Brant's First Treat

Brant had his first piece of candy last night for Valentines Day. We gave him a tootsie pop and he was thrilled. He was a big, sticky, mess in the end, but he loved it. He ate every last bit of it. Too bad for this little guy; he won't be getting more candy for a long time.

New Tricks

Brant learned to go down the stairs himself today. He still won't turn around at the top himself, but if we turn him around, he can scoot down the stairs.

Brant is also very pleased with his other tricks. He waves, claps, raises his hands in the air and smiles like crazy. Whenever he sees someone new, he runs through every trick he has and loves when people smile and tell him he's cute. He's so fun right now.

Brant is getting big!

Brant crawled up the four stairs from the family room to the kitchen by himself today!

Teeth!

I finally got a picture without Brant sticking his tongue out so you can see his teeth. He has two on the bottom and he looks so cute and grown up with them. We sure love this guy!

Nauyaca Falls

At the beginning of the hike

This boy can not pass up a good stick.

Two muddy legged hikers

The kids liked when the hike took us through the water

Our big kids are such awesome hikers!  They're good and happy and they keep up really well. 

By the top waterfall

Rest time

Spence taking Brant across to swim under the waterfall.  I would be so nervous if anyone besides Spence ever tried this, but I'm not a bit worried about it with Spence. 

Brant loved splashing in the water once he got used to the colder temperature.

Grandma & Grandpa Erickson under the waterfall

Spence under the waterfall

Lunch after a big morning- It was really pretty cold here, but we didn't have our jackets.  They are now in the back of our car in case we hit the cold again. 

Today we hiked to Nauyaca Falls.  These pictures do not even begin to do it justice.  It is one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  It's a pretty good little hike to the falls (about 2.5 miles each way), and our kids were awesome.  We had a great time swimming in the water below the falls- even Brant loved it after he got used to the water temperature.  It was really nice to swim in cool, fresh water- a change from the warm ocean.  After the falls we hit one of our favorite restaurants we've found- El Mirador.  It's got great comida typica (yummy yummy food they eat here) and a beautiful view.  Today it was too foggy to see anything, but we liked it none the less. 

 

This morning we woke up and had a delicious breakfast by the pool at our hotel and then the kids and Spence swam for a minute- literally.  After we got ready, we made a few stops in the city and went to see the temple.  We drove around it three times before we actually found it, but it was fun to see it.  Before we left the city, we stocked up on groceries because the stores near us are pretty small.  When we left the city, we took the longer route back to our house and stopped at La Georgina's to see all of the hummingbirds.  It was a fun day, but a lot of driving and we can't wait for more fun tomorrow. 





Who doesn't love breakfast by the pool.  We had to make the kids wait in our room for an hour this morning becuase breakfast didn't start until 6:30. 

Clearly Spence thought the pool was too cold. 

Three cuties in the pool.  It was super cold and they didn't even last five minutes.

Warming up

Outside the temple

More temple pictures- There was no way to get a picture without the power lines in it.  The temple grounds weren't big at all. 

My boys at lunch

Grandma & Blair at lunch

We told Grandma & Grandpa about all the good food they have here and then chose a place for lunch that wasn't good at all.  Oops.

Out behind La Georginas

Blair insisted on having here picture taken here because Kerry had these flowers at her wedding and if Kerry likes them, Blair likes them. 

November 5th

Today we drove back to San Jose so we could pick up Grandma and Grandpa Erickson from the airport.  They are going to be with us for a week and we're excited to show them around.  We had a pretty easy going day today.  We did schoolwork and reading this morning, unpacked the rest of our stuff and drove.  It takes about three hours to get to the airport from our house.  We found a great little hotel in Santa Ana called Hotel Posada Canal Grande.  When we got there, we walked around the city for a while and had dinner before the kids and I went to bed and Spence went to pick up his parents. 

Homework in the morning- The kids love doing their preschool work here, but Davis is missing Mrs. Kate and he's sure she's missing him too. 

 

 

Crocodiles on the road between our house and the airport

 

 

Blair at our hotel for the night.  The kids loved this swing.

 

 

 

 

 

Having a yummy dinner in Santa Ana

Who knows when we'll get a picture without crazy faces and poses again.  This is the kids new favorite things and it drivees me absolutely nutty. 

Davis & Blair's 5th Birthday- Party on the Beach!

Davis and Blair turned 5 today!  I can't believe it.  They are so big and so much fun and we're so glad they came to our family.  We were so nervous (okay completely freaking out) when we heard we were having twins, but we can't imagine our life without them.  They are the best! 

Last night, when we went to bed, we thought we'd just play today by ear because the kids had a crazy day traveling yesterday.  It gets light here at 5:30 am and our kids were up by 6 am, so we decided we'd get ready fast and go to church.  We couldn't get the hot water to work in either shower, so we all took a cold shower and got ready to go to church.  We left our house with what we thought was plenty of time to get to church, but he going was slow and we found the church after driving for an hour and a half instead of an hour and we ended up getting there at 9:30.  It was testimony meeting and Davis decided to bear his testimony.  He did it for the first time all by himself with no help.  I was so proud of him.  However, no one there could understand him because he did it in English.  Spence stood up after him though, so I'm sure he told them what Davis said. 

After sacrament meeting we hit the grocery store in San Isidro. (The city the church is in is much bigger than where we're staying and has a better grocery store and we needed to stock up because we just got to town.)  After the store, we had lunch and went to the beach- Davis and Blair were pretty sure it was a must for their birthday. 

The kids had a great time boogie boarding.  They did really good and thought it was the coolest thing ever!  Brant was a trooper and had a pretty good nap on the beach while we played.  We had a great day enjoying our time as a family and celebrating our big kids.  Those guys are spoiled rotten.  When we were at lunch they asked where we were going after Costa Rica.  I said Clearfield, Utah and Blair said, "No Mom.  We mean for our 6th birthday!  What country are we going to be in then?"  I guess being in Uruguay

 for the 4th birthday and Costa Rica for their 5th has made them think they need to go someplace awesome for their birthday. 

These picture are in reverse order of the day becuase they all downloaded that way and I wasn't going to change all of them.  Sorry. 

Brant enjoying verduras mixtas in our new house. 



Brant was the only one with warm water- for some reason the hot water worked in the sinks downstairs.



Blair and the birthday message she wrote in the sand.  It says "Davis 5 Blair" and below it says "birthday!".  These kids are getting pretty good at writing and they love to practice. 



Enjoying the sand in my toes while I watched the baby

Davis wanted to practice writing his sight words in the sand and he started with "the" because a while ago it was almost beat into his head by a very frustrated dad when Davis wouldn't focus. 

Nap Time

This is typical Davis.  He walked a little ways away from the rest of us to play by himself.  He can play alone forever.  He loves to play with sticks too.  He must inspect every single one...

One sandy, happy boy!

After boogie boarding for a while, Blair told Spence that she wanted to surf it.  She said she could do it because she had seen it on TV and she already knew how to do it.  This is the best picture I got because I didn't know she was going to do it and I had put my camera away, but the first time she tried it, she stood right up and rode it for a few seconds.  This time, she biffed it pretty fast.  She sure loved it though and thought she was pretty cool.

My two 5 year olds

Davis thought knee boarding on the boogie board was a pretty cool idea

I think Davis' favorite part of our month-long vacations may be having his dad around all the time.

This cute little guy has been so great so far.  He's making it pretty easy on us. 

Two big kids and the world's best dad!  I love this guy like crazy and I'm so glad he's mine. 

I knelt down to set the timer on the camera and didn't brush my knees off.  I love this family!

My love at lunch

I love this look on his face.  He was really ready to eat by the time we got to lunch. 

Birthday ice cream after lunch

We saw about 15 of these monkeys when we were driving to lunch from our house.  Davis and Blair were thrilled.  We promised them monkeys and the beach in Costa Rica and we delivered on the very first day here.  What good parents we are.  Ha ha ha. 

Two cute boys at a birthday lunch

My birthday girl

My favorite baby boy