Pool by Day Hot Springs by Night

On our last full day enjoying vacation mode, we lazed by the pool. We were both happy to see that it stayed sunny and clear for hours, versus last year where we were lucky to get an hour with no rain. We enjoyed floating in the pool and snacking for most of the mid morning and afternoon. Matt was so close to not burning at all the entire trip, but forgot sunscreen (it was overcast) and is a bit red on his face, chest, back, shoulders and arms today. So close, so close! I was still putting high SPF on my former burns so I got lucky and had no issues. It was nice to just relax and not have a definitive plan for the day. When we travel, we typically decide on a few things we want to do for the day or for the trip, and for the rest of it, we try to not plan anything too set in stone.... so says the planner of all planners.

Last night we had plans to visit the hot springs at Tabacon resort. (http://www.tabacon.com/). Last year we visited another hotel's springs, Baldi, and enjoyed them but were rained out a bit. The tradition continued last night. I'm not entirely sure how we plan such events, but we really do have bad luck with weather at times. We were bummed to see that the main attraction and waterfall at Tabacon were closed for renevations, so we made the best of the situation and explored other springs. It was really awesome to see things, or attempt to. Some of the pathways were poorly lit. Most of the first part of the evening we were decifering what was camera flashes and what was lightening.... We had the biggest thunder and lightening storm I've ever experienced. Thankfully most occurred while we ate and while we headed back to our hotel, but it scared the bejesus out of me. The rain made driving tough, as did my shrieking each time I saw lightening. Matt assured me that there were plenty of things higher than us that it could hit, but I still freaked and resisted running to our room with a metal tipped umbrella. (Eventually I did). The storm continued for quite some time while we watched Superbad in our room. We liked what we saw of the springs and look forward to going back to seeing the falls in all their glory next time we're in town.

Today we'll drive to San Jose and prepare to fly home tomorrow and arrive in Seattle mid evening time. Our honeymoon 2/babymoon has been incredible and while its sad to leave, I'm ready to get back home.....realizing once I'm home, I'll be ready to head back here!

La Catarata de Fortuna

La Fortuna Waterfall!

Our second trip to La Fortuna Waterfall was as fabulous as the first. Its neat that the "adventures" of this region are very close to our hotel, about 10 minutes drive time. We thought it was funny that viewing the waterfall came as a tour package, for $50! Ummm, we paid $10 per person. They must be covering costs for a bus and lunch, we're thinking they must serve caviar and hard alcohol to get the price that high. When we left Arenal, the weather was warm and overcast, simply waiting to dump buckets of rain on us. I personally have been more physically comfortable since we got to Arenal. Its a bit cooler than places we've recently visited and the humidity is less.

We arrived and got our back pack ready, paid our fee, and simply ignored the part of the waiver we sign where it says no pregnant people. (most know I'm one of the "rules are meant to be broken" people, odd since I married a man in LAW ENFORCEMENT!) Neither one of us saw a reason not to go, and since I'm not showing (woohoo!) there was little to no chance we'd have anyone stop us. The walk down to the fall takes 10-15 minutes and can be trecherous.... The stairs are questionable, made of rock, steep, narrow, and slippery. Why they singled out pregnant women and people with high blood pressure is beyond me. Its far more likely that average Jose would slip fall, break his neck and crash to his death in the water than somehow injuring the baby..... Anyone could have abdominal trauma if they fell on those rocks! Then again, I am a risk taker. I'm one of those people who lives life in moderation. Yes, I've fed my unborn child fish and sushi and plan on doing it again. I've also sipped champagne and refrained from chugging it, AND I sit in hot springs and hot tubs*. (My midwife said to simply use common sense, if I'm too hot, get out, and people, pregnant or not SHOULD use common sense).

Once we reached the bottom of the waterfall, we were surprised to see it more crowded than last year. Most people sit around and take pictures on the small bank of sand, sit on rocks, or just get in the water. Matt, the daredevil that he is, got right in. I took pictures. I went in a bit last year and it was just as cold today as it was then and I wasn't in the mood. Matt did emphatically remind me how much warmer it is than the lakes and rivers in Washington, but come on, this is Costa Rica. I prefer the bath temps of pools and oceans. We scaled rocks for a bit and attempted to not fall in or slip and break something. There's just something about this waterfall thats totally awesome. I think its both of our favorites and go figure, its one of the cheapest things we do here. Seeing the fish (my future meals) is always neat and its fun to see how many people brave the frigid temps of the water.

As we were getting ready to head up, the rain started. Surprise surprise! At first, it was a drop here and a drop there and before we knew it, it was pouring. Of course the pouring rain made the trek up a bit tough, again battling the slick rocks, narrow paths, and the chain "hand rails". We made it to the top with minimal breaks, no broken bones/nails, and beyond soaked! You'd have thought I swam too, it was awesome though. In Seattle, it certainly doesn't rain warm rain that you want to be in, thats all it does in Costa Rica. It was likely 83ish degrees and the warm rain felt like a shower. Fabulous! My only complaints from the adventure was that dirt got in my shoe and that I saw a huge spider and screamed.

Tonight we'll spa again. Its a rough life but someone has to do it.

Matty's Bday

We've now moved from Jaco to La Fortuna.

We really enjoyed our time at the very swanky Los Suenos Marriott. It had gorgeous grounds, nice beach, stunning pools, and more jungle creatures than necessary. (I dont like bats, particularly after last year's traumatic bat experience). It was a neat place to spend Matty's 37th birthday! Ole!

We enjoyed a lot of sun by the pool both days we were there, but Matt's birthday can easily be summed up in 2 words, spas and speedos..... We had a fantastic time getting a couple's massage in a rainforest room at Sibo spa. Matt busted out his speedo under his robe prior to the massage. It was pretty hysterical. I laughed out loud for a while, and I'm pretty sure our massage therapists thought we were loca. The massages were fabulous. I'm so lucky that I married a man who loves the spa as much as I do. Who needs a day at the mall when you could have a day at the spa!?

We found a great Italian restaurant, Lanterna, on the huge Los Suenos property and dined there twice, Matty's choice for his bday as well, claiming it was "the best birthday ever." Not bad, I say as I pat myself on the back for the massages and the dinner. (I'd have gone for cake over pecan pie for dessert, but it wasn't MY day, even though in reality, every day is mine.)

We had a shockingly easy car trip from Jaco to La Fortuna today. We were extremely lucky compared to the car rides from hell last year. Our trustee GPS system got us on track and correctly estimated our time of arrival. I'm certainly thankful my time of nausea and hurling is gone, as the car ride up and down extremely windy (and questionable) roads would have made the non pregnant person carsick. It was great to arrive at our final main destination, Arenal Nayara. This was our first stop on our honeymoon so its been fun to visit places in reverse this trip. Our hotel is up in the mountains and the grounds are spectacularly lush and stunning. Each room is more like a private cabana with an awesome deck with a jacuzzi tub, chairs, and this time, a hammock. We were greeted with rain today, as if to say "eh, you're from Seattle, you'll be fine." The rain continued for a good hour after we got settled, including some lightening and thunder that scared the bejesus out of me. Matt's still in our room reading on the deck, overlooking the jungle. It was tempting to stay with him and listen to the rain fall against the bamboo roof and trickle off it, but I was having internet and connecting withdrawals. Our last hotel had internet but it was so big, we never found the room with computers, then again, didn't look too hard. This hotel has 4 laptops in the lobby as well as magic jack phones for free, yes free calls to the US and Canada. Its neat to see similar things from last year, although the new additions have been neat too. New spa! New wine bar, damn! New birds, Pedro and Lupe are still here. Still have yet to see the bunnies, but I'm sure they're around.

We're having a blast and enjoying our last few days of adventures before heading home on Sunday. I'm ready to head home, at least more than Matt. Kinda ready to get back to reality and start attacking to-do lists around the house in prep for baby stuff, but what can I say, OCD's a pain in the ass.

Hasta Luego,
Matt y Rach

Last day in Quepos

Today is our last full day in Quepos and we've enjoyed every minute of it. Each day we've had our own little "routine". Wake up around 0900, eat breakfast, walk down to Playa Biesanz, walk home, swim, eat and drink at the pool (I pretend mine are loaded with malibu and vodka, the buzz off fruit just isn't the same), sit in the hot tub, watch the rain and listen to the thunder, nap/read, eat dinner, the end. We've consistently done this each day we've been here.

Tomorrow we head to Jaco to Los Suenos. Compared to other drives on our trip, this should be the shortest, only needing to go about an hour and a half. We'll laze around La Mansion for a bit and eat and swim before we go tomorrow since check out isn't until noon.

We're continuing to have a blast and enjoying for the most part great weather. Its been extremely humid and far hotter this year than last. I burned on day one and have been hurting ever since. Matt continues to be the whitest thing around.

Its the HUMIDITY!!!!!!!

Nosotros Aqui!

We're here and thrilled to be enjoying our first day in Costa Rica.

Travels went well but it was a very tiring 20 hour trip. Our red eye from Seattle to Miami was very bumpy but I was able to sleep off and on while Matt read. Arriving in Miami at 0700 their time, so 0400 our time was already hot at 77degrees and we were exhausted and not too thrilled to clear security again as our terminal was the furthest we could have walked to. Thankfully our layover was short and once we did security and got to our terminal, we had about 30 minutes of down time before boarding our last plane.

From Miami the trip was only 3 hours and I slept the entire time (thank you Tylenol pm!) and Matt read his entire book. Arriving in San Jose Costa Rica was similar to last year, we got through immigration and customs relatively quickly and got to our rental car area where the process slowed a bit. Budget was unfortunately having technical issues so even though we reserved our car and GPS weeks ago, they had to reopen an entirely new account. Long story short, we got our car, realized it was manual and quickly got it changed to an automatic. I think we could manage on main land, but Costa Rica roads aren't what you want to practice stick shift are.

Compared to car trips from our honeymoon, the trip was easy. They have a new freeway which was nicely paved and got us to Quepos in about 3 hours.

It was awesome to see familiar sights and come to our favorite hotel. We were greeted with champagne, which irritated me. I politely declined mine as we rummaged through our phrase book to remeber the word for pregnant, its embarazo. Matt kindly gave me a few sips of his drink, but it was humid as heck and very warm and the champagne totally hit the spot and I could have gone for another 3 glasses. We got settled into our room, showered and relaxed a bit before hitting one of the greatest balconies at the resort. It has amazing views of the pacific on both sides, lush greenery, howling monkeys in the distance, and sounds from the waterfall at the pool. We attempted to read but were fading quickly so we decided to head to dinner at our favorite restaurant, Jaques Cousteau.

Dinner was sheer perfection. Many of the same staff members still work here so they were extremely accomodating in granting my wish for avocado shrimp salad. Beyond to die for. Matt had a black bean soup for his appetizer which was also unbelievable. My entree was phenomenal. I thought in getting risotto I'd get mainly rice with some seafood, but this was seafood with some rice. Half, yes half, a lobster tail, mussels, calamari, jumbo shrimp, red snapper, halibut or mahi mahi. It was to die for and everything is super fresh and well seasoned and prepared. Matt enjoyed chicken schnitzel.....not a Costa Rican delicacy but still. Dessert was compliments of our awesome waiter, Mauricio (who hand made my avocado shrimp per my request), chocolate covered strawberries, whipped cream, and sliced pears. We're both now in food coma.

We're tired but so happy to be here. Tomorrow we're looking forward to hitting the private beach, enjoying pool time, reading, having chips and guac, and going to the local tapas restaurant, Salispuedes.

Hope everyone is well. We'll update more.

Feliz Cumpleanos a Rob!!!

Love,
Matt y Rach

Costa Rica or Bust!

We're at it again! Off and travelling like the crazy, adventurous couple we are.

We head to Costa Rica on a red-eye tonight, both tired after working all day, hungry, and slightly crabby in advance as we prepare for a long night of travelling.

We fly through Florida before flying into San Jose, Costa Rica. We'll land in Florida in the middle of the night and be there for about 2 hours. Thankfully, from Florida, its only 3 or 4 hours to our final destination, and hopefully we'll sleep as best as we can on the planes. From San Jose, we'll rent a car and head to our first hotel of the trip.

Our first "hotel" is La Mansion Inn in Quepos, Costa Rica (Pacific side) We'll be there from the 13th through the 16th. website: http://www.lamansioninn.com/ I dont know if we'll luck out and get a free upgrade to the presedential suite like last year, but we'll try! :)

The nights of the 17th and 18th (Matty's birthday!), we'll be in Jaco at Los Suenos. http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/sjols-los-suenos-marriott-ocean-and-golf-resort/

The 19th-21st we'll be at Arenal Nayara, innland near Fortuna, Costa Rica. http://www.arenalnayara.com/spa.php

The night of the 22nd we'll be close to the airport at Holiday Inn so we can fly out Sunday May 23rd and we'll be home evening time.

We're excited to relax and enjoy favorite spots from our honeymoon and our last big trip as just the two of us. Can't wait to swim, zipline, canyon, eat a ton, enjoy hotsprings and be mellow for a while. Please cross fingers for safe and easy travels, good weather (track is at http://www.freemeto.com/, select Costa Rica and search for our cities, its looking really rainy!), and lets all hope that I dont start showing until we come home, I'm really enjoying not having the baby bump yet!

We'll email and update the blog as we adventure!

Adios familia y amigos,

Mateo y Raquel

Poorly Updated Updates

So I'm a bad blogger, but I'm working on it.

Life has been busy and becoming more normal for Matt and I.

Recently I took a full time position at the clinic. I had been waiting for some time to see if anyone would either quit, leave, or get fired and I waited the perfect amount of time. One of the MA's decided to transfer to another clinic so I was lucky to get into her spot almost immediately. The shifts are 4 10 hour days Tuesday through Friday, weekends and holidays off unless I pick up shifts. Since the May schedule had been decided already, I'll start my own rotation in June. Most of May though, except for the week of our big trip, I'll be working 3-5 days each week. Its nice to have my own work space, which I haven't had at any clinic I've worked at. I was able to decorate a little with pictures and calendars so it was nice to personalize things. I really like the gals who work there. Most are my age and fun to work with and helpful too. They've always been nice when I've been working but I've been excited to see how welcoming they've been as I've transitioned into a full timer. I'll work as long as I can, likely taking off the entire month of November. After the baby comes, I hope to work 2-3 days a week and be at home the other days. Matt and I dont want anyone but us raising our child, so hopefully it'll all work out and there will still be shifts that need coverage sporatically.

Baby info.... we had our 12 week appointment with our fabulous midwife, Janice, and it went very well. I did have to do an early glucose screening because of my dad's health history and I was happy to pass. The glucose drink was gross, although oddly named "fruit punch". It tasted like fruit punch for a split second and then it was like swallowing sugar. Thankfully I got it down in the 5 minutes it requires you to drink it in and didn't throw it up. At our appointment, I got weighed and had a BP check, both were normal and I was happy to see that I hadn't gained any weight from my previous appointment. The main event of the day was hearing the baby's heartbeat via doppler. Baby sounded good at 150bpm. I've read old wive's tales about babies heartrates, and according to them, HRs above 140 indicate boy. I dont know how much I really believe them, but its fun to pretend. Hearing the heartbeat wasn't as much of a big deal to me as I've heard so many before from doing fetal heart tones in the ERs, but I think Matt got a kick out of it. He was making the "whoosh whoosh" sound for most of the day. The next day, I dont know if it had anything to do with drinking the glucose "juice", I threw up a lot in the morning. Normally my nausea would come and I'd feel awful for a long time and I'd fight the urge to hurl, but Wednesday it hit me like a bus. I got sick, took Zofran, made sure I was "done", and headed to work.

Our next appointment is a few days after coming home from Costa Rica and it sounds like we'll do the same things at that appointment as we did at the rest. The fun one will be in June when we finally find out what we're having. I'm anxious to see since I'm eyeing some police bedding on ebay that I'll fork out top dollar for if its a boy.

Costa Rica is just under 2 weeks away and we can't wait. We've been reminiscing about our favorite spots from last year that we'll visit again.

Not much else to report, we're enjoying time together and enjoying "normal" work hours for me.

Life Changes

Pardon the lack of blogging, but there's been a lot going on in our lives....

Matt and I continue to be happy and healthy, and apparently fertile. We were thrilled to find out that we are expecting! Baby is due November 6th. We had our first doctor's appointment today and all went well. Baby was moving all around during the ultrasound, which is weirder than weird since I can't feel anything. Baby looks good and has a strong, healthy heartbeat of 158 beats per minute. Labs were drawn today as well and we'll return to the doctor for 12, 16, and 20 week visits. We find out if we're having a boy or a girl on June 21st! Not only has baby been a new focus, my job focus has changed as well.

Recently, I left the hospital and although the decision itself was a no-brainer, its been a challenge to adjust to being away from my friends and comfortable work environment....Odd since the ER isn't really a comfortable place, but for me, it was a homey work place. I thrived in the chaos and unpredictability and loved the challenge of working with diverse people, both staff and patients. I miss many of my talented coworkers and awesome physicians, as well as seeing my fire and police friends on more of a regular basis. Thankfully, the people that I know the best have stayed in contact with me and we'll all make time to see eachother more. Given that baby is on the way, it seemed like a good choice to cut back on my work time and take advantage of days off, particularly with Matt.

The clinic (Pediatric Associates) has been a huge blessing for us. Since joining them after I left Evergreen, they've been extremely accomodating to my ever changing schedule. I've been able to pick up multiple shifts with them, working better, more "normal" hours, closer to home, with friendly and energic coworkers, and for better pay and far more appreciation than I felt at Overlake. They schedule month by month so some days I work, and others I laze around and either spend days with Matt or sleep all day! We're looking forward to a busy April for Matt and I working and spending quality time together. May comes our "Last Hurrah" in Costa Rica, reliving the days of our honeymoon. We'll be gone for 12 days visiting some of our favorite spots, Arenal and Manuel Antonio. We can't wait. I even got the "okay" from the doctor to go to the hotsprings! For limited periods of time of course, but I'm going!

Our summer is looking great as well. We're excited to celebrate the marriages of Pete and Kelsey in June and Alex and Jenna in July. Aside from my own wedding, Jenna's will be the first wedding I'll be in as a bridesmaid! I can't wait, although I'd rather not waddle down the aisle being 26 weeks pregnant, but such is life. I'm hoping to regain my energy one of these days and go back to being a gym rat, so I might be showing, but hopefully I'll be in shape and nicely toned!

Feeling oh so valued at work....

My birthday card from my boss at the ER.

Ummm. I know when my birthday is, and thanks for putting the right name on the card, and covering it up in such a classy way.....

cute, right?

Wow. Thank you for all the time and effort you put into my card. How thoughtful.

Way to go, boss!

KPD Banquet 2010....Cops (and their spouses) gone wild!!!

Our 3rd annual KPD Banquet was fantastic per normal.




We both look forward to the banquet every year, remembering, or attempting to remember fun times from year's past. In true Matt and Rachel, form, we both have embarrassing stories to out live.



This year however, was one of the more mellow banquets, but awesome none the less. We enjoyed a leisurely day leading up to party time, just lounging around at home. We headed to the hotel (odd to say since it was only a city away) and enjoyed Dan's sweet suite complete with trays of food, adult beverages, and my personal favorite, his homemade sangria, which yes, it does taste like juice but gets you intoxicated like wine. Ahhh sangria! We arrived to visit with some of our buddies, Kyle and Amanda, Jack and his wife, followed soon after by the Aksdals, The Ishmaels, Bruce, Audra, and Tim Krahn. We loved having happy hour with our friends before the festivities began downstairs.



We enjoyed a great dinner buffet, their salmon was great, as was the crab salad, which I ate too much of. Awards and PD slideshow followed as did officer of the year and employee of the year. Congrats to Duncan McKay for winning, but Matt's my officer of the year (insert AWWWWWWWWWWs here) .



Dancing followed, and yes, I did a mean electric slide, don't act like you don't do a good one too. Matt enjoyed pseudo gambling in the casino area. We also got our photos professionally crafted for our 2nd year, the photographer was well known to us as Matt cuddled up to the photographer last year when she was posing us. I can neither confirm nor deny that alcohol was involved. Also, this is the same photographer who captured the infamous "Ron and Veronica, channel 4 news picture" from last year. I'm dying to see her creative work from this year. I asked to be on the brochure for next year! :)



All in all, we had a great time and a fantastic weekend together. (Entire weekends off for both of us are extremely rare!)



Already excited for banquet 2011!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2010 to everyone!

We hope that 2010 is a fun, happy, safe, and healthy year for everyone.

We happily celebrated the end of 2009 while participating in DUI Task Force. Its actually become our New Year's tradition. Its fun to start Matt's arrest record for the year with a DUI. At midnight, we were on a traffic stop while others were getting tossed, just waiting for us to come and find them and arrest their drunk butts. Not to worry, friends and family, we found one! We enjoyed some quality time together while writing tickets, giving warnings, and arresting bratty women who should know better than to back-talk a cop. :)

2010 is looking like a great year, we're anticipating another big trip, destination TBD, we're looking forward to Pete and Kelsey's wedding, as well as Jenna and Alex's too.

Christmas 2009

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas, Kwanza, Festivus, Ramadan, Hannukah, whatever you may choose to celebrate.

Matt and I were able to celebrate with our awesome family after a day of work and limited sleep.

After I worked, I headed to Sammamish to spend Christmas with my family before heading to the Anderson's humble abode. Mom came up with an awesome new family tradtion, cocktails for Christmas! A truly wonderful idea on her part, and wow, does she know how to make 'em! I enjoyed cuddling with Joey, who rarely left my lap, snacking on cheese and crackers and sipping my cosmo-esque cocktail while we opened presents. Mom has always spoiled Bets and I, and this year was no different. Gift certifcates galore, sports authority, Nordstrom, hair appointments. I got various kitchen goodies which will definately be put to good use, as well. Mom made me a scarf and hat in eggplant purple that I've already warn several times (see pictures)

Since it was Christmas, I gave in to the Christmas spirit and was a nice sister and did Betsy's hair, which ended up looking better than mine. After Salon Rachel, we headed to the Anderson's for dinner and drinks, and to see the newly engaged Pete and Kelsey.

We enjoyed many more cosmos, a great dinner, good conversation, talk of wedding plans, gifts galore, and many laughs.

Matt and I later did "our Christmas" at home while we attempted to keep our eyes open. Matt LOVED his many Xbox games, Kuhl shirt, voice recorder, and other gifts, while I immediately jumped into my new and uber comfy PJ's, and tried on my new black diamond necklace. The new work out gear would have to wait.

Hope everyone had a great holiday season.

(this photo was taken in one shot! Yes, I rock)

Mourning Bands: Are they the new addition to police uniforms?

It sickens me to the core to write once again that an officer has died.

Deputy Kent Mundell died today at Harborview, surrounded by family and friends as he was taken off life support after being shot several days ago. Deputy Mundell is the 6th, yes 6th officer to have died in 2 months, and let me say this, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

Its a numbing feeling to hear of such news, especially after a painful 2 months, particularly as a police wife. As much as such events sadden me, I must admit that they're starting to bring out more and more rage. I'm somewhat comforted knowing that Deputy Mundell killed the person who shot him. One less bastard out amongst us. Washington state doesn't tolerate cop killers. I'm not a very violent person, but if someone were ever to take a shot at Matt or someone I know and love, you can bet that I'd be first in line to shoot right back. (and yes, I'm a good shot)

I feel helpless in situations such as these. I've attended a funeral, I've donated money to the families, yet I feel like I'm not doing enough. There continues to be a part of me that would love a chance to put the uniform on and protect and serve like Matt does, but its not realistic for our lives and our plans to start a family sooner rather than later. Although its getting ahead of ourselves, its a scary thought, bringing a child into the world where there's so much police violence going on. The thought of telling a little one that Daddy's not coming home is a sickening one.

I try my best to remain REALISTIC, which is proving to be harder than I thought. The REALITY is, I'd drive myself and others crazy if I thought that each day would be our last. I trust Matt's police skills and I trust those of his coworkers. Each day he comes home is a blessing, hell, each day any of us come home safe and sound is a blessing. We could get hit by a car crossing the street.

I hope that this is the last police death posting I do for a very long time, I can't say for certain that it'll be the last. I didn't think I'd do one again. My hope is that police continue to do their jobs, serving and protecting. I hope 2010 is a safe year for officers everywhere. I hope the families of the fallen officers find some kind of peace, but most of all, I hope this doesn't happen again.

Justice will be served.