Some Family Time

The countdown for Mammaw and Pappaw coming seemed like it lasted forever.  The kids were so excited. This was the longest they had ever gone without seeing either of them.  Ten days seemed like so far away until they got here and Logan asked how many days they were going to be there and he then said with watery eyes, "That's not very many days."  We had to tell him to quit asking everyday how many days were left and to enjoy the time we had.

As always the time was so short, but we crammed as much as we could in that ten days.  David took a couple days off so we could go to the beach, and we found the most beautiful beach that we have seen in Costa Rica.  We had the beach all to ourselves.  Perfect!!  Most of you have seen these photos on facebook, so I will just post a few here.  Well, few is a relative term.  This is a few compared to how many I took.

Olivia using her new camera snapping shots of Mammaw

and Leia.

More snapshots from Liv.

I think Liv will make a great photographer!

Sorry...not sure what Leia is trying to do.

But she does have some cute little thighs : )

Me and my first "little" love

Can we say paradise??

He is a snorkel maniac.

Having fun with Daddy.

The beach bum who prefers water to only be 

this deep and not very strong waves.

We saw the most beautiful fish while snorkeling here.

He was a little adventurer climbing through all the rocks.

Building a sand castle with Daddy.

Crystal Clear Water.  Amazing!

Mammaw playing with the kids.

This was just the beginning of the sand-encrusted baby.

Boys caught this crab with Pappaw.

Loving her time with Pappaw and Mammaw.

Tamarindo Beach

Can I just say I love this picture!!

And love this one too!!

And, this is my favorite of all.  Lil Stair-Steps

Tamarindo beach is a surfing town

and I just though this was a really cool 

shot with the sun setting.  None of these

were photoshopped at all except to changed

to black and white on a few of them.

My Family

Kiddos with Pappaw and Mammaw

Daddy and the silly boy who can't look at the camera

without silly faces and crazy eyeballs right now.

Two very handsome men

Oh yeah, HE IS MINE!!

Our little beach beauty

who was being a sassafrass and refused

to look at the camera.  Got a cute shot

anyways.

As the sun was setting you could see the rain pouring 

down in the ocean on the right.  It was an

awesome sight.

Sunday Afternoon Finds

We have used some late Sunday afternoons to venture around to surrounding barrios and just take in the sights.  And you never know what you are going to get to see.  Some things wonderful, others unusual, other things would rather never see again, and some so comical you can't stop laughing.

This is an abandoned church we came across.  It is very

neat looking and a shame that it has been abandoned.

You would think they would have renovated, or at least kept

it to use for something.  The new one they built is sooo

ugly.  Not saying the looks of the building matter at all.  

You would just think that since they abandoned this

then they would have had something better to go to.

Who knows how old this thing is.  I would have opted

for renovating and maintaining.  It was so cool.

Side view of abandoned church.

And you never know who or what you will see in the

turn on a road.  They were really flagging us down

to try and sell us something.  This country is not

short on entrepreneurs for sure.

Common travel...even for the not so young.  

Good exercise!

(since moving to town, David and I love biking to where

we need to go)

A snapshot cannot do this scene justice.  This was a 

very very small shanty in the middle of nowhere.

No windows...looked like life shouldn't even 

exist there, but on the doorsteps you see a mother

with her baby. 

Every time we see one of these we laugh hysterically.

We call them the circus vans.  They are the tiniest things.

It is smaller than a Corrola (probably like the size of 

a Prius) but in Minivan form.  And you never know

how many people are going to start climbing out.

We just imagine dozens of clowns hanging out of them 

like the circus : ).

The view from just about any hilltop in towns.  You

see metal roofs for as far as the eye can see with no 

yards.  Everything is just sandwiched in.

We actually cross this bridge, and yet again the picture

does not truly display its bad repair.  I cringe, pray, 

and hold my breath every time we cross it.  And it

is soooooo far down to the river below.

Always light at the end of the tunnel!

In minutes you go from jungle to rolling hills

to the likes of New Zealand (or so I imagine).

One of many, many gazillion rustling creeks, brooks, and rivers.

Pretty, just don't touch.  For REAL!

Tarantula vs. David

I had forgotten about this evening (not sure how that is possible, I guess kind of like how you forget how painful childbirth is) until I was going through pictures on my computer.

While living in the other house we saw multiple of these hairy BIG spiders, along with many other not likeable species.  Anything could come into that house with all of its gaping openings throughout.  I just knew I would wake up one day with a snake in the kids' room.  So thankful that nightmare did not become a reality.

Logan was walking from his bedroom into the living room.  Not sure how he just noticed this thing 20+ feet in the air.  He pointed up at the ceiling asking what was that up there, "because that is not a gecko Daddy!

freak out time when I saw this puttering on our ceiling.

I herded all the kids into the bedroom, shut the door, put a towel to block the gap under the door.  We moved the kitchen table to make for a large open area.  The thing crawled up to the peak of the roof and nestled itself right up against the center beam.  We have no ladder and had no idea how we were going to exterminate the thing.  We just knew it was not staying alive in our house and sleeping with us.  

Daddy to the rescue!

His weapons of choice were a tennis ball for shooting and a broom for trapping.  Thankful he has a good arm that is all powerful and strong.  He nailed it.  I was prepared to make a run out the door if the thing start scurrying around the floor.  It dropped with a thud!!  Dead on impact with the tennis ball.

Dead is the only way!

Investigating its death.

Further and more in depth investigation of said spiders death.

VERDICT:  David battled the spider and won.  It was unanimous!!

Some Sweet Cheer

Christmas always being filled with traditions, we had to start some new ones this year.  I always remember cooking in the kitchen with my mom, and I missed that so much this year.  I love planning with her and Brittany and spending our days in the kitchen when we are together.  So many memories and so many laughs.  So, the girls and I spent some time in the kitchen playing.

We couldn't possibly eat all of these cookies, so we had to come up with something to do with them.  I wanted to put some smiles on some faces and add some sweet cheer to someone's day.  We planned on taking them to the orphanage that we had visited before and tried to call a friend to see if she though the administration there would give us approval.  After talking to her we learned of a new Children's Home that had just started operating in Atenas the week before.  A woman from Missouri has dreamed of doing this for years and finally was able to accomplish all of the legal hurdles and opened her doors the week before Christmas.  She has taken in 6 children, currently with room to house 7.  These are children who are sibling groups and older, who are likely to never be adopted out of the system.  Her dream was to give these children someone stable and someone who loves and cares for them.  While she will eventually receive government financial assistance it is not even enough to cover the costs of things that will then be required by the government.  She opened the doors with her savings account and is currently operating off of that and praying for God to provide for their needs.

When we learned about her and these children we knew this is where we needed to go.  So, we called her and she said to come on over any time we wanted.  The kids here in Costa Rica are on summer break.  My kids had a blast playing with all of the children, aged 11 to 4.  They were running through the house, playing with the dog, blowing bubbles, and having the time of their life.  Lord-willing we will have lots of play dates with them in the future.  The kids have already been asking when we get to go back!!

And talk about some smiles.  Nothing like some decorated sugar cookies to brighten some eyes and curl some lips up into beautiful smiles....and maybe, a tidbit of hyperness.  Well, I had made enough cookies for an orphanage of 30, not 6, so we had some cookies we needed to give away.  We were headed to dinner at a friend's house and just randomly stopped in the road when we saw people and gave them a plate of sugar cookies.  David and I laughed inside because I think in the states if we had stopped in the middle of the road here and there and handed out homemade (not packaged and sealed) cookies, they would probably have been thrown in the trash can....because "you never know."  But, there were smiles of pure delight.  Loved spreading some "Sweet" cheer and that for sure will be a tradition from now on.  While I always baked and spreaded sweet cheer, it was always to people I knew.  Loved the random spreading!!!  Hope you had wonderful traditions this past Christmas that brought smiles to you...because this one sure did for us.

Resurfacing

I know, I know.....I have had people emailing me and asking where I have been.  Well, here's the short version.  We had company from November through the middle of December and then there were the holidays and lets just say I was super super sad during the holidays.  I know you are thinking, hey everyone visited you close to the holidays.  Well, it just wasn't the same.  I mean I have spent the past 29 years spending Christmas with my entire family, cooking the same things, and wonderful traditions.  Not only was that different but it is quite different when it is 85-90 degrees outside and you are used to snuggling by the fire under a blanket while watching marathon Hallmark Christmas movies.  It is just plain weird...even David thought so.  In addition to all that, I was becoming super distraught over the amount of dirt we were living in, the gecko poop in everything (and the geckos diving into my dinner plate and dropping from the ceiling onto my bathroom counter top...yes, these are real stories, not stories, real live truths.  Some may think I am crazy for even being concerned about dirt, but when you simply lay your child on the bed and a huge dirt cloud emerges from the linens you just washed, well........GOD definitely answered that prayer.  We moved to another house last week.  Literally, there has been nothing and still is nothing available, but God worked a miracle.
All that said, if I had blogged, I think I would have been full of complaints and nothing uplifting or worthy of reading.  So, that about sums that up.  Better for you that I have been absent.  Really hoping to have the time to resurface into the Blog world again.  I do have a few more minutes a day now that I am not sweeping 5 times a day : ).
Several of you donated money to help purchase shoes for all the kids that come to church with us.  And my Mom was also able to find some major bargains for them all to have a few new clothes too. The kids were soooo happy for these new things.  I tried to catch some smiles (they don't smile when you tell them to look at the camera).  They loved it and had a good time.  My kids enjoyed making crafts and snacks for the little get together too.  All of the kids and parents too wanted everyone to know they said, "Thank You!!!"  I thought it would be better to show you : ).

I hope everyone is having a fabulous start to the new year.  We are praying for many great things to happen this year and look forward to sharing our trials of life with the ups and downs, the funnies...and a million pictures from the past 7 months to catch you up to date on life here in Costa Rica.  Until then....Pura Vida!