The Beach House

Workout day 10!  Woot Woot!  We've been doing awesome, we went back to workout Day 1 and it was much easier to do it today.  With a minute rest between each 8 min set and an extra 4 mins of abs at the end it was 48 mins today.  We didn't bring any weights this year so we've been using full water bottles (500ml, 1L, 2L and 6L jugs).

While we were doing workout Jay walked the girls down to the Corey's.  Because we have made arrangements to see the 7 bedroom house on the beach around noon and its really close to The Palms, the Corey's condo, we go down to spend our beach time with them this morning.  They have a very nice breeze down there that we don't always get at our place.

Its 10:30am and Anthony got the bartender to give him "a creation that I wouldn't have tried before but that you're known for".  It was really good - I think it had pineapple and grapefruit juices in it and I don't know what kind of liquor.  Jay and Trev were going out for a swim, an exercise swim, they invited Anthony to join them but he said he would be a lifeguard.  This is him, on alert.

Maddy and Jujie are helping Sophie with her back handspring.  I think she could do it now without a spot she just needs the guts to do it.

They showed them this double cartwheel move and the girls tried to do it after.  lol.

Around 11:45 we walked down the beach to sit in the shade under the house we're going to look at while the rest of the gang went down to Coco Loco's to have a snack and beverage.  We are supposed to be able to see the house around noon, when the current guests go out for the day.  It started getting hot while we waited so I went in the water.

At 12:30pm we decide to give up, that if she messages me we'll drive over (thank goodness we walked the path yesterday and knew where to drive to get there).  As soon as we were at the car I got the message so we drove over.  There are a couple of issues with this house, although it would be so convenient to be so close to the Corey's.  1 - There are two Master bedrooms, both completely separate from the house - one on the second floor and one in a casita (this is actually a plus for those who get the Master bedrooms).  The rest of the bedrooms are accessed from the outside of the house, motel style, and each one has either a double bed or two twins but the two twins aren't the long ones that can be made up into a King, they're standard ones - so none of those rooms will work for Jay and I.  The kitchen was also small and dark and completely separate from the living room and dining room.  The pool was actually better than we thought, but far away from the seating area.

The plan today is to go to The Beach House for lunch.  Today is HOT, and last time we were at The Beach House the girls were overheated because there was no breeze.  While we were looking at the house the rest of the group had a snack at Coco's, but they should have just had lunch and skipped The Beach House (and we told them that was ok), but they didn't, they waited for us - but by the time we were done it was 1pm and by the time they all got to our place to head out it was 1:45pm.  So when Paige said "I want to just stay here" I knew taking them wouldn't be a good idea so I said that I would stay home and have leftovers and Maria said she would stay too.  Mom and Dad went over a little earlier and got a table in the shade and Jay, Anthony, Sarah and Trevor met them there.  I had leftover paella, Maria had her leftover calamari and shrimp fried up in a pan with her veggies and some pasta and the girls had pasta too.

Pina Coladas are made by eye - its basically 3/4 full ice, then pour pineapple juice until it half covers the ice, pour in coconut milk (usually about a half a can), coconut cream (which is sweet so just a tablespoonish pour) and then rum until it looks like there's enough - very exact.

The guys all love these air chairs.

Mom made nachos tonight for dinner and soft tacos for the girls.  Myah was so beat that half way through her second soft taco she asked me if after this they could put on their jammies and I can read them the book.  She quickly finished her soft taco and bee-lined it for the bedroom, I figured she was missing Julia so went in and snuggled with her and read the book.  The other 2 little girls filtered in over the next 10 minutes and got ready for bed (it was 6pm!).  I read the rest of the book and missed dinner.  lol.  Myah asked for head scratches and I thought she was asleep but she asked me how many more nights we have.  I said "After this one there are only two more nights".  She explained that she is excited to go home because she wants to see her family but she doesn't want to go home yet because she loves it here, so she's both happy and disappointed there are only 2 nights left.  I know exactly how she feels.

Lazy day in Paradise

We never tire of this view.

The elves were creative last night!

Myah slept over at the Corey's last night and when Sophie and Paige woke up they immediately wanted to go to the condo.  I told them that the girls weren't awake yet and they would have to wait until we hear from Sarah that they were up.  A major meltdown ensued.  I also learned from Paige that she decided not to sleep over because she thought they would watch a movie before bed. The girls ended up having to do their dictee words before we walked them down to the Corey's place.

Maria and I didn't do our workout this morning, we used the walk to the condo and extended it and walked up and around the point and then back and up our big hill for our exercise today, about an hour walk and 5km with a couple of big hills.  We walked over to where the house is that we'd like to see while we're here 7 bedrooms and beach access.  I'm going to email the property manager again.

Sarah sent me this photo of the girls mid-morning.

A few hours later we went down to the Corey's condo to hang out for the morning.

Maddy and Jujie have been amazing with the girls, doing all sorts of cheer with them - when they announced they were doing a handstand race Jay got in on the action.

Sophie is a champ at hand stands.

First to fall is Trev in the background.

Then Jay next while she holds strong.

Now the boys feel like they're going to die.

The girls want to have a sleepover again.  I said they can but they have to do their dictee prep, their journalling and have to behave all afternoon to be able to come.  Myah said "Wait, so Dana?  If I misbehave does that mean that no one can have a sleepover?"  "No, anyone behaving can go for the sleepover, and that was a very smart way to ask if Sophie and Paige misbehave do you still get to sleep over, I like that Myah".  I also told them this is the last sleepover, that two was good so they have to spend the rest of the nights at home and look forward to seeing the girls the next day.

As we are driving later we see the iguana that sits on the wall half way down the hill, he's there every day sunning himself.  Myah said we should name him and I suggested Sunny the girls named him Sunny Brick Tanner.

We had leftovers for lunch today - leftover cuban sandwiches for Jay, Trev, Maria and I and Maria made a salad.  Paige doesn't want to eat her cucumber rolls, so I told her that's fine but if she doesn't eat them there are two orders there and each order was $7 so she owes me $14 USD.  She had some and said she would eat the rest at a later date, we'll see.  We're going to Angelina's tonight and the girls have 2 full leftover cheese pizzas (not from the same time, but slices from different places) so I told them they have two choices, they can eat this pizza for lunch and dinner and finish it and still come to Angelina's after they've eaten to hang out and have a drink and some fries up there - or I'll stay home with them while everyone else goes.  They ate the pizza.

This afternoon I made pina coladas (again, lol).  I was out to use the bathroom and said "Trev, I hear your ice clinking"  its an unspoken signal that as someone shakes their glass to find the last sip of pina colada that you offer to fill up their glass.  The next pitcher I was in the pool and Trev made the pina coladas, I told him the ratios but he made it SOOO strong, so we tried to fix it but it was never quite right.  He tried.

Sunset here is from about 5:15pm to 5:45pm and it always beautiful.

At 5:55pm we start our walk down to Angelina's and the big girls give the little girls a ride.  I told them they should have held out for a ride back UP the hill!  Good cross training for cheer.

After the Girls were all done eating, which we hadn't even gotten our appetizers yet, I asked if they wanted to all walk back together to the house and not stay at the restaurant.  That was ok with Sarah and Anthony and the big girls too so we gave them the keys and they went home.

This is Jim's last night, he flies home tomorrow to go to his company Christmas party on Friday night.  Its his boss and CEO's 25th Anniversary and also one of Jim's direct reports is getting an Award that was established in honour of a colleague who passed away 4 years ago.  The boys wanted to celebrate his leaving (you know what I mean), so they told Arjerry that its Jim's birthday!  As we were done singing to him Jay said "Here's to 70 more!"  lol.  Arjerry was a good sport, as we got up to leave she said with a shrug "Happy Birthday?"  She totally knew it wasn't his birthday.

So long Jim, hope you had a great Birthday!

Mom and Dad had driven down to Angelinas, Mom didn't want to walk down the hill and Maria didn't want to walk back up (she had walked up on our walk but also she and Jim had walked up on the way back from the beach where I had taken the car down to grab the gear and kids).  As the car got halfway up the hill Anthony decided to hop in so Sarah passed him their leftover package and said "Here, at least take the sausage" and he said "Same goes for you".

Myah, again, was the only one sleeping over at the Corey's.  So Jay slept in with Sophie and Paige slept in with me.  When we went to bed I closed the bedroom door and Paige said to me "I don't want that closed".  I said "It's ok, its quieter"  She replied "But the stink stays in". "What stink?"  She said "You'll see". Haha.  I showed her though, I had curry for dinner.

La Sodita Italiana

Maria and I did our workout this morning (a little earlier today which was great because it wasn't so hot).  Today was the hottest day yet I think, and it especially felt hot because yesterday was cooler.

After workout, breakfast, working, blogging, we're all set to head to the beach to meet the Corey's around 10am.

I do need to give photo credit again to Maria this year - a couple of days I've had very few notes about the day and have built the blog around her photos.

Sarah and the girls didn't stay at the beach very long, the zinc oxide that Sarah bought yesterday in Tamarindo was stinging both Maddy and Juliette's face so they headed back to the condo to wash up.  Anthony stayed out in the waves with Jay and Trev.

There were some MONSTER waves today, breaking really close to shore though so not great boogie boarding for the kids but great for the boys.

After the beach we came back to the house, leaving the boys at the beach playing frisbee.  The girls stopped half way up for a snack at Gram’s condo. Mom told me later that Myah said to her “I had a little freak out last night and Dana asked me today if I wanted to leave early and go home with Jim on Thursday but I was like ‘Yeah no, I’m not going home early are you crazy?!’”

Shortly after we got up here though they arrived at the house with Anthony.  Jay asked if he could take the car to drop Anthony off at the condo but he's not on it - so I said I would drive him and texted Sarah to let her know he was up with us and just asked her if she wanted to meet us here before going to lunch today with a shirt and shoes for Anthony so we did that instead.  The guys had a couple of beers and when Sarah and the girls arrived we went to Surf Box for lunch.

Almost everyone got the cuban sandwich, which is so good.  I ate half and will have the other half as lunch tomorrow, most people did the same - everyone actually except for Jim who enjoyed his whole sandwich.

Surf Box serves great coffee, but no decaf, so Jim and I can't have it, both of us need decaf, 100% or we get heart palpetations - and I would be jumpy and feel terrible all day.

From Surf Box the girls all wanted to go to the Corey's condo for the afternoon - so we piled into our car and went to the grocery store (of course) to grab a few essentials and then went home to float in the pool all afternoon.

This pink floaty is like our mascot, its in all the photos.

This picture looks like I'm birthing Paige, but really I'm putting her hair in a french braid, which she proceeded to remove about 15 minutes later.  

The girls came back and want to sleep over at the Corey's (this so far is working out well for us, maybe we'll just rent a 3 bedroom next year and send them to the Corey's every day!).  So they pack a bag, but Sophie decides before she's even officially packed that she'd like to stay home.

I was chatting with Myah and explaining that home is an hour ahead, so 6am is like getting up at home at 7am, which is good since she has to get up for school the first day she’s home. Myah says “Yeah, that’s a bummer”. Totally. 

Maria came down and sat beside me and I noticed that she had blood inside her ear.  She went in to clean it off, she got a chunk bit out of her, Sarah asked if she cut herself shaving and Maria said "Hey, I'm not that old yet!".  Sarah said "Great, now you don't like me more than Anthony either!"  That came from a text Maria sent me yesterday.





After the photo below and the one of Sophie at lunch I've now told her that if she makes that face any more in photos she's going to have a consequence.  

I'm going to have to tell Anthony the same thing about the shocker. (These are 3 different photos!)







Sarah's steak was DELICIOUS - it was the special.  The server said it was a 230g tenderloin and Mom and I looked at eachother and tried to do the math and figured "230g couldn't be very big"  it was 8 oz!!  It was $20 USD and was so good with a fresh mushroom sauce.

All the food was amazing, we got so many things I can't even mention them all, but I'll try.  Mom and I shared carpaccio, we also ordered 4 bruscetta and a caprese and we shared around the table.  Sarah and Anthony ordered the octopus carpaccio as well.  I had a milanese steak, lots of people ordered the lasagna which Dad had raved about and Maria ordered the calamari and shrimp.  Maddy and Jujie both got pesto lasagna but didn’t love it. Maddy took it home anyway, like she does all of her leftovers even if she has no intention of eating them because she wants to be polite. 

Mom and I shared a bottle of prosecco.  We were poured a small glass and then left the bottle in a bucket of ice so I reached in to refill and filled our glasses up.  Trev said "That's right, don't think about pouring it, pour it!"

Dessert, a couple had the lime gelato, Jay had the nutella cheesecake and I had the 100% decaf espresso poured over vanilla icecream after I stressed multiple times that is MUST be decaf!  She said she checked...twice.

Dad somehow got the server to bring us all a complimentary lemoncello shot at the end..by now Maria's photos are fuzzy.  lol.

Only Myah ended up at the sleepover so I slept with Paige in her room and Sophie slept with Jay.