Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches - two views

During our trip to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in DC last month, the girls had the opportunity to hold a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. They had decidedly different opinions of the bug:

Abby:

Evie:

Abby's First Swim Meet

Abby's first swim meet was a success. Her team, the Friendly Frogs beat the Hamilton Lakes Hornets 752.5 to 516.5. It was the first of 5 dual meets scheduled for this summer. Abby won her heat in freestyle (finishing 8th overall) and she finished 10th in backstroke. You can watch the freestyle race below.

Evie provided the entertainment between races:

Abby's Gymnastics - Tumble Bee's Big Show

Abby did great at her end-of-year gymnastics show. I thought she did best on bars because the dismount was perfect, but she did great in her other events too. Unfortunately, Evie was not well-behaved.

Bars:

Balance Beam:

The Trampoline Routine:

The Floor Exercise:

Vault:

Ms. Brittany, the coach!

Abby's 2011 Karate Tournament

After having recently been promoted to orange belt, Abby participated in Mike Carr's 2011 Karate Tournament. The Tournament started with a specular demonstration of one of the instructors chopping two pieces of wood in half that were on fire!

She started a little slow with grappling - Julie says she does better against the boys than against the girls in grappling. As you can see, it was a close match, but she lost:

Next up was sword fighting. She was upset about her loss in grappling and took it out on the other girls. Here is her first round fight:

A victory in round one resulted in a second round fight:

A victory in the second fight resulted in a third:

A victory in her third fight resulted in a trip to the FINALS:

Abby finished in second. As you can see in this photo, the girl who beat Abby was older and bigger:

The tournament concluded with some Randori. Abby lost her first fight but, as you can see, it was close.

All in all, the tournament was a success and we had a great time. As you can see from her giant smile, Abby enjoyed herself. This is what she had to say when she was done:

The Costa Rican Invasion - Day 1!

In late November, 2010, the Buchholz and Higgins clans invaded Costa Rica. Amy arrived from San Francisco, the Higgins' from NC, and Mimi and Poppy from Florida. On day one we all arrived in the capital, San Jose, and stayed at the Cariari Double Tree. After the plane ride, we decided to relax at the pool and in the hot tub:

Then, it was on to dinner at Cafe Mundo. We enjoyed a feast in perfect 75 degree weather while the girls were able to feed the gold fish.

Costa Rica - Day 2

After a leisurely breakfast, we departed San Jose for La Fortuna Town and the Arenal Volcano. Fortunately, we had our own private transportation - a bus. This allowed Evie to catch a nice nap on Dad.

The trip to La Fortuna took 3 or 4 hours, but we eventually made it to the Arenal Springs Resort. As you can see, the resort's grounds were beautiful. There were many different kinds of flowers and birds. The whole family was able to stay in one duplex, which afforded us a nice view of the volcano. The bathrooms in the duplex were unique because the showers were constructed so that we felt as if we were showering outdoors even though we had the privacy of indoor facilities. We were a short 5 minute walk from the natural hot springs pool, the restaurant, and the concierge that helped us book all of our excursions.

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We had lupper at the Resort's over-priced restaurant and then visited a frog farm, where we saw the famous red eyed tree frog, the poison dart frog and where we soon discovered that Abby was dressed like the Blue Jean Frog:

Costa Rica - Day 3 - Arenal Volcano

We chose to visit La Fortuna because of the Arenal Volcano. Arenal Volcano is an "active" (watch the video) andesitic stratovolcano, which is over 5,000 ft tall and is shaped like a traditional volcano with a cone and crater. The volcano had a major eruption in 1968, which destroyed the town of Tabacon, and another major eruption in 1992, in which a northwest wall of one of the craters collapsed and generated several pyroclastic flows.

As noted in the video, since 1968 Arenal Volcano has erupted almost continuously - - - at least until a month before we arrived. Unfortunately, we did not see it erupting. In fact, we did not even see the top of the volcano because it was constantly covered in fog. Despite our confusion, we looked and looked and looked for the Volcano:

Since we couldn't find the Volcano on our own, we decided to take a hike with a private guide, and this is what we saw:

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Costa Rica - Day 3 - La Fortuna Waterfall

After our hike to the Arenal Volcano lava field, we headed to downtown La Fortuna for lunch. During several meals we enjoyed Casado, which is a typical Costa Rican meal consisting of rice, black beans, plaintains, salad and your choice of chicken, beef, pork or fish. It is very good and filling.

Next, we decided to hike to the La Fortuna Waterfall, which is about 250 feet tall. It is in a rain forest about 3 miles outside of town. While we were there, it poured, so we got to experience a rain forest in action. We started at the top and hiked down, down down. You can see the waterfall behind everyone in this group shot.

The waterfall was breathtaking. It was truly spectacular.

Costa Rica - Day 4 - Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge

After much deliberation, we decided to ignore the concierge's recommendation to venture into Nicaragua for a day trip. The idea seemed exciting, but a little sketchy too. The trip into Nicaragua would have cost the group about $750 or more, which was to be paid in cash only, and it would have lasted about 12 hours. This would have been too long of a trip for us. As a result, we decided to stay in Costa Rica and visit the Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge. Caño Negro is a Wildlife refuge in the Northern part of Costa Rica, which is only about 15 miles from the Nicaraguan border. The refuge is a wetlands that is fed by the Frio River. We explored the area by boat and were able to see some incredible wildlife, including the Jesus lizard (who can walk on water), iguanas, white-faced monkeys, howler monkeys, spider monkeys, two-toed sloths, cayman, and some cool birds such as parrots, storks, spoonbills, ibis, anhingas, cormorants and others.

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Costa Rica - Day 5 - El Trapiche

On day 5 we departed La Fortuna town for the Monteverde Cloud Forest. Our trip was memorable because it involved a bus to lake Arenal, a boat across lake Arenal, and then a 2 hour trip on unpaved roads, which resulted in a flat tire, on the way to the Monteverde Cloud Forest. Below are a few photos and a video report that we took while in transit.

In Monteverde, we stayed at the Trapp Family Lodge, which was a quaint hotel, with wild bannanas and flowers growing in the back yard.














Our first excursion was to El Trapiche, which is a family-owned coffee and sugar cane plantation. On our tour we learned about the traditional and modern ways of harvesting these cash crops and, we got to ride on a fancy cart pulled by oxen.


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