Travels of the Bay family and the Yoda Van

We all knew the in-laws would (literally) still be here. My mother has been suffering since shortly after she arrived: diarrhea, vomiting, sun burns, bug bites, and even a blister on her foot from her new flip-flops. To top it all off, (and the reason for our blog title) is that we even had a family blow out. My Mom is a pleaser by nature. She avoids confrontations like the plague, so family fights are even more unpleasant for her. I guess a fight is to be expected when we were all living in a 2 bedroom apartment and spending every waking moment together. Luckily it seemed to blow over fairly fast and we’re all back in vacation mode. The sun burns, bug bites and blisters still persist, however.

We still had a great time at the coast. Our apartment was so close to the beach and we went swimming in the ocean almost every morning, while my Mom played with the kids in the sand. There were several swimming pools at the place we stayed and we went swimming every evening (after the sun went down as to not aggravate my mother’s sunburns). You really can’t complain about 8 lazy days on the beach.

After 8 days at Playa Hermosa we headed back to Alajuela. We rented this apartment in a sort of hotel/gated community/complex sort of thing. We’re not exactly in the middle of Costa Rican life. Actually the heart of Costa Rican life is playing outside the big 15 foot gate that surrounds the facility. However, for us, right now, it serves our purpose – to spend time with our family. We have a soccer field, a small playground, swimming pools and secure parking. We can cook, do laundry and watch TV while lying on the sofa. Honestly, Matthias and I have both missed being in a place where you can just lie on a sofa and watch TV.

We are a half-German, half-American family and we also have to alter our regular Christmas routines of childhood to accommodate both of us. That works out great for William and Julian because they get to celebrate both. The “Christkind” comes on the evening of the 24th and Santa comes on the morning of the 25th. Each of those guys brings presents. For the first time my parents will be a part of the German half of our celebrations.

We’ve also had our 3rd official visit to the hospital in Costa Rica. Julian fractured a bone in his foot and is not supposed to walk for the next 2 weeks. None of us saw what happened, but he just started crying and was obviously in pain on Saturday morning. After his foot started to swell and turn purple we took him to the hospital. They immobilized his foot and he is not supposed to walk for 2 weeks. I’m not sure that is even possible for a 2 year old. At least for now his foot hurts enough so he doesn’t want to walk. We will be doing a lot of carrying in the next 2 weeks.

Matthias has had a nasty ear infection that weren’t cured by two courses of antibiotics. We went back to the doctor that removed William’s stitches and he prescribed 3 shots in the ass, an infusion of who knows what, drops in his ears, and 2 different pills he is supposed to take a different intervals. The good thing is that this aggressive course of action has knocked out all pain in his body and his ear infection seems to be cleared up. Keep your fingers crossed that the six of us survive this Christmas.

I know a lot of our blog readers are from the Seattle area and Seattle has just been hit by the worst storm in 90 years. Over one million people were without power and therefore not able to read our blog. Don’t worry about us. We are doing great, despite a near death experience Allison had today when she was caught in some humongous waves. Well she survived it and is ready to hit the waves again tomorrow. Also it does get a little hot in the late afternoons, but we are able to manage temperatures in the lower 90’s sipping a drink in the shade at the pool. So really you don’t have to worry about us.

The other new thing happening is that Allison’s parents (THE IN-LAWS!!) finally arrived. Prior to this our main concern was to find a good apartment for all of us to stay at and I am sure Dan and Joyce (THE IN-LAWS!!) were also afraid of where they were going to end up living. I know they are a lot more at ease after being here with us in an apartment at Playa Hermosa (Guanacaste). It’s a very nice, child-friendly, beautiful beach with perfect waves (except the ones Allison got caught up in), but what’s even better is that there are hardly any tourists and that’s hard to find in Costa Rica. Dan seemed to like it here so much that after only 2 days he wanted to extend for one more day. Joyce is very glad to be with William again and they are inseparable. Life is good, despite Dan and Joyce still thinking that our trip is the most irresponsible, stupid thing we could ever had done, even after meeting 2 very healthy and happy grandchildren, a very happy and healthy daughter and most importantly a healthy and happy son-in-law. I am sure that future discussion with them will make an interesting blog entry by itself and I hope this blog title wont be “Yes, the in-laws are still here!”.

We have 2 more days at Playa Hermosa and then head up to Alajuela in the mountains and will probably not have to deal with temperatures in the 90’s anymore. They should be in the lower 80’s. So, really, no need to worry about us.

So to all the Seattleites, if this is the first blog entry you were able to read after getting power again, I hope you had a nice Christmas and that you get to read this before the New Year.