i heart {summertime}

josh and i have been busy kids since returning from our vacations. i will do my best to document some of our fun, summertime activities...

*we went to my first REAL soccer game. it was a beautiful evening and we were grateful jon and aubree could get us such great tickets. even though we lost, i enjoyed it and hope to go to another game this season.

*the week after florida, i had to stay in salt lake (while josh headed back to logan) to do some clinicals for my program at the university of utah. when i wasn't working, i had a great time hanging out with my family, making freezer jam with my dad, and going on night runs with my dogs. i also thoroughly enjoy meeting up with my beautiful friends who i don't see nearly as often as i would like to. this dinner date was at paradise bakery and it was great to laugh and catch up with them for a few hours. *memorial weekend was also spent in murray because stacy was in town! whenever this southern bell returns from houston we do everything we can to see her. we spent memorial day weekend with her watching movies, eating at some of our favorite high school eating establishments, driving around, talking, and laughing. we spent a beautiful memorial day with stacy, jon, and aubree in park city doing some shopping and riding the alpine slides and alpine coaster. (that alpine coaster was way faster than i expected and a lot of fun!) stacy and i have always loved park city and josh has never ridden the slides before so we were excited to make it a day of fun.

*we headed back to logan where we spent a lot of time watching the playoffs, eating ice cream, babysitting cute rachel, and saying goodbye to some of our good friends (we'll miss you josh and krissey!)

*bunco night with the girls... way fun! thanks stacie for putting it together!

*josh's brother nate has his mission farewell that next weekend (back to murray again). nate leaves for the mtc tomorrow (june 10th) and will be going to the kennewick, washington mission, spanish speaking. josh and i adore nate dawg and are sad to send him off but we're excited for him and the great experiences that lie ahead of him. we look forward to hearing from him and all the things he will learn while preaching the gospel and serving the Lord. i won't be able to see nate off so i had to say my goodbyes a week ago. you'll be a great missionary elder hankins!*last week i started my summer classes. i have one class daily that lasts through the month of june and another one that goes the entire month of july. in another week or so i'll get my assignments for children i will work with and do therapy with. i am a little bummed that my summer vacation is pretty much over, but i'm looking forward to learning a lot this summer and working with some amazing kids and families. we are doing a summer camp for the kids this week and it is going to be a lot of work, but a lot of fun. hopefully i'll have some fun pictures and stories to share later about that.

*josh and i have gone on a lot of scooter rides. it's probably one of our favorite summertime activities. we drive everywhere and nowhere at the same time, and when it hasn't been raining, we've seen some fabulous sunsets.

*we went and saw up in 3d. we loved it! we also loved hearing all the kids in the theater squeal throughout the entire movie. if you haven't seen it yet, i highly recommend it.

*last weekend josh and i went fishing! i had some reading to do for my class and the sun was out (shocker) and josh wanted to get out and fish so it worked out well. unfortunately, our fishing trip wasn't much of a success. hardware ranch stats: josh:0 liz:0. 2nd dam stats: josh:0 liz:0. but it's early and we have a year license (and i will have a lot of reading to do) so i'm sure we'll catch plenty of fish in the next few months.

*remember my cute little friend menen? (if not, go here and go to item number 5) well, after lots of hard work on her part and help from many teachers, she finally graduated from high school! this was such a huge accomplishment and we couldn't be more proud of her and all her hard work! so, we decided to throw her a graduation party! (even though she was very much against it). sonia (a professor in my department and the one who initially paired me up with menen in a mentoring program) put everything together and made the night so much fun. we went to callaways in smithfield for a nice dinner, sonia had a crown and jewelry for menen, and party favors for all who attended. she also got some great graduation presents and a beautiful bouquet of roses from sonia. it was a fun evening with all of menen's friends and a few teachers. it was great to make her feel like a princess for the night and she was so gracious for everything. menen and i have been working with a representative at the department of workforce services for the past few months and have gotten her enrolled in a youth program that helps her with medicaid, food stamps, got her a job this summer working at a nursing home, and will help pay for cna training at the local tech school this fall. i love this girl so much and want nothing but the best for her and feel like a proud mom as she graduates college and moves on in gaining the education and skills needed to make it in the real world.

i'm thinking i am finally all caught up with my posting! i'll try to keep on top of it from now on, assuming anything blog worthy happens in the next week or two!

flo-rida!

tuesday was the day we were flying out of costa rica, and just happened to be my birthday too!  yay for hitting the big 2-4!  it was an eventful morning with everyone getting to the airport for their different flights, but somehow we all left the country when we were supposed to and didn't leave anyone behind.  most of our group flew back to utah but there were 5 of us that planned to stay for a few days in a condo in st augustine, florida, owned by megan's parents.  we flew from costa rica to miami and then to orlando where we met up with this dreamboat... 

yep, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you.  he has a mexi-stash.  chester the molester style.  sick.  what a great birthday present, right?  josh had flown to orlando earlier that day and met up with us when our plane finally landed around 8pm.  i was excited to see him and was even more excited to help him shave off the facial hair later that night.  we were all starving because we'd been traveling all day so we got our rental car, started driving east, took a random exit and ended up at a steak house where we celebrated my birthday with some yummy steak.  (for some reason, i didn't take any other pictures on my birthday.  lame)  at dinner, josh surprised me with a 2nd band to complete my wedding ring.  i was excited because i thought our florida trip would be my present and i definitely didn't expect to get the rest of the set so quickly!  i think it's beautiful!after dinner, we made the rest of the drive to the condo in st. augustine.  we were so tired that we pretty much crashed as soon as we got there, but only after i took a picture of the beautiful room josh and i got to stay in.  megan's mom has decorated the condo in a whole seashell/beach theme and it was fabulous.  and the next morning, we found out that those large windows overlooked the ocean.  

the next morning we got up and headed to the private beach just outside the condo.  (this is a picture taken from the balcony).  even though the weather forecast predicted thunderstorms, there wasn't a cloud in sight.  we had a great time laying out, boogie boarding, reading, swimming in the ocean and the swimming pool...
flying kites...

playing bocce ball (a new favorite of ours)...
and soaking up some rays...

we also bbq'd up some fabulous burgers and dogs

the next day we hit up some historical sites.  st augustine is actually the oldest city that has been continuously inhabited in the united states and has a lot of spanish influence (thank you wikipedia!)  we went to the historical lighthouse...

went to the harbor and saw some replicas of the pinta and nina (the ships the pilgrims sailed on)


we walked around the docks and looked at the beautiful yachts and sailboats


we saw some of the beautiful historical buildings, like this one... flagler college...
we drove to jacksonville to visit the city, to go to the budweiser factory and see how beer is made, ate some yummy bbq, and we made a pit stop at the river/fountains to get some pictures as a crazy thunderstorm was coming in.  on our way back, we hit up the outlet malls (despite the groaning from the boys) and did some shopping.  


the next morning, maria, megan, and i got up super early to go to the beach and watch the sunrise.  it was gorgeous.  

we spent the rest of the day playing in the sun, reading books, swimming, and napping.  
that afternoon we went to o'steens, a restaurant with some of the best shrimp i have ever had.  thanks megan for the recommendation!
we then headed to the old town st augustine to do some more sight seeing.  (my dad would be so proud).  we made our way to many of the little shops located on st. george street.  we also came across the oldest school in the usa and had to snap a picture of it.  

after doing more and more shopping, we stopped of at a creamery for some delicious ice cream and walked over to the castillo de san marcos fort.  it was cool to see the structure of this fort and the area where the moat would have been.  

liz and josh, holding down the fort.  (cheesy, i know.  we saw it on a postcard and decided we needed our own version of it)
saturday morning we got up semi-early, packed up the car, and headed back to orlando to catch our flights.  we were sad that our trip had ended, but we had a great time!  spending a few days in florida was just what we all needed to relax and recoup after our trip to costa rica (you'd think the cr trip was a vacation, but most of it was work!)  it was fun to spend our nights hanging out, eating treats, and watching movies and i liked that we didn't have to wake up early or be on any set schedule the whole time we were there.  thanks again megan and her parents for letting us stay there, it was perfect and beautiful and we really appreciated it!

my goodness, catching up on these vacations takes a lot of time and i'm not even done yet!  that's pretty much it from our out-of-state vacations, but we've been busy ever since we got back to utah so i'll have to catch up on those events when i get more time (and the desire to do it!)  i hope i didn't bore anyone to death with my lengthy posts, numerous pictures, and crazy details!

last day in costa rica

monday, may 11th was our last full day in costa rica.  sunday night, we made the long drive back to san jose and stayed at the same hotel we had stayed at our first few nights.  the drive was eventful- of course we had some good laughs with each other in our cars, some scary moments driving with the costa ricans up dark and windy roads, and of course, the expected mechanical problems of our lead car that caused a handful of pit stops.  this lead to an extremely late night which did not make us look forward to the early morning we had ahead of us.  

monday morning we headed up north to cartago where we worked at a school for the deaf.  many of these children had hearing aids or cochlear implants, but there were still many who needed to be tested and fit with new hearing aids.  at this site, i was assigned to do the actually hearing aid programming and fittings.  it was really fun to watch the kids' faces light up when we turned on the hearing aids and they could hear sounds they couldn't hear just minutes before.  the kids at this school were so dang cute and even gave us little thank you cards with suckers taped to them when it was time for us to go.  (i was so busy at this site that i didn't take any pictures.  i'll try to steal some from my classmates and post them later).

after working at the school for the deaf all morning, we headed out to see the irazu volcano- the tallest active volcano in costa rica.  the last eruption was in 1963-1965 and it has been dormant ever since.  when you visit the volcano now, the summit has various craters and a green crater lake at the bottom.  it was interesting to visit this volcano because it was completely different than the arenal volcano that i saw the last time i visited costa rica.  

that evening, dr mellick and the other people we worked with planned a nice dinner at a restaurant similar to tepanyaki here in utah.  it was a fabulous meal and it was a fun way to end such a great week.  while in costa rica, we were able to meet natalie- a costa rican who is actually coming to utah state this next year to join our audiology program.  it was fun talking with her and getting to know her, and giving her a little insight to life in logan, utah.  

this is a picture of our professors, those who organized our trip, and natalie's parents.  

this is carla, that crazy, fabulous lady i mentioned earlier who ran the kinder papillon school we visited earlier in the week.  
this is ruben- carla's awesome husband

and adriana... she was fabulous and we loved getting to know her!
that pretty much wraps up our fabulous costa rica humanitarian trip.  i learned so much, got to know and help some amazing people, and had a ton of fun with my classmates and professors.  just for journal purposes, i'm going to jot down a few things that stand out from our trip

*having the little children teach me how to speak spanish

*teaching adriana how to use her hearing aid equipment

*the different stages of being a fomo (fear of missing out)

*sugar and salt challenge = no bueno

*monkeys hiss at you if they want to to get away from them

*i could eat rice and beans all day every day

*no matter how many times i travel to cr, i think i will always be terrified of driving in that country

*mistaking a large rat climbing in a tree for a monkey

*drinking coconut milk for the first time

*eating pineapple and loving it

*dr munoz is deathly afraid of snakes!

*when playing jungle speed with the boys, a helmet and elbow and knee pads are strongly recommended

*pura vida means pure life and is pretty much the lifelong motto of all costa ricans

*papa johns pizza tastes differently than it does here in the states

*9 days was a long time to be away from my hubby

*my professors are hilarious and i loved getting to know them on a personal level

*dedicating a week to help those in need was one of the most rewarding experiences i've had and i'm looking forward to next year's trip!

in a nutshell, that sums up all of our costa rica adventures, but stay tuned- i still have our florida trip to blog about.  it may take me another week or so, but it's coming!