Christmas is Coming !!!

We found a Christmas tree farm here in Fallbrook so we loaded the girls and went in search of our special Christmas tree.

Here are the fields of trees. We were looking for something not too tall, or too short.

Maya noticed the horses on the hill across the way. Here she is waving "hi" to them.

Here are the horses galloping around.

We found our special tree and here's a picture of Nader carrying it into our house.

Take a close look. Sahara crawled under the tree to help her daddy set the stand.

And here's the finished tree. We are starting to get very excited about Christmas around here. Notice that there are no glass ornaments on the lower half of the tree. The tree is not monkey proof but we tried to play it safe.

Sahara and Maya posing with Mr. & Mrs. Claus.

Costa Rica - The Final Chapter

Here are the last fun filled days we spent in Costa Rica.

Last picture of the girls at Tamarindo beach.

Our last sunset at Tamarindo.

The last night we stayed in San Ramon at a place called Villa Blanca located in a cloud forest. This place was so cool, literally. We were in the clouds, and they never left. Because of this unique climate there are many indigenous plants and animals.

Here's the view from our patio. Forest and clouds as far as the eye can see.

One morning we took a guided trek through the forest.

Here's Maya strapped to daddy.

Family photo deep in the forest.

The local wild life.

Here's we are traveling home.

Happy Thanksgiving !!!

Every year we have Thanksgiving at our house and Nader's mom, Linda, sorts out the meal. This is a good thing because she is an amazing cook. Here are a few highlights of our turkey day.

Here's Linda (a.k.a. Tata) sorting out the turkey.

Here's Nader's Dad (a.k.a. Ba) posing with the cooked turkey.

The feast.

Here's Maya and Sahara eating the meat off the bones. Classic !!!

Here's a cool photo of the three sons and their father, oh and my mother. From left to right: Nader, Brian, Saba, Bulos and my mom, Rose.

Here's a good shot of the Khoury klan. From left to right: Brian, Nader, Linda, Bulos and Saba.

Another group shot of all of our family.

Sahara was looking extra cute in her dress.

Here's Maya staring at her cousin Dominic.

Both sets of twins. From left to right: Dominic, Milani, Maya and Sahara.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Khoury family !!

Costa Rica Part 2

This picture pretty much sums up our trip. Smiles, fun and babies...

A view from the house to the beach. Nice...

More local wild life. I was pretty afraid that one of these iguanas would take off with a baby.


A view of Tamarindo beach.

Where's Maya?

There she is !!!

Nader on a good day.

Fresh fruits and vegetables anyone?


Maya is multi tasking while in her car seat. She is juggling calls.

It may not be clear but Maya is giving the sign that she is tired and wants to go to sleep.

Family photo of the traveling Khoury's.

Greetings from Costa Rica !!! Part 1

We are back from a week long trip to Costa Rica. Our friends, the Yarchever's, invited us to spend a week at their brother's beach house near Tamarindo. We could not resist and packed up the girls and our bags and set off to Central America.

Getting to Costa Rica was an adventure in itself. We took a 5 hour direct flight from LAX to San Jose, Costa Rica's capital. Then drove another 5 hours from San Jose to Tamarindo. If you look closely at the map you can see a pink highlighted line. That's the road we traveled to reach our final destination on the North Pacific Ocean.

Along the way we got a flat tire. Here's a picture of Larry and Nader fixing the tire.

Here a picture of the scenic jungle we had to drive through. Our friends are in front of us leading the way with their GPS.

Here's a sample of the dirt roads into Tamarindo. It was treacherous driving at night.

Here's the house we stayed in. "WOW ! ". This is what we said when we saw this house for the first time. It's nearly 8,000 sq ft, on the ocean, fully furnished and has never been lived in. That's right, we were the first people to stay in this beautiful house, even before the owners.

Here's a shot of the beach in front of the house. Not a soul to be seen on this beach which made this place our private paradise. Since Costa Rica is near the equator, the water is warm and inviting.

Our beach.

Maya listening to a shell.

Since we were the only people on the beach, we let the girls run around naked on the beach. Our young nudists loved playing in the tide pools.

There are a lot of wide life in Costa Rica including horses as you can see Maya pointing out.

Group shot.

Here's Maya and Sahara standing in the streets of Tamarindo. A shanty town with dirt roads.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our trip.

A Day At the Khoury Compound

Check out what our silly monkeys have been up to today.

Here's Sahara on the John Deer.

Here are the wonder twins in action.

Today was a special day for Maya. Her daddy helped her plant her first plant. I'm looking forward to watching her plant grow over the coming months and hopefully years.

Tonight daddy made us a gourmet meal of lamb shanks and spinach palak paneer (Indian dish). Here's a picture of Sahara covered with spinach and gnawing on a lamb bone. Nice...

Here's Maya chomping on a lamb bone. We couldn't get the bone away from her. She took a bath while chewing on it and I was afraid she would go to sleep with it in her hand. Thank god she finally lost interest while we were reading books before bed time.