Cousins

We really tried to have Camp Whippoorwill (our cousins camp) this summer, but we just couldn't work out the logistics.  At the last minute, TK and Taeya got a ride home with Geoff's parents from Idaho,  though, so we have two great cousins here for the week.  The girls are in heaven.

We haven't seen them much, although I do catch glimpses of them picking berries in the garden, riding bikes across the driveway, walking through the yard with new chicks, hanging from trees, digging out boots for an "explore", buried under hundreds of Littlest Pet Shop characters, and endlessly sucking on Popsicles.

I would like to say there aren't any reports of someone or another being mean, and everyone feeling included 100% of the time, and that I don't find Popsicles sticks around the yard, but that just wouldn't be true...

Catching Up

I have had a difficult time sitting down to write about our first week of SUMMER!  I have been neglectful about taking pictures of all that has been going on.  So I will sum up our first week back home in the good ol' USA, and then I will be better about keeping up on our summer fun.

We take so much for granted in the marvelous country we live in.  Paved, wide roads, clean water from the tap, large produce sections and endless choices of good food to eat, garbage disposals and sidewalks.  We are so grateful for our experience in Central America, and we are so grateful to be home.

In the past week we went to the sealing (marriage in a temple) of our dear friends Bobby and Brittany.  Bobby was baptized a year ago and it was a privilege to be a part of such a happy occasion.  We saw Shakespeare's Tempest put on by TNT, our local theater company that Tennie will join in the fall. We attended our friend's dance recital. 

Anna

Kylie

We had an afternoon swim at our friend's Kylie and Cindy's home.  I proctored a final for Kylie.  I did a lot of catching up on my church responsibilities.  Tennie had three youth activities.  Geoff locked himself away all week to catch up on his professional commitments.  He cleaned out the pool.  The girls spent hours and hours outside reuniting with their guinea pigs, and getting acquainted with some new chicks in the coop.  Adele's guinea pig had an overnight stay at the vet for reactions to some kind of poison.  The girl's were in a TNT Summer Camp all week.  Adele went with Geoff's parents to Idaho for a cousin's baptism (and is still there).  And I have washed and folded enormous amounts of laundry, cleaned out our pantry which was the beginning of a large scale de-cluttering of our space here at Geoff's parent's home.  This is no small feat and will take me weeks (but feels sooo good!)  And today is Father's Day.  Oh how we love the dads in this home!

There.  I'm caught up.

Wrapping Up Costa Rica

Has a month passed already?  We've been packing up all day (we fit in a few dips in the ocean and a goodbye to Jojo our neighbor monkey) and we leave well before dawn (and dawn is early here!)  I have a slew of random photos before we go.

We had a wonderful house-cleaner show up every morning and say cheerfully, "Hola chicas!" to the girls.  They imitate her often.  We will miss Grettel's service-oriented spirit.

We also had a cook most days.  We met her at church and she was wonderfully creative, however she was limited to Tico (Costa Ricans call themselves Ticos) food which is warm and quite heavy.  She made delicious empenadas for breakfast.  We sure are looking forward to fresh salads, though!  I took a picture of her (Nouria is her name) but can't find it.

We are really going to miss JoJo

And the sunsets

The girls created two names for waves.  The rolling ones you are lifted by are called "Otters", the ones you have to go under water for are called "Deep-Its".

Riding an "Otter"

Not sure what these kind are called...

Low tide

Gifts from the sea

 So long Costa Rica!

Yoga

My favorite part of Costa Rica has been our yoga class.  I haven't ever been to a yoga class, but I love yoga and do it almost every day.  We found a yoga studio just about 5 minutes down the beach and the Monday/Wednesday teacher, Dori, has been awesome.  

She introduced us to the Five Tibetans, which is a full-body workout in addition to detoxing the organs and glands, and energizing the nervous system, and can be done in 20 minutes!  Today we did yoga blind-folded which was really cool.  I am going to miss Miss Dori!

Estuary

Yesterday we did our last adventure - a boat ride up the estuary.  We had hopes of seeing some crocodiles, although there was no guarantee.  It was a beautiful day at low tide and we saw three crocs!  Adele spotted a big one that made its way into the water, we then saw a little baby, and lastly a young middle-sized one.  And on the side we saw a dozen kinds of butterflies and interesting birds.

 Through the mangroves

A croc is spotted...

Arenal - Nature Walk

Sunday morning we went on a complimentary-guided nature hike with a group of people from our hotel.  It was beautiful.

Eucalyptus trees were everywhere and we loved the colorful trunks

We all took a turn swinging on the vine - Tarzan-like.  This is nothing compared to the Tarzan swing Geoff, Tennie and Ceci did at the zip line.  I wish I could attach videos of the ENORMOUS swing they did.  This nature trail vine was just the right size for me.

 I did a nice Tarzan yell...felt wild

We rode in a tractor-pulled wagon on the way back to the hotel

Back in front of glorious Arenal.  It is unusual to have a view without clouds!

Our ride home was calm and only six hours.  We did get pulled over by a policeman who wanted a bribe.  This happened in Nicaragua too.  

When we got home (again very tired) we came home ready to plop into bed only to have our house smell horrible.  What in the world was it?  One of our watermelons had exploded (the second time this has happened) due to the heat.  Its insides were rancid and the juice had spread all over the floor, especially under the couch.  In our weary state we had to pull out the furniture and clean up a sloppy, smelly mess.  The girls couldn't even stay in the house the stench was so strong.

We went in to check on the girls after they had finally gone to bed and found Adele still in her going-to-sleep pose - nose covered, underwear in place.

Arenal - Ziplines

The girls were begging for more zip lines so we made the splurge.  These zip lines were longer and faster than the ones in Nicaragua.  The girls went with "taxis" because they were nervous about braking at the end of each ride.  The zip lines were along the bottom of Arenal Volcano and the views were spectacular.

Good times.

Arenal - Hot Springs

It was a busy Saturday.  First the Hanging Bridges, then the zip lines, and we finished the day at the Hot Springs (water warmed by the volcano).  I forgot my swimsuit and missed out on a dozen different hot spring pools at this very cool place.  I only got one picture.  

A relaxing ending to an adventurous day!

Arenal - Hanging Bridges

Saturday morning we went to the Hanging Bridges.  We thought thought it was two miles of hanging bridges, but it was more of a rainforest hike with a few hanging bridges.  Still cool.  We saw a lot of little critters, beautiful flora, and a sleeping sloth too difficult to take a picture of.  This is a photographers dream...if only I had a big lens and knew how to use it!

Some kind of viper snake...luckily not too close!

We've seen several dozen kinds of butterflies

 A trail of leaf cutter ants going up the tree

This was as big as the palm of my hand