Saturday, May 26, 2012

Update from the South

Hey everyone, it's been a long time since we've posted anything. Mostly, we have yet to buy a new camera since our old one got stolen and so we haven't many pictures to post. We'll be seeing you all very soon but I thought I'd go ahead and put up some photos before too much time passes.  These were taken with my cell phone so the quality is low.
Life is going well. The kids are excited for school to be over for the year.  They're obviously heartbroken that we have to pull them out two weeks early to make it to D's wedding in Portland next weekend. Traci left this morning to head up early to the Northwest. That leaves me with the four kids and the dog for the next week. I also had a moment of weakness a couple of days ago and agreed to watch a friend's two additionally dogs while he is out of town.  That was misguided to say the least.  With the rainy season upon us, apparently the 3 dogs got into a mud hole in the backyard yesterday and were unrecognizable.  Traci spent hours cleaning the patio, house, and dogs after the mud Armageddon was over. Gratefully it all occurred while I was at work. Now it's a matter of surviving the few days without killing them. 
Last week Traci and I cashed in on some babysitting that we were owed by another family and took off for the weekend.  It was fantastic! I'll describe it a bit later with the pictures.
Anyway, here are some random photos from the last month or so. 


 Simon plays pretty hard at church and this is the typical after church lunch photo.

Traci recently finished painting Abe's room.  Abe opted for a Pirates of the Caribbean theme. I wish I had a decent camera instead of my crappy cell phone to do the room justice.  It turned out awesome!


These are my two favorite characters from the movie.

For Mother's Day the kids made their mom a cake.  They chose to make it a battlefield cake.  Why? Because "Love is a Battlefield"

For our weekend away we started about an hour north at a town named Ataco. It's a really cute little town. We loved this little church at the edge of town.
We spent the night at some hot springs. It is a series of pools and the water cascades from pool to pool. The top pool was almost too hot to enter, almost.  With each descending pool the water cooled slightly until by the time you reached the bottom is just a nice warm swimming pool.  We had a lovely romantic time.

We were the only guests there. The hot springs are right in the middle of a large coffee plantation.  I commented to Traci that I didn't understand how they could make any money with only us as guests.  Then the owner came out and chatted with us.  He was hilariously eccentric.  He is a wealthy coffee farmer and said his yearly income from the farm is about $4 million.  He told us that he built the pools because he likes talking to people and he thought they would attract people for him to talk to.
He then went on to tell us about a mineral mine that he has on the property. Apparently this mineral has been shown to be an effective anti-aging mineral and that it is being used to make lotions.  He has begun making another pool near the mineral mine.  He is certain that it is going to attract millions of "ugly women" from all over the world to come bathe in the waters.  He has made a website that promises that "ugly women" will enter the waters and when they leave the pool they will be sure to receive at least three proposals of marriage. He said he plans to have his 300 coffee farm employees line the road and propose marriage to all the ugly women so that he can keep his word.  Traci immediately fell madly in love with him.  I have to admit I did a little bit too.
We finished the weekend with a day at the beach without the kids which was beautifully relaxing.
Anyway, can't wait to see you all very soon!

Thursday, May 3, 2012