Mucho Gusto Costa Rica!

Hola from Costa Rica! We are here safe and sound in Santa Barbara which is just 15 minutes away from the airport in San Jose. 

FIrst of all, I'd like to thank my parents because I know they prayed that our 3 kids would sleep on the plane, and they did! It was amazing :)  The 5 hour flight from Denver to San Jose went by really quickly. And even though Sean and I didn't get much sleep, it went much better than I thought it would!

 The sunrise was so beautiful! Being up above the clouds during the sunrise was something I've never seen before and it was a magnificent experience to watch the clouds light up and change shape. It looked like Goblin Valley in Utah, but made out of clouds.

 The kids all slept on the floor of the plane for a while so I stretched out across three seats and felt like the Queen of Frontier Airlines with all that legroom. Elora hardly cried the whole time - what a good girl!

 We are very excited to be here and are renting a little house from some wonderful and friendly people who have been cooking us traditional meals and sharing their cute family with us. They have a Grandma, Grandpa, Great Aunt, Uncle, Husband, Wife, 9 yr old boy Sebastian, and 3 yr old girl Natalia all living in the first house on the property, and we are staying in the 2 bedroom house behind it. The boys have been having a great time playing with their kids and Elora loves crawling around discovering everything.

 Isleivin, our host (the dad) has been so hospitable and friendly. He picked us up from the airport, and after a wild and crazy (but typical Costa Rican driving) Taxi ride through town we arrived at the house, unpacked, and took some long naps. Then Isleivin showed us around town. The roads aren't very wide, they don't have sidewalks and the cars drive really fast, so it was really scary walking along the street! I'm not planning on doing that again... our kids are too little to stay close to us.

 We took the bus into town and walked around a park. There was a group of teenagers who were talking and pointing at Peter and Jackson, so we went over to talk with them and they were SO excited to speak English with us. They also were enthralled with Elora and took turns squeezing her chubby thighs. (I don't know what I'm doing with my hand in this picture...maybe there was a bug on my finger?)

 This is the driveway to the houses. The Ice Cream Man came with his cart and the kids all had ice cream, which hardly ever happens back home, so they were really glad. The wife, Sylvia, did her laundry today and the whole side was filled up with drying clothes. I've heard that not many people have a clothes dryer here so that's going to take some getting used to. There are a lot of things that will take some getting used to actually!

 Peter, Sebastian, and Jackson playing in the driveway. The whole property is fenced in so that gives me a lot of comfort knowing that my kids are locked in, haha! They are such busy boys, I have a hard time keeping track of them when I'm taking care of the baby.

 Here's Natalia, she's adorable. I love hearing tiny kids speaking Spanish, it makes them seem so smart!

 This is the parrot. He's like a doorbell/guard dog. He announces when people show up at the gate and calls "Doña Linda!"

 Peter fell asleep on the couch while watching Monsters Inc. in Spanish. He slept for like 4 hours! Then his peaceful dreams came to an abrupt halt when he rolled off the couch onto the tile...ouch! Poor kid. Hopefully the kids will get into some kind of a schedule soon so they aren't so grumpy and crazy. Traveling with children is hard.

 The money is called Colones and it's 500 colones to one dollar. I love the pretty colors and pictures on the bills! We went grocery shopping and the total came to 11,000! woah!

We are excited to tour around this area for another couple weeks before we head out to Samara Beach. There are lots of volcanoes, beautiful waterfalls, all kinds of animal and nature preserves to go see. We'll see how much driving around we can fit in between our rigorous napping and relaxing schedule.

I am planning on posting to this blog every few days, so check back again soon! Sending love and sunshine your way! Pura Vida!