Manuel Antonio II

Here are a few more pictures from Manuel Antonio.

The views were amazing!

I've heard of fiddler on the roof but never a monkey.

I love this picture. It's so peaceful.

I've never seen a sign like this before. Deer yes. Iguana no.

This picture is a little fuzzy because it was take from inside the car. We went over this bridge. Kinda reminds me of I-540 in NW Arkansas.

I think this explains itself.

Manuel Antonio

Our time hear is winding down. With that being said, there was one thing that I wanted to see before we left this country. And that was the beach. I knew that it would be something that I would regret if I didn't do it. Since being here we have been so busy with studying and sickness that we didn't have time for anything else. We decided that we would just go for it. We went with two other missionary families. It makes traveling cheaper when you go in groups. We left Friday as soon as school was out and arrived in Manuel Antonio around 6:00. Manuel Antonio is a beautiful place. We spent time on the beach, saw lots of animals, ate great food, enjoyed great company, and went to the national park. Prepare for lots of pictures. I took like 350. I just wish that I could capture the beauty of this country in a picture, but I can't. I'm not a big scenery picture person or animals but I tried to capture the beautiful views and animals. I have so many pictures that I may try to post some more later. Hope they don't bore you too much.

Poor guy!

We hiked up a trail at the national park and we arrived at this view. It was beautiful!

Meg on the boogie board.

Shannon and E playing with a ball.

We ate at this restaurant called el avion.

Here's the group. John and Tammy Ogden, El Salvador and Steve and Jill McCarthy, Uruguay.

These little guys woke us up at 6 this morning. They were throwing fruit on top of the roof. I think there were 20 - 30 of them. Shannon said it was like being at the zoo in a cage with them.

On the way back to San Jose we stopped on the famous Crocodile bridge. They were everywhere.

Ethan on the bridge.

The One Armed Wonder

Ethan was playing soccer at school yesterday and blocked a scoring kick. He ended up with a broke arm. Pobrecito! (poor thing) To make things worse, I should get the student of the year award and the mother of the year award.

Here's the story. On Tuesday I have a 1:00 class. I might add that it's the class that I dislike the most. However, that is besides the point. So, I stay at school and Shannon goes home. At 1:00 I go to my class and Steve comes and gets me and tells me Ethan is on the phone. I go talk to him and the conversation goes something like this:

Ethan: Mom, you need to come and get me because I hurt my arm.

Me: What were you doing?

Ethan: Playing soccer.

Me: Is it broke?

Ethan: I don't know.

Me: I have a class so I will call your dad and tell him to come and get you.

We hang up. This whole time I'm thinking that he probably just got hurt and wanted to go home. I shouldn't say this but, Ethan tends to be a little dramatic. Can you believe that? As soon as I hang the phone up, I call Shannon. He was not home. Where could he be? What do I do? Go to class and wait until after class to go pick him up? I mean really, how bad can it be? So, I call my upstairs neighbor and ask her to listen for Shannon to come home. And as soon as he gets there to tell him to go get Ethan. And I go to class. Hence, the student of the year award. As soon as class is over I call to make sure that Shannon got the message and he did. We all arrived home about the same time and Shannon and I decided that it would probably be best to take him and get his arm x-rayed.

When we find out that his arm is broke, I feel like such a looser. Why didn't I go get him? Then I remembered that I had no money for a taxi and would have had to go home first. By the time I would have done all that, it would have equalled out to the same time. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Oh, and to make it sound a little better, the school didn't think it was broke. Hence, mother of the year award.

Ethan is feeling pretty good today and he slept well last night. He is really worried about going back to school and having to write with his left hand. Looks like I might be doing his work until school is out. Surely between me, Shannon, and Meg we can get it done.

Only 84 Days to Go!

The countdown has begun. We have 84 days until we leave Costa Rica. I know that sounds like a lot but since we started at 365, it sounds pretty good to me. I guess it would sound better if I said 11 weeks. That is less than 3 months! Ok, enough with the numbers.

We are so ready to see our family and friends back in Arkansas. Can you believe that it will be a whole year since we have been to Arkansas? It's craziness! We will only be in Arkansas for a little over a week. Just enough time to get paper work for our visas, doctor appointments, dentist appointments, and eat at Taco Villa (maybe we will eat Taco Villa everyday lol) We are very excited and are waiting with anticipation.

We will be in the states for 2 1/2 weeks total. The time we are not in Arkansas we will be spending with my mom in Houston. We have so much to do, I just hope we get it all done.

Update on language studies:

We started our last trimester 2 weeks ago. I am really hoping to learn a lot this last trimester. I am finding that I am understanding more and more Spanish. I wish that I could speak as much as I understand. My teacher, Karen, keeps telling me that it will come. I just wish it would hurry up. Last Sunday, I understood the whole message at church. It was a great feeling.

Ecuador:

We are so ready to get to Ecuador. We have been waiting for this moment for over 2 years now. It's hard to believe that it has been that long. The Ecuadorian Assemblies of God are wanting to build like 1000 churches and we are hoping to be a part of that. We are willing to do whatever God wants us to do.

Prayer Request:

Please pray for our last trimester here at CINCEL. We want to finish strong. I am wanting to get involved in some sort of small group to work on my Spanish. Weather it be a bible study, youth, or working in child care at the church, I need something to do. Please pray that God will open doors for me.

Please pray for a smooth transition back to the states and that we get our visas by September 1.

When we arrive in Ecuador we will need to find housing, STL vehicle, and furnishing for the house. Please pray that we will find all of these things easily and timely.

Thanks for praying for our family.

Celebrating after a futbol championship.

Here's a little taste of Costa Rican soccer fans. Shannon and Ethan went to a game and they said that it is ten times worse at the game. This is what we saw when we got off the bus last night. It was a little scary, but very normal after a big win. The Saprissa fans were celebrating a championship win. In the video you will see a lot of cars stopped in the road. We had to go through all of those cars to get to our apartment.

You put the lime in the coconut.....

Our lime tree (or it's called a lemon tree in Costa Rica) in our backyard is overflowing. We decided today that if we didn't get the limes picked that they were going to ruin. So, Shannon and the kids went out and did some lime picking. They picked about 50 and we are taking them to school tomorrow. They make really good limeade. While in the backyard we found a hummingbirds nest with two eggs in it and another thing of bananas. That means we have about 300 bananas growing in our backyard. Not sure if they will be ready before we leave. I hope so because I love making banana bread.

Just goes to show you what you can find when you go outside!

I got these for Mother's Day from the kids. I love them! They are going to come in so handy since it's the rainy season here in CR. If I have to get wet, I might as well have cute shoes on.