Disneyland can sell out.

I don't know if you knew that. But it can. It does. And some of us have learned that the hard way. As in, we drove all the way there, got off the freeway and were following all the happy signs toward Disneyland gleefully thinking of which Disney characters we would take our pictures with first when one of the big electronic billboards (like the kind that tell you how many minutes you still have to travel to get to the next major freeway or that announce amber alerts so you can check out the cars surrounding you and hopefully nab a criminal) said "DISNEYLAND SOLD OUT." And added some lame thing about how there were still tickets to California Adventure available. Please. I don't need your pity tickets to California Adventure.

And in case you think you're above the rules and can still manage to squeeze yourself into Disneyland, let me assure you, you are not and you cannot. They block off the parking lots. And they have guards at the entrance to Disneyland to turn you away and, I don't know, arrest you I guess if you get rowdy.

Just sayin'. The happiest place on Earth is kind of exclusive. Keep that in mind and get there early. Because otherwise you end up turning around and going home to do laundry. Productive sure, but kind of a let down.

Costa Rica wrap up...for now.

It's been so long since Costa Rica (maybe only two weeks in "real" time but in "I've-been-at-work" time that makes it feel like at least another lifetime) that I feel a little late in speaking more on the subject. So I'll probably pass on recaps of each amazingly fun activity (though I reserve the right to change my mind and/or refer to Costa Rica often in stories years from now the way missionaries refer to their time on "the mission.") and will summarize a few highlights and move on. I'm a little sad to not give the very first family reunion its due justice, but on the other hand....it's too late. There's a window for due justice and I believe it has passed already. sigh.

The recap/highlights/lowlights:

1. On the way there we had a 4hr (3hr?) layover in Florida (yes, going to FL affords us the chance to take an air-tour of sorts and see a bit of America before leaving it). It was a redeye flight so by the time we got to FL the airport was basically empty. And we were tired. So we stretched out on a few seats in the terminal (much better than the time Bryn and I had to spend the night in the TX airport) and went to sleep. Then they turned up the A/C to recreate the sensation of being on the polar ice caps. We started layering. I grabbed random clothes out of my suitcase (hooray for carrying on) but they weren't a ton of help since I packed for COSTA RICA and not Antartica. My mom bought blankets for the littlest ones. It was a rough start.

2. Somehow we managed to fall asleep anyway in that airport. And awaken to a now jam-packed airport full of people staring at us bundled up and hogging all the seats. I glanced over to see if my cousin was awake and saw her sitting up still half-asleep listening to an obviously hilarious story being told by a big Latino guy in Spanish. She looked so attentive to the story (even with that "I-just-woke-up" look) that if I didn't know any better I would've thought she spoke Spanish.

3. One night a lightning storm took out the power to our town. Since we couldn't see much in our

pad we hopped into our bus (which was awesome) and Felix (our driver) headed into town to a restaurant we were assured would be open despite not having any electricity. We only got to the top of the little private road we lived down before we were stopped by a tree that had cracked in two and blocked the road. So out we got and tramped on down the dark road till we got to the restaurant. Reading menus by candlelight is really fun for older folks. But that's why they had kids. To help them out in these situations. We met some Tongans there who knew people we knew so, of course, we invited them to join us at our place for dinner the next night.

4. Flash forward to almost dinner time the next night:

Rel A: Those people aren't really coming to dinner are they?

Rel B: I hope not.

Rel A: How did we end up inviting them again?

Rel C: Yah that was weird.

It was widely determined that we hoped they wouldn't show up but we ought to send someone to meet them at the designated place just in case (they were related to our friends, we couldn't have them run back a bad report). They didn't show up. We ate all of Pato's (our chef) grilled steak, chicken and mahi mahi by ourselves. More for us!

5. One morning the howler monkeys were being so loud (thankfully we were already awake) that it sounded like they were RIGHT outside our wall (I'd say "window" but the whole wall was glass). I yanked back the curtains and oh. They ARE right outside our wall. Fighting over a tree branch. Silly monkeys.

6. My mom ate a termite. It was small (thankfully) and she said it tasted like green beans. I think I'll just stick with actual green beans.

7. At the waterfall we rode our horses to our guides set up a rope to help you climb up in case you wanted to jump off the falls like a crazy person. After the youngest in our group took the lead others had to follow (but not me, I'm above peer pressure. ;)). The guides were at different points heading up the falls (you climbed right up the water pounding down on you) to help you. One of my cousins headed up, lost her footing but was still clinging to the rope and the guide's hand, couldn't let go and scrape her whole body down the rocks but probably could've used a free hand to pull up her bathing suit bottom which had fallen down to upper thigh area. Probably the hardest I laughed the whole trip. And all's well that ends well - she made it up and jumped off like a champ. Bathing suit on.

8. On our first day in Costa Rica we stopped off in a poor little area (not even a town really) and ate at a woman's house. May sound weird but it was actually awesome. She lived right on the beach so we had fresh fish they had caught that morning and the best bean dip and fried plantains I've ever had. And I don't even like beans. Anyway after we ate we explored the beach a bit. Cousins found shells. I found a vertebrae. It was large and intact (not, like, whale large, but probably slightly smaller than human size). That concluded my beach exploration that day.

9. On the way home we took this little airplane from Quepos to San Jose. Our guide Eric's wife Gabby was going to meet us at the little airport to take us to the international airport. Sounded like a good plan. We got there with basically no problems (except being weighed before the flight to make sure the plane could handle all of us. This is when I discovered I gained 10lbs on vacation) and when we arrived in San Jose there was Gabby and Marianna (her little daughter). They loaded us into a van and off we went. For 2 minutes. When Gabby pulled into the terminal right next to the one we had just left I thought "it must be that she has to help us get through customs or something." Nope. She just came down to San Jose to give us a 2 minute ride from building 1 to building 2 next door. Guess we REALLY seemed like helpless Americans. Ah well. I like to not use my feet whenever possible.

10. I've already made this really long. So I'll spare any thoughts on walking through the conservatory of butterflies, getting stung by some enigmatic but painful little creature while snorkeling, creating our own movie theater in house #1, and playing Signs late at night. But know that they all happened.

Summer Vacay

I don't miss a whole lot about school. But I do miss summer vacations. And holidays. Basically I miss the parts of school where you weren't expected to go to school. Ah, that was the life. And now that I'm a worker bee sure it's nice to have money and never worry about finals or papers to write, but when summer rolls around it's hard to not be jealous of everyone else's three months of freedom. Of course when fall inevitably rears its head I'M the one laughing, but until then usually I am bummed that everyone is playing and I'm not. However this summer was pretty great. Despite the fact that I worked through most of it there were several points where I was NOT working and then I just let the good times roll.

One of the good times this year: Costa Rica. The first annual (or...first possibly-annual-at-least-every-two-years) family reunion. Yep. We go big when it comes to family reunions. Costa Rica was a grand ol' time (how could it not be?) full of white water rafting, swimming in pools, kayaking, snorkeling, relaxing at the beach, horseback riding to waterfalls, deep sea fishing (not MY idea of fun, but that's why I didn't go, and apparently for the menfolk in the group it was a highlight), ziplining through the trees, playing games at night, eating tons of delicious food, and watching a late night movie or two. Pretty great.

We went horseback riding first. I expected it to be along the lines of all other times I'd been horseback riding: you plod along single file behind a guide in terrain that's nice but mostly unremarkable. And maybe you'll cross a little trickle of a stream and that will be the high point of the trip. But no. Costa Rican horses know no such restraint. And the trails are not so blase. First of all we started out going down this steep hill. Not so steep you thought you might fall forward off your horse, but steep enough that several of the horses chose to weave back and forth along the trail in a slalom skiing sort of way.

Chill out hopalong, I know the trail.

Then on the parts where the trail leveled out a little or went uphill the horses seemed to be engaged in a bit of friendly competition; anytime they would hear another horse coming up on them from behind they would start to trot to keep ahead. I'm sure if you know how to ride a horse properly the trotting is not a big deal. But when you're not a cowboy (or cowgirl) excessive trotting can be kind of painful but more just embarrassing. Because clearly you have no idea what you're doing as you bounce up and down like an idiot. And also you decided to wear a backpack that is bouncing up and down on your back while you're bouncing up and down on the poor horse's back. And this is why I think my horse decided to move on from the trotting and go ahead and just gallop. Trotting was painful for her. Galloping...not really less painful but at least we get to our destination quicker. So my horse chose to run most of the way. Even though she was breathing like she might die of a lack of oxygen at any moment. Still. She ran. She REALLY wanted me off her back. I, of course, decided to put all my horseback riding skill to the test (aren't you supposed to keep your knees in or something? Try to move with the cadence - like standup in the stirrups at some point?) to at least try not look like the last time I'd ridden a horse was in 1991. I was unsuccessful in this endeavor. And I was sore for the next two days. So maybe my "knowledge" of horseback riding was something I made up in my head.

The slowpokes. Some horse chose to walk parts of the trail. But not me and Chimoka. ....And, on the left, the annoying little girl who kept kicking her horse the entire time. When that didn't seem to yield results she started slapping it on the butt. If I spoke French I would've told her off. Or not. But I would've told her off in my head in French.

But. I DID have fun. And my horse took me to a nice little outdoor restaurant stop for breakfast along the way, then to a waterfall where I swam while she probably tried to take a nap before the long ride back, and then back to the outdoor restaurant for lunch, and then home! So she and I are friends. Probably not pen pal kind of friends, but if I ever get back to Costa Rica and need a ride to a waterfall, I know Chimoka is the gal for me.

Lunch at the outdoorsy cafe. Yum!

And as a final note, may I say that at least MY horse wasn't biting and kicking other horses like SOME people's horses. You know who you are. My horse likes to win fair and square in an old fashioned footrace. Even if it IS up the side of a mountain.