Adventure 3 Costa Rica

Monkeys

This morning

Our Room is closest to the pool

Reading 'Enrique's Journey'

Male Model

Well we made it safely to the land of tropics, Costa Rica.  We traveled Wednesday for 15 hours and arrived to Uvita after transporting by car, airplane, and shuttle.  We enjoyed our 6 hour shuttle ride with Carlos and Mercedez as they acted as our tour guides.  We stopped to look at cocoa & coffee plantations, alligators, and ate a traditional Costa Rican meal 'gallos pintos' (eggs, beans, rice & grilled cheese) It was perfect after our stomachs were grumbling late into the night and morning.  We have felt so rejuvenized and refreshed staying at this beautiful crafted boutique style hotel nestled in the jungle.  From the main road it is 2 1/2 miles up on a windy dirt road.  There are breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean from our room and we have enjoyed the best 4 course meals ($25) at the place where we are staying.  Homemade soups, marinated mushrooms with risotto and pesto, flank steak, and sole a fresh local fish.  Dessert, white chocolate mouse, hazelnut ice cream & pineapple cooked four different ways.  Two evenings of fine dining to the fullest.  

Yesterday we ventured off on two beach cruisers up a steep and windy road for 6 miles to Las Ventana's beach where sets come in seconds after each other and two inviting tunnels reach from shore to sea, asking curious tourists to test the waters.  12:30pm the rain started and ended around 4pm.  We were on our bikes two of those hours and swimming in the ocean the other two.  We arrived at our posh boutique hotel covered in rain water & dirt, we were a spectacle! 

This morning we captured howler monkey's in the trees not to far from our bedroom.  We watched silently as mother and child played in the high tree tops.  

Adventure 2

Sunday night we joined up with Matt (Michael's brother) after he had worked all weekend at Spaghetti Factory.  Monday we spent most of the day at Garden of the Gods a free national park surrounded by hundreds of year old petrified red rocks.  The sun saturated our bodies for the next few hours a we walked amidst the giants.  At one point as we were climbing the rocks we saw two young boys far off, standing on the ledge of a cliff atleast 200 feet up in the air.  Sirens drew near and stopped in direct view of the victims (profile: baggy shirts and shorts, young boys with baseball caps).  Then for the next hour we watched the $5000 dollar event unfold.  Six fireman scaling the face of the rocks to reach the victims, either laughing at the hilarity of it all or scared out of their pants.  Not quite sure why they needed so many hero's to rescue two guys.  But, after strapping the guy's in several minutes later we assumed they would repel down and hand over a large fine to these two naive boys.  We left because Matt's arms were starting to radiate heat and frankly I was really hungry! 

Later that night we encounter a thunderstorm that provoked sheer excitement and giddiness from the guys, while Meagan and I were yelling at the boys to put down their umbrella's so the lightening wouldn't strike them.  We were outside during the thunderstorm because we had walked to get frozen custard.   As we were taking our last bites.....Boom the lightening strikes.  It was pretty awesome, running in the rain, lightening in the distance, and custard in our stomachs.  Good times. 

Adventure 1

We left for LAX on friday morning at 4:30am to catch our flight to Denver.  My sweet dad woke up with us to escort us off to Colorado.  We were picked up by my lovely friend Meagan and spent the day exploring her new world with Austin.  It is amazing to see how the Lord has made so many provisions for Austin & Meagan as they become one.  Michael and I have fallen in love with Colorado.  We spent all day at Rocky Mountain National Park hiking, eating lunch at the lake, and learning how to fly fish.  The snow top mountains cascaded into the scenic landscape of pine trees and meandering creeks surrounded by wild flowers.  Whether your hiking in the mountains or driving on the Hwy there are breathtaking views to behold.  I could see how colorado is the outdoor adventure mecca because all you want to do is run, walk, bike, or hike.  Today we were joined by Michaels brother Matt and we took a jaunt around the Garden of the Gods a National Park surrounded by drastic, edgy, petrified red rocks.  It made one feel minute in comparison to the red giants.  We leave for Costa Rica tomorrow at 12am, crazy how time fly's! 

the start of a new adventure...

then...
& Now

Handle with care...

We leave on Friday for Colorado and Costa Rica on Wednesday morning at 12am. Since Michael is a world traveler he had filled every page in his passport and we needed to get more pages. We sent his passport in expedited over two and half weeks ago to get more pages added. A simple and speedy response would have been to send it back with the added pages, right? Well they sent us a letter saying the U.S government was going to keep his passport because it was damaged!! Hahaha, right? Joke? I should have expected this right, nothing is easy with Michael Paine. We were in SLO when we got the news so after calling numerous passport agencies and the L.A embassy to make an appointment to get a new passport all the doors continued to slam in our face. Finally after much rejection we found a private agency in L.A who could see us on Wednesday and get a new passport to Michael in 1-3 days. We left SLO tuesday night after a short visit and arrived in L.A at 2am! Today we spent all day gathering Michael's documents, getting new passport pictures, an official U.S seal, and driving through dowtown L.A traffic at mid-day to hand this infamous minella folder you see in the picture to a man sitting in a office building on the seventh floor. So, $400 dollars later we are still planning on leaving the country Wednesday to escape the skysraping, smog infested, cluttered streets of L.A (I have been living on the central coast for too long). We will keep you posted about the much awaited adventures of the Paines and their travels:)

Summer

sister in law Christine & her lil man Josiah

Klondike's in the Village, Josiah loved the entertainment

Ma & Pa Paines backyard, Michael has a new project on his hands

um ya...enough said

Paine Family father's day

Ragged Point (this is a very special place to us)

The boys!!

So Michael and I have counted 8 places we have lived since May, talk about living out of a bag and your car for two months. I don't know how people do it. There is nothing structured, organized, normal, or predictable in your life when you are unemployed, without a home, living in 6 different cities over a 60 day period, and can't seem to even find a different shirt to wear because that one is always on the top of your bag (maybe no relevance, but thought I'd throw it in). Some days I hate it and some days I am thankful for where the Lord has us...together. I think that has been the most constant thing in our lives these past few months, having each other. I have a tendancy to do things on my own or think I can, but the Lord has been showing me it is better together. That is our little saying, "betta together"! Here is the short updated version of our summer so far:

• bass lake over the fourth with great friends. I think we all left with chaffed hands and knees and bruises from tubing. It was Michael and my first time wakeboarding and we both fell in love!
• Jen & mom weeklong bonding & spoiling time: spa, massage, hair cut in beverly hills, shopping, movies and eating out (don't think it is like this everytime I go home, this is the first)
• Paine family adventures in Oceanside, enjoying our 14 month old nephew, camping in san simeon, the beach, the park, and pool for a week. Since Michaels siblings live out of the area when we all get together we like to hang out 24/7. I am not use to that because I have always lived near my family so we would hang out and do our own thing. I really appreciate how Michael's family values quality time and loves to be together.
• SLO, we came up for a few days to visit with friends & to celebrate birthdays!
  
• We leave July 24th to August 28th for Colorado (five days) and Costa Rica (1 month)

Our time in Costa Rica will be spent in Uvita and Pavones on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. Our expectations are, each other, Jesus, and beholding beauty around us!! We will have the internet so we will be blogging, I promise!

We Are Alive!!

I am not quite sure if anyone reads our blog still, since it has been months since I actually wrote anything.  It seems a bit trivial to try and fill in the gaps of life so maybe start with today:) The Lord is so faithful in our lives.  He does not leave us as we are because He desires to make us holy and blameless and above reproach.  Usually, always this comes from trials and tribulations.  Michael and I know we have such a great hope in our Savior we can endure and persevere through anything our marriage encounters.  If I could encapsulate our lives in one word it would be transition.  We are currently living with a friend off Hwy 166 in Santa Maria.  We are retreating in her families beautiful home surrounded by hills, horses and cows.  We will be there until the end of the month and then July holds a lot of adventures as well. I think I will tell them as they come.  But we are so grateful for our friends here on the central coast.  We have such amazing friends who have been praying, supporting, and encouraging us during this season in life. PRAISE THE LORD that He is such a giving gracious father. 

Easter with the Devlin's