Arenal Volcano

A few weekends ago, our school took another paseo to La Fortuna. Arenal Volcano is the main attraction there and our kids wanted to see a volcano and take a little vacation. Malaya took a trip with my folks and Elise in August, but the other kids hadn't been anywhere since Spring Break. They were ready to swim and relax!

Los Lagos is the name of the place we stayed. It exceeded my expectations! It was beautiful. The landscaping alone was almost worth going to see. Colors are so vibrant there, I'm afraid our pictures won't do justice.

These are the kids from our group. They did so well playing together!

I love the light hitting the volcano here. This was an early morning shot.

In the afternoons, it would cloud up and wouldn't get to see much volcano, but still beautiful in its' own way.

Our driver and tour guides, Hector and Ronnie, took us up to a lookout point Saturday morning. If we would've been dressed nicer, I could've used this as a Christmas picture :)

Mae found some volcanic rock along the trail. Clayton managed to bring back about 10 pounds of rock...

Below the volcano, there is this lake. Ronnie told us that it used to be a popular place to camp, kayak, etc. It was especially pretty at night as you could see the volcano spitting ash and lava. Unfortunately, someone got too close to the base of the volcano and swallowed gas and the area was no longer able to be used. It was such a peaceful place.

Heading back down to the resort from Arenal.

Ronnie and Clay-TON...I get a kick out of how Ronnie pronounces his name.

Our school group + Ronnie

Beautiful, beautiful grounds.

Another view of Arenal Volcano...it was amazing. This picture makes it look so small.

We went into a butterfly sanctuary and got to see many different types of butterflies. I thought of you the whole time Audrey!!!

This old crocodile was down a path by the butterfly garden. Poor thing was blind and only had one tooth. He made sure to show us his ONE tooth, too.

I didn't get too many pictures of us swimming, I was afraid my phone would either end up in the water or get stolen. So I always left it in the room. These pools were of varying temperatures. Some cold, some warm, some hot. They were springs heated by the volcano. Pretty neat! Some of them, we could only be in for a little bit, before getting over heated. There were probably 20 different pools, so the kids always had something to move on to and explore.

While at the pool one day, a classmate of ours showed us a sloth that was in one of the bushes by the pool we were at. Again, I didn't have my camera :( but I got super close to it. The park rangers were trying to move it to a different location.

I'm not sure if Ronnie actually took this picture or not, but I got it off his Facebook page.

Clayton hit his head once on the slide, it threw him pretty good!

Moving on to School:

We are now past Midterm of our first trimester. It has gone really fast! Our teachers had 5-10 minute conferences with each of us and let us know how we were doing and gave us our grades. Both Andy and I have A's in our classes! They told us to get out and practice more speaking it, so that is our goal. We both really enjoy our classes and classmates and it's hard to think that next trimester it will change again.

Andy & his Lenguaje Teacher Marlene

Kids:

We have hard days with them. Sometimes they are overtired, homesick and they want to go back to life where it was normal. Emotions run high about 4:30-5 when supper is being made and kids are fighting. Sometime homework doesn't get done. Or lunches "forget" to get packed because they are tired of the food we have in the house. Andy does a great job explaining that sometimes God asks us to go where we don't want to be. Honestly, I cringe sometimes for them, I don't want them to have a negative view of God. But then, a sweet moment comes along and reassures me that it will be okay. Clayton and I walked to the feria today for fruits and vegetables. The sun was shining and I asked him if he liked Costa Rica, if he was glad we were here. "Yes." My hope for him is that even through all the "yuck" of being in a new country, new culture, new student, etc. he can still find positives in the journey God has called his family on. There are times him or Malaya say they don't want to move to Mexico next because it will be hard.

The kids' school put on a Culture Day where we got to try different foods from different countries. There were a few dances presented and they enjoyed performing. :)

Isn't Aria's class cute?? :)