Olivia turns 2!

Hi, my name is Olivia and I am going to tell you about my birthday party. Today I turned 2 and Mommy made me a pretty cake. It was funfetti cake and very yummy since most of the cakes here are very dry. Below is a picture of me and my friend Emelia. She has a twin brother, Tyler, who couldn't come because he is sick. I think I might have shared my sickness with him last week in the nursery at church. (Sorry Tyler!) I am sure Emelia will share her candy from the piñata, right Emelia?

Speaking of piñata, we had one at my party, a tradition here in Costa Rica! Daddy was a little leary to let me swing full force, I mean, I am pretty strong! He helped me pick up some candy for my bag since all the other kids were much faster than I was.

Some of my favorite gifts were a piglet doll from Mommy and Daddy, a Barney CD player that plays songs in Spanish, and a stuffed kitty cat from Grandma Rose that travelled all the way from Michigan. Since we have two stray cats that come in our yard all the time (and in our house yesterday!) I really like my kitty. I've already named it Meow!

"Thank you Grandma Rose!"

Here I am blowing out my candle with a little help from Daddy. Although the cake was really yummy, by the time we got to it, it was at the end of the party and I was a little tired from all the excitement. Thanks everyone for making my birthday so special!

"Do I have to eat this whole piece?"

Fishing in Punta Uva

Here is Dave with teammates Marty and Cam on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. They travelled three hours by car to Caño Blanco and then taxied via a small boat to some cabins along a system of rivers. You can only travel in this part of the country via boats and the community (about 450 residents) live fairly isolated from the rest of Costa Rica. Although we wouldn't want to live there, it makes for great fishing!

This is Arnold, the taxi driver and tour guide for the two day trip. This was his main source of income. Although he took us to the best fishing holes, the big ones seemed to have gotten away. We caught enough for supper and a few for Arnold's friend Gerardo as well. He and his father built and manage three cabins in the middle of 'nowhere'.

Although they had no photos of the fish, they came home with some photos of other 'wildlife' in the area! Here is a baby cocodrillo (crocodile) out for a tan in the warm sun. Below, mama wasn't to far away - of course they were a bit farther away when they took this picture!



Here are two crocodiles laying next to each other. As you can see by the large lump, one of them had just enjoyed a large meal! Fortunately, there were no reports of missing children that day!



Here is a photo of the largest crocodile that they saw. It swam underneath their boat and when it surfaced, Arnold said it was the largest he had ever seen! It was at least 8 meters long by the look of it but no one really wanted to get closer to measure it. Steve Irwin would've been "really excited!"