Smiths Still Adventuring

For our tenth anniversary I wanted to use my passport but not be gone too many days. We had friends that had visited Costa Rica and recommended it, so after much research we went! We left on Saturday, April 10 and returned Wednesday, April 14, 2010. A huge thank you to my mom who watched the kids! Costa Rica is an amazing place. Costa Rica abolished its army in 1949. Costa Rica ranks first in the Happy Planet Index and is the "greenest" country in the world. The literacy rate in Costa Rica is 97% and Costa Rica also has universal health care. Ecotourism is a big business in Costa Rica and so we wanted to check out the rain forests. I was amazed at how close Costa Rica is, it was a 4 hour plane ride from Dallas to the capital San Jose. We stayed at a wonderful place, El Remanso , in the Osa Peninsula. El Remanso has a wonderful video that gives you a taste of the experience . I thought it was so cool that they produce their own electricity from the waterfalls on th...

Mr. and Mrs. Lodge live a street over from us. They are a part of Lovers Lane UMC and when I had Everett they brought us our newborn gift from the church (it was a cute onesie that said newest member or something like that). I don't know how it started, but the kids and I would visit Mr. and Mrs. Lodge every month or so and get ice cream. They have these chocolate bars from Braum's and they are delicious. Mrs. Lodge is on Weight Watchers like me and she would remind me that they were nonfat, I looked at Braum's and they really were! Mr. and Mrs. Lodge began calling the ice cream bars Madeleine bars. The kids love to visit Mr. and Mrs. Lodge. About 6 weeks ago, we visited Mr. Lodge. Mrs. Lodge was at the vet's with their dog. Mr. Lodge said that he had taken his first round of chemo that day, he had battled cancer on and off for 5 years. Mr. Lodge said that he wasn't supposed to be around children because of the chemo and his reduced immunity, so this would ...

you can both be in the coupe car

My mom watched the kiddos while Lee and I were in Costa Rica and she got Everett a coupe car and Madeleine a soccer goal. Madeleine made her first soccer goal last weekend while we were gone! Everyone loves the coupe car, though when Madeleine gets out of it the car falls over because she is a wee bit big for it.

So, Lee and I will have been married for 10 years on May 6, 2010. However, we are taking our anniversary trip this coming Saturday due to the upcoming rainy season in Costa Rica. With the rainy season there are less flights and we would have spent 2 more days traveling, so we are going early. Anyway, every year we have done something special for our anniversary with a night away (that way we do something exciting at least once a year!) and I said for 10 years I wanted to use my passport. So, international travel, want to visit somewhere unique, can't be gone long because of the kiddos, hmmm... Costa Rica? So, we will go where the howler monkeys wake you up quite early, and we are doing the wildlife explorer package because that had the most activities! I booked our honeymoon as well and we did the Caribbean cruise that had the most stops so we could see the most islands. Our five activities in 3 days are a zip line canopy breakfast, long guided hike, night hike, h...

Some Easter photos... the cousins at Easter dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's, from left to right Austin Rutherford, Everett Smith, Madeleine Smith, Sydney Rutherford. Notice: the girls are in matching dresses and they also match their dolls. Very important... the family on Easter Sunday at Oak Lawn UMC Everett's first pinata experience, he went first and the little boy who went next broke the pinata! Madeleine hunting for eggs Everett in Madeleine's Dora hat pre egg hunt Hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter celebration!