I don't know beans about Costa Rican food...

Planning healthy meals and bringing them to the table has been harder than I planned here. I've been trying to cook meals that are healthy and use local foods, so our meals involve a lot of rice, beans, veggies and fruit. I can make a good pot of rice, chop a truck load of veggies, and pick out the best and tastiest fruits from the produce section. But folks, I have been thwarted by these beans! I just can't seem to make a good batch o' beans, no matter how hard I try. Tonight they burned, a couple days ago they were too hard, the time before that they just didn't taste good and were all frothy. What's the deal? I am making plans to cook beans daily until they are perfect. I've been spoiled by Walmart and their easy open pre-cooked 50 cent cans of beans. Dry beans have always intimidated me, but now is the time for me to become a bean-master. Carpe Bean! 

Here are a couple of yummy dishes we've invented (Sean cooked the beans). 

We call it "Volcano": black beans, rice, tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, sweet peppers, salt, lime juice. Yummy! 

This is carrots, cucumbers, cilantro, lime juice, salt. 

 We went to a pool party for our friend's little girl Gwenna. Our friends are so awesome and we feel lucky to have a group to hang out with already.

 Elora is becoming more mobile! She crawls all over the place, and has been ascending the stairs when I have my back turned. I discovered the coffee table makes a perfect baby gate! She loves to walk along the furniture and sometimes, not often, she falls :( that's how she got her first of many forehead bruises. She also has two little crooked teeth coming in! She turned 10 months old a few days ago. She is getting big way too fast, but we are enjoying every day with her. She's like the frosting on our family cake!

 Here's our front yard foliage: rows of palm trees.

 lots of these plants, I don't know what they're called,

and  lots of these pretty pink/orange flowers.

 Sean and I went to lunch at a taco restaurant (they were delicious) and it was right on the beach next to a Surfing school. Sean says he's going to rent a board tomorrow and see what all the hype is about.

 We have a Natural Center here in town complete with yoga and Pilates classes, a gym, kayak rentals, physical therapists, organic foods store/cafe, spa with massages, manicures, waxing, etc. It's one of my favorite places :)

 Here's a small sample of the critters we see IN our house. Geckos, large crickets (our friend's little girl Harlow kept this one like a pet for 3 days), and crazy looking bugs (the one pictured above has crab-like claws folded up - they look like eyes, but they're not.) We also have lots of tiny baby crabs the size of your thumb nail that crawl around - I'm glad they're not spiders! We do have spiders too though. We also get HOARDS of red ants that we've just accepted as a part of life. If we were to try to catch/prevent the red ants, we would go insane. It's not possible to stop them. Luckily they don't bite!

 We walk to town and school and the grocery store on the beach. I saw this lovely green boat and took some pictures, this one turned out just right! We can see little lights on the ocean at night. It's these little boats out at sea with fishermen. I'm not sure what they catch, but they're always out there, day and night.

 Baby loves the ocean! We all do. We really have become a bunch of nudists because we're in our swim suits most of the day, and when we come back from the ocean we're busy cooking dinner, relaxing, cleaning up, and who has time to find new clothes? Tonight for example, I was wearing my shorts and a swim top, Sean had on his swim shorts, Elora had on a diaper, Peter had only underwear, Jackson had a shirt and nothing on the bottom. So when we got a FaceTime call from Sean's sister we all looked half way dressed :)

 Our walk home from school

 The white house in the trees is where we live

Peter pushes Elora around in a walker.  My friend Cassie is so generous to share it with us! She has brought us many things to make life easier.  I'm glad to have her around to help me figure out this new way of life. She and her family have lived here for about half a year, so she's already been through the homesickness, culture shock, figuring out where to shop for certain things, etc. I don't know how I'd adjust without her help!

We are doing well and are glad we're here! Sometimes I get sad because I miss my family and friends, I miss Costco (truly), I miss being familiar with my surroundings and language, and I'm just tired so that makes me feel out of sorts. But then I get some rest and some sunshine and realize that being here is wonderful. It's a once in a lifetime chance to learn and grow. So even when I have ants crawling on the walls, geckos pooping on my bed, beans burning on my stove, and can't figure out where to buy baking soda, I'm going to remember that this is an adventure. It's not always going to be comfortable, but it's worth it!