from Manuel Antonio to our rented house near Domical were spent trying to find a comfortable position to sleep.
Large foreign animals and plants in the jungle spooked Tiana somewhat. This coati is a relative to the racoon and would join us when we bought at fruit stands to get hand outs. The pineapple, bananas, mango, papya, grapes and blackberries were extraordinary. We gave him our passionfruit because that was like slimey Worf-food.Then we did the zip line where you wear this gear and race accross a cable high up above the Jungle canopy.This is the nice new air conditioned house Mark rented for us. It had it's own private pool and was right on the beach. At night you could hear the waves. It was like a little bit of heaven. No...a whole lot of heaven.

Tiana and Preston made good use of the beach at sunset time.The rest of us made good use of the beach during high tide. The boogey boarding was really great, except for the flesh eating rocks.