The Engagement!!!

Chad made the best choice of his life on June 6th in Arenal, Costa Rica...he PORPOSED to me, hahaha ha!!! After 11 years of dating bliss—OK maybe not complete bliss, but at least extreme lust and passion—he made the life altering decision to spend the rest of his life with me, and believe it or not I said YES!

He did it at the natural hot springs at Baldi Hot Springs Resort. After spending three hours lounging in these beautiful jungle springs, he got down on one knee and the rest is history (the picture posted above is the exact lounge chair that he proposed to me on)! True to my nature, I screamed and freaked out for a bit and then couldn't keep my hands off of him while continually staring at the beautiful and HUGE ring on my finger :). We went to a fabulous dinner and shared a celebratory bottle of wine. I was unable to tell anyone until the next day because we had no access to a telephone. It was nice being able to enjoy our first night engaged without any distractions :)! The next day Kevin and Cindy (Chad's parents) arrived and I was more than eager to share the big news. I ran up to Cindy, gave her a big hug and said “hello future mother-in-law”. Needless to say, Kevin and Cindy were ecstatic!

The proposal was the best moment of my life! Imagine Chad on one knee professing his dying love for me, it was surreal. I keep trying to get him to re-enact it but he refuses, so sad! Chad, I love you and can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you! I promise no wedding planning until I get home...just wedding researching :)! Soooooooo happy!!!

Alex and AJ's Visit

After a beautiful yet emotional weekend in San Diego I flew back to Costa Rica with two new visitors, Alex and AJ. Alex is one of my best friends for over 15 years, going back to those dreaded softball days where I was intimidated by her outgoing personality :). Although their visit was rather short they were able to experience Chino's famous monkey boat tour as well as Chiclets Zipline tour. Once AJ got over his fear of the monkey pooping on designer clothing, he was able to relax a little and enjoy the tour. Additionally, AJ's short short's were quite the hit among the local ladies who couldn't keep their eyes off his culo :). Alex was forced to keep him on a tight leash for fear of some hot Tica chick stealing away her Italian stallion :).

Without a doubt the highlight of Alex and AJ's visit was the fact that we all three hung the washer on the screw!!! At Lowtide Lounge—the local bar—there is a game where a washer hangs from a string and you have to swing it to try to get it to hang on a screw that is embedded into a broken surfboard on the wall. Chad got the washer on the screw the second day we were in Esterillos after about two hours, and I had been casually attempting it for weeks with no success. Alex competitively played for about 20 minutes and succeeded and then AJ after attempting for about 10 minutes before Alex got it on his fourth try right after Alex. The competitive side of me raged and I decided that I was not going to leave that bar until I hung that damn washer on the screw. After about 35 minutes of intense screw tossing, I finally succeeded. We all three got our free beers and our names written on the board! It was my happiest day in Costa Rica to date :) (sorry Nicole, maybe next time). The next time I went to Lowtide I thought I would give it another try, on my third toss I hung the washer, go figure!!! Cheers Alex and AJ for forcing me to hang that damn washer!

On Alex and AJ's last night, AJ thought it would be a good idea to pick up a large cane toad to scare Alex. Just to mess with him, I told him the toad was poisonous (I think they are if you eat them, but not if you just touch them). He threw the toad all the way down our hill and proceeded to examine his hand and arm for rashes. He came rushing into our room later that night convinced that his veins were swollen and inflamed from the toad. I just about rolled off the bed laughing at his drunk ass! It was pure comedy!!! Thanks for the entertainment AJ :)!!

We love you both and had a great time with you. Thanks for coming to visit and I will see you in one month :)!!!

Kate and Jason's Wedding

Immediately following Meg and Lex's visit (in mid May) I hopped on a plane back to San Diego for wedding number two. Unfortunately due to money issues and the fact that Zburb had to leave the country during this time (the 3 month temporary vehicle importation permit had expired) Chad was unable to attend Kate and Jason's wedding with me :(. Kate has been my best friend for over 14 years, which made this day incredibly special for me. I was ecstatic to be standing by her side as her maid of honor. The whole weekend was surreal, especially considering the fact that Kate and I have been talking about our weddings for years. I can't believe the day had finally come! The ceremony and the reception were held at the elegant Westgate Hotel in downtown San Diego. Everything turned out perfect, even the dreaded speech I had to make. After a few glasses of champagne I was able to loosen up and speak from the heart. Thank God I won't have to do that again until my sister gets married :) ha ha!

Kate and Jason, I love you guys and was so honored to be a part of your special day! Chad and I are so excited to share our Costa Rica life with you (27 days and counting). Jason, you finally get to experience this “travel buds for life” crap I keep claiming, so you better prepare yourself because Kate and I are really intense when it comes to traveling :). Kate good luck studying for the Bar and congrats on graduating from Law school! I look forward to seeing Mr and Mrs. Feuerberg in Costa Rica!!! We love you!!!

...more pics from Meg and Lex's Visit

Meg and Lex's Visit

Meggan was my college roommate freshman and sophomore year at UCSB and Alexis is her nearly identical looking and acting younger sister :)

These wild sisters came ready to party in true UC Santa Barbara alumni fashion. For days leading up to their visit I drank gallons of water to overly hydrate myself in preparation for the extreme hazing I was about to endure from the Bechtol sisters. I honestly should have started training month's beforehand because both Chad and I could barely keep up. They were our biggest partyers to date and they were damn proud of it. We closed down the local bar one night and proceeded to convince Chad to let all three of us girls ride on the roof of ZBurb. Fully equipped with beers in our hands we made the drive through town yelling at everyone in sight and giving a friendly drunk salute to the local police. On the trek up the hill Chad “accidentally” drove through bushes and trees causing beer spillage and a near laughing attack. While dodging the tree limbs and bushes we decided that it was more important to protect the beer in our hands rather than our own limbs, needless to say we ended up with a few cuts and scraps. What a night, thanks Meg and Lex!!!

In addition to drinking we went on Chino's incredible monkey boat tour. This is Chad and I's favorite tour to date. We cruised around on a boat and saw a crocodile, snake, crabs, tons of birds and most importantly MONKEYS. Meg was in heaven! The best part of this tour was the fact that we all got to have a wild white faced monkey sit on our HEADS. It was crazy!! Some of them were sooooo cute and others were pretty scary looking. The highlight of the tour was when Jeremiah (the pissed off blue eyed American looking monkey) decided to come up behind the monkey that was chilling and eating his banana on my head and take his tail with both his hands and BITE it. Everyone on the boat watched as this happened while I freaked out not knowing what was going on on my head. The monkey tour was awesome and well worth the $25. Look for the tour along with Chiclets Zipline tour on Animal Planet within the next few months (no seriously).

We ended Meg and Alexis's visit with the ever-so-popular zipline tour. Although it makes my crouch hurt I sucked it up and did it again because Meg was so generous to pay my way :). Meg absolutely loved the way she looked in the helmet (see attached photo) and told me she wants me to buy her one and bring it back to the states :). Alexis especially loved the cameraman's famous crouch angle and decided to blow up and frame the crouch shots, sweet :)!!! This is why I love these girls, ha ha!

Thanks Meg and Alexis for bringing out the party girl in me!! We love you girls and had an amazing time with you! Now get your butts to SD soon so we can celebrate my engagement :)!!!

Zburb Update

There have been some recent changes in The Burbs life since we set foot in Costa Rica. First off, we lost almost all the gears forcing us to have the transmission rebuilt. There is only one guy in our area that works on automatic transmissions, so therefore he was the man for the job. In true Costa Rican fashion, the tranny lasted about 1 month before we had to take it back in for a minor tune up. It has since been back for a couple other “tune-ups” in the recent weeks. We had the brakes done and following the brake job The Burb wouldn't stop at all. Gotta love Tico mechanics! After getting them repaired at a DIFFERENT mechanic they appear to be good to go, but lets keep our fingers crossed!

Additionally, The Burb had to spend a week in impound due to the fact that Chad forgot the temporary vehicle importation paperwork on his drive up to Liberia for his flight back for Christy and Tyson's wedding. We were thinking that we would be lucky if the Burb was anywhere to be found when we returned from the States. Thankfully The Burb was in the impound yard when we returned, but none of the “officials” knew their heads from the asses (Chad's exact quote), so after two days of hassling with officials Chad proceeded to steal The Burb out of the impound yard in order to avoid hefty pay-off “fees”. Thankfully the Costa Rican government doesn't have an advanced enough system to keep track of impounded vehicles, so we have been free and clear to date!

The most important change in The Burb's life is its recent transformation from The Burb to Zburb. The Burb was blessed to have the famous graphic designer “Nicole Rowe” work on her exterior paint job. She was transformed into what we now call Zburb due to the incredibly artsy looking zebra stripes that were drawn and painted on her lower half. She is quite the beauty now and receives compliments and stars of admiration on a daily basis. Thanks Nicole!

I am sad to report that at the time of this posting Zburb is back in the shop for one of her routine “tune-ups”. We hope to see her back in Esterillos within the next day or two, but once again we are in Ticoville which means we are on Tico Time.

Chad's Biggest Hermosa Wave



Erin's Biggest Wave of her Life in Dominical