B-day Party

Last Sunday Zach and I went to our cousin's 5th birthday party at the Main Event! She is so cute. Alot of the family was there and it is always nice to see the other side of the family.

My wonderful husband!

So, my wonderful husband came home one night after work with these lovely flowers for me. I was suprised. He did it just because. Those are the best gifts...when they do it when you least expect it.

Costa Rica...

Last week Zach and I returned from a visit to Costa Rica. We went because he was a groomsman in his best friends wedding. Costa Rica was so beautiful and we had a great time. It is very tropical. Zach and I were excited to explore more of Central America. So far, together we have been to Mexico, El Salvador, and Costa Rica. Zach has also been to Nicaragua. We love to travel. We love spending time with each other because memories are what last forever! I told Zach that our next trip will be somewhere on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean and it will not involve surfing. hehe! As much and I love the beach and I love watching him surf, I want to experience new places that do not involve a beach. :) We will see what happens! Anyways, here are some pics of our adventure in Costa Rica.

This was the front of our hotel. It is called Harbor Reef. The cool thing about our hotel was that it was literally in the forest. Here are some animals from Costa Rica. I dont know what this next animal is, but he looks like a squirrel.
This is a pic of a Howler monkey. They make a loud weird noise. Zach said it sounds like a pig being slaughtered. haha!
These are lil baby Howler monkies. The owner of our hotel was taking care of them. They were recused from the forest. Their mother was electrocuted from trying to swing from a power line. They said that happens everyday. So, they have a foundation where they are trying to save howler monekies by putting a rubber coating around powerlines. Sad huh?
This lil guy is a bird with rainbow colors. He belonged to the owner of the place where the wedding was. He loved to sing.This is a tucan. He was at our hotel in a huge cage. Everytime I walked up to the cage he would fly over to the edge and look at me like that; with he head cocked to the side. I bet he was thinking what a strange creature I was.

This is one of the pools at our hotel. It was pretty. There were Hibiscus flowers, banana trees, and other exotic flowers around the pool area.

This pic is of a hotel that was up on the hill. You could see it from the beach. We were curious so we went up the hill to check it out. Come to find out, it is an abandoned hotel. At the top is a hand. I was kind of eery when we went inside. It felt like we were in a scary movie and something bad was about to happen. It was a beautiful hotel with an amazing view. I dont know why it would be abandoned.
This is known as the "Blow Hole." It is a hole in some lava rock and when the waves would come in, it would shoot water out the top. It was really cool.

I got to go horseback riding. It was so much fun except that my butt hurt for the next week. It was a 2 hour horseride and my horse loved to run. We started out on the beach and went up the mountain and ended back on the beach. I went with a large group. Zach did not go....He was spending time with the groom and the boys.

In case you havent noticed, my horse is peeing. :)
This was up in the mountain. Really cool! This was the back of our tour guide. She was very pretty. It was her and her dad that lead us. Isnt Costa Rica beautiful? Oh, if you look in the back ground, you can see that abandoned hotel on the hill.

I got a battle wound on the horse ride. As you can see I did not win the battle. The tree did. What happened was we were heading back and there was a fallen tree on the beach. Well, I wasnt looking ahead of me and by time I saw it I could not steer my horse around it and a branch cut into my leg. Im suprised it did not rip my pants. It has now been 3 weeks since it happened and there is still a bruise on my leg. It was so deep that it damaged muscle tissue.

Here is the couple that was getting married. Gorgeous aren't they!

Here is the wedding party! Can you find Zach?

Here are some of the flowers that were in the wedding. I love the flowers down there. They are so tropical and very expensive here in America. These ones are Heliconias.In here are some Ginger and some Heliconias.

This is where the ceremony took place. Gorgeous view right?This was what the ring bearer held. Cleaver idea! They just hot glued a pillow inside the shell.

Father and daughter.These starfish were placed on the tables indicating where you were supposed to sit. Some of the groomsmen. Claude, Justin, and Zach.This was our name tags at the rehearsal dinner. It was a fun and beautiful evening. The food was amazing.

So, as you can see Zach and I had a great time in Costa Rica. Like I said earlier. It is a beautiful country and we enjoyed our visit there. The memories will stay with us for forever.

Astro's game....

At the beginning of July we had some family come down to celebrate birthdays, Colton's blessing, and to see the other new addition to our family...Madilyn. We had fun. We went to the beach, the Astros game, and celebrated b-days at sis's house. The Astros game was fun. They won which made it even better. Here are a few pics of me, sis, and her hubby. (My hubby had to work) :(

July 4th....

I love July 4th. It is such a great holiday and it reminds us of our freedom. Zach and I are so grateful for the freedoms we have in this great nation. If it wasnt for our forefathers who knows where we would be. But this was all God's plan for us.
Saturday morning me, Zach, Ry, Nat, and mom & dad T went to see ICE AGE in 3D. It was so funny and really neat in 3D. We had to wear those funky glasses. I wanted to take a pic of them, but forgot. Oh well! Then we went to Ryan and Natalie's for a BBQ, games, and a dip in the pool. We had alot of good food and great times. We played Rock Band for a long time. If it werent for my singing skills we wouldnt have gotten the great scores that we did. HAHA! NOT! After the games and food, Natalie and I went for a dip in the pool. It was nice and refreshing on such a hott day.
Today (Sunday), we went to my nephew's blessing at church and then went to my sis house for lunch with the family. It was so nice to have family there and to see my nephew get blessed.

Random....

I haven't posted pictures in a while so these pictures are from the past month.



This picture was taken at our stake's youth conference this past weekend. On the left is our stake president, on the right is the east stake president, and in the middle is Gifford Nielson. He is also a stake president and was the Ch. 11 news sports caster for 25 years. Giff gave a really good talk at youth conference.
This is the bridesmaid's bouquet at my best friend's wedding. They are hydrangeas and the curly things are called monkey tails. The bouquets were beautiful.

Here are 3 of the four bridesmaids. Andi's sister was the 4th one-the maid of honor.

As you can see I was the only one wearing a jacket. I had alot of comments on my jacket. This pic is of a cute little lady who is commenting on my jacket. I think this is Andi's grandma.

Here is Andi and her neice (the youngest one) who was the flower girl. And the teenager is her new sister-in-law.

This is all the bridemaids, the bride, and Ty the hairstylist. He has a mo-hawk because he was going to a rock concert to do the band's hair. He got to go hair for Kid Rock, Sublime, and other groups.

Here is Andi's hair. It was gorgeous.

The was the head table where we ate. It was beautiful. Those are light wrapped in tool hanging down. The four bridesmaids at the rehearsal dinner.

Here is the hubby trying to pick the nose of the statue. hehe! The roof of the place where we walked through the wedding the night before the wedding.

On Thurs. night we went to James' parent's house and went fishing and jumped on the trampoline. It was so much fun. I have not jumped on a trampoline in years. We played "popcorn." Zach did not want to jump so he took the pics. James' parent's have a beautiful piece of land in Kansas.

Our shirts say Lee College. I told Andi to wear hers so we could match. We became best friends when we were roommates in college.

On the way to Kansas for the wedding Zach and I stopped by my sister's house to see her new baby, Madylin. She is so cute. She has long skinny legs like Jill.