Day 1--Portantorchas!!!

Welcome to Day 1 of our Costa Rican adventure!

We started day 1 VERY early in the morning.  We were all packed up and headed for the airport by 4:50 a.m.!!!  (Thanks, Matt, for getting up so early to haul us all there!) 

First order of business:  Where in the world is Costa Rica?

Yep, waaaaaayy down there in Central America--just above Panama.  It's amazing that it's just a short 3 1/2 hour flight from Houston!

In Houston by 8:30 a.m., our adventures began. . .

First item lost by my adorable son, was his half-read Harry Potter book.  Seems he left it on the first plane.  Dave, being the awesome dad that he is, trudged ALL the way back to the first gate to see if perhaps someone had found it and turned it in.  No such luck. 

To the kid that finds it:  you're welcome, from the Anderson's.

With the book lost so early in the trip, of course the only place to go was to the screens. . .

We arrived mid-afternoon in San Jose and were met at the airport by our friend Tom.  Thanks, Tom, for picking us up, entertaining us, feeding us, and putting us up for the night!  Our digs for the first night were absolutely amazing!  We were blessed to stay at Portantorchas.  You can read all about that facility here, but basically, it is a Christian School that teaches a variety of bible classes on a semester by semester basis.  If you know of any college-aged kids that need a break from the hum-drum of American life, they should check this place out!  Amazing!  If I were 21, I would absolutely do this for a year.

This was one of the many mountain views from the property. . .

There is a large field in the middle of the facility that acts as a walking path, jogging path, and soccer field.  It is Central America, after all!

The most recent addition, at the edge of the soccer field is this little amphitheater.  It has tiered seating with a fire pit, and even a small pool for the occasional baptism.  Really beautiful!

I just loved this tree/bush.  Made me think of "The Lorax". . .

At the back of the property is "the boathouse".  Not sure why it's called that. . . neither was our friend Tom, but it sits next to this gorgeous lily pond that is teaming with ducks, mosquitoes, and I suspect a number of unsavory water-borne bacteria, but I digress. . .

I just adored the bridge. . .

And then there were the rabbits. . .

Seems my son is "the rabbit whisperer".  He got closer than any of us!

I finally managed to sneak up on this little guy while he was napping and snapped this pic with the telephoto.

According to Tom, these are eucalyptus trees.  They are not indigenous to Costa Rica.  The property has a number of them, though, and the word on the street is that they were brought over from Australia and planted on the property. The colors are absolutely amazing.  These pictures are NOT photo-shopped!  They are really that pretty!

The wood is really heavy and burns very hot.  So, this is a stack of trimmed eucalyptus that they use for the fire pit.

The Coy Pond. . .

And the ducks. . .

It's hard to see, but this is a duck with her chicks. . . there are much better shots below. . .

The chicks were all crammed underneath her. . . so funny!

Of course, the foliage was spectacular!

It was so quiet, with no wind. . . We were able to have great conversations on our walk. . . I'm pretty sure that this is the closest thing to heaven I will ever experience here on Earth.

Yep, Dave needs to buy LOTS of guns, and spend LOTS of time practicing his art of intimidation. . . just sayin'. . .

So many spiders!  I have much better photos from later in the trip of these creepy things, but Portantorchas had it's share, too!

Coffee plants!!!

Dave's "hot spot"!  I was hoping he wouldn't find wifi too early in the trip, but alas he did!

We enjoyed our stay at Portantorchas, but stay tuned for "the rest of the story". . .

El Lagarto

As many of you know, my family recently returned from a week-long trip to the glorious country of Costa Rica.  This was our kids' first time out of the US, and my husband and I are so pleased that we chose such a magnificent place for this occasion.  I have over 1,000 photos and lots of stories that I want to share, and it's gonna take me some time to get through them all. 

My intention is to do a day-by-day recap of our trip, but I just could not wait until day 5 to tell the story of our best meal ever.  Anywhere.  Not just on this trip, in this particular country, but on ANY trip in ANY country!

Quick disclaimer:  prior to our trek to the restaurant, there were TORRENTIAL rains--of biblical proportions.  So, sadly, I did not have my good camera with me.  All photos of this amazing experience were captured in poor lighting with a camera phone. . . really sad that I don't have better pics, but still worth the effort to post in a blog.

To give you some back-story, our family has a phrase that we use regularly when we travel.  That phrase is "route 3".  It all goes back to several years ago when we were traveling (by car) from Texas to California.  Having done this trek a number of times--alone, as a couple, and as a family--we decided to plug in our destination to the new iPhone maps app just to see what would happen.  As luck would have it, the app gave us 3 different routes that we could take, and we opted to take "route 3", the scenic, off-the-beaten-path route.  It took us far from the familiar interstate, through deserts, over mountains, and across some gorgeous landscapes.  What that trip taught all of us is that life is more than the destination.  Half the fun is the journey itself.  Since that time, we have tried to incorporate an attitude of "route 3" and it has thus become common verbiage in our family.  So, if you hear me or my kids refer to "route 3" in the future, you now know what it means!

Okay. . . our best meal EVER. . . here we go. . .

El Lagarto is the name of the restaurant.  In Spanish, it translates to "the lizard", or "the alligator".  We almost missed this place, and only managed to hear about it from the lady acting as our concierge on this trip. 

This is an external shot taken from across the valley with my telephoto lens from our morning coffee shop (another post, for another day). I know, not very impressive from the outside. . . but wait till you get a look at the inside. . .

All natural teak wood with clam shell chandeliers!

This was the flooring in the front half of the restaurant.  Wood inlaid tiles!  Absolutely beautiful. . . the photo does NOT do it justice!

 

All of the tables were big, flat slabs of polished wood.  This particular one was the most beautiful of them all.  We thought it was funny that some poor sap would have to sit in the spot (at the lower right of the pic) where there was a hole in the wood that went all the way through!  Again, the photo does not do this amazing piece of furniture justice.

Keep in mind, that we were in this restaurant after sundown, in really torrential rains, and were actually the only people here for the first half of the meal.  So, now that we have the ambiance established, here's where the meal got REALLY fun!

This was a huge wood burning stove in the front corner of the restaurant.  You can see the wood in the very top box burning with embers/hot coals in a chamber below.  This is the crazy apparatus that the cook was going to use to prepare our meal!

 

Once the meat was prepped, the cook would pull a rope (it's hard to see, but it's hanging down on the right side of the photo).  When this rope was pulled, a giant metal plate would pound down onto the logs in the top chamber, crushing the embers/coals and forcing them into the chamber below.  The embers/coals would then be scooped out with what looked like a regular gardening hoe and ushered down one of the two ramps that you see to the grill plate below.

 

 

The grill, already prepared with whatever meat had been ordered, was then lowered down just above the smoldering coals.  You can see the grill and coals at the very bottom of the pic.  This is where the chef would then proceed to cook our meal to it's desired consistency.

 

This was our chef for the evening, as he was preparing our meal.

 

 

Dave snapped this pic of the girls while we were waiting for our food.

 

Our kids were all about "route 3" on this particular night, so we all ordered a different entrée to give everyone a taste of everything.  

 

 

Mine was the most boring (albeit quite delicious) meal of the night.  I didn't even get one of the cool plates like everyone else.  I felt a little cheated, but the awesomeness of this perfectly prepared beef tenderloin with grilled zucchini, grilled tomato, and baked potato, made up for the boring white plate.

 

 

Trevor ordered the pork tenderloin.  Also very delicious.  And. . . check out how cool that plate was!  If it didn't weigh about 10 lbs, I probably would have asked if I could buy one!

 

 

Kaylee's grilled Mahi Mahi was absolutely amazing (and I'm not even a big fish eater)!  It was freshly caught that day (as was all of the fish we ate on this trip).  But, she was most impressed with the cool plate and smiley face the chef made out of lettuce, carrots, and a tomato.

 

BUT. . .

 

Dave's meal completely stole the show!  Sadly, he only was able to eat about half of it, because the rest of us kept stealing it (especially Kaylee)! 

 

Calamares rellenos y camarones (stuffed squid and shrimp), was the clear winner of the "route 3" meal of the trip!

 

The photos look more disgusting than they did in real life--I think, mostly because the smell was unbelievably awesome (oh, and the lighting was a bit dim, too)!

 

We all enjoyed the squid. . .

 



 

 

 

Especially Kaylee. . .

Yep, that's a tentacle hanging out of her mouth. . .

 

Fun times!  Can't wait to go back to this place!

 

To be continued. . .

My Shocking New Enabling Moment!!

It's April.  For many folks that means nice weather, the real beginning of spring, tax time, and the wind-up to the end of the school year.  For the Anderson family, April is "birthday month"! 

We LOVE birthdays at our house.  So much so, that we generally celebrate as early and as long as possible every time one occurs in our family.

That being said, I don't think Dave and I fully appreciated the enormity of having both of our kids' birthdays land in the same month.  Thankfully, one is at the very beginning and the other is at the very end so that we can prolong the celebration and excessive consumption of birthday treats for weeks on end.  However, it does create quite a bit of extra work, planning, and creativity for an extended period of time too.

We are now, quite successfully, over halfway through the month.  As I scurried around my home on my day off, I was hit square between my type-A, overly organized eyes with yet another way that I have continued to enable my children over the past few years--birthday invitations and thank you cards!

As I sat at my kitchen table this afternoon with the stack of thank-you cards for my son's big bash and the stack of invites for my daughter's upcoming shin-dig, I thought "What in the crap am I doing?"  Really, those were the words that rang in my head and right out of my mouth as I sat alone in my house, pen in hand and address book ready.

As luck would have it, I had only managed to address a few envelopes before my latest epiphany hit.  Also, as luck would have it, it was my day off and I was going to be right there at the front door smiling as my kids disembarked from Mr. School Bus.

So began yet another impromptu teaching moment in the Anderson house. 

I was surprised to find that my annual enabling-fest--disguised as "serving" my children--had resulted in my kids' complete lack of knowledge as to how to properly address and stamp an envelope fit for the good ol' US Postal Service. 

Wow!  Really?!?  I'm that parent? 

Why, yes, yes I am. . . but not anymore!

I simply sat my kids down at the table--their respective cards in front of them--and proceeded to instruct them on how to properly address and stamp an envelope.  I was fully prepared for all the whining and complaining that I assumed would ensue.  Much to my surprise, they dutifully sat and listened to the instructions and commenced licking, addressing and stamping said cards.

There were a few mishaps in the stack, but I am optimistic that they will all arrive at the correct locales several days from today.  So, if you happen to be one of the recipients of our latest "lesson", please be forgiving of the scribbled out "mistakes", or elementary school chicken-scratch.  If you happen to be the recipient of one that is clearly not child-written, just know your card was on the top of the stack and was the "instructional" letter hand-addressed by yours truly.

To say I feel a sense of freedom today would be an understatement.  I don't think I ever really realized how much effort and time I have put into these birthday-month endeavors.  Of course, I still can't quite get my kids to grasp the concept of picking up their socks and shoes, but doggonit, they know how to address an envelope now!

Pretty sure that in the next few decades, there will be no need for my kids to know how to accomplish such a task, but I guess that didn't stop my parents from teaching me how to program a VCR or wind a cassette ribbon back up with a pencil.  At the very least, now my kids will have something to talk about when they tell their kids stories about "life, back in the day". 

An Anderson Kind of Sabbath

I am a workaholic.  My husband is a workaholic.  We are also a family that has been called to church work. It's weird, really. Because I don't think God is a workaholic. Of course, he's pretty efficient--you know, creating the entire universe and all of its contents in just 6 days. However, God's also a big fan of "the Sabbath".  I mean, it even made his top 10 list back in Exodus.

So, my question is this: if we are made in God's image, have a true desire to follow his rules, and have human bodies that physically require rest and relaxation, why is it so hard to just stop and take a day to enjoy life--free from the stress and duties of every other day of the week?  I think it has something to do with guilt--as well as an innate and deep desire to help those in need.

All that said, the last 3 days have been awesome!  I have to smile when I reflect on the amazing ways that God knocks on this thick skull of mine. He commands us to take one out of every seven days to rest. Does the Anderson family ever do this?  No, not usually. So, while I'm sure I am reading WAY too much into this (not to mention that it all sounds a bit narcissistic) I think it's awesome that the God of the Universe would choose to send 19 inches of snow (second highest single-day snowfall in the history of Amarillo, mind you) with hurricane-force winds to our little corner of the world, out of love?

All roads in and out of Amarillo have been closed for the past two days. Schools have been cancelled, businesses have been forced to close, and even the Texas Department of Transportation suspended activity for over 24 hours "because snow removal efforts were futile". Wow! Now, that's something!

Yesterday was amazing!  The sun was out. We had five to six-foot snow drifts on our property. All the kids were home with no option of being anywhere else. And this was some Grade-A prime snowball making snow that we had just sitting there begging for some fun!

Oh, don't get me wrong:  Dave and I had a very long, and at times, heated discussion about what he and I both needed to be doing that day. You know, he's that "behind-the-scenes" guy at the church. The guy that manages to "miraculously" get all the little things done so that everything runs smoothly.  He's also the guy that gets yelled at when things don't go so smoothly--like showing up at church days after a bonafide blizzard to find there are still mountains of snow blocking all the entrances. He experiences significant stress from such things.

I'm certainly not immune from the stress either. I worry about my patients being in pain or having problems that need to be attended to--you would be surprised what kind of mischief people can get into, and the eye injuries they will sustain when left cooped up for too long at home.  I mean, these are rednecks we're talkin' about here!  These are the same folks that somehow think it's a good idea to hitch themselves to skis behind a 4-wheel drive pickup. They are also the same people that think it's awesome to fry a turkey on their back porch while drinking excessively.

I find it funny that God basically had the audacity to look down and mandate a Sabbath--for the Anderson family, and all of the other workaholics out there in the Texas Panhandle.  So what did we do on our divinely mandated Sabbath out here in the sticks?  We made memories, of course!

As I reflect back on yesterday, I realize that in 20 years nobody is going to remember whether or not the snow was removed from the parking lots at my office OR the church.  However, the six kids that pummeled Dave for hours with snowballs are going to remember this day for a lifetime!  It makes me smile to think that years from now (hopefully a lot of years--'cuz Dave and I still have a really long bucket list) these kids are going to be sitting around at our funerals remembering the time "when we had that huge blizzard, and Dave Anderson spent the whole day playing Madden 13 and having a snowball fight with us". 

I think this is exactly the kind of stuff that we are supposed to be doing in life.  We have six whole days every week to work.  We need to take one whole day every week to pummel our kids with snow.  We need to lay exhausted in the yard after being ambushed by half a dozen said-kids.  And we need to laugh. . .  A LOT!

Yesterday, we did just that (and I have the pictures to prove it)!  And, I'm glad we did.  I'm also glad that God gave us a legitimate "out" to be able to do what we did.  Today, it is "hi-ho, hi-ho, back to work we go", but we are relaxed and well-rested from our fun in the snow.  We are ready to tackle whatever the day may hold.

And, I am kind of secretly hoping that God will take care of all that crazy stuff, too.  I mean, He created the moon AND the sun.  Pretty sure that He has the ability to crank that sucker up to high and melt all that crazy snow out there so we can get about the business of getting about our business.

So, I'm looking forward to more miracles today (praying specifically for 70 degree sunny weather, of course), and excited about the potential for countless numbers of Sabbath Days in the future! 

May you have a post-Sabbath kind of day, too!  Oh, and enjoy the funny memories that were created this week at Chateau de Anderson!

Just one little push. . .

 

Don't hold back, or anything, Dave. . .

Hmmm. . . not sure what the plan is with that one!

It's always the sweet-looking ones that getcha!

Contact!

So.  Cold.  

 

 

A picture is truly worth a thousand words. . .

 

Ambush!

Hmmm. . . wonder how far I will slide?

Dog Pile!!

OH.  MY.  I guess I should put down the camera and help?

 

 

Intermission. . . but certainly not the end. . .

 

 

 

VICTORY!!!!!

It is February now, and the Anderson's are back on the "Entitlement-Ending" Wagon.  If you have no idea what this is, you can reference a much earlier post here.  For the rest of you, it is good to be back on the wagon.  We have had two breakthroughs in the past week that I wanted to share, so here we go. . .

My daughter is not a risk taker.  She is terrified of failure.  On the plus side, once she decides she can do something, she does it perfectly the very first time.  Parenting her, from a safety standpoint is a piece of cake.  We never worry about her getting seriously hurt and know that her internal "safety meter" is always functioning well.  She didn't take her first steps until she was almost 14 months old, but once she stood up she just walked.  No falling.  No scraped knees.  No bumps or bruises.  Same thing with riding a bike. 

On the down side, it has been a nightmare teaching her how to read, to tie her shoes, and to play any sort of sport.  She is actually our "natural" athlete, but she lacks the confidence to try.  Her fear of failure has her paralyzed, so she just chooses the path of inaction. 

Our son is the complete opposite.  He frequently tackles tasks that are too big for him.  He, on regular occasions, falls, has lots of bumps and bruises, and every pair of pants that he owns (except for 2) have holes in the knees.  The downside is that we go through a lot of clothes.  The upside is that he is an excellent bike rider, fantastic student, amazing rip sticker, and pretty decent little basketball player, too.

So, we have been in a quandary with these two extremes in our children.  How do we encourage our daughter to try--even when failure the first time is a pretty high probability?  How do we encourage our son to continue to push the envelope--without actually killing himself in the process?

Well, in the spirit of ending the entitlements, Dave and I decided that our kids need to start fending for themselves a little bit more.  We have realized how ridiculous it has become--this coddling thing that we do.  It all kind of hit me last week when I realized that my seven year old daughter had never poured herself a simple bowl of cereal!  What?!?  When did I become THAT parent?  I'm disgusted at myself already, so no comments please!  I guess I have just grown so accustomed to the day-to-day task of making my kids' breakfast that it never occurred to me that they might actually be able to do it themselves. 

So, realizing failure number 17,432 as a parent, I decided that this was not okay.  On Sunday, when my daughter sweetly asked for a bowl of cereal, I told her, "I think you can do that all by yourself".  She seemed perplexed, but inquisitive about the prospect.  I quickly realized that I had placed the cereal much too high for either of my kids to reach (I'm 5'8, and have to stand on my tippy-toes to reach the cereal).  I'm not really sure why we have always put our cereal up so high--to keep the mice out (we live in the country, remember?), to cover up the fact that Dave and I purchase (and hide) Capn Crunch, Coco Pops, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch that we occasionally consume as treats after the kids go to bed?  Don't judge me, I know, it's a sickness!

Anyway, I did retrieve her Cinnamon Life, and rearranged all the other kid friendly cereal to a lower shelf in the process.  No, I did not move my "treats", in case you were wondering--I'm a hypocrite, like that!  Are you kidding me?  I would never let my kids eat crap like that!

I know, I know, it's a process this letting-go-of-my-control-freak-tendencies that I have.  I will tell you what I tell my kids:  "When you are 18, you can choose to eat whatever you want to eat.  Until then it is my job and responsibility to make sure that you eat healthy.  If you are unhealthy and/or overweight as an adult it is on you.  If you are unhealthy and/or overweight as a child that is on me."

Now that the cereal boxes were all neatly arranged and accessible on the bottom shelf of the pantry, the dilemma of the milk began.  Again, we have always placed the milk on the top shelf of the fridge, because it's the only shelf it will fit on, and because I once read a report that milk will go bad if you put it in the door.  (Sour milk freaks me out, so I never really wanted to take the chance.  Personally, I think it's just a scare tactic by the refrigerator industry to make people buy larger refrigerators.) Apparently, it worked on me. . . . but not anymore.  As of Sunday, our milk is now nicely nestled in the confines of our fridge door--within reach of our kids.

Now 10 minutes into this little "teaching moment", the non-risk-taking monster reared it's ugly head in the Anderson house.  Our daughter, through moans and wails of despair, announced that the milk was too heavy and that she couldn't lift it, and that she didn't want to spill it, and that she juuuuuusssttt cooooouuuuuulllldn't dooooooo iiiiiiitt!  After another 5 minutes of trying to talk her off that ledge, I calmly walked over to the counter, grabbed the milk jug, held it out over the nicely-cleaned stained concrete in our kitchen and began to pour. . . . right out onto the floor.  I poured it nice and slow with great drama.  The look on my daughter's face was priceless.  The look on my husband's face, even more so.  The excitement in our dogs was the best part of all though.  They went to town on the floors!

Once I was done with my little "demonstration", I set the now significantly lighter milk jug back on the counter and said, "See, it's no big deal if you spill a little milk.  The world didn't come to an end, and your dogs are really, really happy!"  My daughter, still speechless, started to grin.  She grabbed the jug and we tried again.  I did help her lift it (it was a gallon jug, after all).  Once we had it lifted, I allowed her to do the pouring.  She ended up with about 1 part cereal and 10 parts milk in her overflowing bowl.  I half-expected her to refuse to eat it with this much milk.  However, she gently picked it up, sloshed about 2 parts milk out onto the counter and floor, slowly carried it back to the table and proceeded to eat every last square of cinnamon life in the bowl.  She then washed the bowl and counter without complaint.  The floor was immaculate by this time, and the dogs were grinning ear to ear, too.

Dave and I are chalking this one up as a victory in our house.  One down, 10,000 to go!

Our second victory happened just this morning. 

This is a picture of our daughter's lunchbox:

Some of you might be wondering, "What does your daughter's lunchbox have to do with a breakthrough"?  Well, I will tell you!

Several days after the cereal incident, our daughter announced that she wanted to take her lunch to school.  Fresh off my victory on Sunday, I announced "Fine by me, but you have to make it".  Now with a new-found sense of accomplishment after the aforementioned cereal incident, she accepted my challenge.  So, this morning, while I was whipping up my omelete, she quietly got all of the ingredients out, whipped up a perfect Nutella-Peanut Butter sandwich complete with a side of freshly washed (with even the stems trimmed off) strawberries, a string cheese and juice box.  She placed this well-rounded and surprisingly nutritious lunch in her cute little floral lunch box ready to make it's debut at the lunch table today.

Then. . . . she promptly left it sitting on the counter when she left for school.

AWESOME!!!! 

Life lesson #792 completed--RESPONSIBILITY!!!!

I LOVE IT!!!

I am so excited about the prospect of the conversation tonight at dinner.  "When did you realize you left your lunch at home?  How did that make you feel?  Will you do anything differently next time"?

So, those are our recent breakthroughs.  I hope you find them humorous, enlightening, and encouraging.  May you have an entitlement-free kind of day. . . I know I am planning to!