Thursday, October 30, 2008

Welcome Missionaries!!!!


On Troy's birthday {2 weeks ago} we had our missionaries and the missionaries that serve in the Quepos area {about an hour south of us} over for a special "P" day. Their entire district was getting together the month before for a temple and movie experience. Because of a situation beyond their control, they were the only four missionaries who missed out. Bummer.

So, their mission president agreed to let them spend their P-day with us, definitely not as great as a reward, but they were smart to take what they could get!

They played football in the rain & mud with my older two boys while waiting for my honey to arrive.
Did I mention we have the BEST missionaries?

They had permission to watch Disney's "Remember the Titans", which is one of our top 5 favorite movies and we happened to bring it with us here. {Of course when it came time to show it, we had to rent it because somehow we misplaced it!} I need to mention that Remember the Titans is the "motivational" movie for our Costa Rican missionaries here. They use the {awesome} quotes to motivate each other, and that is why they got permission to watch it.
It was so funny, when they first arrived, one elder said, "Sweet!!! We are in a gringo home!" That really hit me funny. To hear someone so excited to be in our {tiny} home and see it as an awesome experience for them. WHAT!?!?!

O.K. lesson learned, it's all about perspective. I needed to change my perspective. So I squinted and struggled...

but my perspective is still the same. I'm glad I have a roof over my head, but I strongly dislike this house. :)

When I asked Elder Howell what food he wanted, he stated, "anything from the states". So that is what I served! We had "homemade" corn dogs, pizza, nachos, Cinnamon rolls, french fries and chocolate malts. They ate, and ate and ate. Anytime I put something down, it was gone!!! I kept thinking that soon they wouldn't be able to fit anymore food in.

I was wrong, whatever I put down, they ate!

I don't know how they did it but somehow they managed to play ping pong on our kitchen table when the movie was over.

So to the mother's of these 4 wonderful young men I say, "Thank you for being brave {and wise} enough to let them serve the Lord here in this land. {not that at their age you could stop them} We love having them in our home! They are a shining example that not only is missionary work hard, but it's fun too. Very important for my boys to see. I have the most respect for you and will do my best to keep an eye on your {babies} sons.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Our Monkey Friends...

The pictures you are about to see don't do our experience justice! It was amazing. Thanks to Chino {who speaks very good English I might add}. Last Saturday we hopped on a 20 seater boat and headed out to see our monkey friends. We had to search for them for quite awhile before we hit jackpot. The kids didn't mind, the boat ride brought lots of other interesting insects and animals into our view.
Landon is holding a grasshopper made out of palm frond. {is that spelled right?} He wouldn't let it out of his site. Funny how the youngest of 5 learns the rule, "you put it down, it's fair game" so quickly. Landon loves his aunt Rusti.
Here I am with my "Hayley Mills" bangs. {remember her from the "old" parent trap?} Her bangs would curl up and it used to bug me the way it looked. {I love Hayley Mills though} Now I've inherited her bangs. It drives me crazy!!!
Please forgive my rudeness...let me introduce you. These are the white faced monkeys otherwise known as the Capuchin monkey. You can learn more about them on wikipedia, but I'm to tired today to link it for you. Please forgive...again. They are so cute and friendly. We fed the alpha male a banana first, then we were safe to feed the rest. They climbed all over the boat...over us...and seemed to really love Landon's hair. I've got incredible video to show you...funny thing is my expensive video camera doesn't "bond" with my Mac computer. That's the first time I've said..."doesn't work with my MAC". It's been a difficult concept for me.

So hopefully in a few weeks I will have video footage for you also.

Arrissa, the kid's cousin just did a report in school on these beautiful monkey's. "Hi Arrissa!" from Troy, Dallin and Paige.