What's New With the Wegners

Costa Rica was a great way to finish up our wonderful and busy summer.  Man... summer seems so long ago...

After our trip, we went on a couple camping trips, went to some weddings, and most importantly... we moved!!  Out of my parents basement into our own one bedroom basement apartment in Farmington!  We are so very, very grateful to my parents who were extremely welcoming and let us take over their basement for quite some time, but it was definitely getting time to get back on our own and into our own space.  The reason why we ended up staying so long was mostly because we were trying to figure out if we should buy a house or not (we didn't want to move just to move again a couple months later). 

Well, anyway after going back and forth between buying and renting we found this apartment in Farmington that we really liked.  It took us another month of thinking we wanted to buy a house before we realized that the Lord was giving us another answer and Farmington was where we were supposed to be.  So, in the first week of September we moved into our new apartment!  We LOVE it so so much!  The area is wonderful, the ward is wonderful (and gigantic), our landlords are fantastic and really look after me when Jeff is out of town, and our apartment, though only a one-bedroom, is quite spacious, open and doesn't even feel like a basement.  

(This is how we lived for the first few days... ha.  Sleep over in the living room!  Mostly because the carpet in the bedroom was still damp and we also forgot to grab our bed frame out of the storage unit ha ha.  Good times :)

In october we took a little trip out to Boston to visit Jeff's family who just moved there this summer, and a short trip out to DC to visit Jeff's grandparents.  We also said goodbye to a dear member of our family... "Turbo."  The beloved truck.  Jeff's truck of 10 years, and his first vehicle.  Turbo was quite the trooper and held a lot of sentimental value for us.  This truck brought us together and gave us over 3 more years of wonderful memories.  Turbo was very loved, and hopefully his new owner will be able to love him just as much as we did.  Fortunately we were able to replace (ugh.. such a harsh word...) him with "Turbo 2.0" (which has made the transition a little easier ha).  

I'm not ashamed to admit that tears were shed the day we let Turbo go... it was a very sad day indeed :(

   

In November Jeff had a big break from work so we were able to go hang out with his brother and family in San Diego for a few days.  We got lots of playtime with our nephew, went to the Wild Animal Park, and had dinner with Jeff's grandparents and aunt and uncle.  It was so great to see everyone!  

Jeff unfortunately had a 4-day trip during the week of Thanksgiving... so that was a big bummer.  I hung out at my parents house and we enjoyed a small Thanksgiving this year with my parents and two brothers. 

Pura Vida! - Part 4

Ok, last Costa Rica post!  Sorry so many... it was just too hard to narrow down all my pictures.  The rest of our trip was very nice and relaxing.  We enjoyed a lot of playing at the beach, pool, snorkeling, and scuba diving.

There was actually some really good snorkeling right off our beach... well, at least I was enjoying it until I swam into a patch of jelly fish (or at least jelly fish parts) and got stung really bad all over my body.  I was out of the water at that point and was a little nervous to get back in... but yeah, other than that the snorkeling was great!

We also took a boat out to a couple other snorkeling spots one day.

My favorite thing we saw were all the Spotted Eagle Rays!  They are so graceful and beautiful to watch swimming through the water.

All the scuba certified people went out scuba diving one day while the rest of us stayed with the kiddos.  Jeff really want to get all certified before we went on this trip, but it's really tricky with his flying schedule and regulations.  He ended up being able to a quick intro class in a pool while we were there, then got to go out with everyone else and do a little diving.  He was very excited and LOVED it!  I wish I had some pictures of it...

We've got three birthdays all within the first week of August, so we got a cake and celebrated while we were all together!

A view of our beach and the area surrounding our resort.

We loved all of our beach time!  Just a short walk away from our rooms too.

The kiddos loved their beach time too :)

Oma and Opa and their three adorable grand kids!  Covered in (and some eating ha ha) wet sand :)

Ahh.... Paradise.  I'm all ready to go back!

Pura Vida! - Part 3

Monteverde Continued...

So now we're on to the best part about our adventures in the "Cloud Forest!"  Our next, and final, stop was the Zipline Canopy Tour!!  Seriously. So. Much. Fun.

The tour included a series of 15 ziplines (the longest being 1 km long!!) that took us flying through the forest!

Little Brielle and Parker even got to come on this adventure (they rode with their moms) and they loved it!

Helmeted and harnessed... ready to fly!

The crew

Ziplining through the trees

This is the view of the longest segment (1 km long).  It was an amazing experience soaring over the tree tops through the clouds for such a long time!!  The view was breathtaking!

They had a surprise waiting for us at the end of the zipline tour... what they call "The Tarzan Swing."  Pretty much you climb to the top of a really tall tower, get hooked up to the swing, and before you can change your mind, they push you off.

Please enjoy the next series of pictures.... :)  

(in order to fully enjoy, click to enlarge!)

Those who know Jeff, also know that he's terrified (seriously...) of heights - yes, yes ironic I know since he spends much of his life thousands of feet in the air :).  So you can imagine how shocked I was  when he willingly participated in this activity!  He went first so he wouldn't have a chance to chicken out ha ha, but he did it and I was SO proud of him :)

And this is how much he enjoyed it.... ha!

My turn.... They told me to step up to the edge, but I started freaking out.  They didn't even wait for me to get there... they just pushed me off!  Ha ha!  Talk about terrifying!  (as you can see from my face ha)

Sheer terror!

Phew, I survived!

We got pictures of everyone else as well and they are all pretty darn hilarious - though I didn't think they would appreciate me posted them on the internet ha.  Some are more hilarious then others :)  But seriously, whenever I'm in need of a pick-me-up, I just look at all those pictures and I can't help but laugh out loud ha ha!  Good times.

Pura Vida! - Part 2

Our second big excursion was a long drive out to Monteverde - a "cloud forest."  Not to be mistaken for a rainforest.  It looks and feels like a rainforest, but it's up at a higher elevation.. in the clouds ha.  This was definitely my favorite day.  You'll see why :)

 Beautiful scenery on our drive up to Monteverde

Our first stop in the "Cloud Forest" was the Reptile House...

 Lots of cool frogs...

 And snakes... eww!

Our second stop was the Hummingbird Garden which none of us really thought sounded that interesting... but in fact it was actually pretty cool!

 There were hundreds of hummingbirds zooming through the air constantly (often right past your head ha ha!).

In the Hummingbird Gardens with our wonderful tour guide Mark

Next we went on the Sky Walk, which was an easy 2 mile walk through the forest.  It took us over a series of 8 bridges - some closer to the ground, some in the middle of the trees, and others at the treetops and above.

Beautiful scenery - very green!

 This just shows a little of how the bridges were (you can see one of them passing through the trees in the distance...)

 "Hot Lips" flower 

 Lookin' totally stylish in our flashy ponchos :)  We didn't think to bring rain jackets... but at least we had these!

To Be Continued...