Costa Rica Pura Vida!

This Summer actually felt like it went by slowly which was great, but i'm so ready to jump right into school and Fall weather and football season!! So James, and I took a trip to Costa Rica with my older sister, older brother and parents! It was amazing there! So gorgeous! We did so many things too which was the best part. 

First we stopped at Tarcoles Bridge which is famous for having tons of crocodiles basking off of the river. It was funny, as we drove across the bridge no one saw anything and we were all sad for a moment because we just thought they were all under water or somewhere else...well that was until we actually got out and walked on the bridge to look. Nope definitely not floating logs.

The view from our resort! Best swimming pool ever, it looped all across the back yard of the hotel and went under little bridges and down steps.

Went zip lining through the jungle! We scaled down 12 zip lines and it was amazing! I kept waiting for birds and monkeys to jump on and join the ride with me...but nope didn't even see any animals at all.. Dad says he saw a toucan, yeah but no body else did..nice try dad. 

Then we went hiking through the jungle with awesome walking sticks to a waterfall. It was lots of fun, even though I wore the wrong shoes. Whoops.

Beautiful waterfall!

Surfing was definitely a highlight of the trip! We had two great instructors and not our first instructor who just wanted our money and for us to leave! He didn't come along thankfully. Surfing was easier than I expected! We were out there for a good 2 hours and of course on the very last wave of the day Laura got smacked in the face with her board that completely gouged her lip open. Gross. 

We went deep sea fishing..for a whole 9 hours..longest day ever. It was great though! We did get a sailfish which was so awesome! The rest of us were able to catch some red snappers which were just as cool of course..

No one told us how fun it was when you don't actually catch anything for 2 hours straight..

Red Snapper! Yay

The coolest part about the fishing trip is they filet it for you on the boat and then you bring it to a restaurant that prepares it for you for dinner! It was as fresh as it could be! So delicious

We went on a hike in Antonio Manuel National Park which was very populated with so many amazing animals! 

We went on an accidental booze cruise with a wedding party, but it was all worth it because we saw Humpback Whales. So amazing. They were beautiful. They even poked their heads out of the water. 

Yes that is an active volcano! So cool I just want to go swim in that pretty blue water..except it's battery acid. So I guess that's a no.

Another great waterfall. You saw them off in the distance as you drove through the hills. Beautiful.

We took a boat tour and saw 2 caymans on the shore. They were pretty little but still I don't want to go swimming with them. 

The trip overall was amazing! We all had so much fun and saw so many things! It was such an amazing way to end the Summer! 

Color Run!

Last weekend James, his brother Dave, and I all went to Ypsilanti to participate in the Color Run. It was seriously SO much fun! We had to get there at 6:30 to park and stand at the start line. We were the very first people in line and made sure to be in as many pictures as we possibly could :) haha It was a 3 mile run and through out the race there were 4 color stations where you ran through and people sprayed you with this colorful powder. It was crazy and you couldn't see and if you inhaled you would get a throat full of powder, they told us it was 100% natural and wouldn't give you any problems but it was still hard to breath through it! After the race you went over to the after party where they played music and everyone stood together to throw their bag of powder in the air, it was just like the Holi Festival they have in Utah. It was awesome! It definitely was a great experience and we really want to run the same race again sometime.

4th of July & More

So we just got back from driving out to Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It was such a great trip! We left at 3:00 am Tuesday morning. Bleh. Took us 10.5 hours to drive all the way to Gaithersburg, MD which is about 40 minutes away from D.C. So we got into the hotel and met up with James' brother and sister in law and there two boys. We grabbed some dinner and headed over to Arlington Cemetery. We made it to our first metro and as Tim told us to jump on, only Ashley, Gavin and I made it on before the doors shut. Whoops. Of course we had know idea where we were going but luckily we met up with the other 4 and from there got on about 2 metro's that were not the ones we were supposed to take and finally made it to the Cemetery with about 30 minutes before it closed. Yeah it was definitely an adventure just trying to make it there! We quickly ran up to the top of the hill to look at JFK and Jacqueline Kennedy's grave where the eternal flame is lit. It was so amazing to just look around and the thousands and thousands of headstones in the cemetery. 

View from the top

James holding his nephew Gavin & Ashley with Xavier

The next day we took the metro into downtown Washington D.C. and sat and watched the parade for a bit and decided we should go and look at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum before the parade ends and the hoards of people all decide to go there at once. It was really awesome, they had dinosaur bones, a scary dead giant squid, egyptian mummies and a replica of the titanoboa which is a really big and gross snake and i'm so thankful it does not exist today! 

Then we walked over to the Washington Monument, over to the World War 2 Memorial where we had to stick our feet in the pool to cool off in the 95 degree weather. It was beautiful! Makes you thankful for your country to look at memorials where our citizens and fought and sacrificed themselves. Very humbling and great experience. We then walked over to the Lincoln Memorial and got a great view looking back at the Washington Monument and over D.C. It was wonderful! We did have to stop numerous times to run through sprinklers, or eat $4.00 popsicles from the venders in the mall so we could trek on throughout the day. I felt like I was melting! We survived though.

 Washington Monument, also the dress I made for the fashion show that just

happened to work perfect for the 4th of July too!

 World War 2 Memorial

By 6:00pm we were exhausted and about ready to just sit and relax and wait for the fireworks! We thought it would be perfect to watch them from the Lincoln Memorial but it was pretty crowded and far from the Metro station we needed to get onto and we wanted to get out first before everyone else, so we decided to sit on the opposite side behind the Washington Monument to get great pictures with the Monument in it. It turned out great and the fireworks were amazing! It was such an awesome and fun day, I really had a great time even if I did feel like my skin was going to melt off. 

The next morning we drove back to Tim and Ashley's home in Pennsylvania and just relaxed and watched Food Network hah. Friday we all drove to the Jersey Shore and enjoyed the sun and the ocean! It was so nice and we had a fun time just playing in the waves and laying out. The beach was nice and had a board walk with stores and even a section of rides you see at a fair. We walked around a bit and drove back home for dinner. Saturday we sat around and relaxed some more and went to go see the movie Brave. It was really funny and cute! I liked it. Sunday morning we work up at 7:30 and left by 8:00am. It was another long drive home but worth the trip! We had an amazing time and made it our anniversary gift to each other! We survived our first year and it has been great! I know that some couples say that the first year is the hardest but our hasn't been hard at all! I'm definitely thankful for that! Next month our family is going to Costa Rica and I am more than excited!! This summer has already been so great and we have more to look forward to! Ah summer time is wonderful.