Professional Farmer's Market Consumers...

This is now my second time at the farmer's market. There are ton's of fresh "organic" fruits and vegetables. We can even get breads, fresh sqeezed juices and chicken, very fresh chicken.
Here is a picture of Wes and the little ones getting their fill of orange juice. The other picture is of a gentleman with a sugar cane juicer. Yep, I said sugar cane juicer. It is very loud and fast as you can imagine. He puts one end in and then guides it out. The juice isn't that delicious if you ask me. It's also green. Not my favorite juice color.
Tomorrow we head to Manuel Antonio Park. I have yet to go there so I'm pretty excited. If you check the side bar you can learn more about it.

This is how I get around town...

I love this little red taxi! It costs be about $1.00 to get to town in this thing. I use it to do my grocery shopping. It has made it much easier to deal with not having a car right now. It wouldn't be that difficult to get a vehicle for us if we didn't have 5 munchkins. But what are we to do. I couldn't decide which two to leave at home so they all came with us to Costa Rica. :)
The taxes on a vehicle are 80% of the value of the car. The cars that have more seats are so much more expensive here. We are going to be putting another seat in the back of Wes' sister's SUV. Then we will use that and she will get a new car. Should work out great. (but may take awhile)
We are renting a car this weekend to get to church (together) and to do some sight seeing. I'm wondering how church will be this Sunday. It's fast Sunday were we have the opportunity to get up and express our feelings for our Savior. In this branch there are maybe 12 adults. I'm thinking that we will all get to get up 2 or 3 times to make the testimony meeting last it's usuall hour and a half. We will see. :)

My daughter's new style...

I usually threaten P that if she screams while I carefully brush her hair, I will cut it! Today she called my bluff. She said, "then cut it!" After I tired to talk her out of it, I gave her the best hair cut I could with blunt sissors. I'll admit it does look better on her. I guess Sunday I'll just have to find someone to give the curlers I brought over here to. Oh well.

Don't Feel too Sorry for Us...

In case you feel sorry for us with the heat, cozy living quarters or toilet situation, don't. Here is what we do all day. Troy and Dallin will be starting private school next week. It's called Falcon and it's only a few blocks away. MaryAnn, it's right by the opening of Los Suenos. They have to wear kacki shorts and a white polo shirt. Troy is rather irritated. Dallin's excited.
They will only be going for a month. Then school is out until September. The three of them will start together then.
Yesterday I took the 5 kids by myself into town for a few hours. We took a taxi bus. It was interestingly hot!!! But we got TBCY yogurt, TWICE!!!! MaryAnn and I have special memories of TCBY yogurt.
It's amazing how I can get around not speaking Spanish.
We sure miss everyone but are happy here. Oh and by the way, I have the same email address. Enjoy your day.

Just A Few Little Observations...

People here don't move out of the way. I was in a mock Costco the other day (and I had to drive 2 hours to get to it) and every aisle that I would go down someone would stop right in the middle to do what they needed to do. They see you, know you can't get by and yet they continue with what they are doing. What is that all about? I would have to say, excuse me and even then they only moved sometimes. It's the same with the highways. If someone needs to do something, they stop in the middle of the street and do it. Everyone else has to slam on the brakes and not hit them or go around if they can. So interesting don't you think? I'm not complaining, just observing.
Something I love here is the grocery bags. They are thick and won't rip even if you put too much in them and try and carry too many bags. I love it.
Something that is quite an inconvenience is that you can't flush toilet paper or anything of that nature. Yep! I'm sure you can imagine the implications that has. It makes for quite an adventure sometimes. If you are sensitive regarding this subject you won't want to read further. Just warning you. :) So as I was saying, you wipe and then throw it in the trash that is next to the toilet. So the trash gets emptied at least once a day. I know some of you would empty it more often than that but that is the best I can do. I can't imagine being pregnant and taking out this trash. Can you????

My First Fight to the Death...

O.K., so it wasn't that dramatic! Troy found a scorpion in his clothes bin yesterday. It took awhile for him to convince Paige and Dallin to believe him. When they finally did, boy did they come running to me. I grabbed the jeans that it was on and carried it outside. Boy are scorpions fast!!!! As soon as it hit the ground it was running straight for my bare toes with such speed, I kept brushing it back away and it would come straight for me. Eventually I was able to get one of the kids to throw me a shoe. It took quite a few hits to get it to leave it's earthly "bug" body. I scooted it into the bushes next to us. Then it was like animal kingdom. The ants found it in seconds and started taking it apart. That was scarier than the scorpion coming at me with a vengance! Within a few minutes it was nothing but claws and a tail. Wow!

My New Grocery Store...

This is the farmers market. It’s open every Friday and it’s where I get our produce. They do have three grocery stores here but you will pay so much more and it’s not as fresh and costs so much more. Anything that isn’t grown in Costa Rica is very expensive because of the import tax. Apples were over $3.00 per pound. Ouch. So we have replaced apples with mangoes. They are everywhere. In fact we could survive on the fruit here. All we would need to do is get one of our munchkins to climb a tree and throw down the fruit. It’s a living “free” grocery store around here.
Notice the two women behind me. The both have their hair pulled up in to a bun. It is so humid here it’s impossible to have your hair styled. Notice how crazy mine is? It was done in the morning but a few hours later, it looks like this. Wes’ sister has a cute short cut that pokes out everywhere. It looks very fashionable, however I just don’t have the cheekbones to do it. My friend Louann would do just fine here in the hair department.
I have to mention my good friend Christine who graduated from BYU last week with her Bachelors degree. Way to go Christine!!!!!!! I’m so proud of you!


Oh, did I mention my maid starts Friday?

This isn't Guava...

We thought we would show you what guava looks like. Then I realized that even though the vendor told me this was guava, it isn't! What ever it is, it comes in a long, flat, hard skin. You crack it open and then open it like you would a string bean. The fruit looks like a wet rectangular piece of cotton but is pretty juicy and sweet. Inside is a gorgeous brown smooth seed. They look like a designer stone you would fill a glass jar with to get that Zen look. (Cindy I would call the seed a definite chocking hazard.) It’s the perfect size to get lodged in your throat. It was quite the treat. Costa Rica has some crazy looking fruit here. We will be posting more pics later.

O.K. I figured out that it's "Guaba" not guava.

We Have Arrived!!!

Hola friends and family! We are here. I’m sure you thought we fell off the face of the earth, but lo and behold we didn’t. We flew into Costa Rica Wednesday afternoon and drove to our destination (2 more hours). With layovers and such, it took us almost 24 hours of traveling to get here. Landon was a dream on the airplanes. He slept the entire time. I am so lucky!
When we got off the airplane in Florida Aiden mentioned he had a surprise for me. He opened his pocket to reveal Wes’ pocketknife. He exclaimed with the sweetest little expression, “Here mom, this is because I love you!” I can’t believe that made it through the security at LAX! It was deposited into the trash as soon as Aiden wasn’t looking. Whew!
We are staying in a, well let’s just say a realtor would describe it as cozy with an open floor plan. It’s a one bedroom with a storage room. Now before you think I’m crazier than you already think I am, both the storage room and the bedroom are huge! We have 2 queen beds and 1 twin in the bedroom. All the kids are sleeping in there. Wes and I have the storage room. The kitchen and living room are one in the same and it’s a pretty big space. The house we are going to live in won’t be ready for another 3 weeks. It has been much easier to keep this place clean. That has been a wonderful benefit.
We went to church on Sunday, well half of us anyway. Aiden got sick right before we were going to leave. Wes, Paige and Landon stayed home. Troy, Dallin and I headed to the chapel. It was about 45 minutes away. Since we don’t have our own vehicle yet, we rode with a family that has a large bus/van. There are two families that are doing the same thing we are. One family has 3 kids the other 2. The family with 3 kids has a daughter 9 (cute as can be and speaks fluent Spanish), a daughter 6 and a son 3. They have been down here for 2 years. The other family is from Nebraska. The have a cute little 2 year old boy and a 1 year old chubby faced little girl. Sacrament meeting was a little difficult since we didn’t understand a word. That isn’t true I understood “sacrifice”, “God”, “Jesus” and “testimony” but with a 1-½ hour sacrament meeting, it was long, even for me. The primary will have doubled with our young ones attending. I can see how Sunday will be a day of service like it’s never been before.
This move has been wonderful so far. The kids are having a great time and love the country! It is just beautiful, humid, but beautiful. We love you all.

Less than 24 hours...

Here it is, the day of our departure. Wes is still at our home getting last minute things done. (breathe breathe) We visited with some wonderful friends for FHE at the park last might. That was such a treat!!!
So here is our situation. We need to show proof that we are leaving the country in 3 months and the bus we are going to use won't sell tickets to us over the phone/internet. Our first experience with the slower life of Costa Rica. We won't be getting on the plane tonight unless we get a hold of his sister and she can work some magic on her end. As of late, I can't reach her. I love this last minute stress.
The kids are exhausted as are we. But we all are in good spirits. Wish us luck!!! I don't think I can wait another week to leave.
Did you know today is Earth day????

About Two Weeks Left!!!!

Aughhhhhh! Can I make it? Breathe Shawna, just breathe.
I just finished reading a wonderful blog about the insects, snakes and venimus creatures in the area we will be living. Compiled with the stress I feel right now to relocate my family of 7 out of the country in 16 days, I'm about to change my mind. {Did I just write that outload???} I will remind myself in the morning that this is a dream my sweetheart and I have and it will all work out. Everything is better in the morning, right???

This is called a Hercules Beetle. They are huge and make great pets.
I have to remember Hercules Beetle good. Ants o.k. Scorpions won't kill. Caterpillars very bad! Snakes, just stay away from them!!

They're Here...

Our passports arrived! Yeah! The kids were thrilled to hold such an important document that held their picture.
Our government at work, they came in under 3 weeks. Considering the 4-6 week time frame they were supposed to arrive, I'm pretty stoked.
It already looks like Costa Rica here. We live on a couple of acres in Riverside and the reptiles are arriving. Wes finally captured the male snake lizard he had been after since we moved here. Arrh, arrh, arrh for him. Then during our 4th garage sale {where did I get all this stuff!} he found a huge snake! Oh and did I mention the little frog we found?
Three weeks left.