Out of the Country…

Well…Matt and I survived our trips out of the country!   Costa Rica was amazing.  It was gorgeous and we had a lot of fun.  The students were great and I'm really glad we did this trip.  9 days was a long time though and I missed the boys A TON so I was ready to be home.  I have so many pictures from Costa Rica and still need to get pics from other people, so I will do another Costa Rica post later.  In the meantime, here are some group pics and some scenery pics from my trip!

All of us when we met at the airport at 4:30 a.m….no one was late :)

This is a group pic of the chaperones on the day we planted trees in the rain forest.

 InBio Parque National Reserve

 All of us at Poas Volcano

All the chaperones  (Diego - our tour director, Nori - Asst. Principal, Karen -Special Ed. teacher, Angelica, Me and Stacey- Nori's sister-in-law)

This is my group from the week at the volcano. Every chaperone had a group that checked in with them at all locations.  My group was awesome and we named ourselves "Quality over Quantity!"  We had the best group name for sure!

Michelle, Cat, Me, Leah and Sarah

 Eating ice cream that is hot pink and made from cactus juice…it tasted like sherbet, it was very good!

 Angelica, Karen and I at a waterfall.

 This is the lake where we went kayaking.

 Love the view….lake, mountains, clouds and sky.  The view was amazing no matter where we were in the country….so pretty!

 Just a pic of the Rain Forest

 A couple group pics at the waterfall….we had to walk 450 steps down (and then back up) to get to this waterfall and the water was FREEZING but we had a blast and it was well worth it. 

A couple nights our hotel was right on the beach.  This was the view of the ocean at night!

 The ocean through all the palm trees.

 Another beach on the Pacific Coast.  We could swim here, the riptides were too bad for us to swim in the ocean by our hotel.

 Angelica and I with Carlos, our bus driver.  He was AMAZING at his job.  I'm not sure how he navigated us through some of the places he did, but we always got to our destination safely!

The last night we stayed in a hotel in downtown San Jose.  Here is the view from my balcony…so relaxing!

 What a sunset...

 Diego and I at the airport.  So crazy that we spent 9 straight days with someone (24 hrs a day) that we may never see again. 

 One last group pic with Diego at the airport.

That is it for Costa Rica for now…stay tuned for more to come later!  Onto Germany….

Matt got to Munich on Sunday morning and a coworker picked him up and took him an hour or so south of the city to the Germany portion of the Alps and to see Neuschwanstein Castle.  This is the castle that Walt Disney used as inspiration for Cinderella's Castle.  He doesn't take nearly as many pictures as me, so this is all I've got.  Enjoy!

A Bavarian Pretzel Matt brought home…bigger than Landon's head!!

WOW…It's been awhile!

Ok, so lets see if I can cover everything since our last post.  The last things we shared were Easter and Spring Break...that's been 1.5 months!!  Landon finished up his Pre-K year and has been to Kindergarten screening for the fall.  Kelsey's school year ended last Friday and she is currently in Costa Rica for the week with 20+ students.  Landon's soccer season has come and gone, and gymnastics is done as well.  He is currently playing T-Ball, and he's on the Cubs!  He wasn't too excited to hear that. 

 

Keegan dressed up in his Handy Manny costume.

 

My dad and Kelsey's mom got to come out for Landon's Special Visitors Day at school the first week of May.  They boys had a great time playing with both of them.

 

Mom's with their kids on Mother's Day

Arrrrrrrrrrr!!

 

We had a bunch of dirt delivered, Keegan was a great helper!

 

Landon playing soccer, and Keegan having fun at the games

 

One weekend there was a Super Why! event at an outlet mall about 45 minutes away.   Super Why & Princess Presto were there and sang a few songs and then took pictures with the kids.

On the train at the Outlet Mall

Landon w/ Super Why & Princess Presto

The boys in their Super Why! gear

Landon's T-Ball Team Pic

To open the T-Ball / Little League season they have a parade and opening ceremony at the fields.  Landon's team walking in the parade.

Keegan chasing after candy all the kids through during the parade.

Landon's last night of gymnastics they go through some of their favorite skills and get a ribbon at the end.



Landon with his certificate and ribbon

Landon was snack leader the last week of school.  These are his robot snacks.

Last day of Pre-K

Pre-K Graduation Day!

The kids all wore graduation hats they made out of paper bowls with construction paper on them.

 

 

Over Memorial Day weekend we went to Kansas City, MO for our friend Adam's wedding.

Landon and I asked if we could just peek in the cockpit as we were getting off the plane and they let us sit in there as well!

Lunch the first day at Fritz's in KC.  They have phones at each booth to order through and then a train car brings out your lunch on a track and lowers it down to your table.  The boys loved it.

 

The train delivering a tray of food

 

At the wedding reception

 



More fun at the reception.  They boys had a great time dancing and eating the Oreos off the Oreo cake!!

Adam & I.  He was the Best Man in our wedding.

 

Fun Trip to KC...Keegan was worn out on the flight home!



 

The last weekend in May we went over to Findlay, OH for a baby shower for Kelsey's cousin Ross' new daughter.  Landon and Ade had fun with their glow in the dark glasses.

We are in the process of remodeling all 3 upstairs bathrooms.  Here's Landon helping to paint in his underwear!!

Here's Landon at a photo backdrop the day we went to Kindergarten screening.  Avon Eagles graduating class of 2027.

 

This past Saturday after Kelsey left for Costa Rica the boys and I went to Big Truck day where they got to see and sit in cement trucks, police cars, an ambulance, fire truck, school bus and more.

Landon had never been on a school bus, so he was excited to see what it was like, and he got to sit in the driver's seat and honk the horn.

 

Keegan trying to play mini golf at my work picnic

Landon got eye black painted on his face at the picnic and we won the huge ball out of a giant claw machine!



 

At his T-ball game this past weekend.  He's got the look with his high socks, eye black (from the picnic) and twisted necklace.

 

That's been a lot of the things we've been up to to finish out the school year.  I'm sure Kelsey will share Costa Rica pictures after she gets back next week, and then I'm off to Germany for work the week after that.  We'll try to not wait until school starts to share some more.  Have a good summer!