Monday, December 31, 2018

Leaving Virginia for Costa Rica


After filling up our storage unit to the brim,,.,.


we headed to the Reagan Airport early in the morning to catch a flight to Costa Rica.






This is called the "Peter Pan House", and it's in a community called "Ecovilla", about 45 minutes west of San Jose. 



It's more of a cabin, and it all reminds me of my camp days at YMCA Camp Tulequoia. Here, we have little lizards and geckos that crawl around on the ceiling, and occasionally a bat will fly in briefly. 


Open-air shower and bathrooms. 

Saturday, December 29, 2018

Life Condensed

What if you could condense all of your material possessions into a small box -- what might that look like?

Ours looks like this:




(and yes, that hand truck does have hand actuated dual disk brakes).

Sweet Farewells

We have been able to make some good friends here, so farewells have been bitter sweet.  Fortunately, one of the farewells was a little extra sweet at Cold Stone Creamery.




Carson was able to say farewell to good friends at church too.



Rich Blessings

A note from Savannah:


Missing Grocery Store

Either our family is very friendly or we go to the grocery store way too often (or possibly both), but we have become friends with the woman that prepares the sushi at Safeway.  She has always been so welcoming that Angela and Savannah go our of their way to talk with her.  It doesn't hurt that she makes delicious food.

We'll definitely miss her and our grocery store.



Christmas with Aunt Andrea and Uncle Brent

It was so nice to have Uncle Brent and Aunt Andrea visit us for Christmas! 

Aside from their wonderful company, we got some boxing lessons and were able to go for a nice nature walk through our neighborhood and creek.





Andrea taught Savannah some boxing skills.


This is the creek that runs through our backyard.  Amazing to believe that this is where we live...



Christmas Present with Presents

While much of our time right now is consumed with Christmas Future, but we made sure to spend some time on Christmas Present with some fun presents.





Thursday, December 20, 2018

Homeschool PE Class Goodbye Party, last day




Coach Zack let Carson, Tucker and Savannah choose the sports they would be playing during the last week before the holidays, since it would be their last classes. They played dodgeball on their last day. Then coach announced that there would be a surprise: pizza, cookies and cupcakes after class. They had a pizza-goodbye party for Carson, Tucker and Savannah! 




Savannah's friends


Coach and some PE kids. We are going to miss this class a lot! We have gone to almost every class offered, and the kids get a great workout and have a fun time. 

Sunday, December 16, 2018

RockCreek Holiday Party

Our children loved the annual RockCreek Family Holiday Party.  It featured a balloon artist, face painting, a magician, crafts, movies, candy, good food, and even Santa and one of his elves.  They especially enjoyed the family gift (a video game console).














Farewell Dinner

We had a great Farewell Dinner with Vishal and family.  The kids played so well together and the food was delicious.



Friday, December 14, 2018

Church Christmas Party

The Oakton Ward throws quite a party.  It was themed after How the Grinch Stole Christmas and included a live performance of the Dr Seuss book.







Making Gingerbread Houses

This year's gingerbread house contest was a success.