A beach wedding

Here comes the bride…


Standing at the alter…


Barefoot in the sand…


Married…


All of us…


You’re Beautiful…



A dance on the beach as the sun sets


It was just so hot when we got back that Pauline had to go for a swim. Maid of Honour dress and all...


We had the most amazing lunch and dinner yesterday. Catered and delivered by a local restaurant. (Lizzies) Lunch consisted of Ceviche made with the Laguna Dave and Otto caught out fishing a few days ago, battered octopus, homemade tartiere sauce, crackers and cheeses, lobster salad, and a huge fresh fruit plate.
Dinner was blackened tuna (spicy) with a fruit salsa, a chicken dish with a buttery sauce, BIG salad and homemade dressing, roasted veggies and breads. And, of course, wedding cake for desert. And the best thing of all it was only $18 per person for both meals.

The entire wedding fell into place so perfectly except for Michele’s hair. A story to remember for years to come. Pauline, Dylan and I dropped her off at the appointed time. The hairdressers daughter met Michele at the door, scolded her for being late and then told her ‘Mum was in the shower’ so we left Michele to wait and took off back to town. We stopped at the bank, raided a couple of Bougainvillea bushes for their pretty pink petals, dropped Dylan off back at the villa and then headed back to the hairdressers to get Michele. We hadn’t got more than a mile up the road when Michele comes flying round the corner on the back of a motorbike with her hand out waving at us. What??? She just got her wedding hairdo done and she’s on the back of a motorbike getting windblown? Nope.
Apparently after waiting 10 minutes for the hairdresser to make an appearance the daughter reappeared and informed Michele that her Mum was sick (drunk) so Michele started walking back to town. She got creeped out by some old guy driving slowly by trying to chat her up so she told him straight out ‘F*&% $%%’. The next guy to come by, stop, and talk to her was Alonzo on his motorbike (or so she thought). Alonzo is the caretaker at the villa. So she hopped on behind him and said, “Take me to the villa”. He complied. As she’s sitting behind him on the motorbike she noticed he was wearing quite a collection of silver chains around his neck. Hmmm? She didn’t remember Alonzo being big on the jewelry.
Michele waved us down from the back of the bike and hopped off to go the rest of the way to the villa with us. As we were driving into the villa’s driveway we saw Alonzo just heading out on his bike. Guess that wasn’t Alonzo that gave her a ride. We were already giggling over Michele’s account of her trip to the hairdresser and her conversation with the truck driver. Seeing Alonzo sent us into gales of laughter.
Pauline helped Michele get herself together, curl her hair prettily and dress her in her silk wedding dress. We got her to the church on time. And we reenacted the motorbike ride later that evening with Paul standing in for the Alonzo look-a-like. The next morning the boys were in town and saw the Alonzo look-a-like on his bike. They’re pretty sure he’s the town bad boy.

Our afternoon ...

We had a swim, a siesta in the sun, another dip in the pool, a siesta on the verandah. We wandered down to the beach and played in the surf. Some big waves to jump through or get pounded with. We tried body surfing. It's a lot easier with the boogie board. Next time we'll try surfing. Walked around town. Bought myself a new hat. Like it?

When we got back from the beach Dave's son, sister and BIL had arrived. And the monkeys were performing in a tree by the pool. There was a Mummy with a baby hanging underneath her running in the branches. And a couple others jumping up and down on branches making a huge racket. And a couple other monkeys running across the lawn and climbing some palm trees to the top, sliding down the branches and dropping into lower trees. So neat to watch untill I looked up and noticed a monkey in the branches directly above me. I moved out of the way just in time and splat, a huge poop landed on the ground not a foot from my sandal. I think the bugger was aiming for me. The first time in my life I almost got pooped on by a monkey! Hope it's the last. LOL
We had another swim and lay around the pool in the shade. At 7pm eleven of us had dinner at Lizzie's, just a block away from our rooms.
We had to try anything that sounded odd... Lizzard eggs, deep fried pickles... Dylan had a warm rum float with vanilla icecream. Pauline had a 'damn the weather' (a green murky but tasty cocktail) I had a cool Lizzie which was very cool, didn't get a picture.
My dinner was Filet Mignon medallions with mozza and veggies. So yummy!

We wandered through the little town and checked out the side walk vendors on the way back to our rooms. Then sat on the Verandah chatting. We had the little geckos trying to join in on our conversations. They are noisy little things.

Rick is downstairs practicing his snorkelling in the pool. Wish the picture had sound effects 'cause there's a lot of spluttering going on.


Costa Rica is wonderful. It's warm. NOT snowing :). Food is delish. Had a steak last night and the meat was so tender. For breakfast this morning we walked down to the beach and sat in an outdoor cafe and ordered beans & rice, scrambled eggs & bacon and a fresh fruit smoothie that tasted likely perfectly ripened papaya. Yum! Then we waded in the ocean. The water is bathtub warm and clean. Can't wait to take surfing lessons! Maybe tomorrow when Rick goes fishing.


The place we're staying at today and tomorrow has wireless internet. No TV or phone or clocks or anything, but wireless internet. LOL. Not sure if the place we're staying at for 7 days starting Saturday has internet, but there are internet cafe's EVERYWHERE so I can stay in touch.
Here's Rick and Dave taking it easy.


We got here last night in the dark and had quite the 2 hour drive to Samara. The roads are very narrow and pot holey. Lots of one lane bridges and people on bikes in the dark with no reflectors or lights. Some of the bridges have huge 'tire sized' holes in them. They just put a barrel over the hole to mark it and you go around. Lots of motor bikes. No one wears helmets. Very few rules except try to miss the other guy. I wore my seatbelt and held on. LOL Dave drives like a native.

We're staying at the Mirador. Our balcony is the top one. It starts just under the sign and goes around the corner to the left. That pink towel is mine hanging on the railing. The balcony leads into a bedroom, living room and kitchen. Rick and I are in the loft.

These are the scarey stairs I have to climb to get to our bedroom. I've already wacked my head a couple times going up and coming down is even scarier.

First impressions of Costa Rica.

Noisy...
The birds, the monkeys, the bugs, even the little 6" geckos make a big noise.
It's wonderfully warm here. A nice breathe of wind to keep it from being muggy.
We didn't get to Samara till after dark last night. We dropped our gear in our room and went for a swim in the pool then sat on the deck chatting. Figured out how Skype worked and chatted with the kids. That is very neat. To be half way around the world and yet so in touch!
This is the view we woke up to this morning.


And here's me 5 minutes after rolling out of bed...


There were 3 monkeys outside our window when we woke up. They're not that big, but they make a huge noise. They sound like lion's roaring. HUGE noise!
There are little gecko's climbing the walls.
And colourful birds flying everywhere.

I played ScrapJacked again...

I used red paint and bubble wrap to frame the photo. I punched the leaves out of some old Paper Adventure patterned vellum. It's been centuries since I've used vellum on a layout.

Another one for my BOM

A layout for my BOM

Cow Trail

I just got some new Daisy Bucket papers and cardstock tags from my LSS. Love the blues and greens.

Sherry's CJ

Sherry's topic was childhood memories. I found a photo of my little sister and I on a swing in our backyard in Auckland. The poem is by Robert Louis Stevenson. I couldn't decide if I should put an eye on my bird or not so he's blind. LOL

Breanna's paper doll

Here's one of the dolls Breanna made. Isn't she cute?

Paper Dolls

Breanna and I have been playing with paper dolls. Here's a page I did for my BOM


and here's an 8x8 CJ layout for a scrapping friend back East. I hope she likes this page. She'll insert her own heads on the doll.

Flying high.

Yesterday was a good day at work. Instead of sitting at my desk waiting for the phone to ring or sorting mail I got to spend the day flying over local rivers in a helicopter. I went up with a couple of our bioligists who were trying to track 9 tagged bull trout. We started off early and the Pine River was still covered in morning fog so we couldn't see the river. The helicopters shadow in the fog was surrounded by a circular rainbow. It looked so neat.

We flew up the Pine River and into the Murray. I took a few pictures of Kinuseo Falls. It is very different seeing them from the air, then looking at them from the river below.

Notice all the reddish brown trees at the top of the falls. Those have been killed off by the Mt. Pine Beetle. We saw a few areas where the infected trees had been cut and burned in an effort to kill off the beetles.
Lots of wildlife to see. We flew over moose lying in the trees. Once the fog burnt off we went down from about 500 ft to about 200 ft above the ground so we really had an eagles eye view of the world. We saw a pack of wolves running across the river ice at one point. I only managed to get a photo of one of them though we spotted four before they headed into the trees.

And finally here's a photo of the helicopter. I had a little trouble with the door. Twice it popped open when we were flying. Eek! At least the seat belt held. We put down on a gravel bar in the middle of nowhere on the banks of Wolverine Creek because one of the biologists was having a tough time with motion sickness. I'm so glad it wasn't me.

Today is International Woman's Day

ScrapbookersClubhouse had some challenges posted. I got two of them done. A card for a friend...


And a layout for my BOM. Twenty adjectives that describe me. Some I picked because I think they apply to the ME I know and others I picked because I've heard other's describe me that way.


And this weeks challenge for my 'So You Think You Can Scrap' was to use a technique that my partner could teach me. She has done some resist techniques so I tried it. The large Chipboard corner was my example. Love the look of it.

Scrapjacked blogspot...

They have a challenge going at www.scrapjacked.blogspot.com this week for a fun, funky, painted layout and I was inspired. Here's my version...



I hope I win! The prize is a package full of Heidi Swap product.

My weekend.

I love 'stay at home' weekends. The weather was horrible so I had a good excuse to spend the last two days in my sweats and fuzzy socks. On Friday when I drove to Dawson Creek with Daniel for a dentist appt. it was so warm it was raining out. But that turned to snow. Lots of snow. We woke up the next morning to a few centimetres ~ deep snow where the wind had drifted it. And the temp had dropped to -36 with the wind chill. It was -20 something this morning. We've been watching the thermometer go up all day. It's supposed to be above 0 again tomorrow. It will be one big sloppy mess :(
Rick was busy working on our new laminate floors downstairs. He's almost finished the rumpus room. It looks awesome. He picked a dark wood laminate. Once it's done we'll go furniture shopping and get some comfy couches for relaxing on in front of the tv. We're thinking leather. And one has to be a pull out, sleeping couch for guests.
I did my compulsory house cleaning and then hid out in my scraproom. Scrap Central had their monthly online crop going, so I worked on a couple pages. And I got a few Easter cards done. And I got three packages ready to go in the mail. Mum & Dad ~ your anniversary present is finally on it's way. A couple months late. Oops.
The kids were outside helping Rick shovel snow. They cleared off their skating rink so I hope it doesn't snow again tonight.
I'm still working full time. It looks like it could go till the end of March now. I'm pretty sure I'll be back to part time then, thank-goodness. So I better sign off and head to bed...

dont' feel like writing tonight so I'll do that part tomorrow.