happy thanksgiving

yes, we did have a traditional US thanksgiving dinner, complete with turkey, stuffing and several types of pie (including pumpkin and pecan!!). we were very happy to accept an invitation to the pittman's house because they are actually here as missionaries and so they didn't have to go to school on thanksgiving day (as we did!). they have two kids in abigail's second grade class and they live a block away. after stuffing ourselves quite sufficiently, we enjoyed playing some games for the rest of the afternoon.

we did miss celebrating with family - i thought of many happy family thanksgivings back in the US, but we were thankful to have new friends who were willing to open their home up to a big crowd.

prayer request:
remember the post about how we found our house? well, we are having a hard time finding a house for the new family that has been assigned to us. we have been looking for three weeks and thought we had it settled earlier this week, only to find out the house we had found had already been rented. they are arriving in three weeks!

manuel antonio

after some lousy weather here in san jose, we had an awesome weekend of weather at the beach while amy's parents were here earlier in november. three great days at manuel antonio in the sun was a much needed break. the girls had a great time swimming - in the pool and in the ocean. manuel antonio is the most popular beach destination in costa rica, since it is one of the nicest close beaches to san jose. remember close is relative - it took us about 4 hours door to door by van. when you look at a map of costa rica it seems like things should be close, but when you are here you realize why it takes so long to get where you are going - the roads!!!

besides it's beautiful beach, manuel antonio has the added attraction of white faced capuchin monkeys. we enjoyed watching them parade through the trees early one morning. we visited manuel antonio two and a half years ago, but the girls were a little small for the strong surf. this time they had a great time in the big waves - and you can't beat the water temp! thanks mom and dad for a great weekend.

you can see all the photos here: http://lafamiliamacy.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8CbM3DNm0bMkW&notag=1

Grandparents visit!

We are enjoying our first visitors from the US: Charlie & Elaine Fettig, AKA Baba & Poppop (Amy's parents). We've had fun showing them our neighborhood and school and only wish the weather were better (its cold & rainy here - not hot weather at all like many associate with Central America - ok, cold is relative & its in the 60s here!).

Friday afternoon we took Amy's parents to a basketball game at Sojourn Academy (the school the girls attend on the language school campus). Although the game didn't go well for the Sojourn team, it was a lot of fun for us, and a good way to experience our community. Arianna's fifth grade class has a small business making & selling buttons so she was selling buttons while she was there. Abigail, of course, was off with her best friend Anna having a great time.

Tonight (Saturday) Arianna is playing with her youth orchestra at the National Theater (one of the best-known national landmarks in Costa Rica). The National Theater is an ornate replica of a European opera house which we toured in 2004 when we visited here. The youth orchestra is made up of students ages 8-16. It is the youngest of the three youth orchestras here in CR. It is a full orchestra, with a very large wind & brass section. We'll be curious to see how they all fit on stage, because it is quite small.

We hope the weather clears up in time for our trip to the beach with Amy's parents next week. Its usually considerably hotter at the beach, but we hope the rain goes away too. We think its time for the rainy season to end!!

Our house! - How we found it.

Here is a photo of the inside of our house. We have a 3 BR, 2 Bath house in a residential neighborhood of San Jose (the capital city). Its pretty comfy, but the kitchen & 3rd bedroom are small. One of the things we like the most about the house is how close it is to the school and many of our friends/fellow students. There's a great community of fellow christians/missionaries within 5-10 blocks of our house!


When we applied to the language school, there was an option to be assigned to a big brother, whose primary job was to find us a house. The big brother also answers the hundreds of questions you have when you are moving to another country! We of course, signed up for this option, and our big brother and sister recommended their house, since they would be finished with their year at language school before we arrived. They sent us photos and we said we liked it, but would like to see other possibilities. Well it turned out that there were not a lot of houses available since we were the largest class of new students that ILE has had in a long time (I think 90+ adults). So, in the end we didn't try to find any other options and we selected their house. As it turned out, we were very happy that our house came with neighbors who were also language school students. They were incredibly helpful when we arrived, which was great because our big siblings were no longer in Costa Rica.


If you want to see any more pictures of our house here's a link to them.

lafamiliamacy.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8CbM3DNm0bMjK