I'm proud to be...

AN AMERICAN!!!

Probably some of you reading this are totally confused by the headline.

But today, June 16 2008, I became an American citizen!

Born in Canada, citizenship was a long process of applications, fingerprints, and interviews all leading to the a big naturalization ceremony today in Denver, CO.

Along with 310 other new citizens from 63 countries around the world, I took the Oath of Allegience and was sworn in as a US citizen. It was a really special morning with more emotion than i was expecting. it was really great to see all of these people, from all over the world, reach this momentous day. I know for some, citizenship meant the culmination of years of hard work to get here as well as religious and political freedom.

i was so proud to stand with these other new citizens and take this big step in my life. it's also special to gain citizenship in this election year.

pura vida

we just returned from an amazing week in costa rica and having loved living out their popular phrase, "pura vida". like my favorite t-shirts, the costa rican's say this to mean "life is good." and it sure is in costa rica!

we started out our trip in san jose and quickly got out of town and headed to the pacific ocean to meet some friends in playa esterillos este. what a fun coincedence that the trotters, coors, and longs were all spending a week in costa rica at the same time! after a great roadside breakfast we arrived mid day and met up with them at the beach - we swam, surfed, hacky sacked on the beach and relaxed by the pool.

the next day we drove about 20 minutes north to playa hermosa, a beach known for its surfing. we stayed for 2 nights at the backyard hotel and loved every minute of it. we had beautiful views of the pool and beach from our room and spent the whole time lying by the pool and reading good books - so relaxing! richard tried surfing a bit, but the waves were a little out of his league!

from hermosa (beautiful in spanish) we drove about 3 hours north east into the mountains (about 5,000 feet) on the most steep and unpaved roads we had ever seen. the views were spectacular on the switchbacks all the way to monteverde. monteverde is an old quaker mountian town where they make cheese and have an incredible cloudforest that we toured the next morning. because we visited at the beginning of the wet season, the town was pretty empty, and the one gas station in town was closed for months! we also toured a renario (frog garden) and had fun finding all the big and little frogs in their cases.

from monteverde we took another terrible road down the mountain and then finally hit pavement on our way to laguna de arenal (lake arenal) and the arenal volcano. this volcano is one of the most active in the world! we loved this drive around the lake and found a great place to stay at montana de fuego resort. the next morning we took an awesome 3 hour canopy tour in the rainforest complete with 9 zip lines, a 150 foot rappell, and a horseback ride back to the hotel. while the afternoons were rainy, we enjoyed time by the pool and watching the french open in our room.

on the way back to san jose, we stopped at a beautiful waterfall on the roadside and visited the la paz waterfall gardens for a quick lunch.

overall, we loved the trip and would recommend costa rica to anyone.

our only suggestions?

1. make sure you opt in for the gps - we would have been lost without it.

2. fill up with gas before you go up to monteverde!

3. eat at least one trit a day (the most awesome ice cream sandwich!)

for more of our pictures, check out:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=bg0m1qv.2l9tax7v&x=0&y=5ywvxa&localeid=en_US

"Spring" in Denver

While locals say Colorado has a Spring Season, we're not quite sure. One day it's 75 and sunny, and the next you have highs in the 30s with 2 inches of snow! I don't call that spring!

But, the last few weeks have been great and we've enjoyed fixing up our yard, watching flowers begin to bloom, and taking walks into the late light evenings.

Earlier this month, we had both of our mom's out to denver for Mother's Day weekend and had a great time together. We ate great food at Table 6 and Crepes & Crepes, researched flowers and shrubs at Paulino Gardens and took lots of great dog walks in the neighborhood.

Also, Richard finally caught up to me in years! Happy 29th Ricardo! His favorite 5 weeks of the year being younger than me are finally over!

4 years skiing...

The 4th annual family ski trip - it gets better and better every year!

2008 brought the family to Keystone, Colorado for 5 days of skiing, great food and fun games. This year we added bridge to the list and Joellynn & Trey were quick studies to keep the game going well into the night. We had 3 great days on the slopes and enjoyed apres ski at the Kickapoo nearly every afternoon. We're already looking forward to the 5th annual trip in 2009!

As usual, we had a visitor join our family ski trip for a day - this year it was Brad Garrison from Dallas. We had a blast watching Brad snowboard - much improved from 2 years ago when we last were in Colorado together. Below we had to give a thumbs up to a great day on the slopes - it would have only been better if Lindsay could have been there too.

we love the pups

no real event here...just some cute pics of our pups!

enjoy!

This really was my first rodeo!

how cool is the rodeo?!?

we went a couple of weeks ago to the National Western Stock Show & Rodeo here in Denver with the Mitchells and the Lokeys - what a random friday night! the mutton bustin' was my favorite, where they put little kids on the back of a sheep wearing pads and a helmet (the kids, not the sheep). whoever stays on the longest wins! i really wanted to give it a try!

2008 - off to a GREAT start

We couldn't ask for a better way to bring in the end of 2007 than with an awesome win for the Deacs in the Mieneke Car Care Bowl! Go Deacs!

With the McCollums in from Dallas and Christy Parker here all the way from Denmark, we spent new year's up in Keystone at the Lewis's mountain house. Like a typical girls wake trip, we played lots of mexican train and laughed about old times. Only this time, we brought the boys along for the fun!

On New Year's Eve we braved -5* temperatures in River Run to see some great fireworks. While the Starbucks was out of almost every drink, some of us managed to warm up a little bit!


Happy 29th Em - what a great way to ring in the New Year!