lately (read: the past couple of months) we've been doing a long list of fun things - outings and activities and adventures and such. and i've been horrible at recording them. so as summary, here are about a million of the captured highlights.

girls night out in san jose. dinner at an adorable restaurant followed by coffee and treats at a swanky hotel downtown. (girls: krysta, cailah, aiylah and me)

i went to see this volcano, poas, with some kids from my language school. that bluish green lake down there? ya, that's lava.

we made a pit stop one day while in downtown san jose and played in a park/on a collection of exercise equipment.

we saw a british production of romeo and juliet in the national theater. it was in english, but i still had krysta explain several scenes as i found myself to be, shamefully, a bit confused.

and then it was the josh's-birthday-weekend extravaganza. josh is a friend from home who is doing peace corps and got placed in costa rica a relatively short distance from desamparados (where we live). this is pretty great.

so he stayed with us for the weekend and we celebrated his birth by eating lots of good food and basically having as much fun as possible.

oh and cailah's brother isaac surprised us one day by just showing up at our gate. literally. cailah hears a clanking, goes to the door, sees her brother who lives in california...now cue mouth dropping and overwhelming excitement. he stayed with us for about a week and it was so nice to have him. this is a blatant hint to my brothers: i like this. you should do it.

we went to a soccer game: saprissa vs la liga. these are both teams from the san jose area, essentially the rivalry is pretty serious. it was at the la liga stadium and we ended up in the small and heavily guarded saprissa cheering section. and now when i say heavily guarded, i mean all sides surrounded by a police force worthy of the swat team. i'm talking equipped with gas masks and everything. but don't worry, we were safe, with only a few moments where i nervously anticipated the breakout of a riot.

but at least we weren't on the side that was on fire. open flames to support their team?

it was fun. and that is isaac.

and then the next day it was off to the park to participate in a common recreational activity: sliding down this hill on pieces of cardboard. ya, sure, it is mostly common for small children, by why not join in huh?

here is to each of our personal styles:

krysta was, i must say, a bit wild. she went down that hill with abandon, and it was amazing.

isaac skated.

josh belly slid.
cailah and i attempted to go doubles. this whole side-by-side thing didn't work out so well. we rearranged ourselves and tried again with success.

i'm pretty sure aiylah is not moving. at all.

here it seems josh is giving us some sort of lecture on the most efficient and effective way to slide down a hill. we apparently are listening captively.

and we're off...

and now here we decide it is important that all of us climb atop this rock. why? who knows. but it was hilarious. here i am begging isaac to pull me up while josh climbs the other side.

and now i attempt to help krysta while aiylah does her best solo.

and then we all gave a hand in assisting cailah. we were successful... eventually.

this ridiculousness was followed by ice cream cones. it was a very happy day for all of us.

and then a couple of weeks ago us girls went on a weekend trip. we went to see the volcano arenal and the la paz waterfall gardens. it was a road trip, beautiful scenery, relaxation and fun all rolled into one. i was pleased.

here are some shots from the waterfall gardens:

pink bananas...what?

the free.

and the captive.

aiylah loved the toucans. i know it may not look that way. but she did. this is a love bite.

there was a butterfly sanctuary. it was kinda crazy slash amazing. never seen so many butterflies in my life.

these bulls pulled us around in this cart. and we laughed a lot.

it was quite beautiful.

on the way to our hotel/hostel/slice of heaven we drove through a town called la fortuna. as we drove we saw the streets lined with people and a sort of procession marching through. so of course we stopped and got out to enjoy the festivities. it was a competition between school marching bands. but not the sort of marching bands you're thinking of, not the semi-dorky ones that my semi-dorky brother played the tuba in in high school. (love you bubby). these kids were serious, and absolutely amazing. i've never seen drummers with such dedication. or so much sweat. they were basically rocking out, and we basically loved it.

and then this is the road that we traveled to get up to our place of lodging, in the dark, in our little purple car. it was quite an ordeal. and we almost didn't make it. at one point three of us got out while cailah instructed krysta on the best strategy to get the car moving again. it was stuck, the wheels spinning angrily in their place. but eventually, thanks to cailah's tips and krysta's superb driving, we made it. but i'm telling you, it was close.

here's the front of the place we stayed in, it's called leaves and lizards, and there was a hammock for each us.

and here's the back porch and view.

and here's krysta stealing dirt from the property. "they have excess, and it's good dirt!" was her rational. she would. she would.

and then it was aiylah's birthday. which entailed a series of super fun events. one being taking the drive to san pedro and eating these monster slices of pizza.

and another being the occurrence of an improptu dance rave party in our living room. it was actually quite hilarious.

in other exciting news...krysta's residency finally went through! she is now officially a resident of costa rica. yippee!

so i'm pretty sure you are now officially up to date. probably more so than you ever hoped to be. i am nothing if not thorough. i'll try to be more regular in my picture posting in the future so as to avoid an onslaught such as this.