The Logan Family

Author: Luke

  • Beach Week 2023

    Beach Week 2023

    There are 290 pictures in the shared family album for beach week this year. Let’s try to make sense of it and all the other fun things from the week, including some epic putt-putt against the core family, and a raging pool-party for the Hamilton Lakes swim team.

    What the heck is beach week anyways?

    That might be the more important question to ask. Every year since Taylor was small, her and her moms-side of the family would go to the same beach in North Carolina, Ocean Isle Beach. This is part of the crowd in 2005. Looking fresh Kenna!

    Anyways, while the Logan’s did our annual trips to spend the summers at Merriewald, this was where you could find the Register/Haney family.

    The past 5 or so years, it has worked best to do family beach week during July 4th week.

    A day at the beach.

    Have you seen those pictures of the bumbling dads on vacation with the zinc-based, super-white sunscreen on their nose? Beach week is the opposite of that. It is serious.

    A typical day (with kids) starts around 7. The kids will be lazy around the house and eat some breakfast: lucky charms, fruit snacks, sugar packets, or anything else sweet that they can get their hands on.

    After breakfast, Taylor or I will go on a run, or take the kids to the new “splash pad” park, about 1/2 mile away.

    Then, it should be close to lunch time. We feed the kids peanut butter jelly sandwiches, which they will refuse to eat, so we give them more sugar packets to hold them over until dinner, while the rest of us eat honey-baked ham on a sandwich, or other leftovers. They always taste better at the beach.

    By now it is time to pack the cooler, and head down to the ocean. But don’t forget the wagon, umbrellas, bag for garbage, sunscreen, children’s sunscreen, beach toys, towels, flip flops, shoes for the kids (yes, both of them), snacks for the kids, cash, goggles, an abundance of beverages, koozie, chairs for everyone, swim-diapers, a book, and check with your wife to see if there is anything else needed. It is about 200 yards to the beach. My advice for a newcomer? Don’t mess this part up. This is the proving grounds.

    Now that the stressful part is over, it is time for a drink. Or 19 drinks, depending on what you want out of the day.

    On an unrelated note, here is a picture of Taylor’s grandma with her grandsons:

    This year we are getting to a sweet spot: Rosie is old enough to swim mostly by herself. Mercy is not a small baby, and is getting pretty fun, and it was really a blast getting to hang with them.

    Rosie was into the boogie board this year. She still wants me to watch her do all of the awesome things, and even though sometimes it is easier to engage in conversations with grown-ups and ignore Rosie’s requests, in a few years, she won’t be asking me to watch her boogie board anymore.

    Mercy needed a nap most days. She tried to skip her nap and play with her cousins; it almost worked the first day, but she’s not quite ready to cut them out entirely. So, Taylor and I alternated days going back with her.

    During the afternoon, the kids are getting a little hot and ready for some frozen sugar packets, so the italian-ice guy is always a hit:

    A little before 5 is time to start planning to head back to the house. At this point it is best to just get into the right mindset for this: you are not a dad. you are a pack mule for the next 20 minutes. You feel no pain and there is no stopping for things like sand in your eyes.

    Time to get the kids washed down, rinse the sand off, and shower and get ready for dinner. We eat like kings during beach week. Taylor’s dad, Ted, sets the bar pretty high when it comes to grilling steaks, and this is always the highlight of the week. If you ask Taylor, she can give you the rundown of the meals we eat each night of the week. This, too, is tradition. I will say, it is nice that each family cooks 1 meal during the week, so it is much easier to spread out this responsibility to many people.

    In years past, we went to restaurants, but with kids, it’s just easier to stay in. Ocean Isle beach doesn’t have many restaurants, and during the summer, after the 20-25 minute drive to Calabash, the restaurants there are slammed anyways.

    Its not the exact same every day though

    Things are changing so much from year-to year, it is impossible to say what we do regularly now. But each part is pretty fun. This year, we brought the girls’ scooters:

    Also a highlight during beach week is the July 4th parade on the island. This year, we were a bit proactive and brought decorations to put our golf-cart in the parade.

    Props to Taylor on this one. She did it all.

    This year we did take a few days at the pool. If you are squinting your eyes to see if I look different in this pic, stop, because this one isn’t me, but I did think it was a good pick of uncle D:

    Also Rosie is getting to an awesome age now to do some fun things. My good-buddy Houston was also at OIB the same week as us, so Rosie and I got to go play putt-putt with them at Myrtle Beach one day. MB is about 30 minutes to an hour away, depending on what part of the beach you want to go to. But, they do have some epic putt-putt courses.

    Why go to just putt putt when you can go to a putt-putt/candy/arcade/ice-cream spot? Honestly, it was pretty awesome. Here are Houston’s kids on the 12th hole:

    Not really sure of the context of this next one:

    If you were a normal person, you may ask, “Luke, why didn’t you get a picture of you and all of the Core family?”. Well, over the past 30 years, I’m not sure how many pictures I have together with Houston, but it is a lot. So, I didn’t add another this time around.

    Unfortunately, Houston beat me by 1 stroke this year. What. A. Bummer.

    Also, the fireworks at the beach were awesome. Cameras on phones are getting awesome: I have never been able to capture pics/videos of fireworks that come out right:

    Pool Party

    Whew, that last part was a lot. But, it would be a shame to not include this special part of the week. Rosie has been on the swim team at our neighborhood pool, and at the end of the year, they do a pretty epic party. They came in 2nd place in the city, and if I was a kid, this would be how I would want to celebrate:

    Ok, it would be fun to elaborate on more, but that is all for now. 🙂

  • Off to Visit Grandma Sue

    This is a big year, because a few months ago, Grandma Sue turned 90. This is my mom’s mom, who grew up in Virginia.

    My mom and her sisters did a short visit to see her right around her birthday, and they had a great visit. Aunt Sherry from Missouri, And Margie from Waco, and my mom, of course from North Carolina.

    Instead of getting all the cousins together to celebrate that weekend, she asked that we come visit throughout the year. Of the 8 grandchildren, most have been by to visit her in Waco. This past week, I spent 4 days down there and had a lot of fun just sitting with her, and learning her stories from her childhood in the great depression in Virginia.

    The flight to Waco was easy- Greensboro to Dallas, and Dallas to Waco. This time, instead of renting a car in Dallas and driving almost 2 hours down, I flew right into Waco, and took a 20 minute Uber to her house. After all of the waiting on the runway, it would have been quicker to drive to Waco 🙁

    It was shockingly hot- here is an image from the car dashboard. Yes, it reads 107 degrees

    Grandma Sue shared stories about how her dad helped build some of the buildings on Virginia Tech’s campus. And how her grandfather fought in the civil war. It may be hard to believe, but then she already went and did the legwork, and something like this turns up:

    That same man, Bob Miles, courier for Robert E Lee, met the president:

    Kinda wild?

    And how Grandma and her 4 sisters helped build the house that they lived in by collecting stones out of the river.

    “It was kinda fun, daddy turned it into a game really”.

    We talked about her husbands, and how she is looking forward to meeting Jesus. We talked about the fun things- like when she and my Grandpa Kelly ran away together to get married. And the sad things- lots of family tragedy over the years. It was a sweet, sweet visit.

    It was neat to see all of the tables, chairs, the cuckoo clock, and the grandfather clock from as long as I could remember, all in her beautiful home. Im proud of her for still living on her own. She is a tough lady.

    This particular painting has always stood out. My mom painted it when she was pregnant with Matt, and it is one of those things that has the power to stop people in their tracks. Some people don’t feel comfortable being in the same room with it. But to me, it is an image I remember seeing since I was a kid, and it is still special to me for some reason I cant quite put my finger on.

    We got to indulge in a Dove Bar as a treat at the end of the day. And visit my aunt Margie, and my cousin Melissa as well. Margie just finished re-doing her kitchen, and it looks great:

    Also, one of my goals while visiting Texas was this:

    I didn’t get an extra burger for grandma (Sorry about that!) but it was delicious.

    Next week

    There is a chance I can convince Taylor to be a guest-contrbutor to the blog next week. Stay tuned!

  • Fathers Day 2023

    Fathers Day 2023

    It was a little…different this year.

    The day before fathers day, we went to a wedding (actually, just the reception) in Charlotte. It was a lot of fun, as one of Taylor’s co-workers got married. Only a few of her co workers would be there: her boss, the CFO, and two others that I didn’t get a chance to talk to.

    It was at a brewery that was rented out for the occasion. Here is the first dance:

    The wedding was a blast. A big reason for making the 90 minute drive was because Taylor’s boss,Dave, has a daughter exactly Rosie’s age, and they had a lot of fun together.

    Here is the crew of “Airheads”, that Taylor works with at Aiir:

    So what does this have to do with father’s day?

    The wedding was great, but Rosie was a bit more deflated than usual. She didn’t want to go play as much, and was looking super tired. By the drive back:

    To clarify: Rosie NEVER sleeps in the car.

    The next day (Father’s day) the thermometer, at its highest, was 103.9 degrees. Rosie, who LOVES to celebrate Father’s day, Mothers day, Valentines Day, etc. was devastated. “Sorry I ruined father’s day”, she kept saying (she did not ruin fathers day).

    We did have to change our brunch plans with Taylor’s family though: Taylor went with Mercy to spend time with her dad, and I stayed at home with Rosie and enjoyed a bit of quiet time, and watched online church. Honestly, it was a great, quiet morning. 10/10. Highly recommend.

    Is that it?

    In recent years, for things like Father’s Day and Mother’s day, and sometimes Birthdays, we have taken after Taylor’s parents in one way: We buy our own gifts sometimes. This isn’t all the time. But if there is a certain gift that Taylor knows I will not do her justice with, she will get it herself. This includes clothes, shoes, etc.

    This year, I did the same. For a while, I have tossed around the idea of a nintendo switch for the noble reason of bonding with Rosie over some video games. The reason is because I had heard that Nintendo 64 games, Super Nintendo, and others were available on the Switch. All that I wanted to do was play Mario Kart, because it is an easy game to play.

    For better context, I haven’t played video games since middle school, and I am 38 now.

    So, I was browsing on Ebay, because this falls in the category of “perfect things to buy on ebay”, and came upon one for $189 from a pawn shop in Ohio. There are a couple version of the switch: lite (handheld only), regular, and Oled (bigger screen). I wanted the regular, because it can be played on the tv screen, so made a low-ball offer, and the seller accepted: $159. Normally they go for $299.

    So, in addition to staying home for Father’s day with a sick Rosie, we got to play Mario Kart, and all was right in the universe (I won).

    Also this week

    Rosie’s dance company had a special end-of-year awards ceremony, and Rosie took home the “Rookie of the year” award for “coming in and making friends, and going above and beyond with a new team”.

    The awards seemed like a big to-do, and it is always cool when Rosie gets to do something with Dance, because she knows her cousins will be there:

    Also, this is a funny, candid moment Taylor caught on video this week. Just before we grilled our steaks for father’s day, the girls were waiting outside. Rosie was told not to get too close to Mercy, so as not to get her sick, and Mercy was trying her hardest to get Rosie to engage:

  • Swimming and Summer

    Swimming and Summer

    Rosie’s End of Year Party

    Rosie just finished second grade, and we decided to throw an end-of-schoolyear bash for her and some of her friends from school. The party did not disappoint.

    Above is an image of the dads from the party. Taylor had the idea of a photo-booth, and it was a blast.

    Why throw an end-of-year party? Good question. She didn’t graduate, thats for sure- and there were a lot of graduation parties around the area during this time of year.

    Rosie and our neighbor/Rosies bestie, Sydney, on their walk on the last day of school.

    I think because Rosie’s first year of kindergarten was 2020 when things were locked down and we weren’t allowed to go into the school, and do all of the traditional things where there was a chance to meet Rosie’s friends and other parents. We should have been having get togethers all along, but there haven’t been many opportunities, so Taylor and I (mostly Taylor, let’s be honest), wanted to have an excuse to meet everyone from around the neighborhood.

    Rosie and Taylor spent some time putting together THE ULTIMATE DANCE PARTY MIX. And these kids were WILD. They werent disrespectful, and they didn’t break anything (that is me sounding like an old man just now), but they were a wild bunch together.

    The kids self-organized into a pre-planned wedding as well. This was planned and organized the last week of school.

    The happy couple.

    The selfie-spot was a hit as well:

    Also, instead of a large, water-themed bounce house that would produce messy kids that would track mud into the house (I vetoed the idea), there was an option for a smaller bounce-house for the littler kids.

    Our next door neighbor, Jimmy, came over with this three year old to try out the bouncy house.

    It was not successful.

    But he got it up and running again. 🙂

    Maybe this will be an annual thing? Its hard to think how we can host many more people than what showed up this year, but it was pretty fun.

    Swim Team

    Rosie does dance, and in the summer, for her age group, there is a 6 week city-wide swim league (is league the right word?). Each of the neighborhood pools have a team. Each week, they compete against another pool: Sherwood, the Friendly Frogs, Bur-mil, and others.

    These meets are a mad-house. It seems like there are over 100 swimmers between the two teams. And each swimmer has a family of 1-2 or more people attending with them. And the competitions start at 5 (be there early), and end whenever they are complete (around 10:30 or so). It is a LONG day.

    BUT, Rosie is getting more into it.

    Above Rosie is slow off the start, but still eeks out a win in the 25 meter breaststroke, in the lance closest to the camera.

    Rosie also did the freestyle (above, closest lane) and the backstroke. It is cool how in the videos above, she was neck-and-neck with her bestie, Sydney.

    Other things.

    After the party, and before assessing the damage and cleaning everything, we took a breakfast break for pancakes at Tex and Shirleys. Its funny to see Rosie living some of the exact things I lived as a kid, when I went to tex-and-shirleys with my dad 30+ years ago.

    Breakfast was good. Mercy smiles a lot, until you ask her to, like the image above.

    During the school day, her daycare uses an app and can send us photos of her throughout the day. We see her do things like play on the playground, play with her friends, etc.

    This image stood out this week as a reminder that Mercy is a little different than her peers.

    It reminded both of us of this image:

    Thats it for now. If you made it this far, take a moment and share: What are your plans for the summer? Do you have anything exciting planned?

  • Dance dad, mancala, and prayer

    Dance dad, mancala, and prayer

    Dance Dad

    This past weekend was Rosie’s dance recital. She has been working hard on these dances all year, and they look AWESOME now, compared with their first performances in the beginning of the year. So proud of her.

    Rosie’s performance of “80’s Mercedes”

    Her dance company is the new kid on the block. It was started by a single mom during the pandemic. And, because Rosie’s big cousins go there, the decision to attend Infinite Dance was an easy one.

    Rosie’s other dance, “Wings”:

    Like always, Taylor was a champ at getting her ready for the recital: doing rosie’s hair, and makeup is no easy task. But, Rosie looked great, and it was a little weird seeing her all grown up, but I am proud of her.

    And it meant a lot to Rosie to have her family show up.

    Cici is so proud to see her grand daughters dance:

    Honestly, dance wouldn’t be nearly as much fun without seeing her big cousins there. In between the two parts of the recital, we got to get a quick, super-early dinner together; our first choice wasn’t opened yet, but this chipotle really hit the spot.

    Also, as a side note, congrats to Lila on graduating from 8th grade! Her school had a beautiful, catholic-mass and ceremony for the event. I didnt get many pictures of the event, but did want to give a shout out to Amelia for being such an awesome big cousin, and hanging with Mercy outside during some of the event. Mercy and Amelia have really bonded over the past several months and it is so special to see.

    Mancala you say?

    Do any of you remember Mancala? It is that coffee-table game you have likely seen all over the place, but never knew the name of it.

    It usually is a game that exists on a coffee table, and never actually gets played. Unless you are Rosie Logan and Chad Lynam.

    It really is a fun game. Last night (Sunday) we went to our favorite brewery place called Oden, and met with our long time friends Chad and Rachel. Rosie brought her Mancala along, looking for a challenge, and “Uncle Chad” stepped up. Why uncle? Well, he has been around for around 25 years (hard to say exactly). Was a college roomate. And groomsman. So, Rosie has only known her as “uncle chad” because he is like a brother to me.

    And of course it was amazing to see Rosie explain the game:

    Word was that Chad squeaked out a win.

    It was fun, but we missed seeing Uncle Houston last night. Maybe next time?

    Prayer

    Taylor and I have really enjoyed the church we have called home for about 8 years now. I won’t go into the details about the church here, but Taylor and I are both involved in different ways. She is on the vestry, which is like the “board” of the Church; and I am on the prayer team.

    The prayer team does two things: Pray for people on Sunday mornings, and pray over the weekly prayer list.

    Weekly, reading over the two page list, written in very small font, of things to pray for in the congregation, is just a sobering experience. It is a list shared in confidence, so details can’t be shared here, but the pain that people in our church body are experiencing is so palpable. There are people recovering from cancer, have widespread cancer, some have lost newborns, surgeries, family-deaths, finances, bacterial infections that require hospitalization, etc. It is so sad. There is so much brokenness, and so much sadness that people carry around.

    Why am I sharing this? Because the joys that are shared in this blog are not something I deserve. Things could change at any minute. However, they are things that I celebrate now: family, fun, and failures. Life is good at the moment. It will change at some point. The prayer list, for me, is a sobering reminder of how precious these memories are.

  • All the small things

    All the small things

    If it doesn’t sound like a blink-182 song to you, maybe it should? Sometimes when I look back at the past couple weeks, nothing MAJOR has happened; there haven’t been any large events in our family; just a lot of small things.

    In no particular order:

    1. Taylor went to BOONE to see her little cousin Kenna graduate from Appalachian State University (our Alma Mater). It would have been hard to take the kiddos up to the college-kid festivities, so for this trip, it made the most since for the kiddos and I to sit this one out.

    2. While Taylor was away, the girls and I went STRAWBERRY PICKING at Freedom house. If you don’t know about Freedom house, read about it here. I don’t have the space to go into all of the awesome things God is doing through the ministry, but it is well worth the time to read.

    The strawberries were at peak while we were there. It was an awesome experience.

    While picking berries, we met with Hadley and John, and they showed Rosie a little bit of farm life. Rosie had a blast.

    4. We went to the lake for Margaret’s 50th birthday. Happy Birthday Margaret! She is our awesome neighbor; in the mornings, her husband (Clint) and I meet 1/2 way to school, and alternate walking the kids the remaining part to the school.

    The kids had a blast. Mercy did awesome.

    A lot of Margaret’s family is from Chicago, and Clint did an awesome job planning this big SURPRISE party for margaret.

    The food was amazing all weekend; this one thing stood out. Tell me, would you try this?

    A pickle beer? I did, and it was… unique. I would try it again; with a salty pretzel, it was pretty good.

    5. Taylor went to San Diego for a work trip. She had to leave the lake early to get there, and we missed her. Here is a pic of her with her co workers at the dinner they had.

    It was a long couple days. But we managed OK in her absence:

    Mercy being busy

    When Taylor got home, the girls couldn’t wait to see her. This is my favorite picture of them. They couldn’t even wait for her to get out of the car. Even Mercy smiled 🙂

    6. Taylor and Rosie saw Frozen. The Tanger center is still getting through its first couple seasons here in town, and some awesome shows have been coming through.

    Taylor managed to get some free tickets, and they had a blast going with Margaret and Sidney.

    7. Sleepover this past weekend. Rosie had her friend/our neighbor over for a sleepover this past weekend for the long Memorial Day Weekend. Instead of the typical trampoline place, or the children’s museum, we opted for something a little different, and took the kids to a do-it-yourself pottery place, and the girls painted their own pottery pieces.

    Mercy was able to focus

    All these things happened. It isn’t significant, but it is the ebb and flow of our daily lives.

    There is so much to be thankful for. Things could change at the drop of a hat, but for now, these days are special.

    UP NEXT is summer. What do you have planned?

  • Just pics from costa rica

  • Costa Rica II: This is funny

    Costa Rica II: This is funny

    Packing Error.

    We spent the first four days in the jungle. The second four days we spent on a beach on the Pacific Side, in a Marriot Hotel called The Mangroove.

    I made an error while packing. If you know me, you know over the past few years that wearing tank-tops when it is hot out has kind of become my thing. I don’t do it to show off muscles, because there aren’t any muscles to show. But, in my excitement for the trip, I packed tank tops, but only 2 t-shirts, and only 2 collared shirts. By this time of the trip, those were getting dirty, and I didn’t know what to do.

    There were two options:

    • Buy some new shirts. This would be expensive, as a shirt that I would wear more than once would be $30 or so.
    • Do the hotel’s laundry service. This would be expensive too, since it was about $8/shirt.

    If you prefer to watch the video of it, here you go.

    In short, I created a third option. Why not just wash the clothes in the shower, then let them dry in the Costa Rica sun for about an hour? It was almost 100* outside, surely it wouldn’t take too long?

    So I did. I washed a good portion of my clothes with the large dispensing bottle of shampoo and body wash. Some of my clothes I washed with a bar of soap instead. Then, I wrung them out, piled them into a backpack, and walked, with a dripping backpack, down the beach to find a suitable tree branch to hang my clothes in the sun.

    The obvious question to ask is “What did Taylor do during all this?”
    That is a great question and I am glad that you asked.

    Taylor sat on her butt by the pool like a normal person and said “Don’t associate your redneck ways with me while you do this.”

    That is a very admirable position, and we spent the rest of that day by the pool, while I wore a shirt that smelled like a bar of soap.

    Surely I am not the only one who would do such a thing, am I?

    The beach

    Taylor and I have been to beach resorts before. Several years ago, after a really, really hard season in our marriage (I don’t want to post the details here), we did a trip to Cancun. Two years ago, we did another trip to Cancun.

    But this hotel was still amazing. Look at this image above: Notice how instead of cutting off a branch, they changed the line of the roof to accomodate the branch. This kind of respect for nature is what we saw all around the country.

    The walk from our room to the pool

    The hotel was amazing. Just like before, we tried to see what restaurant options were available. There was a really fancy restaurant called Ginger nearby, but by this point, we didnt really want anything fancy.

    We took an evening stroll with our favorite koozie to a restaurant. Though the hotel “highly recommended” taking a shuttle, the 0.6 mile walk, across an empty (and completely safe) beach was the obvious right answer.

    It took about 3 hours to get to the beach from the jungle. The drive was a fun one. It is always nice to look out the window to see what another country is like.

    The drive from mountains to the beach

    The hotel did have bikes available to use. Just like always, Taylor and I like to do some sort of physical activity before sitting around and really resting on vacation.

    A friend of ours said that this is just the season we are in: with all the business of school aged children at home, our vacations have a lot of time set aside to rest. And we fully intended to take advantage.

    Riding bikes on the beach

    The beaches were so incredibly clean. It was just over a 2 mile stretch of sand that the hotel sat on, and there were only 2-3 little piles of trash in that distance.

    The pools were amazing. In the distance are some boats, and across the water is a peninsula where the Four Seasons, Costa Rica sits. They do not offer day passes for common folk, in case you were wondering.

    There were a ton of these little black and white squirrels.

    One of these iguanas popped up beside Taylor while she was reading her book. She screamed, and the people in the chairs beside us had a laugh.

    The iguanas were a lot different than the ones we saw in Mexico

    We spent a lot of time in the pool, just 200 yards from the ocean.

    For our final night, we went to a restaurant called Mar Azul, and it was a beach-bar kind of vibe. I felt fancy and got to order the grilled lobster, and managed to get this framer of a picture of Taylor.

    Finally, all good things must come to an end. I hate that I am even writing that sentence, but that is the first thing that comes to mind early this morning.

    Our final day was about 100* out, so I obviously wore my finest taco-cat palindrome tank top. And when you look like this traveling international, all of the security guards want to talk with you.

    What’s next?

    Taylor introduced the idea a long time ago, and it is something we try and stick with in our marriage: Always have something to look forward to. It could be our friend Brian Maness who emphasized it. So, we always try and have some trip to look forward to. Our kids are small, so this year we did a trip without kids. Then, if the stars align and the economy doesnt fall out and both of our jobs are still in a solid place:

    • 2024: Disney World (with Kids)
    • 2025: Taylor and I both turn 40, and our 15 year wedding anniversary: Italy (without kids)
    • 2026: Luke’s Goal: Hike across Scotland on the Great Glen Way

    What are your plans for travel? How do you decide where to go next? Do you have any fun places you would recommend? Leave them in the comments below.

  • Costa Rica, Part I: The jungle

    Costa Rica, Part I: The jungle

    TLDR: It was amazing, and the kids would love it. We spent 4 days in the jungle, then three days on the coast. These are a few fun stories from the first part of the trip.

    Dinner Fail. Or success. Hard to say.

    The place we were staying served a great dinner the first night we arrived. Taylor had something great (I forget what), and I had a steak, because we were on vacation.

    But on the third night of our trip, we were curious about the “gastromic experience” that the staff kept recommending. The word gastromic makes me thing of something that belongs in an operating room, but I think it is a fairly common translation. It was also on their printed marketing for this meal.

    Our “gastromic experience”

    There were two options:

    • A Costa Rican experience. This option featured more local flavors, and came with an adult beverage for each course of the meal.
    • The other experience. This option was more meat-heavy, and you cook the food yourself at the table.

    Guess which option we picked? Thats right, the second. Is it because we are closed minded and didn’t like local flavors? Not at all. We had many, many costa-rican dishes up to that point, and they were all delicious. With something like a Hibachi-style experience on my mind, Taylor and I got excited for our Gastromic Experience.

    What a “Gastromic Experience” really was.

    Sometimes a picture explains it better, and this is one of those moments:

    What are you looking at in the image above?

    • A pound of sirloin
    • A pound of chorizo
    • A pound of ribeye
    • A pound of an amazing piece of marinated chicken
    • A pound of a great cut of ribeye.
    • Zuchini
    • Onions
    • To save space: Peppers, Plantains, mushrooms, home made tortillas, rice, beans, and something made out of potatos.

    Taylor and I, as long as we have ever been alive, have never, ever eaten that much food in one sitting.

    What was that meal like?

    They started by bringing in some hot coals, and putting them into the center of the table. Then, the veggies. And, most importantly, they had a special cocktail to go with each part of the meal. I saw that as a man-versus-food kind of challenge, and accepted their “matching cocktails” offer.

    One of the special drinks with the meal

    Long story short, the meal was amazing. I am starting to be wise in my older years, and stopped eating at a reasonable time, rather than continue and suffer from indigestion after eating a ridiculous amount of food.

    We laughed. This might have been the most important part of the trip. We just had a blast, and laughed about how stupid we must have looked, for these locals, in a beautiful restaurant, and an even more beautiful resort, would pay such a ridiculous amount of money to cook their own food. It really took a great-deal of concentration and effort to cook that meal.

    The cooking seemed a bit chaotic. The questions going through my head included:

    • Can I tell if this poultry is cooked well enough in this dimly lit restaurant?
    • What is e. coli really like, and how do I know if I got it?
    • is this food making me gassy?
    • how long does a plantain need to be grilled for?
    • Can the waitress come and double-check my work to see if I passed?

    The best part? About halfway through our meal, a younger, latino-looking couple sat two-tables away and ordered the same meal. I can say with full faith and confidence, the list of questions from above were not going through his head. He maintained his composure, and cooked that meal with ease.

    The best ziplining in the in world.

    It really was. About 20-30 minutes away from our hotel, right around on the other side of the volcano was “Sky Tours” (or something like that). It seemed like a great operation, and Tay was pumped. They get the harness on you, and then an open-aired gondola takes you to the top of the mountain. The view of the volcano and the lake below was amazing.

    ziplining before picture

    There are 9 ziplines, and I think they said they were the highest/longest/fastest in the country. If it wasn’t those exact words, it was something else similarly terrifying.

    Here is the top of the mountain, and a weird hand statue with absolutely no significance. To me, it said “you are in God’s hand now, HAHAHAHA!”.

    And here is a video of someone going down (not Taylor).

    Taking the gondola down was not that bad. Taylor had a wonderful time. As that video shows, there was not even a small part of me that wanted to go down that zipline that day.

    ziplining after picture

    Hanging Bridges.

    We used a travel agent, and she was amazing. More on that below. However, as part of our “adventures” for the trip, we went on a tour of the Mistico Hanging Bridges.

    The whole trip Taylor and I only had a moderate understanding of what to expect. We could have done more research, sure, but this was part of the fun.

    Taylor with our tour guide.

    From the ininerary for the trip, it was described as:

    Enjoy a journey into the rain forest in a perfect path of trails and hanging bridges, allowing you to see the jungle from different perspectives, through the forest while walking on the trails, and from the canopy of the trees while walking on the suspension bridges. This 3km path provides a nice journey with your guide pointing out the flora and fauna of the area.”

    Official Travel Itinierary description.

    It sounds pretty vanilla, right?

    What was it actually like? Amazing. By far, the highlight of the trip. My expectations of a nature hike were something like a long, cub-scout trek where we may have heard a few stories about how we “just missed” an exciting viewing of an animal.
    But I loved hiking, so this would be fun, either way.

    What did we actually see? See for yourself:
    (Also, the images are in a circle because the pictures were taken through our guide’s scope)

    monkey
    bat
    Eyelash viper- very poisonous, I almost touched it
    Poisonous Frog
    Tarantula Next
    Sloth on bamboo shoot

    Also, some monkeys were getting in a fight over our heads. The guide later told me, a 5″ log was thrown down and almost hit me.

    Spider Monkeys fighting

    Volcano Hike

    After the nature hike, we did a shorter hike up the accessible side of the volcano (people arent allowed to hike up the volcano).

    As close to the volcano as we are legally allowed to be.

    Sorry for how bumpy the road is. It is due to the impact craters from the volcano that have hit the road over the years”

    -Our Driver, on the way to the Volcano

    The nerdy side of me wants to tell all of the many facts about the volcano here, but I will withstain; if you are curious, we can chat more about volcanoes at the pool over the summer 🙂

    Solo Hike

    Our last day at the resort, we took advantage of the trails connected to the property. There was a “Level 2” hike of a little over a mile. Why was it a “level 2”? Beats me. And what is the scale? Is it a 2 of 5? or 2 of 10?

    It was a beautiful hike.

    We worked up a sweat, and before I sat down by the pool to be lazy for the rest of the day, I wanted to go check out the other trail connected to the property. Taylor was smarter than I am, and decided to stop at the room instead.

    This other trail is supposed to cost $35, and the hotel asks that you book this hike with someone from their staff to guide you. I didn’t want to spend money for that, and I am fit enough to go on most any trail, for at least a little bit, right?

    So I chose to try this trail, and here was the sign.

    Out of sheer curiousity, would you continue?

    Then, I got to the river at the bottom (maybe 1/2 mile?):

    Solo Hike near hotel

    Then, about 20 yards past the river, saw a little tail that was orange and black and white, wiggling just a few inches from the trail.

    Where we stayed

    The resort was called “Amor Arenal”, where “Arenal” is the name of the volcano.

    The place only had 31 rooms. It opened just a few months before covid, then closed down again, before re-opening. It still felt almost brand-new.

    It felt like we were staying at Jurassic part. The service was amazing.

    I saw some wild turkeys through the trees near the pool. There was a parrot in the tree right outside of the breakfast place on the first morning.

    The door to our room

    On the last day, Taylor mentioned how she wished she saw more toucans. And what happened? There were 4 toucans in the tree right over our room that last morning.

    Hard to get pictures, but this is the profile of a toucan

    Our room was amazing, by far the coolest place I’ve ever stayed.

    Part of the hotel

    What part of Costa Rica was it?

    This was in a place called La Fortuna. We flew into San Jose, and took a 3 hour shuttle (that ended up being about 4 hours after traffic) to our hotel.

    La Fortuna

    The town, La Fortuna,is fairly small, but maybe the coolest little place I have ever been. Taylor and I caught a ride to town for dinner 2 of our 4 nights there, and the town was amazing.

    A great restaurant in La Fortuna

    It was safe. There was a church in the center of the town. It was saturday night, (maybe Sunday?), and the small town-square was bursting with people. There were families everywhere, teenagers, little kids, etc. The wild part? Almost no one was on a cell phone. And barely any alcohol, no homeless people, great lighting, no litter. Almost everyone was eating ice cream.

    It was such a great little place.

    Wait, why Costa Rica?

    Originally we had plans to go to Mexico with two other couples that we know and love. However, one of the couples got pregnant, and the other couple bought into a business, so the timing wasn’t right for them to come.

    However, Taylor and I were already excited about a trip, and had childcare arranged (thanks Zippy and Poppa and Cici!). So, we called our travel-agent friend that we have worked with in the past, told her what we wanted, told her our budget, and she put together the whole trip. This is great for me, because I tend to over-analyze things, which makes me great at my job as an engineer, but terrible at making decisions and creating a travel itinerary.

    So she suggested we do 4 days in the jungle, and 3 days at the beach, because we wanted a few days of adventure, and a few days to relax. Mission accomplished. Thanks Julie!

  • Dancing days, and Luke’s things

    Rosie is 8. And she is a dancer. She loves it, and that means Tay is a dance mom, and I am a dance-dad.

    One thing at a time.

    There are many “right” ways to do it when it comes to kids and extra curriculars. The choices are endless:

    • music: guitar, piano, singing?
    • Painting and art
    • Swimming
    • soccer
    • tennis
    • dance
    • Church activities
    • cheer

    This list could grow by 15 more items, but you get the idea. Of all of the many options, what is the “best” way, for our family, to make sure no one gets burned out? As a reminder if you havent been in this place in a few years, or haven’t been in this parenting space at all, each commitment involves driving to and from practice (sometimes several times a week), weekend commitments, costumes/uniforms, scheduling, etc. Then, when scheduling, this means mom has to check her calendar to see what works, and dad has to check his calendar to see what works (meaning, who doesnt have a work call that day that can be rescheduled). And, the other kid still needs to be picked up from daycare, no matter what the schedule demands.

    Years ago, it was Taylor’s idea, to just to one thing at a time. So far, it has worked for its intended purpose: no one is burned out yet. Sometimes through the year things overlap, but we are only committing Rosie to 1 thing at a time throughout the year.

    So far she has done soccer, swimming, and dance, as well as the occasional art lesson from her gifted family, but DANCE is what she has grown to love the most.

    This past weekend, she had another competition, and her team placed top 10. This is a big deal, because her “team” (is that the right word for it?) is a new one, and has less accolades than many of the other teams that perform at these competitions. Rosie’s cartwheels are getting much better. And so is her confidence. The team knows all of the moves, but they fall short when it comes to the timing of their moves.

    Other fun things

    There are a few moments when I wonder if I am doing things right; one of those moments was two weeks ago when I got two families with small kids lost in the woods when it was raining outside.

    There are lots of other moments that come up through the week, and all I can think is that, “this moment is really nice.” There is so much to be grateful for, and sometimes I can get these items on camera. Rosie is such an awesome big sister, and Mercy eats up any attention she can get.

    There was another sweet moment, but I was holding the camera the wrong way, and it did not turn out too well.

    These girls make me feel pretty lucky. I wish I could hit the “pause” button- I know life goes in seasons, and not all of them are great. But for right now, these moments are pretty special.

    I started running again, and at this time of the year, if you can get past the pollen, this really is the prettiest place there is to get out for a run.

    That it for this week. What have you been up to? Leave a comment below.

    Luke’s Things

    Back around Christmas, I mentioned something small that helped make life better. Here is another problem/solution that has worked great for us, and may help you as well.

    For whatever reason, certain items don’t seem to stream too well on our tv. All of the things we use often work fine: Netflix, HBO max, Disney. But some live events, like sports, or in our house, streaming a live dance competition, would have poor quality.

    The solution, was this:

    A mesh wifi system for the house. The reason was because our house has a chimney in the center, as well as the HVAC system, which created dead spots throughout.

    Even though the wifi wasn’t far away, it didnt have a strong connection to hold a stream from something like a live event. The version that we have is an older one that isn’t sold anymore, but here is the link to the updated model.