We found a great little cafe that has 1/2 price entrees Mon-Fri and a strawberry milkshake that just may have converted me into a milkshake lover. It def. has Sophie convinced. It was so thick that you really had to work to get it up the straw and little miss thing had no problem getting busy. Naturally we have already gone back and got her another one for her 18 mos bday. I have a feeling this will become a weekly treat.

Ah let me have a taste!

Hmm, sweet, thick, creamy...

I got this...where's yours?

We finally visited Escazu (aka the Beverly Hills of Costa Rica). It was full of Americans, huge buildings, chain restaurants, malls, etc. I felt like I was back in the US for a few hours. As nice as it was to see all the familiar places, it was just as nice to leave them and go back to the quiet little town of San Ramon. Still it is good to know that a bit of US exists here and is accessible for whenever i have the urge for Outback, or Pizza hut, Victoria’s Secret, Mac…hmm I dont think i saw a starbucks…guess I’ll have to go back to investigate (and maybe do some shopping)-lol.

On the way home we sat in the worlds worst traffic jam for about 20 minutes. Luckily Will weaseled us out pretty quick and we just drove past looking at the pile of cars going absolutely no where. Amazing how we could exit the largest and most modern mall we’ve prob. ever been in, and then sit in traffic due to one broken down truck on a too narrow bridge…just seems a little backwards.

Anyway, on the way home we found a Walmart Supercenter which was AH-mazing! I was never such a Walmart fan in the states b/c the one in Chicago was in a meh area…but entering the brand new walmart here was a little bit of heaven. They had all the brands I couldn’t find, a huge selection of cheeses that I’ve been missing, and toys galore. It was brand spankin’ new, super clean, not crowded, and enormous!! I guess Santa will be making another trip to Alajuela.

All in all it was a very productive day. I found pretzels, chicken broth, and normal cheese (my how priorities have changed)! Oh and even artichokes! On our way home we decided to order a pizza and Will was going to pick it up after he dropped off Sosi and I at the house. Poor, poor daddy. After a full day of driving in and out of San Jose, he went to get the pizza which is about a 5 minute drive from the house, and ended up sitting on the road stuck behind another broke down truck for 2 hours!!! It took him longer to get a pizza 5 minutes away than it did to drive all the way to San Jose. I dont know what the deal is with trucks breaking down here, but to make matters worse, after waiting 2 hours, a police officer offered a piece of very valuable advice that prob. would have helped ohhh i dont know…2 hours prior. He showed Will (and all the other drivers stranded) a dirt road that was right behind him and lead him right up to the road to the house all within 3 minutes. Bahaha. Will left to take the dirt road and then the car in front of him got stuck in the mud and had to have 5 guys get out to push it. Gotta love it. Huge modern 3 story mall with Cartier, Ralph Lauren, etc. and dirt roads to take you home. It is all part of this adventure we are on, and though our pizza was ice cold and Sophie waited up past bedtime, it is all worth it. Slideshow below

So after the car gets stuck in a ditch, we get home to a lovely present from Chester…the cats bring us dead mice and Chester brings us dead armadillos…wonderful. When we pulled up to the house we saw huge black birds circling the yard and Will said, yup something is dead. Thanks Chester (hurl).

Well we had our first off-roading experience in CR. I guess it is some form of initiation b/c it seems everyone gets stuck at some point here. We were on our way home from Villa Blanca breakfast when the car just slowly slid into a mud ditch. It was so slow that i was sitting in the back asking Will why he was pulling over, and he was like, ummm I’m not…lol. A few minutes later i look at Sophie and she is higher than me just chillin out. The passenger side of the car was stuck in a pile of mud and after a few failed attempts to get back on the road, Will decided to get out and see exactly how stuck we were. Apparently a farmer heard the engine an struggle and came out to see what was going on. Lucky for us he said “uno momento” and came back with a big ole tractor and a huge chain to hook up to our car. It literally took all of 5 minutes and he pulled us on out and we went on our merry way. The guys were super friendly and said people get stuck there all the time, so apparently they knew just what to do!

Well our little princess is officially 1 and 1/2. OMG! Where is the time going?! I have to do a full update on all her accomplishments but I am on hold with a bank right now b/c they screwed up on some deposit and I can’t fully concentrate. Sooo, here are some pics from her 18 months birthday! We took her to get a bag of her favorite popcorn and then went and celebrated with her favorite strawberry milkshake! We walked over to watch a parade but the streets started to get jam packed with families and I could see daddy getting clammy, so we headed out before the parade started. It prob. started an hour late (Costa Rica time) so I dont think we would have seen much anyway. Soph didnt seem to mind…she was too busy digesting her big ole milkshake. Happy Bday little Pookie, poo-poo, peekachu, sosi, iggs (each birthday brings more nicknames). We love you and are so insanely proud of you. Love your number 1 fans, Mommy and Daddy! XOXOXOXO