In Spanish this phrase literally means "pure life" but is more commonly thought of as meaning "full of life." Costa Ricans use this phrase to express a philosophy of strong community, perseverance, resilience in overcoming difficulties with good spirits, enjoying life slowly, and celebrating good fortune of magnitudes small and large alike. This blog is about our life... Pura Vida!

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Monday, September 27, 2010

Pumpkin Time!



It's fall and the cousins Oliva, Noah, Maria & Emma had a fun time in the great pumkin patch (also known as our garden :) picking out pumkins for Halloween! I can't believe it's almost October!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

We survived!

Yes, we survived our weekend trip to Duluth. Terry, Joe, Carrie & Hannah survived their big Rollerblade marathon, and I survived the weekend with hardly a wink of sleep (along with Maria) :) But all in all, it was a beautiful weekend to spend in Duluth. We stayed in a nice cabin in the woods north of Duluth. The rollerbladers took off Saturday morning and we waited at the finish line to watch them go by. We spent that afternoon relaxing at the cabin. Sunday, we spent the day at Canal Park enjoying the weather and the ships at the harbor. We also spent some time at the aquarium. Maria loved seeing the fish and even got to pet one along with a stingray in the petting tanks. Then we enjoyed a nice supper followed by (my favorite) COLD STONE!!!! Maria and Olivia had a good time at Cold Stone too. They were the entertainment for the evening. They were dancing to the oldies music playing. I think we should have set out a tip cup for them. They were drawing the passerbys! haha







In other news, Emma rolled over multiple times this week from her stomach to her back! She is getting strong and able to hold her head up much better! She also is eating like crazy and growing like crazy! She's already out of her newborn clothes (which impresses us because Maria was in them until she was three months old! She is a smiley thing too! Also this week, Maria moved into her NEW room down in the basement! She seems to be doing just great in it!




And the roof is up on our garage finally! Yay!! One step closer to having a place to store the cars this winter!

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Birthday Time!

With September comes lots of birthdays...which means lots of parties...and lots of cake! :) Last week we celebrated my uncle's, dad's and Joseph's birthdays. We had a celebration at our cabin. It was a good time because in attendance was my twin cousins from Germany. We have missed them, and it was good to have them back in the U.S. for a short time. It's been two years since they last visited us. Here is a picture of us cousins!



Then we celebrated Joe's birthday with a yummy steak dinner. Joe's presents this year consisted of many shirts and ties. That's what happens when you get a new job and don't have the right clothes to wear! haha Here's Maria helping to blow out the candles!



This past weekend we also celebrated a friends wedding. It was Emma's first wedding and she was quite an angel. Maria was pretty good too... (except her small fit during the VOWS at the ceremony)But she had a great time dancing at the reception. Check out this video :)And this was before she even hit the dance floor!



After all that fun, it was back to school for me today! The first day went well. Can't wait for a great school year!

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day Weekend!