Summer trip to California- 2009

We spent 5-1/2 weeks in Calfirnia this past summer. After living in Costa Rica for a year this was our first visit back and we packed much into it! It was soooo much fun to reconnect iwth friends and family! It's taken me a month to get this post up, you can see we took many picutres but even with that said there were so many moments and connections we did not capture on film but have cherished memories that we hold dear!
Lisa and McKenna at Lisa's Portuguese family reunion at her Grandma's Ranch- Newman California. McKenna has grown tall this past year, she reminds me often that she's going to pass me up soon and it's destined to happen.








Lisa and Tatum, who's always smiling, she's lost 3 or 4 teeth in the last 6month so her smile is quite distinctive! And the CR tooth mouse (aka tooth fairy in the US) has been hit hard recently in the pocketbook!




Gabi was quite fascinated with the power vehicles, I think this must be a rub off from Uncle Jason and Shea






Tatum holding cousin Jaxson just barely!

Gabi riding cousin Jax's bike, I think she's wondering why she doesn't have any of these power bikes at home?

woo hoo!

Gabi taking a break from jumping in the jump house Aunt Patty and Uncle Al set up for the reunion

Uncle Jason and cousin Jax

Lisa and Great Aunt Sandy. Sandy has been an inspiration to me on the knitting front helping me many times as I've worked on projects and having made beautiful sweaters and blankets for the Foulger girls over the years.

McKenna holding cousin Jenny's new kitty

Aunt Alice, Aunt Violet, Uncle George, Aunt Minnie and Grandma Frances -what amazing genes I have!

The sisters, what's left of Grandma Frances' 16 siblings- the Portuguese Cardoza clan


Gabi enjoying Great Grandmas Frances' bday cake double-fisting it! What a prescious opportunity to celebrate Great Grandma Frances' 93rd birthday together, definately a gift!

What started out as a simple idea to get all the Siegel grandchildren together for a group pic turned out to be quite a daunting task.....hopefully next year it'll be easier but with "terrible two's" on the horizon likely not! ,.

Grandma Frances Cabral's 93rd birthday - I hope I can look this fabulus at 93, or upon 2nd thought mabye I should just feel fortuante to come from such great genes! Grandma is so loved by many, it was wonderful to see her share her birthday with 130+ relatives.

Lisa, brother Jason and our babes -Jax and Gabi!

My wonderful sister-in-law Angyand her babe Jax

Lisa's brother Jason, cousin Shea and Mike- the Chefs for the Cabral/Cardoza family reunion-no small feat as there were 130+ of us attending!

Cousin Ryan, Lisa, cousin Colin and Brad- Ryan and Colin with their parents Aunt Mary and Uncle Ernie Barncastle crashed the party driving 3+ hours from San Luis Obispo to attend, definately a testament to the event! There were many relatives that hadn't attended for some time so I took the opportunity to gab with many of them and only caught a few pictures.

Angy Siegel, Aileen Siegel (Lisa's Mom) and Aunt Mary Barncastle

Cousin Andrea Geiger and Great Aunt Aileen Cabral

Great Uncle Ed Cabral and cousin Madeline Bridges

cousin Gunner beating up on his Dad Chris and loving every moment of it!

Tatum

Cousin Jenn Bettencourt and Tatum horsing around.

Lisa, Gabi and Uncle Dick Cabral

Lisa's brother Jason and wife Angy

Brad and Uncle Ern

McKenna registering guests at the family reunion trying to get our family online-no small feat!

Lisa's sister Lyndsey and Gabi

Gabi -- 18 months, always very inquisitive.

We celebrated all the great grandchildren birthdays together-cupcakes for all thanks to Great Aunt Patty

Gabi and cousin Jax riding in the laundry basket-very simple fun!

Cousin Jax showing us how to play baseball at the beach at Lake Tahoe

Angy Siegel and brother-in-law Eric Bott

We had an incredible day at Lake Tahoe
being up in the Mountains at our Truckee cabin is one of our favorite spots in the world!

Cousin Shea and Boone along for the ride

McKenna lounging

Jax digging for treasures

Lisa's Dad- Bob Siegel

Tatum

Lisa, McKenna and

Jax

Uncle Jason and Jax

McKenna pausing before taking the plunge

My beautiful sister Lyndsey and son Colten before making the plunge from the pier into the cold waters of Lake Tahoe

The Siegel kids and some of their crew

Gabi's pretty ticklish

Lisa and the girls

Shea, Boone and Jenn getting ready to celebrate Shea's bday

Aunt Patty and Uncle Al lighting the many candles!

Bob and daughter-in-law Angy

Jason and his boy, Jax

Lyndsey and her boys, Colten and Greyson

Colten, Taty, Jax, Grey and McKenna

Boone, Shea and Jenn

ready for lunch, it' was a windy day at Donner Lake

Uncle Eric and Colten head out on the pier for some fishing while McKenna comes running in!

Nana Leen and Tatum, it's a bit bright to open eyes for the camera!

Jax, Jason and Angy at Donner Lake

Bundling up, Mckenna is trying to stay warm

Gabi deep in thought

Grey taking a break from digging in the sand

It was fun to catch up with Old Auburn neighhbors Jenn and Jackson Skaff

Ok, for those of you who think (read: Michael) all we do here in CR is zip-line through the jungle, frolick at the beach, hike volcanos, just to turn around and do it all again. I (Brad) am writing this blog to set the story straight. Here's a typical week (of course if we are not frolicking): Lis and I are up between 5:30 and 6:30a (yes Tony C that is am, as in morning).

(above our great tico home in San Luis de Santo Domingo de Heredia, Costa Rica - say that three times fast). Lis blogs, chats, emails, then gets the girls up around 6:30 mas o menos (more or less) depending on their mood. I lounge for a while reading or occasionally do my tarea de espanol (spanish homework), but that is rare (homework) because I am on the 5 year program. Vilma (housekeeper do-all) fixes breakfast and packs the girls lunches. I take the girls to school heading out around 7.20a as the girls need to be in their seats by 7:50.

(doggie time for Tatum and Gabi) During school hours I work (yes, many of you may find this hard to believe, but it's true) on my various projects: investments, property mgt, new bus opportunities, volunteering, gym, coaching bball, spanish and junk like that. Lisa is networking, volunteering, blogging, spanish, gym, keeping Gabi happy and just recently accepted a new position at HP. So, now in between her pedicures and massages she will have to work-in some HP time.

School is out at 3:00 but most days both girls have after-school activities including, but not limited to basketball, soccer, attack art or art attack - I can't ever keep that one straight, swimming, dance etc. So their school day ends at 4:15 and if i'm not already at school coaching, I head over and pick up the girls.

When we get home it is snack time, then homework, dinner, bath and if lucky we all watch a tv show before bed time at 8:00p. Add to this piano on Mondays at 6:00p and spanish leasons on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings, the girls keep very busy.

A side benefit of moving to CR is we all watch very little tv and don't eat nearly as much fast food because there isn't any close to our home. Weekends we read, go to our club to swim, exercise, hike etc. We also do the stuff all of you do, like shopping, hair cuts, auto repairs, cleaning (oops Vilma does that) shopping and did I mention shopping already. Seriously, we also visit friends, eat out (we never eat out during the week because of time constraints) and all the other normal weekend stuff to get ready for the next week. Eating out here takes more time. Time to get there, more time to order, more time for our food to arrive etc. Like the rest of the world, CR is not in as big a rush as the US, so everything takes longer.

This is where Don Carlos and his wife lives just outside of our house. Carlos manages the coffee farm that we live on. This building is more than a hundred years old. Carlos also manages our yard, when he has time. New gringos on the farm are not a top priority. Carlos is a bit "complicated."

Our honda pilot arrived after a "short" 4 month journey. There is a hierarchy on the roads here. The smaller the vehicle the lower you are. So when we traded in our mitzsubishi lancer for the pilot we jumped quite a few levels.

Playground by the club.

Club Zurqui below has a swimming pool, kids pool, hot tub, saunas, gym, squash, tennis, bball, pooltables, pingpong, restuarants, etc. We usually spend a few hours there each weekend.

Fruit stand by the road, they are everywhere. If you eat like the locals, fruit, vegatables, gallo-pinto (rice and beans) and a little chicken or fish, you can live very reasonablly. But, we eat like gringos, so our grocery bill is more than in the states. Anything imported is more expensive.

The next slides are of San Luis, our home town. This is the video store, just opening around 3:00p.

This is the meat market, we don't shop here. You have to be a little careful when it comes to meat and poultry, so we do our protein shopping at the supermercardo.

Libreria, means book store, but it has a little of everything and we spend time here and often find what we are looking for.
This is the "supermarket" and again, surprisingly it will have most of what you need from a grocery standpoint.
This is not a supermarket, libreria, or 7-Eleven, but something different. It has snacks, drinks, mini-mart type things but not exactly. Something you have to see to understand.
This is our town bakery, looks like a house, was one at some point. We buy bread here and sometimes pasteries. Doughnuts, cake etc is not always CrispyCream quality but our girls luv tres leches (3 milks) which is cake, cream and frosting or something close to that.....I like it too ...............when I'm not frolicking.

This is the elemtary school in town. Very good by C. American standards, but not equivilant to N. American standards. With that said, CR owes much of its recent success to an emphasis on education. Everyone is entitled to education and health care in CR. College tuition per year is around a few hundred dollars, so it is affordable to many.
Another pic of our hometown school.
Soccer on Saturdays and Sundays. Every town in CR has a town center with a park (soccer field) in the middle, a Catholic church on one side and the public school on the other side.

Produce store, which has great local, fresh produce, cheap!

And the Catholic church opposite the park and school.

That's it, I'm tired and I'm sure you are at this point!

McKenna's 10th and Tatum's 7th birthdays-May 2009

We celebrated McKenna's 10th and Tatum's 7th birthdays jointly with a big party at our club pool, where we invited both of their classes and a few other close friends. Inviting your entire class to your birthday party is a CR custom so we decided to give it a try. We chartered a bus from school, it was a half-day and at noon we loaded up with Lisa sitting shotgun with the bus driver and a group of rowdy 1st and 4th graders we treked off to the club. We had 45 kids in total, all had a great time and fortunately we had no major accidents.

The spelling on the birthday cake had a few hiccups, we'll work to improve that next year!

A group of McKenna's friends swimming. McKenna is 4th from the right.

Some Moms and a Dad. On the end, our friends John and Ileana Doten are getting ready to move to the US. We will miss them along with their sons Evan and Ian, basketball stars on Brad's school team. Ileana, a Tica, and I would meet 2-3 times a week and hike, switching days practicing our spanish and english respectively.

McKenna and friends-group jump

Friends from McKenna's class, in the midst of a water balloon fight

Tatum and 1st grade friends-from left, Ava, Tatum, Isabella, Juliana, Valerica, Helena, Isa and Maria Fernando

4th graders playing a game or strategizing how they can stage their attack in the water balloon war.

Ava, Tatum and Helena- two of Tatum's best buddies

Gabi had fun with all the balloons

they made a nice necklace....

Some of the 1st Grade Moms- from left, Carolina, Lisa, Ana, Mariela, and Juliana's Mom.

McKenna's friends awaiting a whack at the pinata.

Some of Tatum's friends awaiting their turn at the pinata.

Brad, the Pinata leader, with McKenna awaiting her turn to kick off the event. We had two pinatas otherwise the 4th graders would have an unfair advantage.

Tatum and Suji lining up for their 2nd pieces of cake :)

At home on McKenna's real birthday 5/12/09. Following her sister's lead, Tatum decided to put her face in the cake!

McKenna was the instigator starting the face dipping.

Quite proud of her cake face

In Tatum's class day of her birthday with friends Isabella and Valeria.

group photo of Tatum's class with guest Gabi in Tatum's lap, just ahead of the class birthday celebration!

At home with our next door neighbors on Tatum's bday, we had many birthday celebrations!

Tatum blowing out her birthday candle, with Gabi helping or trying to figure out what is going on?

McKenna at home night of her 10th birthday.....before she came up with the bright idea to dip her face in the cake :)