Jacob turned 8 on April 29th. His birthday will be the only one we celebrate in Costa Rica this year. Jacob knew that this birthday would be different without the typical fanfare surrounding all of our celebrations. But all of us counted down they days for weeks prior, enjoying the excitement and anticipation that comesKeep Reading!
Goodbye’s are hard. We are anticipating ours – one month from today. It’s difficult not to “go there” yet, considering we have had so many happy Hello’s as of late. We have been blessed over the last five months in Tamarindo to have made so many new friends while also welcoming friends from home toKeep Reading!
Last Thursday I got a call from our friend Elsy and she told me about a surf competition that was going on in Tamarindo that coming weekend and she wanted to know if we were interested in coming. “Sure!” I replied, assuming that she meant to watch. As the conversation went on, I realized thatKeep Reading!
Jeffry was cleaning the pool at “our” house long before it was our house. Houses here are different – they come with a whole history – written in Spanish on lined paper. They are not owned by people, they are owned by a corporation that gets passed from owner to owner. Most people we haveKeep Reading!
We arrived in Costa Rica on December 5th, a very beautiful, and very quiet time here in Tamarindo. When tourism and the start of the Costa Rican summer season picked up mid-December we were told that the crowds we were seeing were just the beginning of a very busy, but important time in this smallKeep Reading!
It takes a lot to make me laugh. It’s not that I don’t get amused. I chuckle and smile a lot, but a good, solid, bring me to tears kind of laughter session has never been at my fingertips. Most often, this happens when I am with my family or with really close friends. OurKeep Reading!
I am addicted to speaking spanish. I’ve learned a ton, but I have a really really long way to go. Erin is always laughing at my crazy attempts to speak in spanish, especially when I try to explain something complicated or with many layers. Erin and I have been reflecting this week about how differentKeep Reading!
Yet again, we experienced another first this morning, not quite as fun as our other firsts though. This week is Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Latin America. It’s the busiest time in Tamarindo for the entire year, the week leading up to Easter. The entire country shuts down this week and it seems that theKeep Reading!
It’s been a little over three months now since we moved to Tamarindo. We have experienced more as a family than I ever could have hoped for and still I feel we have so much to look forward to. If someone were to ask me how my life as a father has changed during thisKeep Reading!
Ben has worked very hard to create a project for his class back in Colorado about the tides in Costa Rica (and the world). He has been studying the tides as they are an important part of life while surfing in Costa Rica. Different beaches are better to surf at at high or low tidesKeep Reading!
I am not a great surfer yet. In fact, chances are, if a wave comes my way, I’ve got a 50/50 chance of catching it, and an even lower chance of actually popping up and riding it. Erin, on the other hand, has (of course) become quite the surfer. It’s quite inspiring. She’s a naturalKeep Reading!
We are off to Nicaragua at 4 am tomorrow morning. This marks the official half way mark of our “set time” in Tamarindo. Reflections thus far… It’s gone by WAY too fast. It’s going by way too fast. I just want time to pause for a second. Wow, the greatest gift I have received thusKeep Reading!
Well, we have been here for three months and since day one I just crossed my fingers that we would all remain perfectly healthy. Knock on this wooden table, not even a sniffle to report. We have had lots of new food, have only been drinking tap water, have had lots of sunburns and bugbites,Keep Reading!
Ben is currently working on a project for school about the tides so I thought it might be cool to shoot a time lapse video of the tides going out over Playa Grande. My experiment didn’t work all that well as the sun went down before the “real” low tide, but the overall result isKeep Reading!
Last week we said goodbye to our home for two and a half months at the Luna Llena and moved into a rental house for the next month. It was with excitement and sorrow that we bid adios to our home at the Luna Llena. Our new house is up on the hill in Tamarindo,Keep Reading!
This past week both Jacob and Abby were able to see and talk with their classes on Skype again! Jacob had a great time as usual speaking with his class and Abby really enjoyed getting to see her class for the first time since we’ve been gone. Abby clammed up a little bit as sheKeep Reading!
You’ve gotta love the GoPro cameras. This is the first video we shot of Jacob after adding the GoPro Surf Mount to their board. Turned out great 🙂 I need to use more RainX to keep the drops off the lens, but it’s a great start. Plus, how fun is it to watch Jacob surf?!Keep Reading!
First quick video of Ben surfing with the GoPro mounted directly on his surfboard. Can’t wait to do more! This is surfing at Playa Tamarindo near the river mouth. Below are some pix from the session as well.Keep Reading!
After a collective 404 hours of spanish classes at the Coastal Spanish Institue in Tamarindo, we have now officially graduated! We have learned quite a bit and feel much more comfortable with the language now. Graduation day’s highlight was the homemade piñata that kids all made with their teachers. Below is a copy of theKeep Reading!
This past week, Erin and I were lucky enough to get to enjoy a little break from the kids. It’s been 8 weeks without a single break, day or night (unless you can count spanish school I guess..) Needless to say, it was much needed. Our local friends helped us find a great babysitter andKeep Reading!