We're here!!!

Well, we are finally here!  It has been a crazy few weeks trying to get everything lined up to be comfortable leaving.  We spent weeks organizing and packing, then repacking.  With all of the stress of getting ready to leave for a year plus, we noticed Ember was not being her regular happy go lucky self.  After a few days of her being in a weird mood (depressed, not eating-her most favorite thing to do, and not drinking water) we took her to the vet just one week before we were leaving.  They told us she was having kidney failure and we needed to rush her to the Emergency Vet in Reno for more tests and to stay over night.  We were an absolute wreck! All of our plans of taking her seemed to be shattering just as we were most excited.  To make a very long, and expensive, story short, she has been diagnosed with Addison's Disease which was triggered by the all of the stress of us packing :( Addison's Disease is basically where she cannot produce the hormone to control a variety of things like stress, blood pressure, etc.  SO, once a month we will need to give her a shot of the hormone so the poor girl can regulate herself.  Thank God the disease is treatable and it turned out NOT to be kidney failure.

Todd took us to the SF airport and saw us off.  We had Ember with us and I was very impressed with how she handled the airport, only barking at a few sketchy people when they walked by.  We had her out of the crate for as long as possible and then finally had to say goodbye.  It was a red-eye flight, which was actually really nice, since we could sleep on the plane. Had a layover in Houston for a few hours, where they had Ember out for the whole time and walked and fed her, or so they say.  We finally got to the San Jose airport and couldn't wait to check on Ember.  We were a little worried about customs and claiming we were just traveling for a few months and six huge duffel bags and a dog, but they didn't think twice about it.  We had a driver waiting for us as we walked out and he took us to the Cargo terminal to get Em.  Dogs are seen a little differently here, so the idea of taking her out of the crate was insane for the driver. As soon as she saw us, she just stared and eventually went into a whining and barking fit.  I can only imagine how bad she had to pee, having not gotten out since Houston.

We got to the house and the five-six dogs that live on the property greeted us.  We are staying in a 2 bedroom/1 bath apartment on Jacob's aunt and uncles beautiful property in San Rafael de Heredia, in the mountains. Our porch looks out onto the family's garden with the city in the distance.  We had tea and visited with the family for a while, then went out for beer and some food with Jacob's cousins, Philipe, Toupi and his wife Liza.  We went to a sweet place just up the road that looks over the whole city. Jacob ended up leaving his wallet at the bar, and luckily the knew his cousins and they called his to come get it. Next time we probably won't be so lucky... The next morning, we all went to watch some of the World Cup and ate the typical Costa Rican breakfast of Gallo Pinto (deliscious mix of rice and black beans), fried cheese, plantains and fresh OJ.  Jacob's family has been amazing to us, welcoming us in every way.

Today we slept in a bit, which we needed, has some breakfast, and went to the local farmers market.  It was fantastic!  The food was incredibly fresh and inexpensive.  After getting all of the produce we needed, we walked back up the hill to the house.  This was the first time we really noticed the humidity.  It isn't bad at all just hanging out, but exercising in it is a different story.  So far, no problem with bugs here, they say it's really only bad at the beach, so that is GREAT news for me, since bugs can't seem to get enough of me.  Looking forward to tonight, where the whole family is getting together to make pizzas in the brick pizza oven.