August

Well, the vacations are over, and so is summer.  I always get nostalgic when summer comes to an end, even though I'm not going back to school, or sending kids off to school (yet).  I will miss the heat, and the water, the long days, and the overall happiness and freedom summer affords.  It means that winter is around the corner, and I just really don't like that idea at all.
But, here is what we did with our last few weeks of love and joy and summertime.
Park time, walking Chloe(Gwen insists on holding the leash), and soaking up the last few days at the pool

Gwen went to nursery for the first time!  I can't believe she's already 18 months old.  She did great.  A little hesitant at first, but she warmed up and when I went to get her, she told me "No" She wanted to keep playing with toys.

Dan and I celebrated 7 magical years together!! We went to Brio at City Creek, and it was delicious.  I can't believe how fast the time has gone by.  It feels like we just got married, but at the same time, like we've been together forever.

We've enjoyed playing with cousins, eating all sorts of food, riding bikes, and swinging by herself for the first time.  She thought she was so big!

Gwen got her first haircut!! She doesn't have much hair, especially on the sides, so her long locks in the back were giving her a pretty good mullet, which naturally, needed to go.  So I busted out the scissors and after a few snips, she had a cute little bob going on.

 Gwen is getting to be a master at feeding herself, and now won't let me help her at all.  It's really nice, and kind of annoying at the same time, because it takes about twice as long and makes about 3 times as much mess.  But, she's getting the hang of it, and it's fun watching her learn to be more independent.  I got her this bubble blower, and she loves it.  Every day she asks if we can go outside and do bubbles.  She is a really good talker.  The other day, I gave her a chocolate snack in the car (what was I thinking?!) and turned around to see it smeared all over her face.  Shoulda seen that one comin'...

 We got together with my friend Nicole and her baby girl Mia at the new Provo Rec Center.  That place is crazy!  It's super nice and I am a little jealous that we don't live closer.  I was impressed.  We had a blast, and Gwen (despite the pictures) did have fun playing with Mia, as long as she didn't touch her. ;)  We took Gwen shopping, and she picked out some things that she liked and would hold them up to herself and say, "Cute" and then she wouldn't let it go.  It was pretty funny to watch.  She already knows how to shop.  This could be bad for our bank account!  And lastly, we were at IKEA, and she saw these little owl puppets.  She is obsessed with owls, and HAD to have one.  So we got it for her, and she snuggled it all the way home.  She still loves it and carries it around with her almost everywhere.  Its really cute.

She's been really fun lately.  She finally likes to play, and is getting a pretty good imagination.  She still likes to play with me, and doesn't really do it too much on her own, but is is so interactive.  She is still our little sass, and the other day at dinner, I was trying to give her a bite of something, and she looked at me and said, "no mom, not want it."  Um, I don't think she is big enough to talk to me like that.  Seriously.  But I couldn't help but laugh, and now, she says it all the time, trying to get a reaction out of me.  She is goofy and weird, and we love her to pieces!

A Feeling I want to Remember

Today, life began again.  Dan is back at school, and our vacations are over.  I've been dreading this day since he started his break.  It's hard not having him around much, it's hard watching him miss Gwen, and it's especially hard watching her do new things without him there to see it.  I try to fill his school days with activities and outings so we aren't stuck at home, but today everything kind of fell through, so we were home most of the day.  And I'm really glad, because if we weren't, I would have missed this feeling.  I've been overwhelmed today with a feeling of gratitude.  I am so grateful that I get to stay home with my angel.  I am so grateful that I get to see her sweet spirit develop.  I am so grateful I get to watch her grow and learn, and make mistakes, and try new things.  Somedays it's hard, but today it was gratifying.  It was just a day where we meshed and I noticed it.  I noticed the little things that I sometimes miss or take for granted.  Like the way she crinkles her nose when she's mimicking my smile, or the way she always cranes her head around in her high chair to see exactly what I'm doing at the sink.  The way she tramps around the house, following my every footstep, never being more than 2 behind me.  The way that she teases Chloe, and tries to copy everything I say to her.  She truly is my miracle, and I cannot even imagine my life without her.  It would be so empty.  She brings so much life and love into our home.  Today there was a special spirit with us, and I don't want to forget it.  It was so powerful, and I don't know why it was there today, but I needed it.  And I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for sending it.  Today when I put her down for her nap, she looked up at me and said, "song?" and when I asked her if she wanted me to sing her a song, she said, "yes!" which is kind of rare.  So I sang, and when the song was over, she said, "more?" so I sang again, and she fell asleep.  She is getting so big and so smart, and she is starting to not be my baby anymore, and I hate it.  But I love watching her grow and learn, and become her.  She is amazing and has a world of potential.  I've been feeling nostalgic today, for those first newborn days, where she'd snuggle for hours, and I'd never get anything done because I couldn't bring myself to put her down.  For the days when she was my baby.  But she's not.  She's my toddler now, and I'd never trade it, but I sure wish I could slow it down.  I'm not ready for her to be big yet.  I still need her to need me, and she's getting so independent.  But, today I am grateful that she is my baby, that she is my toddler, that she is mine, and that we can be together forever.  I want to remember this feeling, and carry this spirit with me into all my tomorrows.  Today, I am grateful.

Bear Lake 2013

Summer can never come to an end without the official Bear Lake Family Reunion.  We had a great time.  We were able to stay in a huge cabin/house all together, and it was a lot of fun!  I hardly saw Gwen, since she was enthralled with her cousins, and they all wanted to play with her.  She was in heaven, and it was nice to have some awesome babysitters. :)

 We had a blast riding the jet skis, boat and water weeny.  Gwen loved playing in the sand and with the shells we found on the shore.  She also enjoyed chasing the seagulls and stealing everyones snacks. Grandma floated her in the tube a lot, and she loved it.

 All the brothers had a short race.  It's not a Schofield family gathering without some sort of competition between the brothers.  Dan was pretty far ahead on the way down, but got cocky on the way back and let his brother Tom catch up to him, so sadly, he didn't win the race.  He was pretty devastated about it for the rest of the trip.

 Our theme was "Things" from Dr Seuss.  Technically, there are 9 things - but we have some "adopted in" "Things" that bring us up to 11.  Aren't all those kids cute?

We made a lot of fun memories, soaked up a lot of sun, played until we were exhausted, laughed until our stomachs hurt, ate until we couldn't eat any more, and went home a closer family than when we arrived.  We are fondly looking forward to next year!

Costa Rica Baby

Well folks, we just got back from a marvelous vacation to the land of Costa Rica.  Country numero 10 for me, and 11 for Dan.  We had a fantastic time.  All our activities were stupendous and my oh my was it beautiful!  We started out, leaving on Wednesday July 31st at 6 PM.  Dan made that gigantic neck pillow for the plane.  It was huge.  He tried to get me to use it, but it didn't even fit in the space between my chin and chest, so I couldn't.  But he said it was pretty cozy.  We arrived in Costa Rica on August 1st (it was a redeye flight) at about 6 AM.  We headed straight to our first activity:  river rafting the Pacuare River.  It was the rainy season for them, so the river was high and fast.  We rafted through class 3 & 4 rapids, and almost fell out a dozen times.  But it was a rush, and we survived.  Riding through the canyons and forest was amazing.  Some of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen.  We really enjoyed it.

After rafting, we headed to our first location.  La Fortuna - Arenal Costa Rica.  This is the home of the famous Arenal Volcano, but it was so cloudy we never actually got to see it.  We were bummed, but it was so green, we were ok with it.  We got to our hotel a little later that night, so we didn't have time to do much.  We went for a swim & had dinner, and then headed to bed so we'd be rested for the rest of our trip.  The next day, we went horseback riding to La Fortuna water fall.  We rode most of the way, but then hiked about 1/2 a mile to the waterfall through the rainforest.  It was a beautiful hike.  The waterfall was beautiful and pumping out so much water!  Dan tried to get close so he could swim behind the falls, but the water was coming so fast that he couldn't even get within 20 feet of the falls.  It was an amazing sight.  On the way back, it started pouring!  Literally pouring.  We were soaking wet by the time we got back to the horses and then continued to get soaked while we were riding back.  It was something though.  The rain wasn't cold, so it was kind of cool to hike through the rain forest while it was actually raining.

Later on that night, we went to the Tabacon Hot springs.  OH MY GOSH! These were amazing.  I've never seen anything like it.  It was literally rivers and waterfalls of piping hot water.  Sometimes even a little too hot to get in.  The spings are heated by the Arenal Volcano which heats 2 different rivers that flow through the area.  This place was amazing, and I'd go back to Costa Rica just to do this again.  We got there a little later in the day, so didn't have that much light, which was a shame because the grounds were simply beautiful.  I wish we could have enjoyed it a little longer in the light.  The dark was pretty romantic though.  They have dammed up some of the areas to form pools were you can sit (Literally like sitting in a river) and it is wonderful.  There were also waterfalls flowing into the rivers and pools that you could sit under and get a good massage.  It was so nice.  And once we got tired of one area or it got too crowded, we would walk from area to area and pool to pool to get a feel for the different pools & more privacy.  It was huge!   Most of the time, we were the only two in a particular area.  I can't say enough how cool this was. It was easily one of the coolest things we've ever done or seen.

In the morning, we were off to our next location:  Monteverde, home of the cloud forest.  We took 1/2 the trek by boat and the other half by van.  The boat ride was beautiful.  It was foggy, so it gave a really cool feel for the ride.  We stopped in a little city for a pitstop, and Dan got a coke cause he was starting to feel a little sick.  Can't beat sippin a coke in the middle of paradise.

Once we arrived in Monteverde, we headed to a butterfly garden where we learned a lot about bugs and butterflies.  We even got to release a couple.  It was very educational and cool.  The butterflies were beautiful!

After the gardens, we explored the little city, and had dinner at one of the worlds top 10 bizarre restaurants.  It was called Treehouse Restaurant.  It was actually built around a huge tree, so there was branches and a big tree right in the middle of the restaurant.  It was outdoors, with a roof (which was needed since it was pouring) and it was really fun.  We both had traditional meals called casados.  Basically, its rice and beans with a salad and protein.  In our case - chicken.  It was pretty good. That night we also headed out on a night hike to see if we could see some animals.  I didn't get any photos, but it was a really fun hike.  We didn't get to see many animals, a tarantula, and some pretty cool rare birds, but the environment was cool and learning about the different things that were hiding out there somewhere was interesting.

Day 4 we headed to the cloud forest to do some killer zip lining and walk through the canopy's.  I cannot tell you how breathtaking this scene was.  We were right in the middle of the forest, zip lining over the trees.  It was so green and lush.  The zip lines were amazing.  Most of them were over 500 feet, and there were 15 lines.  It was such a rush!  On the last line, they let us go together - it was also the longest line at 3000 feet long.  Again, it was probably one of the coolest things we've ever done.

At the end of the zip lines there was a Tarzan Swing, where we jumped off a platform about 150 feet.  IT WAS SO AWESOME!!

After we were through the zip lines and Tarzan swing, we headed to the canopy walk, where we walked over about 10 bridges above the trees and then hiked through the rain forest in between the bridges.  It was beautiful, amazing, spectacular, breathtaking, fun, exciting and exhilarating.

The next day we were off to our final destination: Manuel Antonio.  Finally, the beach!  I'd been waiting the whole trip for the beach.  I was throughly enjoying all of the other aspects of the trip, but I was ready for some sun, and relaxation.  The previous days were pretty cloudy and drizzly, but when we got to the beach, we had amazing weather and lots of sunshine.  We spent our first afternoon/evening eating lunch at a little shack right off the beach looking over the ocean, soaking up the ocean air and feeling the humid sticky on our skin.  I was in heaven.  I am convinced that I was made to live on the coast.  I love the smell, feel, and lifestyle of the coast.

The next day, we went to Manuel Antonio National Park.  It was so cool.  We hiked for about 4 hours through thick forest, and lush trees.  We saw lots of cool stuff, like creepy spiders. lots of monkeys, hummingbirds, grasshoppers, lizards, iguanas, raccoons, an anteater, and Dan's favorite, a couple sloths.  We also saw a beautiful beach.  I wish we had our suits on so we could have taken a dip, but we were in our hiking gear so we couldn't. :(  Simply beautiful.

After our hike, we headed out on a mangrove tour.  It was so cool!  I feel like I am saying that about everything, but everything we did was SO COOL!  We were the only ones on the tour, so we got a totally personalized guided tour.  We saw more monkeys, a possum, a silky anteater (one of the most rare things to see..) a few lizards & iguanas, lots of tree crabs,  and a basilisk lizard (the kind that can run on water).  Our guide also boated us over to some palm trees, macheted  off a few coconuts and we drank fresh coconut milk.  It was delicious.  Then, after we drank all the milk, they sliced open our coconuts and we ate the fruit on the inside. YUM.

And we finished off our night walking along the beach, and listening to the waves while drinking a fresh fruit smoothie.  Ah, the good life.
Our last day was spent relaxing at the beach and soaking up the sun.  We played in the water, layed in the sand, and did some souvenir shopping.  We were sad to leave this beautiful paradise, but our time was up.  We saw and did so many things, and we didn't even see half of the country.  Costa Rica is beautiful and we would go back in a heartbeat.

We were sad to leave this paradise, but were so excited to get home to our baby girl.  This was the first time we've ever left her, and it was a long trip.  I could hardly stand the flight and layover and just wanted to get home to squeeze her and kiss her cheeks.  I missed her like crazy.  Having kids makes it ok to have a vacation end.  I am feeling refreshed, and rebalanced.  It was so great to just have a week with my guy and to be able to spend some much needed quality time together.  It was a great vacation, and we are looking forward to our next adventure!