Everyday Life in Costa Rica

This is Austin's 9th-10th grade class. There is also a 8th-9th, but they recently moved him up to the next class. Austin is thriving here! He is constantly trying to persuade us to move here permanently. He has made many friends, and he is really excited to be chosen as a swimming instructor for the younger grades at the school. He tries to speak Spanish at school most of the day, and he is learning the language by leaps and bounds now! And he LOVES to correct his mom's Spanish every chance he can! Payback... I do it right back!

This is Austin with one of the swimming classes he coaches. Next to him is the PE instructor who Austin is a big fan of, Donna. She has given him a lot of freedom to help develop the swimming program and the kids have really come a long way. Britton came home and showed us a flip-turn Austin taught him and we couldn't believe it! Austin teaches swimmers all-day Wednesdays, as the rest of the kids in his class have field study.

This is Britton's 4th-5th grade class. It's swim lesson day so they didn't have uniforms on. He struggled at first not having friends who speak English, but he has made several friends. His best friend at school is named 'Mario' and it is fun to watch the two of them talk... they are both having to learn the others language in order to communicate.

This is the front of the private school our kids attend, Lakeside International. All four kids go to this school, as it is preschool-12th. It actually makes it REALLY nice to have them all at one place. And can I just say... I LOVE uniforms. I never thought I'd say that, but it makes life much easier! The kids have really learned to love this school. What a relief, as Grace really felt lonely for the first few weeks.

This is the LDS temple in San Jose, which was a 4-hour drive. We knew that it was closed for maintenance, but decided to go find it anyway. We will be back! The grounds are very beautiful and it was wonderful to see in the middle of a bustling neighborhood... such a contrast!

Austin and Brock have a great social life here... and I love that they share friends, as Brock's classmates are all girls.  These are some of the friends that they had met at the beach, then went to pizza, then came to our house to swim and make A LOT of noise... good thing we don't have any neighbors! These friends all speak English. I said to Jason, "Holy cow, I just realized we REALLY DO have teenagers!"

The kids are so intrigued by coconuts, it is hilarious.

These are pics are from our excursion last Saturday. We went to a local waterfall called 'Llanos de Cortez,' which is a one-hour drive from our house. We hiked in for 10 minutes and were amazed to see this beautiful natural wonder. The monkeys were climbing all through the trees and were dropping tree nuts on Jason as he read his book. We swam and swam, and climbed behind the falls. It was a wonderful day... and free!

There is more... 
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Relief Society

Britton and Grace in primary

Church is quite the ordeal here and we are learning to appreciate what we take for granted in the United States. We drive for an hour to get to church (and arrive 15 minutes early to get a seat, as it is very crowded in the tiny building!) and then we have to stay an hour after church so I can play the piano for the choir that will perform at the new church dedication in May. I know it is hard to believe, but Jason actually joined the choir! I know, I about fell out of my seat. Austin is participating, too! It has been wonderful to see my kids get so close at church. Grace and Britton have their primary class together, and Brock and Austin have priesthood together. They really rely on each other for companionship, as very few people speak any English at church. We have had our new friend, Lhylla, attend church with us one time and is reading the Book of Mormon. We hope so much she will keep coming with us and she is such a neat person and because she only speaks Spanish, I am learning a lot from her! Lhylla cries out with joy when I put sentences together that actually make sense. I like to speak well because she gets so happy for me!


We miss you all... we are going to try and find dolphins and whales on Saturday, so hopefully we'll have some new pictures!