What have we been up to

Hello family and friends. This picture was taken on Christmas eve on the beach at sunset. We are really enjoying ourselves. We had a great Christmas week enjoying being with eachother. We really don't do alot here, just school, beach, surf, get food, watch movies (no TV). We went to a rodeo (see pic below) We have met some great people. We had some friends we met over for fresh Mahi Mahi. They were here from Miami. The kids play with the neighbor kids. I practially have to drag them out of the pool or ocean. Ava has learned how to swim! She is so proud of herself.

Kai surfing and boxing

Kai is learning to surf and he goes to boxing class on Saturdays. He is loving every minute of it! He is tired he has been going to bed at 7pm!

Costa Rican Rodeo (Bull Riding)

The Costa Rican rodeo (bull riding) is very hard to express in words or capture in a picture. Something you just have to experience. The buy rides the bull for as long as he can then the fun starts there are so many people in the ring and those people tease the bull and try to get him back into his pen. Spectators get in the ring. The more they drink the more people get in and the more they tease the bull. Crazy Ticos, but there were gringos in there as well! If you ever come to CR go to a Rodeo just once to see it!

Christmas

We had a great Christmas. The kids opened presents. Christmas night we built a bonfire on the beach with some friends. Unfortunetly it got rained out. It rained so hard we were soaked by the time we got to the car. We did roast hot dogs and made smores! Building bonfires on the beach is something people do all the time down here, so we will do it again.

Crossing our first river!

If you take the beach route sometimes you have to cross rivers. We took a trip to Samara the first weekend we were here and crossed our first river. In the rainy season you can not go this way. There were a whole bunch of Tico's on the hill waiting for people to get stuck. Then they pull you out for a fee of course. They clapped and hoorayed when Cory made it with out getting stuck.

Putting the kids to work!

The kids have been wanting a job! We got an idea to have a car wash from our friend at the Frog Pad (read below). The cars here are VERY VERY dirty. The roads are not paved and it gets dusty. There is no car wash in Nosara, so we are the only ones washing cars. This is a picture of the sign I helped the kids make and them holding up the first money they made. They made 5000 colones in about 2 1/2 hours. That is about $10! Not bad! Retirement Plan! So, we are going to do this every Sunday for about 3 hours in the Morning or Afternoon. Not sure of the details,but they are going to save the money they make. I told them they have to pay for the soap and sponges. Click on the picture to make it bigger. Notice the prices for the different types of transportation is in Nosara. Quads are very popular!

Where we get gas!

We took a trip into Nicoya last weekend to get loaded up with groceries. This is where we get gas. Stuff you take for granted...there is only one place to get gas in Nosara and sometimes it has gas and sometimes it doesn't. If they don't have gas you have to drive 30-40 minutes on a gravel road. Bounce bounce! Some places are smooth then there are times when you are dodging potholes, and then there are times you just drive through all the potholes because there is no sense on even trying to dodge them.

Where we communicate

These are pics of the "Frog Pad" this is where we rent our movies, make our phone calls, check our internet, and find out what is going on in town. You can also rent surf boards here. The people are very nice!

Our neighborhood!

Hola Family and Freinds,
I have been taking alot of pictures of where we are living so you can see what it is like down here. I hope you enjoy them. I have quite a few of them so I will post them when I have the time to watch paint dry - uploading pics is a bit slow. Stay tuned for more neighborhood pids. By the way...the house picture below is NOT typical of what a Tico lives in. This is a very North American house!
Happy Holidays!

This is Poncho's which is just down the street from our house. This is where we can get groceries, mexican food, margarita, cabina rentals, surf board rentals, this is downtown Palada. Guiones is the other beach town in Nosara and it is bigger. The guy who owns it is a well known surf board shaper (or whatever you call them). His kids work the store and restaurant...Kelsey, Patick, Phillip and one other brother. They all speak english so that is nice. (Ava took this picture)

Our house in Nosara, Costa Rica

This is our house in Playa Palada. We live in Nosara, but we live in the Playa Pelada area of Nosara. This is a new house that is in a complex of 8 town home style homes and 2 detached houses. It was built in 2007. It is abour 1200 square feet I would guess. 2 bedroom 2.5 bath. It is nice. Don't need a real big house here. You spend most of your time outside. We have a very large pool right outside our living room, several upper decks off the bedrooms, a rancho (pool house) it is nice we spend time up there playing with the kids and that is where we school the kids. We have great neighbors Jon and his wife from NY, Mandy, Tanner, and Hunter from Florida, Rachel and Emily from Texas, Paige and Marilla - not sure where they are from. We will live in this house for the 6 months. We negotiated a very good lease with the owner!

Learning to surf!

Cory and I took our first surf lessons! At least we are standing up on the board! It is so much fun. Except Cory went out today and got stung by a sting ray! He ran all the way back from the beach carrying his surf board Kai's boogey board. You have to soak your foot in super hot water for a half an hour!

What is the date...12/4!

Hola!

I hope everyone is doing well. I have posted more pics below. I have more and will post soon. We are really enjoying ourselves and getting to know more about where we currently call home. Cory and I had our first surf lessons today! What a total blast. We both got up on almost everywave. Ok, not the big waves they have here. But, the baby learner waves. Everything is going well. The last few days we have settled in even more. I have to admit is definetly a process when you move from having everything to a town with dirt roads with pothols at big as a small car! The people are really nice and as soon as you tell them you are here for 6 months all of a sudden you are not a tourist, but someone of "the" community. We already found a babysitter, Rachel. She lives next to us and is from Austin, TX. The kids really like here and she knows everyone around here and many people trust her to babysit. We are starting to really enjoy it. At first Cory and I thought what the heck did we do? Then the first week felt like vacation the 2nd week was a major adjsutment and now we are feeling good about everything. I am sure we will have days where we really wonder what we are doing, but no regrets! Living in Nosara is hard to explain. It is what most american's would consider a bit rough, but you really have all that you need. It is a small beach town with dirt roads. I keep saying dirt roads because sometimes I think to myself...I live on a dirt road where when it rains the pot holes fill up and people get exctied for the rain. It keeps the dust down. Well that is enough for now. Think of you all often. Take care.

Here a some pictures of a few of the animals that have been on our slider door in the mornings. Butterflies, big green bugs, and frogs. We have a VERY large toad that lives in the front of our house. He is the size of a mans hand. I have not had my camera with me when he is out!

Here is another one before the sun went below the horizon!

I don't think I will ever get tired of the sunsets!

Picture of sunset (around 5:30om) on Pelada Beach! So gorgeous. I couldn't stop taking pictures. Alot of the local's go down to the beach for sunset every night.

Here is a Howler monkey that lives with his/her family right next to our house. They are very load!