Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Costa Rica

Not a great Picture, but there are TONS of fruit stands on the sides of the road. There are also toll booths and people are just in the middle of the highway with food and souvenirs, they have a LOT of guts :)
Kind of a funny story from Jaco that Alex reminded me of, we went out to eat at a little restaurant. Most of the places don't have doors on them like we are used to, they are all really open. So, we were eating and talking and this guy, who did not speak much english, comes up with a guitar and "asked" if we wanted a song. We kind of ignored him and kept talking but he started singing anyway, pretty much just "amor" over and over....so, he got done and was asking for a tip. Neither Alex or I had any US Dollars or Colones with us, so he kind of gave us a smug look and walked out. He then got on the phone, so Alex and I were a little scared that he was calling in his "hombres" and that they were going to be watching for us :) Nothing happened though, just scared ourselves a little, haha. But, the next night we were at another restaurant called "Jaco Taco", it was delicious! Who'd of thought, the SAME singer came into this restaurant. This time we both said NO THANKS before he could even ask :) It was quite the eventful night at Jaco Taco. There was a guy who got kicked out because he was too intoxicated, and then our waiter thought we took the wrong receipt so he chased us walking down the street, along with like 5 other Americans that must have known him,who thought we needed beat down or something :) ....but the receipt just fell on the floor under the table. After that we just walked around Jaco for a bit and then headed back to the hotel.

So, Sunday we headed back to San Jose around 2:00pm. And when we got on the highway we noticed that people were passing pretty much anywhere and everywhere. The cars on the left side of the road, are driving on the road that we took to get to Jaco on Thursday. So, we were REALLY confused about why people were driving all over the road. (Costa Rican drivers are INSANE, they will pass whenever, wherever, and whatever they can if you are in their way) so we thought it was just massive road rage. Monday, Alex asked the guys at the company about it and apparently on Sunday from noon to 5 the highway is all 1 way because so many people go to the beach on weekend so its a bit of traffic control. It's a good idea, but they should post signs or something because we were almost positive for a while that there were going to be some huge accidents because of how they were driving :)

Monday and Tuesday Alex worked on installing the machines and training the workers. Sunday night and Monday night we went to a big mall that they have across the street from our hotel. It was fun to see the fashions that are the same as the United States, and then some that are just wild! There are TONS of shoe stores!

Tuesday night we ventured out to Alajuela for dinner. The roads have NO names, and the place we wanted to go was not in the GPS so we just looked it up on googlemaps, took the GPS with us in case we got lost and headed out on an adventure :) We found the place with no problems, thanks to Alex's awesome skills with directions! The food was pretty good, it was a little sandwhich place and it had AMAZING Gelato!!! I had Nutella and Alex had Cookies and Cream. yummm yummm yummm.

Wednesday we woke up and talked to the tour guide guy here at the Hotel. We found a tour to do today and tomorrow.
Today we went to Lapaz Waterfall Gardens. It was a little zoo-type area in the jungle. On our way to the gardens, we drove by a coffee plantation. It was pretty neat to see. It is 1 of 16 plantations in Costa Rica.
The roads getting to the gardens were SUPER bumpy.!!!! It was like a rollercoster with how much we were turning and bumping. I could not help but laugh most of the time!
There were quite a few people on our tour, all probably 40+ but they were fun to talk to. Our tour guide was AWESOME!!! He knew so much about the area and he was a great photographer.! He was giving me pointers about my camera and took a lot of pictures for Alex and I :)
Below is one of the MANY Toucans that we saw. The aviary was pretty big and fun because the birds were flying all around you. Alex got a good picture with the Toucan, when Alex was taking my picture with it it flew away, haha. It felt really cool though to have them on your arm!

Today was a pretty awesome day. It was long, but the waterfalls were AMAZING!!!! It got really chilly and neither Alex or I had a jacket, so that wasn't great, but it was still really fun!

The Jungle is SOOO beautiful and smells so good! It is amazing how green everything is here and all the bright colored flowers.

Tomorrow (Friday) we are going on a Volcano tour and then a boat ride to see some more Costa Rica wilderness :)

I will let you know how that goes and post some more pictures!!!

Buenos Noche! :)

This is Alex on the longest and fastest zip line. There is not a whole lot of Jungle in it, but its pretty sweet!! The tour guides were saying that people go about 40 to 80 mph on it, depending on weight and wind. He said that day it was about 40 to 55mph so, REALLY DANG FAST :D

It might mak you a little dizzy, but it's pretty awesome!

Jaco, Costa Rica

Alex and I were in San Jose Wednesday night and Thursday because Alex had to install a machine Thursday. After he got off work, we came down here to Jaco beach. We got in around 7:00pm so we explored the hotel a little bit, but it was exciting to wake up to this view out our window!
There is a big pool and a kid pool, Tennis courts, a grassy area and then TONS of beach!

This was my first time actually standing on an Ocean beach, so that was pretty cool. We walked on the beach for a while. There are tons of hotels right along it so we saw a lot of people swimming, playing with their kids and dogs and laying out.

Then we swam in the ocean, which was fun, but exhausting :) There are constantly pretty good sized waves coming in so we spent most of our time body surfing, jumping over waves, or getting eaten by them :) It is fun for about 20 minutes at a time but then it gets tiring, your mouth, nose and throat burn and it tastes nasty! It was nice being able to go from the Ocean to the pool and just relax for a bit!

The sunset on the beach was absolutely beautiful! It was funny to see how many people go sit on the beach about 45 minutes before it sets and then as soon as it goes down, the beach clears out.

After we watched the sunset we went to a little restaurant on the way to downtown Jaco, it was pretty good!

During the day we thought we found Downtown Jaco, but Saturday night we actually found it :) There are a lot of cute little shops and people EVERYWHERE! The people drive really crazy here and I think pedestrians and bikers are even crazier! lol.

Saturday morning we got up and went on an adventure ziplining through the jungle! We went to Herradura for it, which took about 10 minutes to get to on a shuttle from our Hotel. I was REALLY nervous the night before and when we were getting ready to go, but I think the scariest part was standing and waiting on the platforms between the lines. There were 12 lines and 10 platforms. The platform we took our picture on had the coolest view, but there were some AWESOME views when you were out in the clearings zip-lining. I tried to take a video and failed, but Alex got a good video on the last line, which was the longest and fastest(I will post it on here later). Alex also hung upside down on one of the lines that you can either free-style or hang upside down. There is also a video of him coming to the platform :) Crazy kid!!

We got done with that around 11am, so then we came back and swam for a bit and just hung out. It was a really fun and relaxing day. Then that night we had dinner at Jaco Taco, which was pretty tasty and then walked around for a while in downtown Jaco. It is definitely a tourist area, but there is a lot of cool artwork. !

Today (Sunday) we are just relaxing and might go for a swim and then checkout around 1pm and head back to San Jose. Alex is working Monday and Tuesday and then I think either Wednesday or Thursday we will go up to Arenal Volcano and then we head back to the U.S. on Friday morning! :)

I will post more about other adventures as they come!

Irland / Switzerland

Alex is headed to Switzerland and Ireland AGAIN to fix some machines. He is not excited at all about going to Switzerland again, but Ireland should be pretty cool!
Say some prayers for his safe travel! :)

Good news:
His company is sending him and I to Costa Rica next week, which happened to work out with my spring break. Alex will be installing a machine for a few days and then we get to go hang out on the beach :)

Alex made it to Switzerland :)

He flew out of Phoenix at 8:56am on Saturday morning, had a 2 hour layover in Washington D.C. adn then flew out of D.C. at 6:00pm, and arrived in Zurich Switzerland at 8:25am(on Sunday)., which was 11:25pm(on saturday) here in Flagstaff. So, he pretty much got into Switzerland when he is going to bed here. I talked to him for a little while when he got in and he said he was going to take a shower and then take a nap. Turns out, he took a bath, layed down, and slept just about as much as I did. hahaha. He didn't do much today because he was exhausted and his co-worker was not intown yet. I think he watched some gymnastics, fencing, handball and Back to the Future, haha.
Tomorrow him and Sean (his co-worker), who is from Ireland, will hopefully go scope out Zurich. They can't meet with their client until the afternoon, if at all, so they will have some time to hang out tomorrow. :)
Unfortunately it was cloudyand foggy today so he couldn't see the Alps, hopefully it clears up this week before he leaves!!

As for me, Lastnight after I got off of work, I went shopping for a little bit, got some frozen yogurt, popped some popcorn and watched 2 episodes of Say Yes to the Dress and Rent :) It was a FANTASTIC night! haha.

Today, I watched some more Chick Flicks, Disney Movies, did some homework, Pilates, Took a Bubble Bath, and hung out with my Roomies! I'd say it was a successfully realxing day!

I'm missing Alex A TON, so it is nice to be able to talk to him a little bit and have plenty of stuff to occupy my time!

Speakin of which, I have a mid-term tomorrow, so I should probably get back to studying :( It is discouraging though when I talk to my Nebraska friends who are all on Fall Break, we don't get a fall break :( booo!!! Guess we will just be smarter, huh? :)

Well Hello!!!

These past few weeks have been busy, but extremely fun!

Last week, Alex's parents came to Arizona to check up on their house and meet with people to get it fixed up. Alex and I went down to Anthem on Saturday to do some shopping and to have dinner at Applebee's ( we do not have an Applebee's here, so it was awesome to finally have it )...We headed to their house after that. Alex and I both really liked the house. It will be fun to see all the changes and progress on the house. Sunday we went for a walk to the Clubhouse and then walked the golf course back to their house. It was VERY hot! Alex and I have not been keeping up with our Wednesday, Saturday workouts for him so it was a bit of a struggle :) haha. That afternoon we hung out at the pool for a few hours and then we had to head back to Flagstaff :( I think we got a little too used to the hot weather while we were down there, when we got back and it was 48 degrees, we were shivvering! We both just had 3 day work weeks that week, and then we headed back down to Anthem before we flew to Nebraska.

My dad turned 60 this past Saturday. SO, My sister Rachael, Brother-in-law Dan, Niece Lupita, Alex and I decided to surprise my family by going home for Dad's Birthday. Alex and I flew out of Phoenix Thursday morning and met Rachael in Denver around 3:00pm. From there we had a long trip to Gothenburg to surprise my dad and sister. They were EXTREMELY excited to see us. Ann didn't stop jumping for about 5 minutes and Dad was pretty much speechless. Throughout the day, more and more of my family showed up and were happy to see us. The whole weekend was full of family, friends and fun.

I definitely miss my family already and cannot wait until Christmas when I will get to see them again. These past few weekends have been some of the best weekends since we moved out. It was great to see family and get out of Flag for a little bit.

Back to the grind this week!!! :(

Alex flies out to Switzerland this weekend and will be gone for about a week or so. He doesn't get much down time in the next couple months, so having a long Christmas Vacation will be much needed for him. Tonight he worked until 6 on a machine that they still cannot get working :( Not a very good feeling for him. But, I'm sure he will get it figured out :) They love having him there at MSI to be a problem solver.

I have lots of tests this week and next week, which is not very fun, but I'll make it through :)

Switzerland!

Alex has some big news from MSI. :D

Like I said in my last blog, he got a bunch of new projects, so the one he is working on now, someone else will take over and he will start on these new ones.

With that, he found out today that he gets to go to Switzerland the week of October 10th.

I am QUITE Jealous of him!!! He will be there for 2 or 3 days seeing how a machine installation works. He is kind of surprised that they would send him so far to see how an installation works, but apparently the guys working there are really nice and the ones in the two other possible places aren't as nice and would "tear him apart," so he gets to see an awesome place and have a great experience :)

THEN, a couple weeks after he gets back from Switzerland, he will get to go to Minnesota to work on another installation. He asked if he would be traveling this much, or if it was just to get orientated, and his boss, Jake said he won't be traveling near this much in the future-so it is really cool that he gets to now!

He's been working there for 2 months and they already sent him to Salt Lake City, have plans for Switzerland and Minnesota- I'd say its a pretty great job :)

He is doing really well and the people at MSI really like him and appreciate that he is able to learn quickly and does a good job!

And, since its mostly his family that looks at our blog....Way to Go!! :) You raised a good one :)

This week for me is going pretty well. Starting to get a little bit of a cold, which isn't very fun, but I haven't been working as much, so it is nice to have all day and night to do homework and hang out with the roomies :)

They are fun girls, definitely loud and outgoing, but there is always some story to be told or something to laugh about, which is really fun!

Classes are going well, missing Summer a little though!

I think that is all the news I have to share for now! TTFN