Family Reunion in Maine

So backing up to before we got Huey, 3 weeks ago we flew to Maine for a family reunion! I met tons of new relatives and had fun just hanging out with family.

Lobster rolls...one of the reasons I look forward to visiting Maine in the summer!! So delicious!

We spent a few days in Fairfield (Josh's hometown) before we headed up to Caribou so we were able to spend time with Sam, Matt and Kayla. We played disc golf our first full day there. Here's a shot of Josh dominating :)

The course went through a swampy forest area so it was super buggy....at one point I had 5 mosquitoes on me at one time. 

After Josh took this picture, I realized that my leg went up after every shot...but it didn't help me much...haha.

Josh's mom cooked wonderful meals every night we were there so I pitched it one night and made dessert! These are s'mores cupcakes . I read the recipe in Real Simple and I linked it in if you want to taste the amazingness as well. They are pretty easy to made and I was impressed at how good they looked!

The next day we went down to Freeport, Maine to the L.L. Bean store and took their paddleboarding discovery class. They drove us to a nearby river, taught us the basics of standing and paddling at then we paddled around for around a hour and half with two instructors. It was a ton of fun! 

The Saunders boys are known to be pretty competitive so they spent time jumping and turning on the board and trying to knock each other off while I attempted to stand one foot for a while and practice some old cheerleading moves. Josh and I want to look for paddleboarding around here to continue perfecting our skills. 

Had to get a classic boot picture of the brothers. 

There's a new Red Sox boot truck too!! 

Friday, we drove up to Caribou for the reunion and went to Josh's great aunt's house for food and fun.

They live on a farm with potato fields that were blossoming and made great scenery for pictures! That power line in the distance in the US border so that's how close we were to Canada! 

One of their cousins had the cutest Victorian bulldog so Matt had an impromptu photo shoot with him. 

Saturday morning Josh and I drove over to Canada so that I could officially travel to 4 different countries over the past 4 months. We drove over to the town of Grand Falls in New Brunswick and saw this pretty dam below. Crossing back into the US wasn't as much fun though. The border patrol decided to search us and the car so it held us back 30 minutes longer than we'd hoped but we were cleared! 

When we got back, we went to a nearby state park for a family picnic. Josh and Matt decided to rent kayaks and battle for the family's entertainment. 

 Josh won both times but his kayak was much sturdier for this activity. This picture of him makes me laugh.

Here's most of the Clark family! 

That evening, we went to a dinner that was the main event of the reunion. Josh's mom did such a wonderful job setting up and decorating for this dinner along with organizing a setting up for the picnic and so much more! Here's Josh, Sam and Matt with their cousin Sarah. 

BFF picture!! Clark bars....classic 

Me and my sweetie 

So the summer is now coming to an end so the elaborate travel blogs will stop for a while but I'll probably blog soon about hiking trips and other fun Colorado adventures!!

Our newest family member, Huey!!

I've wanted a dog for over a year now but Josh and I could never find good timing with moving, a wedding, a small apartment, trips, a cross-country move, more vacations...

When we got back from a family reunion in Maine this week, we decided that it was finally a good time to get one! I had already researched different animal shelter and rescue organizations in the area so we had an idea of where we were looking. 

We went to a Petco Friday night where the organization 4 Paws 4 Life was holding an adoption event. We looked at a few different dogs and puppies and decided to think about it and come back to their second event the next day. We were open to any breed and we loved the idea of a dog that was a little older and hopefully already house trained. 

When we showed up Saturday we saw a brown dog laying in the back of a fenced area while two other dogs jumped and bounced around him. One of the volunteers mentioned that these dogs had a discounted adoption price today. We asked to have the brown dog brought out so we could meet him and his face just won us over. 

So now we have Huey!! The rescue volunteers estimate him to be around 11 or 12 months and he's some type of Ridgeback mix. His name comes from the old Louisiana governor, Huey P. Long since that's where we met and married! 

Getting adopted is hard work so he's just laid around and napped for the majority of the time he's been home with us.

For some reason he likes to lay 1/2 on and 1/2 off of his dog bed.....

I'm completely obsessed with taking his picture So far he loves treats and eating in general so we are hoping that he gains some weight soon. He also loves getting brushed and laying on our balcony. 

Costa Rica Vacation Part 2

Now for the second half of my wonderful vacation to Costa Rica....

Tuesday we booked a tour to Arenal Volcano which was a few hours inland from where we were staying. We had a tour guide and a driver take us which was wonderful because we didn't have to navigate at all! It was pretty cloudy so we didn't see the volcano until we were leaving. First we hiked through a rain forest and it was raining the whole time so I didn't get many pictures.

Everything was so green!!! 

Forgot to pack a poncho..... 

So the volcano is right behind this church but the clouds are covering it up. This is a cute little town called La Fortuna. Our tour guide said that this town sprung up because people came here to watch the volcano shoot out lava every night. It hasn't done anything in the past three years though.

The clouds cleared up as we were leaving so our driver pulled over so we could get out and take pictures

This is Arenal Lake beside the volcano. 

Selfie with a volcano....pretty awesome

Wednesday we decided to tour around closer to our villa and on our way. First stop was a puma rescue. We weren't seeing many animals in the wild that we wanted to so we decided to go see some at a rescue!

This little guy reminded me of Marcell from Friends!

Toucans are so pretty!! They are also unofficially the bird of Costa Rica. They appear on everything in tourist shops!!

This puma was really active and pacing in his cage most of the time we were there.

This warthog may have been my favorite animal. He was in an exhibit with two deer and he kept following one of the deer around even though she clearly didn't want him to. It looked like he was asking her to play!

After we left the puma rescue, we went exploring down a dirt road where there was a waterfall and we ate our lunch and went swimming.

In the upper center of the picture below there's a baby monkey. We watched him playing while his mom slept for a long time. This was right beside the waterfall so it was really cool to see!!

I could never get tired of these sunsets

Thursday was another relaxing pool day and Friday started off early because Amber and Kimberly's mom flew out of the airport close to our villa at 6 am and then Amber, Kimberly and Kristin all had flights out of San Jose in the early afternoon (Even though Amber and Kimberly's flight didn't work out....long story). 

I still really wanted to see sloths while I was in Costa Rica so I found a hotel on Trip Advisor called Adventure Inn that drove you to different tours in the area including a toucan rescue ranch that had sloths!! I was hooked so I had the girls drop me off on their way to the airport.

On the way to the ranch, I had a chance to practice my Spanish more with my driver! Before the tour started, we were waiting on another couple to show up so the ones of us who were there were able to watch the owner feed baby sloths!! I was freaking out I was so happy the whole time.

This is an awesome ranch who tries to rehabilitate animals and release them back into the wild when possible. The tour was so informational and educational. If you are ever in Costa Rica, I suggest coming here. They even have two rooms for rent like a bed and breakfast! Here's their website: http://www.toucanrescueranch.org/ 

This adorable little girl is a spider monkey and wanted to show off for us the whole time we were by her cage

I was obessed with the sloths though. 

I mean seriously....who couldn't love this guy?

We didn't get too close to the toucan cages because it was mating time.

And more sloths!!

I was in heaven right here

Our tour guide put one of the sloths in a climbing tree so we could all take selfies with him. #perfection

So as you can see my Costa Rican vacation was amazing!! I can't wait to go back! I told Josh he could come with me this time. :)