A New Excuse

So all children come up with excuses as to why they shouldn't have to go to bed.  Tonight I heard a new one from Ellie.... "But Mommy, I have to clean my room first."  

I just hope this excuse will come up in her later years in life when her room is truly messy.  

I'm a Nookachamp!

I ran the Nookachamp 1/2 Marathon this weekend . The race was located in Mount Vernon, WA. It rained before the race and the entire afternoon after... but we got lucky and stayed dry during the race! Brandon and Ellie were there cheering me on. I couldn't have had a better cheering squad! Thanks for supporting me! Post race picture with my friend Angela.

The Adventures

While in Costa Rica we went on a number of adventures.  Here are a few:

The Jungle Boat Ride:  We saw at least 10 crocodiles, a pink flamingo, tons of monkeys (a few of us even fed bananas to the monkeys), lots of colorful iguanas and birds.

The first crocodile sighting

Ellie checking out the crocodiles.

It took her a while to see them at first but when she did see them she would get So excited and would start saying "chomp chomp chomp" and doing the crocodile arm motions.

Surfing

A few of us took our first surfing lessons.  It was so much fun!  

The Surfing Crew

The Jungle Zip Line:

Doing the Superman through the jungle

We really were in the middle of the jungle

Crazy Brandon

Christmas in Costa Rica

We spent the holiday in Paradise surrounded by family..... I'm not sure it gets much better than that! We enjoyed a week long vacation with the Clarke side of the family... and loved every minute of it! I don't think I have seen Ellie so incredibly excited for each and every moment of the day for the week that she was surrounded by cousins AND a pool! 

After much anticipation she is on her way.....Our first full day in Costa Rica was a Sunday so we headed to the local branch. Ellie loved going to primary with the other kids and even joined in (including a HUGE smile) when they sang I am a Child of God in Spanish.... which her dad has taught her to sing!Her first dip in the kiddie pool. I LOVED that the kiddie pool was covered by a hut.... even though she only spent the first day in the kiddie pool.. I thought it was a great idea to prevent the otherwise inevitable sunburn!Brandon and Ellie playing in the waves at sunset!Her favorite place... and where she spent ALL of her time!

It was fun to see how much Ellie changed in just a weeks time.  The first day in the water she wouldn't let us let go of her...but by just the second day she was swimming with her floaties in the deep end and would have nothing to do with us!
Christmas dinner! The balancing act
Uncle Nate playing with the monkeys... literally. These little guys were vicious... they would pit pocket you if you didn't empty out your pockets before heading in the cage.... unfortunatly one of our fellow travelers wasn't fowarned and the monkey stole their keys and headed to the top of the tree! They also stole a ladies sunglasses off her face through the fence!
Our favorite time of day was from 4-5 pm when the sun was setting and it was high tide. We would all head out to the ocean to ride the waves.... too much fun!
Cousins!
Christmas Eve sing-a-long at the resort
Christmas morning!