Jackson's First Baseball/T-ball Game

Today was Jackson's first baseball game.  I was a bit apprehensive since we had missed both of the team's practices while on our spring break trip, but Jackson was ready to go!

Looking Sharp

Warming Up With Grandpa (at Norah's soccer game)

I thought Jackson was playing tee-ball, so his one 15-min batting practice consisted entirely of hitting off a tee.  Imagine my surprise when the coach started pitching to the first batter.  Turns out that each kid gets three pitches, then hits off the tee. 

Jackson's first hit...on his first pitch!

 Jackson wasn't phased though.  He swung and hit the first pitch he ever saw -- practice or game!  It was also the first hit by anyone on his team (he was the 7th batter, some of the later batters also connected). 

Running home for his first score

In his second at-bat, he made solid contact off the tee.

2019 Spring Break Costa Rica (Rainforest Chapter)

We loved Costa Rica on our 2012 trip. We enjoyed its ocean, forest, animals, food and friendly people. We shared our spring break plan with the kids about two months ago and Jackson couldn't stop talking about it. Finally our travel day was here. (Leaving on a Tuesday and back on a Tuesday felt weird, but that's when I could get the mileage tickets) Just 3.5 hours of flight, we were in Liberia, Costa Rica!

Flights went smoothly with the help of iPad and snacks.

Our flight arrived about 1:20pm. From what people warned on the forums about the driving condition at night, I chose to book a nearby hotel that night. The drive time from LIR to Arenal our first destination is about 3 hours. And sunset was at 5:45pm. We made out of Custom in record time because our plane arrived early and CR has a special line for family with little kids.

We picked up our car at Vamos and made it to Hacienda Guachipelin about 3:30. Hacienda Guachipelin
is a famous eco-tourism hotel. It locates in Ricon de la Viaja National park. Hotel manages a few
waterfall hikes, hot springs, horseback riding, zipline and tubing etc. It had an adrenaline day pass
that lets you do all those adventure things. This was not we are coming for. We came here to use the hot
springs and hike the waterfalls.

Both kids napped half an hour on the plane so as soon as we checked in, we headed to the hot spring.
HG’s hot spring is near Rio Negra and it also advertises mud bath. We were surprised that both kids
didn’t want to do the mud bath. We soaked in various hot spring spots and took in the jungle around us.
It’s hard to believe we were in Dallas just a few hours ago.

Hot Spring in the jungle

Right before the hot spring close time 6pm, we headed back to the hotel for dinner. I was a bit taken back when I saw the price of the food. We were also not prepared to eat out as it was our first meal in a restaurant on this trip. Later we took paper and markers with us to entertain the kids before the food came out. That made a big difference on our dining experience.

Happy kid

Happy kids

Our hotel room was basic with three beds and a shower. It worked well as our transitional hotel. The next day, Jackson and I woke up early and took a stroll around the property. On the way back we saw a group of people gathered under a tree and it was a baby owl sleeping on the branch. We hiked to a tiny waterfall and met with Norah and Will for breakfast. We liked the free breakfast buffet. After everyone was fed, we picked a waterfall and hiked there. It was a nice and easy hike without any crowds. Norah couldn’t walk anymore when we chose a second waterfall hike. So we packed up, ate lunch and started our drive to Arenal.

Hanging bridge to the waterfall

Mommy, I am brave!

Arenal is probably the number one tourist destination for CR. In the nineties, it had lava flow from its perfect cone shape, glowing in the night. Flocks of tourists came to view this nature wonder while soaking in the world class hot spring. This was also the first time Will and I came to Arenal. The drive was easy except the section google took us to an unpaved rocky road. The roads took us away from the dry and hot Guanacaste region to wet and green rainforest. We stopped for monkeys and coatis on the way. It was a good start of our many animal sightings. Arenal Volcano was in our view once we reached Lake Arenal’s shore. It has the distinctive cone shape and was much taller than the mountains around. We enjoyed the majestic volcano view along the way. We didn’t realize how lucky we were to see the whole view as the next two days Arenal was covered by cloud.

We were thrilled when we checked in our cabin at Arenal Oasis about 4pm, Our individual cabin was
right next to the property restaurant and had two bedrooms, two bathrooms plus a living area and a big
kitchen. It was a big upgrade from the night before and we could have a bit of privacy after the kids go to
sleep.

Our cabin for the next three(two) nights

Arenal Oasis has its own hiking trail and about 15 cabins dotted in the hillside. At the open space, we
could see Arenal Volcano. Its restaurant was open air and surrounded by the forest. They nailed different
fruits at the outer edge of restaurant to attract birds. We saw many kinds of birds, coatis, squirrels and
roosters. I saw a monkey family eating on the top of canopy the next day during nap time. We loved this
lodging at this point. Arenal Oasis offered a night frog tour on its trail system at 5:45pm. I immediately signed up for that walk.

Watching for wild life at the path outside of restaurant 

We hastily finished dinner and met up with our group for the frog tour. When the guide told us this walk would be two hours, Will and I almost jumped and wanted to quit. We knew it won’t work for Norah at that length. But we decided to give it a try. It got pretty dark at around 6pm and Norah was spooked by the darkness around her and refused to walk. Will and I took turn to carry her through the walk. Jackson was very excited about the walk. He followed the guide closely and asked lots of questions. We saw many frogs, toads, lighting bugs, tarantulas. The walk was very short but the guide took his time to look for the night creatures. I’ve got bitten so many times at my ankle. The biting bugs were so ferocious here that it costed me several nights of sleep, so definitely prepare long pants or deet next time.

Magnificent creature - red-eyed tree frog

Thursday was Will’s 39th birthday. We went to the highly recommended Bogarin trail on tripadvisor for a morning stroll. It was two brothers’ farm that filled with tropical plants and animals, mostly sloths. I later read that they trapped those sloths there and it gave me a different feeling about this guided tour. We saw seven sloths and had a nice walk. There were two girls in our group from Angola. They had to fly Angola to Rwanda to Lisbon to London to Atlanta to San Jose, and 4 hours bus to get to here. We felt lucky that we only need to fly 3.5 hours. At the end of tour, we had their home grown pineapple and it tasted very good. Even picky eater Norah kept on wanting for more.

Banana trees everywhere!

Mamma Caiman took its baby for a morning stroll

Jackson was impressed by a poisonous blue-jean frog

We settled the kids back to hotel for a nap. In the afternoon, I had booked Tabacon Hot Springs nine
months ago. It would come with a nice dinner so we could celebrate Will’s birthday there. After the kids
woke up, we were getting ready to leave. I went to our room to get some cash from the safe. And I came
out puzzled and asked Will to come in and help look for it. Will was surprised that I couldn’t even find a
safe in a small bedroom. While we were looking, both of our faces changed. Somebody yanked the safe
out of the wall and took the whole safe. And it had our passports and some cash in it.

I ran to the reception and told them about it. The lady at the reception thought we couldn’t open the safe
and said someone would come take a look. I was hoping they knew something about it but from the look
on their face, our safe was really gone. I felt hard to breath and raised my voice: Our safe is gone! Gone!
She realized how serious it was and came with me to the room. There were no signs of break in. She
asked me back to the office to write down our time line. When I wrote down the times, I realized the safe
was gone yesterday during our frog tour. When I took Norah home about 7:40pm ahead of the boys, I
noticed the porch light was on. It wasn’t on when I dropped the leftover food at the room at 5:40pm. I
brushed off that thought at the time, thinking I must have turned it on accidentally when I left or it’s
motion sensored only at very dark conditions. In the morning, I also noticed the empty shelf space and
started to put other luggage there without realizing the safe was gone.

The lady said she could check the surveillance camera and see what happened during 5:40 to 7:40. She
also thought since the safe was so heavy, there must be more than one person and hard to disguise.
During this commotion, a staff came in and handed her our passports. I jumped up! What?! He explained
in Spanish to the lady. And she told me he found them on the garden floor. He also found my wallet with
my credit cards. The 400$ cash was gone. I texted Will that we found the passports! And asked the
hotel to take a photocopy for all 4 passports. Had we not got back the passports, we had no idea how to
proof our identity to the embassy. We were so trusting our luck these days that we didn’t bring any
photocopies or digital copies. Will was calling the embassy when he got my message. We dodged a
bullet this time.

We were a bit shaken by this time. Both kids were oblivious of what a crisis we were in. We headed to
Tabacon after the scare was over. It was a really nice attraction. Hot spring water flows down the
volcanic rock lined creek, creates waterfalls and many different size pools. It also has water-slide to a
regular swimming pool with a swim up bar. We waded our way up the hot spring creek and showered
under the big and small waterfalls. The dinner buffet was very well planned. It’s a must do activity in
Arenal in our opinion.

When we came back to the hotel, the lock was changed. I ran to the reception again. They suspected
their own employee as well. Our room had no signs of break-in and the safe seemed to be out of the
wall already. We didn’t find any drywall pieces near the bolt on the wall. I had paid the hotel cash since it
was exactly at $300 for our three night stay. Our suspicion was that people knew we had cash and
planned this robbery. Hotel was very apologetic and gave back our $400 stolen cash. And she said it’s
okay if we chose to stay somewhere else.

We weren’t thinking about a different hotel. But what she said started me wondering. We no longer felt
safe here and we still had the cash that people targeted. I looked up booking one more night at Andaz
and it was available on awards travel. So we got our one night refunded from Arenal Oasis and changed
our plan the next day.

Friday we drove to Arenal National Park to hike their peninsula trail. It is a flat trail to the lake shore that
fits Norah’s age. Arenal Volcano was covered in cloud again and there was scattered showers. We went
down the steps to see the monkeys the park ranger told us about. Monkeys make tree branches snap
and it was easy to spot once we knew the patterns. There were two spider monkeys foraging at the
treetop. It’s easy to identify them since they had orange fur. We also saw a toucan on one of the trees.
After the hiked, we had our picnic lunch at the park entrance and headed towards our beach portion of
our vacation.

Our family photo at the end of Peninsula trail

Monkeying around

Norah's first soccer practice

Tuesday Norah had her first soccer practice. She loved it and I loved it.

She is the youngest of the team. The rest of the team started playing last fall. One girl dropped out and Norah took her place. Her previous class's two classmates are in the team, Nora Collins and Sloane Horton.

She followed every instruction coaches gave. And she kicked in the only goal of the practice -- it looked like she was the fastest chasing a ball that was going to the right direction. I saw her running at her hardest the entire practice and filled with parental pride.

Now she asked about soccer practice every day. And she acts like she is a real big kid. She even talks a bit differently. 

First time rock climbing -- success!

Spider-man at work 

We went rock climbing after our long winter vacation. Summit climbing gym is located right next to TI. It seemed all climbers liked the idea of climbing right after New Year. 

Jackson climbed to the top and didn't hold back at all. Norah tried her best to climb but some steps were still too large for her. Both asked to go back to climb. It was a good first try for a new sports.

Ski twin cities 2018

RISD shifted one week on the Christmas holiday calendar and White Rock North announced it in August 2018. With a series of cancellation and re-booking, we decided to go to two different resorts so we could get reasonable lodging for the hottest ski weeks. South Fork and Salida, here we came!

Will prepared our new jeep for this long distance drive. With rooftop box installed, engine block heater in place, we headed out on Sunday 10am after a frenzy of stuffing our luggage in. I even brought my frying pan this time! Wichita Falls was a natural place to stop for lunch around noon. And after kids nap time, we made a stop at Cadillac ranch. Weather was cold and windy. Before we got close, we smelled paint and saw many people over at the Cadillac. The cars were covered in layers and layers of graffiti. And those people we saw were actively spraying more on those poor cars! Empty cans littered the space around. This is a tourist attraction spot that is more interesting to see from the highway than up close.

Cadillac Ranch

Our ride

After a stop at Dalhart at 5:45 for dinner, we drove on to our hotel in Raton, New Mexico. It was 8:15 CST when we checked in Best Western Raton Plus. It is a nice hotel with a heated pool and friendly staff. I really like their restaurant from the free breakfast experience we had there. It was more like a stand alone restaurant with a New Mexico charm to it.

Total drive time for Sunday was 9 hours. We concluded that if we would leave one hour earlier next time, this is a good drive distance for the first day.

Monday Dec 24, we left the hotel at 8:30 MST. Today we only have 3 hours of drive to South fork. Because of late check in hours, we stopped at Alamosa at 10:30 and stocked our groceries at City Market. And we took our time to eat lunch at the Burger King nearby since it had a play place. When we arrived at South Fork about 1:30, the owner texted me that the house was ready. What good luck!

I booked a riverside house for South Fork stay. We didn't take advantage of the river but we all enjoyed the over-sized lot, big space inside and the supersized garage. It wowed us when we opened the front door. It's clean, it's spacious, it's beautiful and it's our home for the next four nights!

There was still some old snow in our front yard at the shady space. Jackson and Norah immediately started playing with the snow. He built a sledding hill on the deck with the snow and would enjoy hours of snow play out there in the next few days. After settling in our house, we headed to Wolf Creek to buy tickets for tomorrow and try some sledding.

Tuesday morning, kids found Santa's gifts under the trees. We managed to get to the slope a little after 9:30 even with the special Christmas morning activities. Upon arriving the mountain, we splited in two teams.  Since it's Norah's first time ever ski, Will took her to Lynx lift to start with the basics. I took Jackson to Nova chair and started our day on the green runs.

Cutest skier on the mountain

Lynx magic carpet

Jackson had no issues on those runs last year. But this time, he struggled. Each time he made a turn, he would turn his way up the mountain and his skis would slide with him facing backwards. He would fall on every turn and his skis tangled up. He started to get more and more frustrated. I haven't taught him how to ski in the past and couldn't figure out what posture needed to change. I could tell that he was a bit afraid of his speed so he leaned upward the mountain. But my advice of leaning down the mountain only upset him more.

We heard later from a ski instructor that kids only start to build their muscle memory from they are 7. I couldn't find any research to support the saying but it made sense to us. Jackson's body changed so much from last year that is is normal he didn't pick up skiing from where he left it a year ago.

After an exhausting morning with a kid at the edge of meltdown, four of us reunited at the Lynx lift. Jackson was much more comfortable at this easier slope. In the early afternoon, both kids ran out of energy from the altitude, no nap and constant falling. We sent Will to do a few laps and headed home.

After first day of skiing

Wednesday we skied together as a family at Lynx. It's one of my favorite ski days on this trip. Jackson could ski on his own lap after lap including stopped right in front of the magic carpet and went up without assistance. Norah is a fearless daredevil as her brother. She was too small to control her leg muscle to make snow plow. So she would point her skis down the mountain and ski at full speed towards the crowds at the foot of the bunny slope. To avoid collisions, one of us would catch and stop her using our body. It was scary to see a 30-pound cannon ball shooting at you at a high speed. We eventually stopped letting her free skiing like that to save our back.

When ski resort was about to close, Norah cried that she didn't want to go home. We got what we wished for -- another skier to our family!

Thursday intense ski caught up on Norah and she was exhausted after two laps on Nova. She asked to go home and I drove her back to our house after our early lunch. She had a beautiful nap at the house and I enjoyed my down time too. Next time we should plan ahead for a break day every couple of days for her. Jackson and Will skied on the mountain till we picked them up on 4:15.

Will and I enjoyed daily hot tub visit in the backyard after skiing. It helps relaxing our muscles quite a bit. Hot tub was situated next to Rio Grande with clear stargazing above. This house was almost perfect except their HVAC system made big noise in the master bedroom that interrupts our sleep in the first few nights. It was also priced not very friendly.

Friday is our moving day to Salida. I negotiated an extra hour to check out. Two kids loved the extra play in the front yard because fresh snow has fallen over night. After the adults packed up, we joined them for sledding fun on the quiet street. Making fresh snow tracks and racing to the bridge brought so much laughter to our family. We reluctantly said bye to our winter wonderland and drove another 1.5 hours to our next destination.

I booked a completely different style of place in Salida. It was newly built 2 bedroom 3 bathroom condo that situated right in the center of downtown. It had a garage spot but take some stairs to get there. After saw how much the kids enjoyed the big outdoor space of our first place, I was concerned that kids might get bored easily in a much smaller condo.

We couldn't check in early because of previous renters. Lisa recommended Boathouse Cantina for our lunch stop. It sits right next to Arkansas River and our seating perched on the second story. It felt like we were dining above the river. This restaurant location used to be Manhattan hotel so it has tons of sitting space. We loved it as soon as we entered. The meal was delicious too, maybe because we were so charmed by the beautiful place. 

Boathouse Cantina

Since the condo was still not ready, we headed towards Monarch mountain to check tickets and lessons. We've decided to enroll the kids in private lessons because Will ran out of ideas to teach Norah to snow plow. Monarch pass was breathtakingly beautiful in the winter. In some sections, whole forest of trees were covered in white snow, afternoon shone in making the whole mountain glistening.

When we checked in the condo, my worries went away. The place had a unique character that made us all felt comfortable. Both kids loved the equally big upstairs and downstairs space and they explored and played pretend games. The owners were European and the unit had a modern feel. And we loved the walking distance to almost every nice restaurant (we were right next door to Boathouse Cantina), the big riverside park, S mountain, Arkansas River and Safeway. 

living room

Saturday was possibly the coldest day I have ever skied. It read -1F when we got to the mountain. My ski gear wasn't designed to keep me warm under -1F. Yet we already signed the kids up for private lessons and we stuck to our plans. Ski class didn't allow parents to watch. We left the two instructors with Jackson and Norah wondering when would we got the phone calls. Norah was unhappy when we left but she was in great spirit when we came back. Both kids got rave comments from the instructors and we were thrilled. Will and I finally skied together for 90 minutes ever since three years ago. That felt great despite the frigid weather.

Sunday I decided to have an off day with Norah. Will and Jackson stayed with us in the morning. We explored the river trail, the playground and hiked to the S mountain. Jackson really wanted to hike to the top but we ran out of time before lunch. This town has a bit of everything that we looked for in a winter CO town. It has ski resorts nearby, has easily accessible hiking trails, two playgrounds, an indoor hot spring center, gourmet restaurants and big name supermarkets. Its downtown has art murals everywhere and on one wall, colorful decommissioned kayaks lined the space. One night when I walked to Safeway to buy groceries, I turned my head and saw a huge Christmas tree lights lined the S mountain! I read later that it is the biggest Christmas lights demonstration in a tree shape. 

In the afternoon, Norah took a nap and the boys headed to the mountain for some ski fun. I picked up some books on the bookshelf and did some reading with the afternoon mountain view from our window.

Monday (Dec 31) was another family ski day. Norah was voted by fellow skiers as the cutest skier on the mountain. Monarch was busy when we got there but it was less busy than Wolf Creek. We got a bit scared by the crowd we saw this year on Wolf Creek. Even at 11am, their cafeteria ran out of tables to sit. The lines at the lift were not bad but somehow none-skiers just took up all the space in the warm dining area to wait for their skiers to join for lunch.

We liked both resorts has reasonable lift price. Will stumbled upon a discount coupon of Monarch from his climbing gym that sold ticket at $54 instead of $89. Wolf Creek's beginner pass is only $29. This ticket price enabled me to ski at a leisure pace with the kids. :-)

Monarch is a smaller mountain but we liked the base much better than Wolf Creek's base. Wolf Creek's bathroom is about three stories below the lift and in a different building than the cafe. For little kids, Monarch is a better mountain to navigate.

Salida got about 10 inches of snow today, much more than Monarch. After dinner, we treated the kids with a walk to the snow covered park. It was pretty rare that Salida had that much snow. It is located in the "banana belt" and is known for it's desert like mountains scenes. Snow has made the slides super slippery. We made snow packed landing blanket under the slide. The two kids played shooting human cannon balls from the slides until they were exhausted. And we made many deep snow angels, big and small. The world's largest Christmas tree lights glowing merrily in the background. It was a memorable New Year's Eve.

Tuesday we decided to take a break from the mountain again. It's Jan 1st and mountain might be overwhelmed. Snow covered Salida looks beautiful in every corner. Jackson had wished to climb to the top of the S mountain and I agreed to do it today. But I didn't realize that the snow would cover to his thigh in some area.

We crossed the abandoned rail yard. That already exhausted Norah so she and Will headed back to playground. Jackson and I hiked on for our ascend. He fell constantly but didn't want to give up. We reached a compromise goal to hike to the Christmas lights. I was relieved that he agreed to it. We turned back after we saw the light installations. Hiking down was much easier, we slide down over some steep sections.

By this time, both kids ran out of steam. We walked to Amicas Pizza to have some gourmet pizza. Both kids got a dough they could shape to bake later. Will and I loved the pizza and local tap beer (Little Mo Porter, named after a blue run on Monarch mountain). But both kids were not happy our pizza was not pepperoni. Lessons learned: order  a small regular pizza for the kids.

Will headed to the mountain for some powder fun when both kids (actually just Norah) napped. I've got them two sketch books and markers in Salida. They have drew the daily experience on those books and we loved how much art work could calm them down. We drew pictures together until Daddy came back.

Now it's time for check out the biggest indoor hot spring recreational center. It's run by the city and looked clean. We loved the shallow pool area for kids. Jackson loved the water slide jumping into the 85F water. Norah tried it too and did it several times. I liked this pool for family fun. It's more like a pool than a hot spring.

Wednesday was our last ski day of the trip. It's a little warmer than the last few days. Norah got tired quickly. Will managed to motivate four of us ski together again for 2pm to the terrain park. Despite being low on battery, Norah loved the terrain park and cried to come back. Jackson's favorite was the terrain park and the whoop-dee-doo. (The up and down at the edge of a snow fence) Till next time, Monarch!

Thursday we played again at the playground downstairs. We left Salida at 10:45am and headed to Amarillo. Between 10:45am to 12:45, there was nothing along the road. No gas station, no shops, no restaurants, just the foothill of Sangre De Cristo Mountain stretched from Colorado to New Mexico. Abandoned ski resort was not far from our country road.

We stopped at Walsenburg pizza at 1pm for lunch. Arrived Amarillo about 7:10pm CST. Total drive time is about 6 hours.

Home2Suite Hilton looked new and clean. We used their indoor swimming pool to burn off some energy. This might be the first hotel swimming pool I have ever swum in and it was a very nice one. Our room had three beds and small kitchen, even had a dishwasher. Also their free breakfast selection was plenty. We would stay here again.

Friday left Home2 Suite about 9:45 and got home at 4:40. We stopped at Vernon at 12:50 for Pizza Hut. Another 6 hours of drive.

We loved our ski trip this year and especially happy to check out another charming little Colorado town. But we will keep our lodging at one place next time to avoid so much packing and unpacking. Also thirteen days on the road felt a bit extended. We will try 11 days next year.

Notes:

• Use Yoga blocks for skis in roof top box. 
• Norah skied in 70cm, size 16.
• Jackson skied in 90cm, size 18.
• Pinon vacation rental has cabins 5 minutes away from Monarch in Garfield.
• Creek side Chalet has cabins 10 minutes from Monarch.