goodbye summer

After our amazing trip to Costa Rica, I had just enough time to get home, unpack, do laundry, pack again and jump on a flight to Utah to babysit (more like hang out with) three of my cousins for a week!

Meet the fine Curtis women...Reagan, Ava and Reese!

While their parents spent a few days of fun in Hawaii, us girls had a great time together playing all day. I learned these ladies are quite the talented bakers! We had a Cupcake Wars day; we mixed a box of yellow cake mix and each girl doctored up her portion of the batter for her own specialty cupcake. I was impressed! Here Reese and Ava are showing off the treats pre-baking:

We also had a nail day:

Reagan is a rock star tennis player and made the JV team as a freshman. She got her uniform while I was there, so of course a fashion show with the camera out was needed!

I had so much fun with my sweet beautiful cousins! I'm so glad I got to spend that time with them. It was sad to leave, but I'm glad we'll be living in Utah for 2 more years so I know I'll get to see them often still! (The girls were fresh out of bed before we snapped this picture as I headed out the door to get back to my Sammy in AZ...)

The night I returned, Sammy and I had a special date night to celebrate our anniversary. In case you can't tell, it's been two years...

And just like that, we packed everything up in our cars and made it back to Utah! It has been a whirlwind of a summer. I am so grateful for the time we were able to spend in AZ. It was so wonderful being close to family and getting to see them weekly. With all the traveling and moving around we've been doing lately it does feel nice to be settled back into our place again with all our things. I've made it back into the office (which is an adjustment after getting to work from home for 4 months...) and Sam starts school tomorrow. Can't believe summer is over. It was fun while it lasted!

two years.

I was one giddy girl when I was engaged to Mr. Samuel Brett Nielsen.

I was on cloud nine when, two years ago today, I was married to Mr. Nielsen and became Mrs. Nielsen.

I am one grateful woman for having two years of happiness with my Mr. I know he loves me and I love him.

I also love August 21st because it's the one day of the year Sam will sit down and watch our wedding video with me.

Happy 2 Years Baby Love!

No Quiero, No Quiero

The second half of our trip was spent in the drier part of Costa Rica, a region called Guanacaste. We spent two nights at the Rincon de la Vieja Resort, which is as close as we came to roughing it.

Jack should be happy it was only a bug in his orange juice, not the lizard excrement that rained from heaven onto my glass.

Once again we were surrounded by all types of life. Including this gargantuan lizard.

In Rincon we had scheduled a zip-line tour. The best part about it was they had helmets of all sizes.

After a practice run the guides spiced things up for us.

We also did some horseback riding while there.

Our guide was a true caballero, he didn't speak a lick of English.

The horses were great but some were a little undersized. Jack on his horse, Gideon, looked more like Shrek on Donkey.

My fine cowgirl.

The horses had a lot of spunk. My horse, ChicaLinda, was large and in charge. It didn't matter what I did to the reins the horse had to be in front. So for the most of the trip I hung out with our cowboy, which was fine and dandy until we hit the open pasture at the end.

Several years ago I had a bad experience with a horse that left me looking like I rolled around in a cement mixer with a garden rake. This time, when we hit the open green my horse took off and actually passed our cowboy. Not wanting to revisit the thorn trees I shouted the only Spanish I knew, "no quiero, no quiero!" The cowboy looked at me trying to figure out what I was saying and after a few more girl-like screams from me he just whistled and got my horse to stop.

When we regrouped our cowboy went over to his helper, started rattling off some fast Spanish, pointed at me, and started saying "no quiero, no quiero" while laughing. It brought back bittersweet memories of my mission, nothing like knowing you are being made fun of but not knowing what the people are saying.

My dad had left us early in the morning to go the embassy and clear some things up about his passport donation. He was supposed to meet us late that night at our next hotel. As we commuted from the volcano to the beach we were all very startled when the bus stopped and Tracy hopped on. Somehow he made the 8 hour round trip and was able to intercept our bus before we even got to the beach.

After picking up our hijacker we continued onto Playa Hermosa. We stayed the the Bosque del Mar, which featured beautiful rooms on a black beach. We decided to spend the last two days of our trip relaxing and soaking up the sun.

There was a ridiculous amount of life in the water. We were literally stepping on sting rays.

Having been supported by my wife for the last two years of college it felt good to bring my speargun and finally put some food on the table.

It took me a couple of dead fish to learn which ones were edible and which ones weren't.

It was time for the boys and girls to split, the next day the girls got massages on the beach and did some shopping in town.

And the men went deep sea fishing. We had tons of bites early on.

Curtis was able to pull in a Black Tuna.

I reeled in a Wahoo.

And Kirk and I speared some Green Jacks.

The diving was great!

The meal was a highlight, our hotel did an amazing job preparing our catch.

Smeagol much?

Unfortunately, we only had one last sunset to watch.

Costa Rica was an amazing vacation. One that I would highly recommend to anybody seeking action or relaxation. We are sad that Maddie and her illegal alien were unable to make the trip with us but I'm willing to go again!

Hola Hola Coca-Cola

As we anticipated our trip to Costa Rica I thought about what would be the most stomach wrenching activity. Would it be the rappelling, the white water rafting, the zip lining? No, no, no. It was easily the bus rides that we had to take in between each destination. As we would careen around the mountains narrowly missing dogs, motorcycles, and pedestrians I was waiting for Keanu Reeves to come up through the floor of the bus and deactivate the bomb so that we could reach our next city safely. It never happened but we were able to make it to Arenal, Costa Rica.

My sister, Vanessa, did her due diligence before we left and read up on all of the reviews for our hotels. The review for Arenal de Paraisal informed us that the pool is great...

...except for when the frogs choose to invade at night.

The good thing is we didn't plan to stick around for too long. We took off in the Jungle Limo up the canyon to our rappelling spot.

Al handled the ropes with ease.

While I did my best to keep up.

My mom was able to overcome her vertigo and master the ropes as well. She had several questions prepared for the guides to make sure that they used safety lines, were properly insured, and hadn't had any fatalities. We probably wouldn't have lived with out her.

The locals thought Jack was loco for going down with no hands.

That was until they saw the wisdom of it when Brooke got her glove stuck in the rope about 30 ft in the air.

As fun as the rappelling was, the hiking through the slot canyon was just as fun. We had various pools we had to jump into and swim through, as is demonstrated by the Silver Fox.

The highlight may have been when our guides laid down in the stream to dam up the water and then they let it rip on us!

(click image to view video)

The reason we went to Arenal was to see the volcano.

Unfortunately the lava quit flowing about nine months ago. Good thing Sam and Frodo got there in time. We still had a great time hiking around the old lava trails. The guide taught us about the natural mosquito repellent in some of the plants. It was too little too late for Brooke.

The view of the lake and the volcano made for some great pictures.

After the volcano we soaked in the hot springs. A resort in the area took advantage of the naturally flowing hot water and set up a great climate for us to relax.

This woman was not happy about us sneaking a picture of she and her man, but how could we resist? The dude followed us all the way from shopping in town, to the volcano, to the hot springs, and to dinner.

Arenal was good to us.

Pura Vida!

Last week I treated Allison to the ultimate romantic getaway, Costa Rica. The trip consisted of the generic romantic elements, such as long walks on the beach, candlelit dinners, relaxing massages, spearfishing, rappelling 200 ft waterfalls, and in-laws. Y'know, the kind of stuff every girl dreams of. OK, who am I going to fool? I was able to convince Allison to join me and my family on a week long adventure vacation.

The first stop on the trip was the Pacuare River, but we could only reach it by going through the Tico Tourist initiation process, which consisted of a family member generously donating a passport, laptop, credit cards, and some mulah to an outstanding Costa Rican citizen.

The plan was to raft to our lodge for the night and then raft out the next morning.

The rafting crew didn't provide XXL helmets so I wore mine Rabbi style.

Along the way we stopped and checked out a couple of waterfalls.

After some moderate rafting we reached our humble, yet beautiful abodes buried deep in the rain forest.

The rain forest made a pretty good florist.

We stayed at the Pacuare Lodge. The only light we enjoyed that night was provided by the fireflies and candles. Our rafting guides became our hosts and served us the choice of prime rib or seared tuna. Muy delicioso.

We were told that our first day on the rapids was only preparation for our second day. We hit some pretty big holes the next day.

During one sequence I thought I saw a quarter in the water so I had to get in to check it out.

Nope, no quarter.

We managed to finish the trip without any drownings just in time to get ready for some rappelling.