April Adventures - Part 1 of 2.
/Oh, blogging, why must I always fall so behind? It’s been more than one month since my last post. The thought of going through one month’s worth of photos and writing about everything we’ve done over the past 5 weeks is beyond what my brain is capable of right now. So, with that being said, I’ve decided that I’m going to just play catch up and cover the highlights (which I’m sure is all anyone really cares about anyway). I will be better about blogging more frequently. I will be better about blogging more frequently. I will be better about blogging more frequently.
Now, I LOVE photographing my kids. I genuinely do. But I’m not working much here and I felt the need to try something different, so I volunteered at Madison’s school to take pictures of their Sport Day. She has the sweetest little school that I love so much, I’m going to be really sad when we switch her next year (she’s already in the oldest class). The kids had a blast running around, and I really had fun watching all the smiles and taking some pictures.
One of the hardest things about moving here initially was feeling so lonely. I missed (well, I still miss) all of my friends back home a lot. Thankfully, I’ve started to meet some lovely moms here in Costa Rica, and I’ve been coordinating and going on play dates. We met a lovely family who also recently relocated from the US with two adorable little boys that are similar in age to Maddie and Kenzie. Maddie calls them “the bloomer boys.” We had them over a few weeks ago to go swimming. Unfortunately, our pool was closed that afternoon so I set up a hose, kiddie pool and water table in the garage. The kids had a blast and Lisa and I got to relax and chat a little. The kids had fun too. I think someone has a crush on the baby.
Speaking of the baby, how stinking cute is she???
OK, they are both too cute for words. Madison has actually started to tolerate my camera! She even posed for me a couple weeks ago. Hey, it’s not perfect but it’s progress!
As much as I don’t want to, I feel the need to share one of the most eventful and embarrassing things that has happened to me since being in Costa Rica. I got lost. Like, really lost. A few weeks ago, I had a shoot for a family who lives about 40 minutes from me. There is this lovely map app (and now I have Dora The Explorer songs in my head) called Waze that I use for EVERYTHING. It generally is pretty good but redirects you if there is traffic. There is a main highway called the 27 that I’ve taken to get to the area where my client lives, but Waze didn’t tell me to get on that highway. Without dragging on too much with every detail here, let’s put it this way. I drove in circles for more than an hour. There was a panic attack. There were tears, and there were plenty curse words. The clients were so understanding and trying to help me find my way, but Costa Rica roads aren’t always labeled and I had NO CLUE where I was. At one point, the father asked where I was and my answer was, “umm, I see large red and white poles.” That was seriously the only explanation I could give. My phone was minutes from dying when I miraculously ended up on the 27 and I knew how to get home from that point. I had to cancel on them that night because the light was almost gone and I needed to take my opportunity to go home since I knew where I was. Plus, I was so frazzled from the experience that I knew I wouldn’t be on my A game. I called them to profusely apologize and express my sincerest embarrassment, and their response was pretty much to not worry and Pura Vida. And this is one of the things I love about Costa Rica. Most people are SO nice and laid back! That night, I had a large glass (OK, glasses) of wine to recover from the stress. The next day, I got this message on my phone. Eff you, Waze.
Grandma came to visit us, so, of course, we had to go on some more adventures! We headed to Arenal Volcano, which is our favorite place we’ve been so far! The drive was long, but so worth it and we can’t wait to go back. We also went back to La Paz Waterfall Gardens (our second favorite place!) Here are a few highlights from those trips.
Now, those who know me know I organize my photos in a very particular way. I have folders by year, month, then date with a short description of what's contained in the album. This makes blogging my photos a tad easier since I can just go through the folders in chronological order, pick my favorites, edit, blog stomp them, write about what we did and be done with it (gosh, it seems so easy when I put it like that but i'm on hour two of this post) . But, since shortly after La Paz we headed on a plane to go back to the States, I have all of my photos from April 20 - May 8 on my laptop right now and haven't transferred them to my iMac. Since this is already a novel, I'll leave you with Part 1 of 2, and do a separate post about our US adventures shortly! It's going to be lots of fun -- airplane travel, sunrise photography mentoring sessions, splash pad adventures with friends, Disney, the stomach bug plague.... you don't want to miss it.
Before I head out though, is there anything specifically you're interested in reading about (who even reads this)? Would anyone enjoy some tips and tricks about photography, editing, camera gear, organizing photos, etc.? I certainly don't have all the answers and I might not do everything right, but what I do works for me and it may work for others. Let me know if you'd like info on anything photography related, and I'd be happy to write a blog post about it!
Pura Vida!
Ashley
