While Daddy is away...

Trung went to Tahoe last night for a couple of days on a ski trip with some guy friends, so I planned a busy weekend to keep the girls busy.  First thing this morning, Sophie took her make-up dance class in an art studio in Venice.  Then we went to Costco where we spent a good amount of time trying samples.  I rarely take the kids just for this reason, but I was wanting to kill time, so it was the perfect place.  We had a quick lunch at Freebirds and then relaxed a couple hours at home before heading out again for a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's.  By the time we got back home, it was time to get the kids ready for bed.  Whoo-hoo, I made it through the first day!

The girls had Freebirds burritos for the first time and they liked them!

Two brains are better than one

Sophie putting her entire weight into her pumps

Sophie couldn't reach the gas, so Lydia helped out

Eren rocking it out with Chuckee

I went looking for Sophie and found her on her favorite "ride"...with another kid.  At first I thought he was mooching a ride off of her, but later found out that they had both been waiting for the person before them to finish up.  Then as soon as that person got up to leave, they both sat down.  The little boy paid for the "ride", but the seat was big enough for the both of them that he didn't bothering kicking Sophie off.  Too funny!

Where it pays to shop online

I recently received an e-mail about a casting call for Ebates members to be in a commercial and to tell the world why they love Ebates.  Of course, I jumped at the opportunity because ever since I joined just under two years ago, I have made almost $500 just by going through their website before I shop online.  So I submitted about how I use Ebates and a picture, and actually got a call back to come in to meet with the casting director and Ebates' VP of Marketing.

I was asked to come dressed as a "mom" with a casual top, jeans, and flats.  I thought the audition went well, but I didn't receive a phone call that I got booked, so I wasn't exactly what they were looking for.  Who knows, I could have talked too fast (which I tend to do when I get excited), was not the right age for the "mom" role, or just didn't have the right look.  Regardless, I received $50 in my ebates account just for coming in and the audition was in Santa Monica, so it was convenient.  Even though I didn't get the "job", I still love Ebates and if you love to shop online, then you will too!

A lady and her dog in pink auditioning for a Tempur-pedic commerical next door.

In sickness and in health

Friday night was one of the longest nights of my life.  I woke up every two hours, vomiting and having diarrhea, sorry it it's TMI.  Everyone in the family was fine, so I had no clue what was wrong with me.  For the last couple of days, I had been trying to stick with the BRAT diet, occasionally dining on noodle soup to change things up a bit.  Today, Cora texted me asking if I still had diarrhea because she did.  So, I texted Weiru and come to find out, she had it too!  Apparently, the three of us had caught traveler's diarrhea in Costa Rica.  Though we were miserable for days, we were glad it all happened in the comforts of our homes and not in a foreign country.

Though I felt weak, we made it to Lydia's classmate Mila's birthday gathering at the park this afternoon.  We didn't stay long, but it was nice getting out for a little while since I've been coped up at home resting.

Happy and healthy

The whole shabang

Another mom videotaped the whole children's section of the fashion show.  Enjoy!

2 of 4

Sophie had a full day of school and then needed to get ready for her second day of the fashion show.  I was glad that she was tired enough for a power nap in the car before our call time because it was going to be a long night with two shows.  Thankfully, the twelve child models were all friendly by now and the time passed quickly.  By the end of the night, I was totally ready to go home, but Sophie wanted to stay.  Good thing we were coming back again tomorrow for the final show.

 Powering up

 Drinking a hot chocolate, getting her hair done...it's tough being 5.

A better angle of the show

All the kids dressed in Ericka Corona's designs

Runways

We woke up super early this morning to guarantee that we would arrive to the airport in ample time, only to find out that Cora and my flight had been canceled.  Unfortunately, there was another flight just 14 minutes later, but my layover was already only an hour in El Salvador, so I would definitely be cutting it close.  Despite being misguided to the wrong side of the El Salvador airport, I made it onto my connecting flight just a few minutes before the plane door closed.  Whew!  When I landed, I switched the LAX runway for a fashion show runway.  Sophie's first job was tonight at the Santa Monica Airport's Barker Hanger.  Though I was physically exhausted, the excitement kept me on my toes.  Most of the fashion show was for adult clothing, so when the children came out, the crowd went wild.  So much fun!

A zipline display at the San Jose airport; zip-lining must be very popular here.  :P

Sophie's first time on the catwalk and obviously I had a few instructions of my own.

Sophie was the second to last one down the walk.

The kid models posing with the designer Erika Corona

Singing "Let it Go" before the show

Ready for the first of four shows

Sophie has such confidence and I didn't even know if she'd even make it down without freaking out!

Sights of San Jose

 After yet another hearty Costa Rican breakfast, we made our way back down the winding road to San Jose.  We arrived a couple hours before check-in, but were able to leave our luggage at the hotel so that we wouldn't have to lug it around everywhere.  First stop was lunch as we were all starving by now.  The hotel front desk recommended a few places, but we chose Argentinian cuisine as we had had enough pico gallo and plantains for awhile.  Afterwards, we walked around and explored San Jose for a little bit before checking into the hotel.  Though we were tired and would have loved to rest a little longer, we headed back out to check out a museum.  The jade and gold museums didn't seem too interesting, so we went to the National Museum instead, which wasn't that great either.  Oh well, at least we did some obligatory cultural thing while we were here.

We found several shopping areas and Weiru and Cora stocked up on souvenirs at a cool place lined with little shops.  As tempted as I was to buy something, I had already purchased my bell, which I've been collecting for a couple decades now, and Trung had asked that I not buy anything excessive...he would have been proud.  After a simple dinner, we called it a night as we would be waking up at 3:30 the next morning to catch early flights back home.

Outside the Argentinian restaurant where we went for lunch

Enjoying fresh coconut juice while strolling down San Jose's version of the Promenade

Apparently, feeding pigeons is a big thing here.  As we walked onto this square, a local was practically forcing a bag of dried corn on me to feed to the pigeons.  The idea of pigeons swarming around me didn't quite appeal to me, so I had to keep refusing him.

The National Museum of San Jose where we barely lasted an hour.  Not that Costa Rican history is boring, well, maybe a tad, but mainly because we were tired and the museum was solely about history and not much else.

The best past of the museum was the butterfly garden.  We saw some very colorful, unique butterflies there.

Chrysalis, old and new

Notice the rows of chrysalis that were pinned to this plant.

We listened to a couple pieces performed by an orchestra gathered in front of the museum.  I'm not sure if  they perform there often or because it was St. Joseph's Day, a national holiday.

A Day at Tabacon

 Though we all went to sleep early, Cora and I had a rough night because the AC kept dripping water on our heads and then it got uncomfortably cold.  Fortunately, we had a relaxing day planned at the spa and could catch a cap nap whenever we wanted.  First, we enjoyed a Costan Rican breakfast with Cora's now favorite dish, pico gallo, and my favorite, plantains.  A quick taxi ride to the spa and then we had the entire afternoon to explore Grand Spa Tabacon; we chose to come to Costa Rica solely for this spa.  The first part of the morning, we stayed near the swimming pool area and had some lunch.  We didn't realize that there was so much more to discover, with trails leading up to various thermal pools and waterfalls.  Our time of discovery ended abruptly when we say a small green snake slither away by one of the pools.  Apparently, Weiru is deathly afraid of them and refused to go up into the rainforest any further.

No problem, we had about an hour before our spa treatments, so we asked if we could "check-in" a little early and we relaxed in bathrobes and enjoyed the serenity.  I didn't know that our facials would be outside, which was amazing, with the sound of the waterfall in the background the entire time.  The facial itself was good, something I would expect at any high end spa, but the service was excellent.  We could order fresh smoothies whenever we wanted!  We had an Italian buffet dinner afterwards that came with our day package, which wasn't the greatest, but satisfying enough.  Another wonderful day in the volcano region.  

Arenal Volcano disappeared this morning

Here's a picture of it from the same place the day before.

 Grand Spa Tabacon, not (as we learned) to be mistaken for Hotel Tabacon as they are in two separate locations. 

 A large lizard welcomed us to the resort; the poor thing had a huge chunk missing from his "fin" though.

 Excited about our day of relaxation

 Thermal swimming pool with a swim up bar and a spectacular view of Arenal.

 Just taking it all in

 Cora and I having a little fun, poking our heads out of the waterfall

Talk about paradise!

 There were stairs into every waterfall we encountered, so we couldn't help but go into them.

 The last picture we got before encountering the snake.

An elephant greeted us when we returned to the hotel, which was a bit sentimental because I just bought Sophie a stuffed animal elephant just before I left on the trip.  We accidentally left her original one at the hotel in Denver and she would cry for it sometimes.  She was clingy the week before I left, so I thought that getting her a replacement elephant would make her feel better.

Drive, zipline, eat, repeat

Cora and I had a very good night's sleep and enjoyed a nice continental buffet breakfast at the hotel.  Our transportation service, Anywhere Costa Rica, was a little early, so we got an early start to pick up Weiru at the airport.  Good thing too because there was major morning traffic on the way, but when we finally arrived, we were all excited to see each other.  Now off to La Fortuna, the volcano region of Costa Rica, and a good three hour drive.  Weiru had a red eye flight and motion sickness, so she spent most of the winding drive resting in the back seat.

We stopped one time to take pictures of a cool park and church, and then again midway at a diner so that we could pick up some food to go for lunch.  The driver needed to eat too, so we shopped next door at the souvenir shop while we waited.  We arrived at Volcano Lodge around one and spent the next hour eating and resting.  A full tourist bus then picked us up and took us on a very bumpy ride up to the zip lining center.  After gearing up and taking a ten minute tram ride, we went down seven zip lines zig-zagging over the rainforest and next to Arenal Volcano.  Since we had to hold a fetal like position, we couldn't really move around much, but when you looked side to side, it was amazing.  At one point, I looked over to see Weiru zip-lining in the opposite direction.  Way cool!

Since the last shuttle left before dinnertime, we decided to have dinner back at the hotel,  We stuffed ourselves silly and then took a little dip in the thermal springs feature where the little waterfalls gave excellent massages.  We had a wonderful ending to day two of our trip/ 

A beautiful Catholic church with marble detailing

A park with adorable landscaping

Dino hedge

Enjoying a typical Costa Rican lunch on the back porch of our hotel room

Geared up to go zip-lining

Arenal volcano straight ahead and the second zip line on the right

Of course, I volunteered to show everyone how it's done

Incoming...

Zipline #3 right over the rainforest.  The cables came one right after the other, so you seriously didn't have time to get scared.

Steak, chicken, fish platter at the hotel restaurant with complimentary cocktails.

Red eye

I had a direct flight to San Jose, Costa Rica with an hour "stay on the plane" stop in Guatamala and arrived at the San Jose Airport around 9:30 AM.  I had never been on a true "red eye" flight before, just super early flights, and actually didn't intend on ever taking one.  My original flight was booked for 7:30 AM with a layover in El Salvador, where Cora, flying from Houston, would meet me and we would fly into San Jose together.  The partner airline, however, decided to cancel the 7:30 flight or get rid of it altogether, and moved my flight up to 1:30 AM with the same layover in El Salvador.  I had no intention of waiting in a foreign country for 10 hours, so I gave customer service a call only to find out that even though the flight change was the airlines' fault, I could only change flights if they had one available for the same number of miles I had used to redeem my initial flight.  I don't know if that even makes sense, but after another phone conversation with a super nice customer representative, I was able to get the new "direct" flight and even get Cora one too!

So, I arrived a good two hours before Cora's flight in San Jose and just like last year in Santa Fe, I had planned to greet her at her gate when she arrived.  Airport security wouldn't allow me to "re-enter" the airport nor wait in front of customs, so I found myself waiting outside with a slew of annoying taxi drivers with no cellular connection or Wi-Fi.  I just hoped that Cora would figure it out and make her way to me somehow, and after two hours, she did!  We took a taxi to our hotel and soon made our way to Multiplaza, the largest shopping center in Costa Rica.  We had lunch and smoothies, and spent the afternoon window shopping as the clothes were way overpriced.  The mall, interestingly enough, also held mini soccer games, pool competitions, swim demonstrations, and even cheer leading performances, so we were never bored.

We asked our hotel for the 7:15 PM complimentary shuttle back and we waited for a good 20 minutes, so when 7:20 rolled around and a driver shouts out our hotel name, we immediately get in and believe that we are on our back.  We were very wrong.  Apparently, our hotel forgot us entirely and the guy who picked us up was supposed to pick up another person going to the same hotel in a different city!  So, of course, we realize this when we are almost at the wrong hotel, so the driver has to swing around and take us back to the mall to pick up the other guy and then figure out how to get to our "out of the way" hotel.  *sigh*  We eventually make it back to our hotel and go to sleep by 9 PM, exhausted by the flight and day's events.

A night at El Capitan

Weeks ago, I saw a deal for discounted tickets to watch the new Tinkerbell movie "Pirate Fairy" at the historical El Capitan Theatre.  We had never been before, so Trung and I decided to surprise the girls and figured that since the show was pretty late, we would go on the day that I would need to be dropped off at the airport for my 1:30 AM flight to Costa Rica.

We spent the better part of the evening at home and the girls were all confused when we needed to get ready to leave.  All Trung told them was that we would be going to "a show", but they didn't know anything else.  They weren't as expressively excited as I would have liked them to have been when they saw the movie posters, but they did have a great time at the show, especially since Lydia's friend Sydney showed up.  Adam Sandler was there with his kids too, so that was an added bonus, at least for me.  :P

Sophie, Sydney, and Lydia at El Capitan

Disney Firsts

 After having an annual pass for 10 months now, you would think that the kids would be sick of going to Disneyland (Trung is), but fortunately they aren't.  This visit, I went on the Screaming Over California roller coaster for the first time and literally screamed the whole time because it was going so fast.  Lydia even asked me not to scream so much the next time...uh, what next time?  The girls each got to go on their favorite rides three times!  Sophie loves "Goofy's flying school" and Lydia's is, of course, Screaming Over California, which she went on twice more with Trung after me.  

It was so hot today, at least for California, so we enjoyed cooling off a little on the Grizzly Run rafting ride.  We had never been on it before and it was quite fun.  We got to finish the afternoon at Radiator Springs Racers since we arrived early enough to grab fastpasses after staying the night at Mike's home; he lives 15 minutes away.  With a meal stop at Brodard and Che che che, we got home early and got the kids in bed to help the, adjust to Daylight Savings.

  

Proof that I went on Screaming over California

Ready to get wet

Sophie has characteristics like "Alice in Wonderland"

I am like "Belle" (Lydia got Alice in Wonderland too while Trung got Gaston)

Lydia as "Thumper", Trung as "Flower", and Sophie as "Bambi"

 You can actually see the girls in the front row!

Basketball season is over

Today Lydia played her final basketball game of the season.  Over the last few months, Lydia has shown improvement in handling the ball and being a team player.  Though she has much to learn, this was a great start and exposure to actual games.  Hopefully, Lydia can continue to improve as we would like her to be more involved in a team sport as she gets older.

Lydia's rare attempt to shoot a basket

The wolves ended the season with a win!

2nd-3rd grade basketball team

It's a bird, it's a plane...