Car Troubles and Miracles

The van we rented began having troubles not long after we got it.  We drove A LOT and it took a bit of a beating up and down the crazy steep roads, but it became clear that there were some previous issues surfacing with the sounds it was making. We were worried, but didn't really know when it was a problem and when it was just an old car rattling.  (Like Adam's work van at home that sounds like jar lids clanging around in a pan!). We began praying every morning that the van would function properly and saw God's hand answering our prayers over and over.

We love our ward and the missionaries who serve in it.  One of them is from Layton!  The Bishop is from Utah, so it is refreshing to speak English with them each Sunday!  We were so excited to go to the ward Christmas party on Friday night. The members are so friendly!  I began talking to a member named Alberto, who speaks perfect English.  I asked him how he learned it and he said he didn't know!  He can just speak!  He has the gift of tongues.  He told me his amazing conversion story and how the gospel has blessed his life in every way.  He gave up drinking and smoking and has better relations with his wife and kids, plus he has been able to get more education to expand his knowledge as a mechanic.  As soon he said "mechanic," I made a mental note to talk to him about our van's strange noises.

Here's the ward party.  Adam had fun playing ping pong and the kids had fun using Google Translate to play with the other kids.  They are so cute!  They also swung at a pinata that had legitimately good candy in it!  Some ladies in the Relief Society made a yummy rice-veggie-chicken mixture for dinner.

Adam knows a lot things and can fix nearly anything, except cars. What a blessing to us when Alberto offered, "Your van's tire has seized.  I'll take a look at it."  He thought it was probably a serious issue that could take half a day to fix.  He tried to look at it during the party, but the jack that came with the van was too small and he couldn't lift it enough to come to any conclusions.  He was willing to come the next day (Saturday) with his jack and fix it for us!  He said there was no way the van would drive us home, so we would have to leave it in the barbed wire, gated parking lot of the church over night.  Our house is 45 minutes away from the church, so we looked into getting a hotel for the night.  What a miracle that there just "happened" to be a hotel just around the corner from the church!  We only had one diaper for Eliza, Lily had forgotten to bring shoes, and we only had $85 in cash.  The hotel only cost $35 and we had a fun time playing Pass the Pig and Uno on the rock hard beds.

We took the mattresses off the two beds so all 7 of us could spread out on the box springs and mattresses.  In the morning we needed some food, and there just "happened" to be a grocery store right next door to the hotel!  Adam and Lincoln ran to the store to buy breakfast and diapers and then we walked back to the church.  Lily said she felt homeless as we walked through the town with all of our belongings on our backs:). 

The enthusiastic missionaries met us at the church to unlock the gate and Alberto was ready to work.  We planned on wandering around the city all day until he was finished, but once he got into it, he realized the problem wasn't as bad as he originally thought.  He cleaned the brakes and within 20 minutes he was finished!  He charged us $35, leaving two dollars left of the cash we brought.  Miracle.

What a miracle that Alberto is a mechanic who speaks English, AND that he came to the ward Christmas party.  When I told one of the missionaries he was helping us she said, "Who?  Oh, I don't know him.  He hasn't come to church in a while."  Coincidence that he decided to come the very night we needed help?  I don't think so:).

We happily began driving home, amazed at God's goodness in our adventure, when we heard a tire pop.  We pulled over and sure enough, a different tire was flat.  It was almost comical!  Remember how the jack was too small?  Yeah, so Adam had a rough time trying to make it work to replace the tire with the spare.  Flat rocks proved hard to come by.  But miraculously, a nice old man came by with his larger jack and soon we were on our way home again.

Alberto also noticed that 3 of the 4 tires were different sizes. Nice.  He helped Adam buy a new tire for $27!

Our next van adventure was the next week when we were on our way home from Playa Negra.  The dirt road to get there reminded us of Moab with massive ruts and dips, and the tourists guide recommended 4 wheel drive.  We had to drive through two rivers, and our little 2 wheeled van had done well on it the past 3 days of going there and back!  We had spend the evening watching the sun set before we headed home in the pitch black.  There are only fields surrounding the primitive road, so no street lights could help us.  All of of a sudden the back tire (same one the Alberto worked on), started shaking like crazy.  We stopped and said a prayer that the van could make it home and we wouldn't have to walk. (I wasn't excited to ford two rivers on foot with potential crocodiles in the dark carrying a baby! I love an adventure, but....)  Just then we saw a flashlight coming toward us out of the field.  A man asked what was wrong and we told him, "El auto tiene un problema."  He didn't speak any English but we understood that he knew a man who was a mechanic.  He called him and within 10 minutes a guy drove up and was underneath the van assessing the problem.  He spoke English and explained that it would need to be fixed, but we could drive it home.  Yay, just what we had prayed for!  How was it that it started rattling and we stopped right in front of a man in his field?  What was he doing out there anyway?  How did he just "happen" to know a mechanic down the road?  Miracles:).

 
The Quicksilver backpack lives on!  I got this beauty at a boat shop when I was 15 years old.  It's huge and has been with me on every airplane ride to every country I've ever been to.  It faithfully carried all my heavy school books and now carries diapers and snacks for the kiddos.  Adam teases me about it's massive size every time I pull it out, but now that I have 5 kids' stuff to pack around, it's been awesome. This will probably be it's last hurrah though - it's getting pretty worn out.  Not bad for 19 years of wear! 

 

The whole process took about an hour and a half.  After getting eaten alive by mosquitos outside, we all climbed back in the van and played games, but Linc was beat.

We called Alberto and the next day he drove out 45 minutes to figure out the problem, drove 45 minutes back to Santa Cruz to buy some parts, then back again to fix it.  What a blessing to have met him!

He also put a shock absorber in.  The van owner said, "I've driven it for years without one!"  Alberto said, "Yeah, but you drive on city streets.  These guys are in Guanacaste."  This area is far from nice city roads!  We've hit some seriously crazy spots and are always relieved when we make it!

God has answered our prayers so many times and we are grateful that the kids are seeing these miracles!

Jurassic Grasshoppers!

We seriously thought we'd been transported to a scene in Jurassic Park!  Since our kitchen is outdoor, it feels a little bit like glorified camping.  Bugs are constantly flying around and dirt continues to cover every square surface.  Sometimes when we turn on the flat surface electric stove, we can smell the burning of the unaware bugs who got a little too close to the hot surface.  We are constantly flicking giant, harmless ants off of everywhere, stomping on huge spiders that jump around, and wishing we could kill the stealth mosquitos.  The grasshoppers took us by surprise the very most.  At first we thought they were big hummingbirds, since they fly around and have a very pretty, red wing design.  Then they came zooming into the kitchen and crashed into the window and we all screamed! Eight inch long grasshoppers!  They are very clumsy and almost seem blind, like they fly around without purpose until they collide with any hard surface.  We were trying to enjoy a nice dinner, but the grasshoppers were going crazy!  Some of the kids were scared to tears, especially if the Jurassic bugs landed on them, and some of the kids loved the crazy adventure.  Linc grabbed every tupperware in the house and began catching them all.  We were all laughing and screaming and crying and grabbing various weapons to fling them out of the kitchen.  It seriously looked like a circus!  Unfortunately, the grasshoppers told their friends about the fun we had and invited more the next night.  It took every effort to capture them!  Free entertainment for all!  It became the ultimate challenge to hold completely still if they landed on you.  One even landed on Lily's lip and she claimed the victory!

After a while they became super annoying. Linc (5 years old) was fed up and exclaimed, "Why do they even make houses like this!  Look, (pointing to one side of the kitchen) no door.  Look, (pointing to another) no door.  No door, no door!  Arghhhhh!"   Lincoln, we all wonder that!

 This is how we sometimes feel when they are flying around and we're trying to cook dinner!  Soooo annoying!  (Yes, that is a stone bust of Frankenstein on the wall of the outdoor shower...)

On my leg....

Brigham attached a string to one of their necks and flew it around like a kite.  It was hilarious!

Here's our little friend who lives under the fridge.  We see him come out at night.  Adam put a praying mantis in its path and within one second its quick tongue snagged it and it was gone.

I put on my backpack and soon felt something crawling on my neck. Not wanting to know what it was, I flicked it off near the life jackets.  Then we saw this.....

Surfing

Since we are in prime surfing areas, we couldn't resist.  The beaches here are AMAZING for beginners and experienced surfers alike.  We were excited to get all the kids up on the big foamie! This is at Playa Negra.  Soooo much fun!

Started out tandem with Brig.  Adam has the most amazing balance that he can have a kid on there with him!

Then Brig said, "I've got to just go out there and do it!"  He's a natural.

Brig even got up on the boogie board!

Lily on tandem

Jade and I were laughing our heads off out there!  She would get in position and I would push her at just the right moment, but it often didn't work and we drank a lot of water!  It was hilarious! I love when she's a good sport about things.

A Routine

Since we will be at Casa Nirvana for a whole month, we began a fairly consistent routine.  We wake up to Lincoln at around 5 am (that kid cannot sleep in!), and actually get up when the sun rises at 5:30.  On a good day we get up and slowly creep outside without waking up the other kids and study scriptures to the sounds of nature.  There are so many birds and monkeys and the temperature is absolutely perfect.  From evening to morning it changes 3 degrees!

The kids wake up at 6 - 6:30 am.  Adam makes us a restaurant style breakfast and we read scriptures, do memorizations, and study Spanish words.  We clean the outdoor kitchen (which is full of dust and leaves from the night time winds), do Power Start (the 5 basic things to get ready for the day:  make bed, say prayers, get dressed, brush teeth, do hair), and begin schoolwork.  I know every homeschool family has a different way of doing things and I'm still establishing my favorites, but I know that I'm loving The Good and Beautiful language arts workbooks.  Adam has been super impressed by them as well, and even Jade is surprised at how much Brigham is learning!  For math, I love A Living Education workbook.  The kids also do math facts activities online.  Brigham does Studies Weekly for Utah Studies, Lily does Mystery Science for science, Jade does Khan Academy for most of her subjects, plus studying and writing argumentative essays, and Lincoln does the UPSTART program online.  He also likes his workbooks and feels so grown up when he does them like the big kids!  They all read for another hour or so, plus we do read-alouds at night.  Right now we're reading Boys of Grit about famous Americans who made a difference and didn't give up.  It is soooo good!  We've had so many good discussions while reading!

It has been interesting to watch Jade adjust to the homeschool life where no one is telling her what to do and no bells to tell her when to stop.  She has gotten better and better at it and today she spent a lot of time studying on her own and couldn't wait to tell me everything she learned!  I love it!

After 3 or 4 hours of studying, it's time to go to the beach!  We've been to 5 or 6 of the surrounding beaches and are learning which are better for surfing, boogie boarding, shell collecting, or swimming.

We usually stay to watch the sunset because it's so beautiful.  We come home and have our separate responsibilities.  Adam and I have always worked well together, but it has been fun to have him focus his energy on home life.  While I help get the kids showered and then wash all the snorkel gear and life jackets (or whatever we've used that day), Adam gets dinner ready.  What a blessed sound to hear, "Time for dinner!"  It always feels like a feast!  He's amazing!  (And I didn't prepare any of it!!!  Wahoo!)

 Just practicing some long division in the hammock.

While I was helping the kids with school we heard Adam call, "Snack time!"  We entered the kitchen to find this beautiful array of papaya, coconut prepared in three different ways, mangoes and pinapple.  So yummy!  Pineapples only cost a buck and are sooo sweet!

Adam has had fun finding coconuts on the beach (or climbing trees to get them) and then getting  the water out of them!  Then he uses the meat in banana-coconut smoothies.

The mangoes are perfectly ripe and sweet and irresistable.  Even Lily had some!  Jade and Brig asked for one for Christmas!

Adam can make anything appealing.  I love his artistic side coming out!

 I had to snap this photo of Brig with Eliza.  I asked him to be in charge of her and he did not leave his post!  He has become so responsible and such a great big brother!

I snapped this photo of Eliza and didn't realize until afterward that I also captured Adam surfing in the background!  Perfect timing!

We found this dirty homeless girl at the beach and decided to take her home:)

 Those precious moments when the kids are joyfully playing together make me smile.  Whether it's playing silly games in the back of the van or splashing in the waves, it's a sweet thing to see siblings enjoying each other.

I can't even stand how much I love running barefoot on the beach!  Ahhh it's such a dream!  The beach in this photo had lots of shells and rocks, but Playa Junquillal has almost 3 miles of perfect, firm sand.  Running the distance and back gives me much needed alone time since we're together 100% of the time.  Adam gives me running time and I give him surfing time.  We both come back happier!

An example of Adam's delicious vegetarian dinners.  Beans and rice, squash, choyote, and avacados. I might put too many pictures of Adam's cooking on here!

Cute boys totally passed out after a fun day in the sun.  They are so different and so unique and we love everything about each of them!