I'm Back! Summer updates:

This summer has already been a whirlwind, and blogging just hasn't been in the mix, but I'm back!
! 

downtown La Fortuna, in front of a coffee bean plant

Back to blogging, back to normal life here in Virginia with the heat, humidity and storms.

We're also just back from an amazing trip to Costa Rica.

Wow. I don't even know where to start.

I drove today for the first time in ten days. On paved roads wider than 2 lanes. In traffic. And then I stopped at Whole Foods for dinner (not a typical stop for us, but a great 'We need a good dinner now' type of stop).

It was a strange mixture of relief to be home (air travel was a nightmare, and added an extra night stay in Miami on each end of the trip) coupled with culture shock. I commented in the Miami airport to B&C on how loud it was. It was so loud and so many people...not the "pure vide" we became used to for 8 days.

Now we have suitcases to unload, lots of really nasty laundry to do, sleep to be had (as we were up until 3:30 last night waiting for the lovely airline to actually say they were cancelling the flight. Again. For the second time in one trip). All that is behind (ok, I may need to whine about that a little more later), and the time in the country was beautiful, in so many ways.

I plan to share pictures, stories, thoughts and more here over the coming days. Thoughts of a lovely country, people, economy, the "Costa Rica massage", animals, nature, economy rainforests volcanoes and monkeys...oh my! (couldn't resist). And vipers. Happily (to Carter), we did get to see a viper in the wild. (s.h.u.d.d.e.r).   I did try to take a picture, but it was so well camouflaged it didn't work, and then I just couldn't take it any more.

We learned so much, and I want to preserve the memories, and share them with you in the process, if you wish, as well as not overwhelming our friends and family in the meantime!  

But for now, we sleep.  Thankfully not on the floor of the Miami airport as so many did at our gate last night.  And thankfully with a/c and power, as many thousands are still without in our state since Friday night.  Please pray for all of those battling this heat, and working out in the heat to removed tree damage and repair power lines.


 And this kid? The one up there in the picture (in his new Bass Pro Shop tshirt we bought the first time we were stuck overnight)?
He is an amazing traveler.  Getting up at 3am for an outgoing flight, staying up past 3am waiting for a cancelled flight, travel in less than ideal situations? He was a champ.  We are in awe of him right now.....he did better than a lot of adults around him who commented that he was still smiling at 2am. Today is great.... a good 13 hour sleep does wonders!