Pura Vida

Oh, I completely forgot to write about the worst 3 weeks of mine and Sadie's lives. We still haven't figured out where she got them since we home school and spend most of our time as a family or with the Greene's, but Sadie got lice. It wasn't too big of a deal the first week as we spent a few hours each day washing it and combing it and picking out each one. In fact, it was over Conference weekend, so it gave me something to do during the talks, which I actually kind of enjoyed. I thought I'd gotten rid of it, but a few days after we were done, she started itching again and sure enough, they were all back. The next week and half about killed us. We tried every remedy everyone told us...various lice shampoos, soaking her hair in olive oil all night, then mayonnaise all night, then coconut oil all night for multiple nights, blow drying and flat ironing it to try and burn them, washing her hair with laundry detergent, using essential oils, and finally, taking a pill t

I haven't been very good about blogging, especially about anything beyond commenting on pictures. So here's a little snippet from our day. Each day, I spend 30 minutes to an hour reading with each of the kids out of a grade based curriculum book. Everybody but Tessa takes turns reading every other paragraph. Today, Sadie decided we needed to sing all of our reading. So, we spent 30 minutes singing about the digestive system and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek who invented the microscope. Tessa decided I needed to be handcuffed during her reading time. So, she wrapped my hands in stretchy head bands and hair ties, which made it really hard to hold my phone and turn pages, but she didn't care. Jack doesn't sit still very well during his reading. He prefers to run laps and climb the walls (literally) during my turns to read. Luckily, his brain works at warp speed so anytime I quiz him to make sure he's listening, he hasn't missed anything. Autumn hates our reading

I haven't figured out how to import pictures into blogger from more than one file at a time. So, you get pictures taken from my phone in a separate entry from the one's on my camera.  Tessa wanted to go to Africa Mia again for her birthday. This time we did a waterfall tour as well and got to go behind the fences to feed the animals up close. It was incredible. Birthday girl.  Jack's first kiss.  The giraffes were full by the time we got to them and didn't want any of our carrots. Our guide tried to block the giraffe in with our jeep, but it climbed over the top of the car. It was pretty funny.  The waterfalls.  I tried to get close ups of everybody cliff jumping, but they all came out blurry. Jack and Aaron jumped off the top of the waterfall. The moms weren't very happy about that one.  The croc tour.  Our guide got out on the river bank and hand fed these suckers raw chicken. It was crazy!

 This was the coolest baptism I've ever seen. I still can't believe Sadie got to get baptized in the ocean. It was the most picturesque and gorgeous setting I could have ever imagined.   My baby turned 6 and wanted vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting for her cake.  We finally made it down to Manuel  Antonio for a weekend of excursions for the girl's birthdays. This was the beach at the end of a wildlife hike through the national park. We finally saw a couple of sloths that I could actually see. We saw one during a night hike in Monteverde, but all I saw was a dark blob in the trees. Our guide this time had an awesome scope that made it so we could see everything really well.  This was our monkey tour on Autumn's 12th birthday. It was awesome! The kids got to hand feed the monkeys.   Our guide caught a boa to show the kids and Jack got to hold it. Back home again. This is a giant toad that lives in o

From June: Pics from our Visa run to Granada, Nicaragua On the road again Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway We're the best of friends Insisting that the world keep turning our way and our way Had to pay a toll here before crossing the border. Very professional, that hand-written sign and rose tablecloth. Left our Costa Rica rental car at the border (the Galloper is in the shop, surprise, surprise)  Passport checkpoint on the way in Another passport checkpoint, and fee station But we made it! This restaurant was really cool. We were the only ones there and it was like an art gallery. No more monkeys... oh, forget it. Our hotel lobby In front of the hotel Breakfast across the street, very proper, quite, hear, hear. The restaurant is in a courtyard, the top of the cathedral is right there in the background We asked for them to go easy on the chocolate syrup A little side trip for