Last week we had a great week.  The weeks since the summer we working up to last week, so it was good in some ways to get it done and start on something new and it was a good time with great company.  Our board is full of wise and accomplished people and it was an added bonus that their wives were along, too.  They arrived on Monday, after no short feat of all getting here.  We had tentative plans for Monday, but they all got messed up (what is new) due to flights, sickness, you name it.  We were also trying to celebrate Gloria' bday.  Well, it all worked out, it always does and we accomplished all our goals.  Everyone arrived, Karis stopped throwing up, babysitter worked out, and we all got to go eat at a wonderful place we had never been for supper.  It was so amazing!  Come on down and we will take you!  It would be worth the trip.  We dropped Jeremy off at Erick and Cristina for 3 days while we went to the coast (Playa Langosta) for the board meeting.  Karis and Carmelinda came along with the 3 board members and wives, and DeLynn and Gloria and us.  It was 5-6 hours to get out there because of stopping for lunch, so we got settled and then met for a wonderful supper.  Buffet.  Full.  Every meal.  Wow.  Good food, there, as well. 

The next day we started early with the board meeting so that they could go out and surf later.  We have some avid surfers and Lyndon learned alot from them.  In the meeting is DeLynn, 3 board members, and I take minutes.  We stopped for breakfast and a surf break and then finished in the afternoon.  Karis was in the pool whenever she could learning to swim with a floaty tube.  She did great.  The next day we just enjoyed the resort and left after lunch.  Another long drive home and we picked Jeremy up around 8pm.  I was so glad to see him, but so glad he was there and in good hands.  I didn't worry about him at all.  So now we are getting ready to have a team on Wed, just 3 gentleman from North Carolina and I need to get ready to start our fiscal year in 2 weeks.  Then we have just 2 more weeks until we travel to the States.  If you want to see pics, then go to my facebook.  Uploading takes awhile longer on this internet at our new house...so I just uploaded them to Facebook.  Have a great Saturday!

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In April, we found out that Lyndon would be leading a team (half gringo and half tico) the 4th week of PVM which was the first week in August.  He informed me that he would be gone for 8 days.  I informed him that I would really not like to be alone for that long at the end of a busy summer.  So, off the cuff, I wrote my sister and asked her to come spend time with me and the kids while Lyndon was gone.  Wonderfully surprised I was when she said "yes" almost immediately!  She talked about bringing my nephew, Jonathan, along with her, too, but that soon was pushed aside. 

In July, Lori asked me, "Would you mind if I brought some friends along?"  Ummm...I was responded with a "yes."  See...we would still have teams here and I was planning on her to help me with the kids so I could finish up things and that this would not be a vacation.  So bringing people along with the thought of just being at our house...well, I just didn't want them to be disappointed.  She said they didn't mind at all and knew the situation and still wanted to come.  But she was going to keep it a surprise.  Great.  I tried to put it out of my mind so it wouldn't drive me crazy.  My guess was Jonathan and Emma.  But I was only half right.

Lyndon left on Sat, Aug 1st.  He took the team to Nicaragua and was gone until Thursday night, a little earlier than expected at first.   After 4 long days, I made my debut drive to the airport with only one wrong turn (it was dark as well) and waited for an hour with a long-faced Karis (lack of patience) who didn't want to sit down because she was so excited to see Aunt Sissy (Lori) and a squirmy Jeremy that was content to look at people and traffic for only so long.  Finally, when it seemed like they were the last people on the plane, they came out!  We saw Jonny first...Karis jumped up and down and ran for the entrance since we saw them through the glass first.  Lori was next, and the person that surprised me the most was Elsie Miller!  Elsie is a long-time friend and was my idol growing up.  She is in her 30s, married, with 3 children.  Our families have been friends for as long as I could remember and I was so thrilled that it was her!  One of those guests that you can be comfortable around and don't feel like you have to entertain...low maintenance.

We had to switch our rooms around again like we did when my parents and Rita and Rory were here.  So I moved Karis' bed into our room, and had the air mattress for Lori and Elsie in Karis' room.  It was nice that we didn't have to use the living room floor again.  That would have been a little too much clutter for me!  But worth it.  So Jonny slept in Karis' bed and Karis shared with me and then me and Lyndon.  No one really slept good.  But it was just a week. =)  It was so fun to hear Jonny's observations..."these roads need to be paved" or "I can tell your house is old, Tia, there is a hole in the ceiling, and the paint is coming off the walls."  Poor guy didn't like Karis' foam mattress either.  He wasn't too comfortable...Lori just laughed because she slept on it when she was here in January. 

The first day was wonderful.  I drove, again, (this doesn't happen very often) and we went to the park in Heredia, then walked through Central Market, and back to the park for lunch.  We ate in the park and the kids got to feed the birds and play in the water.  It was wonderfully relaxing.

Thursday, we rested at home in the morning and I worked some at the base in the afternoon to get some things off of my mind so I could concentrate.  Then we went out for supper to Matices, a nice place in San Rafael.  Elsie and Lori loved the food down here which is a nice perk when your guests just relish to delicacies of the place you live.

Friday, we were going to go shopping, but that got post-poned so that we could go to La Paz Waterfall Gardens.  We had been there twice before and they have added some great new additions since then.  They suffered greatly from the earthquake in Jan and just reopened.  They have birds, butterflies, snakes, hummingbirds, monkeys, and a casita from the 1800s and a pair of oxen that you give you a ride in a typical cart.  It was great!  It was so fun to see the kids take it all in.  We could hardly get from one place to the other.  We have so many good pictures from that day.  You used to be able to see 5 waterfalls, but only 2 were available since the earthquake, and they weren't clear anymore, but rather brown.  The best part of it before was that you could walk down down down and then at the bottom, you would have a shuttle take you back to the front desk.  Well, since you could only see the two in the middle, you had to walk back UP the 200+ steps.  But it was ok.  I was so glad we went on a day that Lyndon was with us.  Karis and Jonny both did great, but Karis couldn't quite make it all the way back up near the end.  We had dinner again at one of our favorite places and Lori ordered some wonderful arroz con cerdo and other treats.

Sat and Sun were the days that our staff was celebrating the end of the summer at a resort on the west coast called Punta Leona.  We have been there before several times and were glad to go again.  It wasn't long enough...always seemed to be running out of time.  It was not relaxing really, because there were still people to take care of and things to talk about as a leadership team, but it was nice to see the kids play and Jonny was asking every day when it was time to go to the pool.  He actually learned how to swim underwater while he was there.  It was amazing! 

Monday was the day that Elsie was waiting for the most...shopping!  I wish we could have let her shop all day, but alas, we only had the afternoon and the kids wouldn't have lasted much longer.  We took the bus to San Jose and then met Lyndon with Jeremy at the mall for our last evening.  More shopping and playing at the Play Place.  Karis went down this tube slide with no problem with Jonny by her side.  Just a few weeks earlier, she was crying at the top and Lyndon had to go get her down.

I loved having my guests here.  It was great to see them again and have a few tastes of home.  People were so generous to send things for Karis' birthday and things for Jeremy.  I have so many new things for her to do I even put some of them away for a rainy day.  She has a beautiful Sleeping Beauty princess dress that she asks to wear every morning when she wakes up and she has make up (Lori said it feels like butter) that she put on again today, She has new jeans when she grows out of 3T, which will be soon, and fun new books.  I just sorted it all today again and found a place for everything.  Thanks to all that remembered her and made her day special!  We will have to get someone to come though not bearing gifts so that she still looks forward to the people and not just the "can I have my presents, please?"