Last Day in Playa Junquillal

Since Playa Junquillal is a nesting spot for leatherback turtles (one lady we talked to said she came face to face with a 5 foot long one!  Lucky!), there is a giant replica of one for the kids to play on near the beach.  We kept hoping we'd see the real thing, but this would have to do.

There is a little park at the beach.  I guess this is what happens to the chains on the swings in the salty air!

I can't get enough of that view!

One of Lily's 2018 goals was to catch an iguana.  Mission accomplished!  Adam caught this swift guy in our kitchen!

Since it was our last night, Adam wanted to take the boys night snorkeling.  They were a little nervous, but also ached for adventure.  Brig got all decked out in his wet suit and everything and looked forward to seeing the plentiful night life in the sea. 

But... they said it was super lame and didn't see anything.  Total disappointment! 

A Few Things

We thought we'd seen a skunk prowling around our kitchen one night, so Adam set up a camera to catch sight of it.  He placed an egg in front of his GoPro, and then he and Lincoln waited to see if it would come. It came straight away to get the egg!  Apparently these kind of skunks aren't seen very often.  Aren't we just so lucky to have one in our very kitchen?!  (Of all the cool things to have....)

 Naps have been a little difficult for Eliza because the house is so light all the time.  She has found that rubbing my ear brings her comfort, so we lay with her while she rubs our ears until she falls asleep.  She's moved on to rubbing the kids' ears too, and they love it!  When she's upset they say, "Do you want to rub my ear?"

Loving schoolwork in the hammock!

Cannot even handle the mosquito bites!!!!  The price to pay to live in paradise I guess.

When we were in Jr. High, the full moon was our "thing."  When we were apart when Adam was at Scout Camp or on his mission, we'd look at the full moon knowing each other was watching the same moon.  How cool to be here and see the super moon in such a beautiful place away from city lights!  We took a night walk on the beach and loved how bright everything looked!

It's been 13.5 years and now we're finally together every second of every day and we haven't gotten sick of each other!  We've always wanted to do everything together!

 It's not all fun and games though.  There is no carpet or rugs anywhere, so when our feet are wet and sandy, there is no where to wipe them off.  At the end of the day our feet are brown with dirt and it drives. me. crazy!  I wear shoes constantly because crumbs on my feet is my number one pet peeve, even at home!  Night time is difficult because we squeeze in every last second at the beach and don't come home until it's dark, but then we have to get dinner ready.  Adam always cooks gourmet, so it takes forever, and then there are a million dishes to wash by hand in a 12x12 sink with cold water.  Every speck of food must be wiped off the large counter and table, swept off the floor, and then mopped because the kids go barefoot and who knows what animals have been crawling around in our kitchen?  This is our fancy mop:  a towel draped over a broom. :)  Starting to miss my Norwex...

We are in love with these coconuts!  Ahhh they are so cold and sweet and delicious!  Some days are filled with business stuff like fixing the van (uggghhh that van), grocery shopping, etc, and they are rough on the kids because everything is far away and they spend a lot of time in the van.  But that's when coconuts save the day!  It is very hot, so Adam will pull over to a frutaria and get some produce and a cold, refreshing coconut for each of the kids. YUM!

Playa Blanca

It's amazing how much the beach can change.  We had been to Playa Blanca at least 6 times, but this day it looked totally different!  The tide was super low and we had come prepared with our snorkel gear.  It was absolutely perfect for the kids with a natural coral wall to keep them contained in the shallow water.  What I love about snorkeling is that you don't even realize that there is a whole new world under the water.  People were out playing in the water, and I wasn't sure how good of snorkeling it would be.  We put our masks on and as soon as we put our faces into the ocean, we saw TONS of fish!  Puffer fish, fluorescent blue fish, eels, sea urchins, sea stars, coral, sea cucumbers.  It's all there, swimming around in 3 feet of water, and no one even knew.  I love it! 

Adam and I took turns taking care of Eliza while the other snorkeled.  We played in the shallow, warm pools and searched for little creatures like Coyote Peterson does (the kids' favorite animal guy lately) and found a whole family of huge, beautiful, bright red sea cucumbers! We all held them and felt them suction to our hands.  Our French friends were there and had never snorkeled or held sea life before, so they were super excited. We also found a bunch of spider sea stars and held them too.  The air and the water felt about the same temperature:  warm:).  We felt so happy and never wanted to leave this place!

 It amazes me that the kids never get sick of the beach.  They continually find new things to do and new ways to create in the sand.  I loved these sculptures using beautiful seashells!

 

Friends

We had seen this family riding their bikes around for a couple of weeks and finally met up with them at the beach.  They are a beautiful surfing family from France and are homeschooling their kids here.  They plan to buy a lot and build some cabinas to rent out and stay for a while because they love it so much.  We had them over for dinner and had a lovely time speaking English!  A couple of days later they brought us some homemade French crepes!  Soooo delicious!  I love friends!

We are missing the connections with friends and family and are so happy to find others with our same ideals and sense of adventure.  Although it sounds fun to pack up and start a new life somewhere, we are finding that we really love our families and friends.  We could definitely travel a lot, but Utah is awesome and we'll probably stay there forever.

We ran into another family from Utah with 8 kids who left their home and brought their last 2 kids to Costa Rica to start a touring company.  Wow!  We felt good when the guy was describing a hike to a waterfall and said, "Well, you've got hardy kids from Utah so you'll be fine."  Hardy.  I love it! If Utah is producing hardy kids from pioneer stock, we'll take it. 

Amazing Snorkeling

A family we met on the beach recommended that we go to Playa San Juanillo to snorkel.  I love learning from humans instead of the internet!  It was AMAZING!!!  We took Eliza out on the paddle board while all the kids used their own snorkel equipment. This time I saw more than I've ever seen in my life!  Adam has a good eye and we would dive down and he would point stuff out to me.  We saw an octopus, a few starfish, a giant bottom feeder thing, eels, a bunch of cool fish, and my favorite:  A SEAHORSE!  I was sooo excited!  The coral was brown and not exciting, but I've never seen an octopus or a seahorse! Wahoo!  And what a dream to be doing school in hammocks!!!  This is the LIFE!

                              

Can you see that crazy looking fish camouflaged on the bottom?  It's looking at us.