the dolphin

Jay is progressing his amphibious ability.  Something about the "dolphin" stroke that always has me giggling.  This move takes alot of coordination (I've tried a dry land version....I felt pretty silly and looked even sillier), I think it progresses to the "butterfly" stroke.  For this only being Jay's 3rd attempt, I'd say he's rockin' it (click the picture link below to see for yourself!

Marriott garden version 2.0

Gonna turn that brown thumb green!
We were busy this weekend, or I should say Chris my handyman was busy this weekend, building my raised garden bed (an upgrade from my puny garden from last year).

Jayden Submarine

Here's a video of our Jayden swimming.  (If you could only see me while filming him.  I look like a blue puffer fish since I vicariously hold my breath anytime Jay submerges!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jctYArOZ5Xs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhmitgb2904

Go Jay Go!

robbed at the beach!

We were at the beautiful Manuel Antonio Beach (ranked one of the world's top beaches), when from out of the jungle came the thieves (plural; they worked as a team).  One distracted us while the other came for the grab.  In a matter of minutes, our bag had been snatched!  Crazy thing, we even caught it all on video.  Police are looking for this fugitive:

guano in my pocket

Hello from Costa Rica!
Just returned from a spelunking excursion at Costa Rica´s Venado Caves.  We return victorious and covered in guano.  For those who are not familiar with the term ¨guano¨, it is the scientific name for bat excrement (yes, poo-poo/pee-pee).  As for the title of my blog, while I was washing off my clothes from our cave trek I happen to stumble across some chunks of guano that I, unbeknownstly, smuggled out of the caves in my back pocket.  Yucky!

Experiencing the caverns was exhilarating.  The entrance of the cave was right at the basin of a river (leading right into the cave).  Inside, we saw underground waterfalls, huge columns of glittery calcium carbonate; stalactites, stalagmites, and at times we were standing in thigh deep water (waist deep for Jayden) filled with little black fish.  There were an assortment of creatures and eyeless critters (i.e. bats, scorpion spiders as big as one´s hand, and cave crickets)!  We would walk into huge spacious caverns and then squeeze into claustrophobically small spaces.

One of the scariest and yet most memorable moments, was squeezing through what our guide called the ¨the birthing tunnel¨.  The technique to get through was to lay horizontally on your back, going in feet first.  You pass your first arm into the tunnel (since both shoulders could not fit through at the same time) and then while on your back, you pull/push yourself with your arms while inching forward with your back.  It was so tight, even Jay had a little trouble.  Once we were through the other side, it was a narrow crevice with a 6 foot wall we had to scale to get out.  There was barely a foothold anywhere, so it took alot of upper body strength, a boost from our guide, and a prayer here and there.  At this point, I was almost ready to turn back, the only thing that kept me going was the inability to scale back down the 6 foot wall to turn back.  So we forged on and we are so glad we did.  Conquering the underworld has made us feel on top of the world! 

Costa Rica Count Down...

2 more days until we hop our plane to Costa Rica.  We leave for L.A. a la mañana (tomorrow)!  Just have to finish packing and figuring out how to fit the whole house into 2 backpacks.  We are trying to embrace the old adage that "less is more" with the goal to pack only 2 outfits each (plus swim suits, rain jacket, and 1 dressy attire).  This is not an easy feat since our trip ranges from the wet & possible muddy terrains of the rain-forests/volcanoes and living in rustic cabins to the blistering hot sun, blue skies, and soft white sandy beaches at our ritzy resorts.  The only constant here are the mosquitoes.  No worries though, Chris has bought enough mosquito repellent to kill a small animal.

Not too sure if we will blog in Costa Rica, so we are wishing everyone a "Happy Holidays"! 

blogtastic

We have finally joined the blogging era.  Will it be blog-mania or will it come to an untimely end like our Facebook obsession? (Glad we passed on the "I heart Facebook" tattoo!)  Only time will tell...(maybe just for now, some "ohbeedoh" t-shirts).

Why "ohbeedoh"?  It is how J.J. use to prounouce the name of his favorite stuffed animal, "old billy goat".  Endearing.

Here is a picture of our reason for being, our snugglebear,

Jayden Maddox: