Pura Vida!

John and I recently took a trip to Costa Rica. It was AWESOME!! I could live in the rain forest-John says he needs the Rocky Mountains. Nevertheless, we've talked of someday visiting again. And P.S., a HUGE thanks mom and dad for staying with the kids!!

What we did:

We arrived at 5am-went to a hotel in San Jose and slept. Then did the waiting game for our shuttle to La Fortuna. We figured out quickly that a pick up time of 12:00 really means 12:30 in Costa Rica.

This is the Arenal Volcano. We watched lava flow down at night-here you can see the smoke from the lava.

Zip line through the trees.

Canyoning-We rapelled down 5 waterfalls and two cliff walls. This was for both of us a highlight of our trip. You couldn't beat the scenery or the adrenaline rush.


Cano Negro River Tour-it was like the Jungle Ride at Disneyland minus the cheesy guide and bad robotics. Our guide Hugo was awesome-he spotted birds like the green ibis in the very green trees near the river-which became a running joke afterwards as John for the rest of our trip would cry "green ibis!" whenever we were in the forest

This is what I looked like much of our trip-binoculars never far from my hands.

Our next stop-Manuel Antonio. First day we did some hiking and it was SOOO humid. We sweat (or is it sweated?) a ton, hence my karate kid look here.

Jet Ski Tour-we raced through the ocean and did some snorkeling. John didn't like the warm water so this wasn't his favorite-is he weird or what!

Surf Lessons-SOOOOO FUN!


What We Saw:

We identified about 75 different birds, 70 of those were all new to me so it was exciting if you like birds. We also saw lots of monkeys-howler monkeys that, yes, howl-especially when it rained it sounded like they were letting out a loud "NOOOO!", we saw white faced monkeys, and the endangered squirrel monkeys. We also saw a few sloths which were my favorite aside from the birds-we got to watch one slowly and methodically move from one tree to another. We saw a tree full of iguanas, some caymens, and a big lizard (can't remember the name) hanging out on the beach. There were also a TON of colorful crabs but I didn't get their picture. (Note: the bird pictures were pirated off the internet).
Red legged Honeycreeper

White Crowned Parrot

Blue Crowned Motmot

Keel-billed Toucan-not as big as it looks

Coati

Iguana

This is called a Great Potoo. As John and I were scanning my Birds of Costa Rica book, we came across this bird and thought we'd NEVER see it-you can see how camaflouged it is. Fortunately our guide on the Cano Negro tour was an avid birder and knew this Potoo hung out in this tree.

Caymen

White Faced Monkey

The beach-dwelling lizard

The view from our room in Manuel Antonio.

8 Years and 13 Kids Later (with 2 more on the way)

1997-Sophmore Year BYU:


2008 BYU Women's Conference
From Left: Sarah, Rachel, Lois, Me, Goodwin

Happy Birthday Sammy!

On April 25th Sammy turned 2! He doesn't like cake so we had brownies on his birthday, here we had muffins for his "family" party on the Sunday after the 25th.

Yuma Connection

**Warning-this may only be interesting to members of the Nelson family. Yesterday I went to the dentist to have a cavity filled. And as a side note, I've had three cavities in my life, all after having kids. I've heard this is common cause your immune system is suppressed while your pregnant making you more susceptible to cavities. Anyways, there was a dental student there observing my dentist. I didn't get a good look at him because I was supine with my mouth open nor did I pay attention to his name because I was thinking about the drill headed for me. The dentist drilled a hole in my tooth, while he was doing this he and the student were talking about professors and my dentist explained that they went to the same school. So I asked, well sort of asked-the best I could with my mouth open, what school they went to-they said USC-Oh, I say I used to live in Irvine-they ask if I'm a Trojan fan-I say no, I'm a Wildcat fan I grew up in Yuma, AZ. So later after I was all done, the dental student asks hesitantly, Do you know the Nelson family, do you know Mark Nelson? And for the first time I looked at him and sort of recognized him. I say yes! Mark is my brother. So he says I was Mark's MTC companion. So I say yea! your name starts with a "D" right? Its Elder Dyle! Of course he doesn't go by that name anymore-its Dustin, or Dr. Dyle. Dustin and Mark were good pals and still keep in contact. Well, I didn't get to talk to him much longer cause I was being summoned to pay. But that is just crazy! I've had moments like that before-I call it the Yuma connection. I've been on airplanes and met complete strangers who know people I know from Yuma, and everywhere we've lived there's always been either someone I know from there or someone who knows someone from Yuma. The benefits of growing up in a semi-small town.

AH! Spring is in the air!

Our front yard glacier has finally dissolved and its in the 70's today. Spring and summer in Colorado are my favorite seasons. We've been playing at the park almost everyday the last week (in between being sick). I was excited this morning to enter another post with my Easter pictures and of some I took yesterday in the backyard-but I started erasing pictures from my camera-something John says I never do, and I don't, so I wanted to finally do it. Well, I accidentally purged my new pictures before I got them on my computer. I am totally bummed out! So sorry but no pics which will probably make the post a bit boring to all of you. But for me its just a journal entry. Easter this year was pretty normal. John bought the candy and he got a lot!! So the kids have a year supply now. He also hid eggs the night before which Jeffrey thought was so cool. Later Easter morning, (we have 1pm church) I put in an animated New Testament video and told Jeffrey we were going to watch an Easter movie about Jesus-and tried to explain what Easter was really about. The movie started and he says "Mommy, where's the Easter bunny?". AHHH!! After church we had the usual ham dinner with John's sister Katrina and her husband. I tried out a new dessert-Flan-which I had had at Rodizio Grill a few months ago and thought it was divine!. Its an Argentine custard like dessert made with condensed and evaporated milk, eggs, vanilla, and caramel on top. Well, it was okay but nothing close to Rodizio Grill's take on it. Oh, well it was fun to try!
Yesterday Jeffrey and Sammy went outside with John and played baseball. Now John is a huge baseball fan and because baseball is the only sport Jeffrey has shown mild enthusiasm about he is ecstatic! Jeffrey actually has some natural talent and can hit the ball pretty good. John and Jeff went to a few Rockies games last year and although Jeff's favorite part was riding the light rail there and back, he has picked up on a few of the player's habits. For example, he wags the bat when he's waiting for the pitch then after he hits it and in his own words: "baseball players hit the ball, then they throw the bat and run"-and he THROWS the bat as hard as he can behind him and runs after the ball he just hit (no bases in our yard yet). He also asked me to put his tuke on (I call it a beanie but that's because according to John I grew up in Mexico, John served his mission in Canada so the kids call them tukes) so he wanted his took and gloves so he could look like a baseball player. Later that night John and I decided Jeffrey WILL play baseball, become a doctor (based solely on his Halloween costume choice and his extensive knowledge of the digestive system), and be an accomplished chelloist or pianist.

We Are the Champions, My Friend!

I'm sore, tired, a bit bruised, but it was worth it!! My South Suburban basketball team won the women's basketball tournament last night. We played two games-thankfully we were seeded first going in so the games weren't back to back. We started out the first game with only 4 of us, down 0-9, 5 mins into the game, then two more players showed up and we ended up winning by 15. The second game we won by 20. The season began with a loss, then a win by 3 points, then a win by 5, by the end of the season we were winning by 15-20 points. Last night I made 3, 3-pointers which is NOT my thing at all-so I gave myself a pat on the back. I should also mention that we were probably the oldest team, with the most children.

A Tantrum and the Kindness of a Stranger

Last Friday I went to Target to get some swim diapers. We headed over to the baby section and Jeffrey saw some small milk carton boxes of fish crackers. So I let him get one. We got the diapers then I was looking at swim suits for Jeff-and he was out of the cart running around. Meanwhile, Sammy was begging for me to open the fishies so I did. That was my mistake (should have asked Jeffrey first). Jeffrey sees that Sammy is eating his crackers and goes absolutely crazy. So I'm like, I'm outta here. We go to quickly pay for the diapers, Jeffrey is still ranting, screaming, hitting me, trying to take the cart from me. I'm about to blow my top-have my own tantrum. We get in line behind a lady with two small well-behaved kids. I put the diapers up on the belt along with the disputed crackers. I'm still fighting with Jeff who is now on the floor screaming, kicking, trying to hit me. And I don't notice that the lady in front of me has paid for my stuff. I go up to the cashier ready to pay and she hands me the receipt and tells me that this lady paid for me. Well, the kind stranger was gone, almost to the opposite doors I was going, my kids are both crying, I'm tearing up, so I don't run after her, I just want to run and hide. But I was so grateful for her, she definitely didn't have to do that. I guess now I have to, as they say, "pay it forward". Hopefully when that happens my kids will be the well behaved ones?!

Jeffrey's reaction to his punishment and our conversations regarding this incident are pretty funny. I told him in the car, leaving Target, that he will have a time out when we get home and no movies or TV today. Later after lunch he says "Mommy can you watch TV?" and I say yes, "Mommy can Sammy watch TV", I say no, "Mommy can we still go swimming today?", yes, "Can I still play with my toys?",yes. Later that night after his football class he tells me "I can throw footballs but I can't throw fits". Ahhhh! Blessed understanding.

Another Decade Gone

I'm 30 now-that's right, 30. That means I can command more respect. I'm feeling a little arrogant about being old-like I want to tell some young person-"how old are you?... yea well I'm 30 so listen up". I think I'll try that one on Jeffrey. I don't think I really act my age-or look it (except for my graying hair that I dye-oh and the eye doc told me I should wear reading glasses, plus the other day I noticed I have smile wrinkles around my eyes-great!). John surprised me with an I-Pod Nano-so now I really don't act my age cause I rock out around the house while I'm doing dishes, folding laundry. So on my birthday(I say "so" a lot-so what?), John made my favorite breakfast, french toast with strawberries and powdered sugar. Then he took the boys downtown for the Denver Home and Garden show and I went shopping. Then treated myself to Rubio's. Sat. night we had to go to stake conference so no parties. Sunday my sister in law and her hubby came over for dinner and cake. And I got the usual phone calls from the fam-so all and all a good time.

East Coast Times

As I mentioned before, we recently took a trip to Fairfield, Pennsylvania (southeast corner near Gettysburg). John had business in Virginia, about an hour and a half from his family so the boys and I tagged along. It was a fun visit and the weather was nice. We went to a children's museum in Gettysburg one day. Its just a old house that an older couple has converted into a museum. The kids particuarly liked the bubble machine, train table, construction zone. Jeffrey painted some pictures. Another day we went to a train museum in near by Haggerstown, MD. There were a bunch of toy trains ran by train fanatics. They all tried to talk to me about their trains-the types, the engines, the cars etc-but it went way over my head. I thought I had a fair base knowledge of trains because of my boys interest but the visit to the museum blew that notion out of the water. The last day we were there we had a brunch with John's Grandma Brown and played games. Thank you Earl and Janice for letting us come visit!-oh and Spencer, you too-for getting us hooked on guitar hero.

This is a classic picture of Jeffrey, jumping up and down
waving his arms.

Jeffrey painting

The bubble machine...so fun



Sammy and Grandma Moats

Jeffrey watching the toy trains

The whole gang at the train museum

Roots Discovered

I always get asked who my boys look like, because they certainly don't look like me or John. Jeffrey has all dark features while John and I have blue eyes and lighter hair. Sammy has the right coloring, but still doesn't look like us. On a recent trip to Pennsylvania to visit John's family we found a picture of John's great great uncle and great grandpa, James Long and John Harris Long. Do these two look familiar?


Sammy also looks like John's dad, except the mouth. Here's a picture of Allan Kjelstrom at 19 months.

Journal-y Thoughts

I've had two items I've wanted to record lately. One is a few things Jeffrey has said recently. One day he told me, "Mommy", I say "yes", then its "Mommy" a few more times while he's working out his thoughts, "People have two slides in them, one for pee and one for poop". Very observant little boy. Today, my sister-in law Katrina was over and she's pregnant and had to keep going to the bathroom. We were all playing Go Fish, Jeffrey's new favorite game, and so I explained to Jeffrey that Katrina has a baby in her tummy, and when you have a baby in your tummy you have to pee all the time. So he thought about this and says "When I'm big, can I have a baby in my tummy?", I said no, just girls. Later in the day he says "Mommy, when Sammy and I were babies we were in your tummy then we dropped out and started crawling then walking and then we got big, big, big". I'm really afraid I'm going to have the birds and the bees talk with him way earlier then planned. I also noticed the other day that Jeffrey eats his M&M's just like me and my Dad. Growing up, I would seperate them into colors, then eat them so that all the colors had even numbers, then eat them color by color in some kind of order. Well, Jeffrey isn't that sophisticated yet, but he does eat all of one color first, then another, then another. Hmmmmm....is there some kind of M&M eating order gene?

So the other item I've been wanting to write about concerns a more serious topic. A few days ago our semi-liberal (because its no New York Times) paper, The Denver Post, printed an article on the 4th page of their main section titled "Mormon Women Seek Greater Role". I immediately start reading-and the author is saying that there was an uproar about Julie Beck's talk from last conference that said LDS women keep sacred covenants by keeping tidy homes and dressing daughters in nice clothes for church. That 250 women wrote an online rebuttal against Julie Beck's talk and that we're all anxiously awaiting the new prophet to see if women's roles will change. I'm exagerating a bit in my explanation but it was that bad. So I'm fuming-250 women? out of how many-5 million in the church? Did this guy read Julie Beck's talk? He didn't get the point AT ALL!! Why do they even feel like this is news? really-250 women?? Why publish this. And if you are going to do a report on it-at least do your research. So I wrote my own rebuttal online-I wish I knew if the author will ever read it. He's from the Associated Press. Click here to read the article

January Birthdays!

John turned the big 30 on January 22nd. Of course he wouldn't let me throw him a party, so I made a nice dinner and we had cake at home.

Jeffrey turned 4 on January 30th. I had playgroup at my house that day and we had a party with the playgroup friends plus other friends-Nathan, Camden, Spencer, Andrew, Jocelyn, Paige, Brooklyn, Kate, and Alyssa. Jeffrey enjoyed his party very very much-especially opening the presents. I didn't want any of the parents to buy gifts for him cause I felt like my house has too many toys, but they ignored my request. And I'm happy they did because Jeffrey loved it!

My Escape from Winter

I took Jeffrey and Sammy to visit my parents in Yuma, AZ Jan 9-16th. We flew all the way to Yuma International Airport-which is a thrill ride in itself for Jeffrey. He especially likes riding the "fast train" at the Denver airport and told my mom that we went to the "C station" (the C terminal). It was 70 degrees plus some the whole time we were there. So we played outside quite a bit. We played at a park one day, visited my Grandpa Nelson-who'll be 91 next month. Oh, and there's a story here-so my Grandpa lives in Bard, CA which is 20 min west of Yuma (Yuma is right on the Colorado River). Bard is rural farming area and so my Grandpa's house is surrounded by fields. There used to be lemon orchards that my brothers and I would play in growing up, but the trees got a disease and had to be destroyed. Now there are baby date palms growing. Anyways, that's just background info, so we're visiting Grandpa when I hear Sammy crying and I look out into the field and see he's lost his shoes. The field was muddy-and muddy fields can be like quick sand-so his shoes got stuck in the mud and his feet came out of them. Well, my mom went out to save him and was OK going out but coming back her shoes broke the top layer and she almost got stuck herself. It was funny at the time...ha ha. Also in Bard, we saw my Uncle Jerry's old Model-T truck that he decorates for Christmas. This year he had an electric train on the back-which was mesmerizing for my boys. So what else, we went on a boat ride on the mighty Colorado River. Jeffrey loved it, Sammy not so much. Sammy did try to drive the boat and didn't want my Dad to have his hands on the wheel. We played at my brother Paul and Ericka's house. Their son Hunter got a Wii for Christmas-and beat me at bowling. Then we took a short trip over to California to visit some old friends. First we drove up to Irvine to see my friend Hillary and her daughter Avery. We just played at the park for a couple of hours. Avery and Jeffrey were best buds when we lived there and poor Avery bawled when we had to leave. Then we went to San Diego and saw the Clarks. They took us to the San Diego Zoo the following day, then we ate ice cream and headed back to Yuma. On our way home we were surprised by John at the Phoenix airport-he'd had business in PHX and Tucson and met up with us for our flight home. Denver greeted us with 18 degree weather-brrrrrr!! It was a long, fun trip and its good to be home. Okay, I'm trying out a slide show for my pictures-hope it works!

White Christmas Memories

Christmas this year was so so fun. The weekend before Christmas, we took my parents to see the White Christmas musical downtown then ate at a cute little Italian cafe. Christmas Eve day we all went to The North Pole-which is actually in Colorado Springs. It has kiddy amusement rides and the most real Santa Claus I've ever seen. Jeffrey was excited beyond limits to see Santa, but as soon as we got into the cottage, Jeffrey didn't even make eye contact with him and so didn't sit on his lap. But we had fun riding the rides. Jeffrey tried out the Tilt-a-Whirl which is probably the fastest ride he's ever been on-but loved every second. That night Patrick and Katrina came over and we had appetizers and a special Christmas Eve family home evening by Grandma and Grandpa, complete with "Don't Eat Pete" and a Christmas lesson fit for a 3 year old.

Then the perfect Christmas for my parents who've never been out of Yuma for the holiday, it snowed! And it was my first white Christmas too. Mom and Dad took a walk around the neighborhood after the presents were all opened just to be in the snow.
And as a side note, Jeffrey was more enthusiastic this year than he's ever been about Christmas. Christmas morning he asked John "Is Santa still in our house", and when John answered "no", Jeffrey said "oh, good!". He knew if Santa was in the house he couldn't come down stairs to open presents. Then he jumped around and waved his arms shouting "Its Christmas!".

The North Pole-Jeffrey driving!

Dave and Betty-Grandma and Pappy-Mom and Dad

Don't Eat Pete-I think I won.

We played a throw the ball in a box game.

Jeffrey's gift from Santa-he played with this for 10 hours straight on Christmas day!

Sammy opening his favorite present-a new blanket! (So I can wash his blanket once in a while)
He was playing with the camera but as soon as John opened the bag and Sammy saw the blanket he gave out a little scream and started to suck his fingers.

2007 Re-cap

We didn't include a letter in our Christmas cards this year but asked people to check out our blog, so I'm writing a little re-cap of 2007 for all of those who aren't regular readers (and if you are a regular to our blog the following will be a repeat and boring so I'd stop reading...now...no really...now).

John and I have been busy remodeling our home. We recently had new floors put in, the white walls are being painted, and much to our chagrin we decided to paint the trim as well. Last summer, John planted some new trees and bushes in the backyard and is looking forward to putting in a new deck next summer.

Enough about the house, it consumes us! Over the summer, we had the whole Kjelstrom clan in Colorado for a reunion. John put his brothers to work in the backyard the first day. We watched fireworks, ate lots of food, enjoyed a short trip to Breckenridge, oh and ate lots of food! A few weeks later we went down to Pagosa Springs, CO and met up with a few members of my family.

John is still (yea for still) working at National Valuation Consultants as a senior commercial real estate appraiser. He travels at least once a month all over the country (recently he got to spend almost 2 weeks in New Jersey-he was thrilled!). He took several appraisal classes this year in order to earn his MAI designation (Member of Appraisal Institute-highest designation for an appraiser)-only one more class and a grueling 2 day test left! He continues to golf when there isn't snow on the ground. At church, he works with the Teacher's quorum which he loves. He often relives his teenage years through the boys he works with.

Me-I go grocery shopping, do laundry, wipe noses and bums, plan meals and cook them, play trains, color, read books (children and adult) clean...and some other things I can't think of right now. No, really, seriously now, I do love being able to stay at home with my boys. The moments when they make me laugh or say something too cute completely counter the other times when we all act not so nice. I'm the secretary in primary at church. And Tuesdays I get to play volleyball-that's where I get out any frustrations I might have, I just hit the ball really hard! And I am enjoying the snow this year (that's because I made a promise not to complain).

Jeffrey still loves trains-I meant LOVES!!!! trains. He also enjoys watching movies, going to playgroup and nursery, playing play-do, and going to the zoo so we can ride the train. Oh, he also likes to see the lizards and snakes. He is a wonderful big brother who is most often kind to Sammy. He loves to come with me to get Sammy in the morning. Jeffrey had his first swim lessons this year. He had a hard time floating because he would get too excited-arms flapping, big smile-so he would sink since he was so stiff with excitement. But he was great at dunking his head under the water.

Sammy is growing and growing!! He is a curdle bug. He is like Linus, his blanket is never far and is usually being dragged behind him. If you are holding him with his blanket he will lay his head down on your shoulder, suck his fingers and sigh a bit. He is learning new words everyday. His favorite right now is "No". Dogs are his favorite animal. Sammy started exploring the world around him this year-particularly the toilet and things under the sink in my bathroom. He is also learning to hold his own against his big brother.

2007 has been a great year for us. We are loving Colorado and the friends we've made here. (Hopefully we can get some more family here someday). We wish you joy and peace this Christmas and the coming year.

Deck the Halls....

I just needed to post something new cause I was tired of looking at myself. And just as an update, I am feeling much better about my hair, John likes it, and I'm no longer nauseous. John was out of town most of last week and will be leaving again on Tuesday morning till Friday night. Uggghhh! The only good thing is, I get lots done at night when I'm all alone-like almost all my Christmas gifts are wrapped, our Christmas cards are almost ready (key word there is "almost"). This week I think I'll bake-I've decided to try some new holiday recipes such as fudge and toffee and maybe caramel. (I LOVE CARAMEL!!)

So more 18 month blues....Sammy hates shopping. Which is really bad at this time of year when I have tons of errands to make. We went to Walmart last week for paper and caulk-that's it. And he started throwing a fit because I didn't let him out of the cart when he wanted. It was actually a little funny because he was crying and hitting the side of the cart showing me how mad he was. So then all these old people and some younger folks were saying "Oh, what's wrong, its okay little guy". And I was thinking-what the heck??!! Don't take pity on him, he's in the middle of a tantrum! And serious, my selfish thought was they should be taking pity on me!
I was not amused.

My parents are coming this year for Christmas, the 21st-26th. We are excited to see them. They have never been anywhere but Yuma for Christmas. I really hope it snows for them. Then two weeks after they leave, the boys and I are going to Yuma to visit them-its my escape from winter trip. We just got a ton of snow this weekend-and I didn't complain!! I'm very proud of myself.

The Cut

Today I got a hair cut, a really short hair cut. Change doesn't come easy for me so right now I'm having some regret. I feel too masculine, like I need to be wearing high heels, a shirt with lace and flowers and fur and say things like "Oh my gosh, that is so cute!", to counter my hair cut. I think I'll go buy some girly barrettes tomorrow. John is out of town till Friday at midnight and I don't think he remembers that I was planning on the chop. I think the pictures I took of myself, in my yellowish bathroom make me look worse, but you get the idea. Okay, I'm feeling a little queasy now about this whole thing AND posting it on my blog. It'll grow out right! or I may end up liking it short, only time will tell.