Little Creatures in Gold Hill

A few weeks ago we made the journey up the mountain to see our good friends Brian and Lucy in Gold Hill. I have realized it is one of my favorite places to go because I get to see great friends and be in a truly peaceful place. The girls were taking a walk around downtown Gold Hill, something we have done time and time before, but this time we ran into a resident that put a whole new light on the town. Evidently, there are these tiny little clay creatures tucked away in every nook and cranny that the town offers. Clay creatures I have walked by time and time again without even blinking or noticing something was peering out at me. What are these "clay creatures"? They are the cones used in a kiln to fire ceramics (to make sure the temp. is correct and to know when they are surely done) with a cute little face on them. If you have ever personally fired something in a kiln you know what I am talking about (sorry non-artists) The clay creature creator is a retired Boulder art teacher who after 30 years of firing in the kiln had quite the collection of these little guys. So he and his daughter walked around town and secretly put them in inconspicuous places. I even got to bring home a little guy with me!

The little guys:





The creator himself! I thought is was cute that he even put faces on them, but to top that off he and his daughter have this special & fun secret!


See if you can find the little guy in this picture:

Look closer:


And of course a few tid bits from Gold Hill:

My Mom...

I haven't blogged about this because it has been a very hard topic for me to swallow. My mom has been having issues with her heart for a couple of years now and after demanding the doctors do something about it, they of course found blockage. With her family history (mom, dad, & brother died because of heart issues) her intuition was spot on & her efforts might have saved her life. Doctors continually dismissed her because of her age and her good health. So here is an update of her angiogram process today.....

My mom had her angiogram early this morning. I received a phone call from my dad around 9:40 central time saying that the procedure went well and that the doctors got some "good information". My mom was still in her room and he had not seen her. The doctor confirmed the blockage, plaque, & shrinkage & will hopefully have a more thorough synopsis sometime today.

Unfortunately, that is all the info I have now, but I will be sure to keep you guys updated.

UPDATE 2: 11:00 am Central: I just received a call from my mom :-) She is doing ok, I think she is a sore, cloudy from the meds, & anxious because she has to lay flat on her back without moving for a couple more hours. She said that they had to try both legs to get the instrument inserted properly because her veins are very small, first the right and then success with the left side. Good news first, the LAD artery has only 20-25% blockage. However, due to her small veins it was discovered that some of her arteries are also very small. In one artery she has 75% blockage. Because it is so small the doctors are not sure how to approach it yet, so they are sending in a specialist. We should know within a few hours how the team of doctors are planning to approach fixing this artery.

UPDATE 3: The specialist decided that they are going to try with meds, exercise and diet to maintain a healthy life for my mom. If this does not work and she is still having pains they will do open heart surgery. I really hope they can control the blockage and pains with these things!

Thank you everyone for their support, I really appreciate it more than I can put into words. I have some really great friends!

¡me encanta costa rica!

¡So here it is my post about the girl's trip to beautiful Costa Rica! I would have to say that I absolutely fell in love with the country...the people, the weather, the landscape, the food, the way of life! I think if Nat & Corrina were with me I would have stayed! So here goes, 9 days in paradise produces a lot of pictures! When you are done reading my view of costa rica head on over to emily's blog and my mom's blog!

We stayed in the town Playa Conchal, located on the Pacific Gulf Coast, at Paradisus as Royal Service guests...ya I could get used to that!

The beach:



Our best model poses:


All-inclusive baby...you know we were drinking just a few of these :-)


Mom Cooling Off:


Pretty Beach:


By the pool, enjoying life cabana style:


Wildlife by the pool:


The Special Guest by the Cabana:


More beach pics:




We also got to go on a sunset boat ride, beautiful:


Mom enjoying the sunset:


Playa Conchal was awesome! Emily & I (mom a few nights) danced our hearts out at the disco and enjoyed meeting people from all over! We were sad to leave but excited for our next destination! We headed inland for the Arenal Volcano to the next resort, Tabacon!

Arenal Volcano, the most active volcano in Costa Rica, was just outside our back door!
This is a shot of the volcano from the other side of the Arenal Lake (not from our backdoor):

The view of the volcano from our backdoor:


Emily and I went white water rafting and had a blast! We were able to see a lot of cool wildlife on our journey as well:







The next day we all went zip lining which was such a rush! There were a series of different lines all 200 meters above the canopy and the longest one was over a 1/2 mile long! We had to take a 15 minute open air gondola ride to get to the first zip line, this was the view:

Emily in action:

And of course the fashionable gear:

Every afternoon we headed to the natural hot springs, heated by the volcano! It was soooo relaxing, I wish I could have one in my back yard!


And of course the nature was awesome!







Some locals: the guy on the left, a pisoto, I was able to hand feed one of these guys. He grabbed my hand with his claws and took the honey roasted peanut right out of my hand.

I loved all of the huge leaves:


One of my favorite pics:


Sadly we had to leave Tabacon, but we stayed at a beautiful hotel in San Jose, where I had no problem finding great pic opportunities:


The hotel was located on an old coffee plantation:



So that's the wonderful girl's trip to Costa Rica...ahh I miss it already! Cheers to a great time girls!

(cerveza de costa rica)