Mark & Mandy

Well we are off for our annual tropical anniversary vacation with the Johnstons! This year we headed to Costa Rica for a week in Tambor. We often use Luxury Link to search our locations we want to travel to and this year we tried out the luxury link auction – success! (you know mark, just like Ebay he watches the auction and bids at the last possible time!).

We will be enjoying Casa Pacifico in Tango Mar for the week!

Yesterday we headed out to the airport with what we considered to be a light load (we would soon find out that scott and julie packed everything into just one suitcase making us again look like overpackers!). We flew to Houston Texas where we met with great excitement Niko (cuco), Julie (JuJu) and Scott (cott). Niko immediately gave us hugs and kisses and shared his bugs with “baby elsie”.

We all boarded the flight to San Jose (funny johnstons were able to fly from San Jose, CA to San Jose, CR!) sitting next to each other. (Good Job Mark and Julie!). The flight was great – we had a nap, some snacks, videos, dad had a margarita, mom had some wine – by the way Continental was amazing, we had snacks and dinner provided on the flights!. Just as we started our descent, we got some news that there was fog in San Jose, we would hold for a bit and if it didn’t clear we would need to divert to Nicaragua for more fuel. A few minutes later the pilot said it looked clear and we went in for a landing … just as I could see the blue lights on the run way … acceleration and we aborted the landing. Back up to the holding pattern. Twenty minutes later we tried again and as we came through the thick fog, the pilot went for it … the ground seemed to come a bit earlier than he expected and he slammed on the breaks (I squeezed Elsie, stomach in my throat and mark reached over to me and said breath!) – the plane broke into applause!! We were here!

We entered the terminal to find a maze of people standing in line for immigration – with two tired and somewhat irritable kids, the line seemed daunting. This was the disneyland line from hell … Niko kept saying “all the people, all the people”. After about 15 minutes in line a Costa Rican man came up to us and escorted us to another area. Once we gathered with a few other people, he escorted us to the front of immigration (past the loooong maze) to the special needs line – along the way he grabbed any families with small children. First Experience in Costa Rica SUCCESS! In the end it benefited all – as both kids were on the brink of meltdowns.

We had a van waiting to shuttle us to the Hampton Inn where Julie had secured us rooms with cribs. We were off to bed! This morning we take a small plane over to Tambor where we can settle in for the week (and you will be overloaded with Costa Rica photos!

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Interesting notes: We are in the Mountain Time zone and like clockwork Elsie slept until 7:00 am, we woke up turned on the TV and it has our Denver News Channel. I am writing this while elsie takes her re-rack (morning nap).

Yesterday was Elsie’s first day at School (a bilingual day care in Boulder). Here are a few shots of her just before she left …

with her suitcase packed with all the necessities (cuddles, wolfgang the dog, binky and an extra change of clothes). We opted for her Colorado Buff’s shirt in honor of Andrea’s last day (and her new adventure at CU)

Here she is making her way out the front door

and finally waiting for the bus (actually dad driving in the MDX)

the day was a success. Andrea showed up at 12 to join Elsie for lunch and play and then they came home around 1:30. It was a great first day – Elsie is already picking up Spanish words (thanks to Andrea’s early practice and the 100% spanish at school). I pulled out my Spanish for Dummies hoping I can actually be useful – Mark’s french and my piglatin aren’t really working here.

We had a yellow day last week and we took a few photos …

My parents were here for a quick visit this weekend and they brought elsie a snuggable size “Mel-mo” which she has sinced pushed in her stroller, taken to lunch (wiped said lunch on) … well pretty much it has been her sidekick since.

Papa also picked out a new little dress at Nordstroms and when I came home today Elsie was decked out.

Just because you are a girl and wear a dress doesn’t mean you don’t play in the dirt

On our way to the mail Elsie stopped for a chat with Papa Charlie, who introduced her to some wrenches

She was very impressed

and finally a shot of her preparing to steer the ship … who knows someone may need a pint size ship captain, I certainly know a very cute one that would fit that bill.

While in Montana Elsie got to spend some time with Ava and Flora Fink – and learn what its like to be a true princess, Ava and Flora graciously offered to babysit elsie while we played in Lisa’s wedding golf scramble.**

Here are some great shots of the day …

Ava giving elsie a big hug …

Flora showed Elsie how a princess mommy should dress…

Elsie pushing the stroller dressed as a princess…

Check out the wardrobe behind elsie – these girls are set!

Elsie looking up to big sister Flora

Yummy lunch

Elsie can’t wait for our next visit to Montana!

**Amy (Ava and Flora’s Mom) is my virtual pen pal. I have only met her a handful of times, but I feel like I have known her forever!

Last Wednesday I flew up to Aspen (not, sadly, in a private jet!) for an Enterprise UI Summit hosted by Jive Software. We spent a couple days with a diverse group of people chatting about the future of enterprise software, problems we are currently facing and user experience – yes, sounds boring, but it was actually a great couple of days. Before the summit they ran a quick profile on yours truly … yes the photo is gigantic, and I took it in my backyard just minutes before I sent it off …

I now have a whole new network to follow on facebook and twitter.

I’m sure most parents love to hear how much their baby looks like them, and I find myself always checking my wallet when they make such an obviously flattering statement. After all, they are

1. affirming your parenthood over a wonderful child
2. comparing you to the most beautiful thing you know (your baby) and
3. I often don’t see the resemblance myself

It sometimes feels like a contest where the parent who doesn’t get the “oh your baby looks just like you” feels left out, slighted in some vague way. All totally irrational, but that’s parenthood I guess.

Mandy occasionally thinks that people say that Elsie and me look alike more often than her and Elsie. But she has science on her side showing that babies in fact do look more like their fathers in early life.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/22/health/22real.html

I dug up some old pictures of me as a child and I think the similarities are there, don’t you?

We have been up in Montana a lot this summer – for weddings, memorials, and more weddings. On a couple of occasions my Grandma Ruby (known as G.G. Ruby to the great grandkids) came up to babysit. We had a lovely dinner at James’s new restaurant (Bin 119 in Billings) and on another outing we went to see the Dark Knight. Elsie loved hanging out with G.G.

Yancey was born on the 4th of July – we call him Captain America (for other reasons as well). This year we headed over to the Spruills on the 5th to have a BBQ. It started out quite warm so the girls had some fun in the pool.

Elsie is enamored with emma…

Saffie stayed on the side with Grammie

Later Emma realized how fun it is to hang out with Papa Kevin (he makes lots of funny noises!)

Jess had a cake complete with red white and blue (delicious!) – As usual it was a great dinner!

Happy birthday captain America!

Yes, I know its August, but better late than never.

Each year our neighborhood (the greater Indian Peaks West) has a 4th of July Parade – kids decorate bikes and the firedepartment leads everyone around the blocks. Its very well done. Last year we skipped the parade because Elsie was only a wee miniature – but this year we decided to join in. Since Elsie can’t ride a bike, we  decorated (when I say we, I mean Grammie and Me. Papa and Mark aren’t into crafts it seems) her Radio Flyer Push Wagon.

Here is the start line… the kids are ready to roll. We lined up at the back since I suspected we would be a bit slower than the big kids.

The firetrucks started us off and we all followed…

here is Ali our neighbor who was kind enough to ride her bike with us…

Here is Elsie decked out in her red white and blue pushing Mr. Rabbit (who was decked out with a patriotic bow as well)

Its hard to walk around the block, so we were prepared. When Elsie got tired, we loaded her up, attached a pull and off we went!

We ended the parade with a Popsicle (a first)

Saffie missed the parade so Elsie gave her a run down of how it went…

Later that day we headed to our Thunder Lake block party…

more pushing, but this time with some help from Grammie (who is the woman under that giant flag) – grass is tough to roll through.

And we participated in one last round the block parade, this time I was the pull horse.

Here is grammie with her girls … after a hot day in the sun we headed home for bed.

Happy Birthday America!