Costa Rica

We made it to Costa Rica safe and actually sane! The long trip went much better than we expected. Both Aspen and Journey did great. Not to say that there weren't moments where they struggled and got frustrated with the hours of sitting, but there were no meltdowns, screaming or crying. Yay!

We are here in Costa Rica for 2 whole weeks. Unfortunately, I only have video, not pictures of the trip here, but they will come :) When we got off the plane and the heat and humidity hit us. Even though we warned Aspen about it, he was still pretty shocked. Our house we rented here is great. Nice and big, has internet and even a view of the ocean (so I'm told, haven't seen it yet). We rented it off a site that advertizes vacation homes by owner, so there was a little bit of worry about how accurate the listing was.....

Aspen was so excited this morning when he woke up and realized that today was finally the day we got to leave and he got to open all the new toys we bought for the plane ride. He was practically jumping up and down with excitement. The things he is most looking forward to are playing with the monkeys and seeing snakes.

Beach Time

Charity playing with Journey and Peyton on the beach.
Peyton 13 mo. and Journey 19 mo. They enjoy each other's company as long as they don't get too close to each other. Journey calls him "baby" and pats him on the head like she is so much older. She is going to be a great little mommy some day.

We are at the beach for Labor Day weekend and are having a great time enjoying the new house on the beach. Here's a few pics from this weekend and a few weeks ago. Unfortunately my camera died before I could get pics of Aspen playing on the beach and in the water.

Sillyness

Pull-up on the head
Sporting undies, pull-ups and pants....
From making funny faces at us to putting random things on her head, Journey is becoming quite the little clown and loves to do things to make us laugh. It's fun to see her personality emerging. Well, most of the time....with that has come an attitude.

Yep, still walking....

This is Journey's evil, I'm proud of myself smile when she is walking a long distance.
Silly girl.
She is gaining more and more confidence in walking around, and is also learning to pull herself up to stand.

WALKING!!!!!!

Yes, it's true! Journey decided that she could walk, and just took off tonight! We were at my parent's house for Mark's birthday dinner, so I have no pictures yet. It was like she realized that she could do it and was so proud of herself. She wanted to walk everywhere.

I was putting off scheduling her 18 month doctor's appointment since she wasn't walking on her own and I knew her doctor would want to put her in therapy, etc. Now I can schedule it :)
Oh, and it will be nice to have her walking for Costa Rica in a few weeks. Never was a mom prouder! Ha ha :)

Progress!

Journey loves to walk behind the couch and look out the windows.
Throwing a fit

Journey is slowly inching her way to walking. You have to understand that she works in baby steps towards progress, but she is making progress :)

She has been practicing balance by taking her hands off of what ever she is holding on to as long as she can. She does this all the time now and is so proud of herself. She has also been taking some steps on her own (between or to different things). One other piece of progress is that tonight, for the first time, she walked with me just holding one hand. She normally insists on having both of her hands held to walk or she will sit down and throw a fit.

Grocery Savings

One of the things I enjoy doing is shopping and spending as little as possible for our food and health and beauty items. I had a pretty great grocery shopping day today. Total spent was $27.88, and I got a ton of food!
Safeway
20lb. bag white rice
watermelon
2 1/2 gal. organic milk
1 jar tahini (used to make hummus)
2 large bags sugar snap peas
2 bottles salad dressing
12 pack TP
2 cans dog food
Total: $7.09

Asian Market
cilantro
ginger
1 sweet potato
2 limes
1 lg. can bamboo shoots
1 pack sushi paper
1 pack salad roll wraps
2 cans red curry paste
1 jar hoisin sauce
1 jar hot chili sauce
1 jar pickled ginger
2 fresh asian dumpling things (not sure what it's called, but it looked good!)
Total $20.79