To the beach we went!

PlayaOcotal

What a fabulous week we just had in Playa Ocotal. (Ocotal Beach) Because we didn't do any sight seeing during our trimester, we thought it was time to see the ocean. We visited the Pacific Ocean in Guanacaste. It was so beautiful. In fact the beautifulness of it was worth the very hard bus trip we took to get there. Because we were taking a public bus, we decided to leave Evie with another missionary couple, Steve and Diane, who so graciously offered to keep her for the week.

In my mind I thought this was going to be a Greyhound bus ride. Boy was I fooled! We got on the bus to find there were no bathrooms! Okay, so we will hold it. Hopefully they will stop just a little ways down the road, right? They did make plenty of stops but it was to pick up other passengers who stood along the road. Did I mention the bus was full when we left the station. And now we are picking up more people? Yep, they stood in the isles! So soon I had about 3 armpits in my face as people stood over me holding onto the the luggage racks. Then further down the road they stopped to let on a boy selling drinks and snacks for a living. So up and down the isles he went pushing people aside as he went. We are definitely not in America anymore! We caught the bus at 8am and were supposed to arrive at 2pm. Praise the Lord we made it a around 1:30pm! By the end of the trip it was very hot. The lady in the seat in front of me wanted to lay her seat back and was then in my lap (literally), and the isle was crammed packed with people. I was getting very claustrophobic and barely made it. It helped me at that point to take my tennis shoes off to cool down a bit. Don't worry about the smell, it didn't make it anyworse than it already smelled. But we finally made it and had a great time that made it all worth it! Oh and they did take a 20 minute bathroom break about 3-4hours into the trip!

When we got there we were met with pineapple smoothies and the news that we were upgraded to better rooms. We had requested beach front rooms, so we were a little worried. But when we saw the difference we couldn't believe it. God just decided to bless us with this extra perk after enduring that bus ride and boy did we love it.

During the week we were able to snorkel off the beach a bit with Mylee riding on Aaron's back the whole time, with her life jacket on of course. We did go on a boat ride with a bunch of divers, two of which were with us and we just snorkled while they were diving. Mylee did so good on Aaron's back once again and was even able to see a few fish from her view of the water. On this boat ride we were able to see dolphins as well. That was a fantastic day! We were so sad for the week to come to an end. But now are ready for the new trimester which starts Tuesday. Please pray that we would be able to remember what we learned last trimester and be able to apply it to the new classes we will have.

Above is the link to see all the pictures from our trip. Below are some pictures of the girls that one of our friends took of the girls when she was watching them on July 4th. Enjoy!

Our first Vacation-Arenal Volcano

ArenalVocano

What a wonderful break we have had so far. This last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we went and saw our first volcano. Arenal is one of the most active right now in the world. There was one night we were able to try and go see some of the lava, but it was raining and a little cloudy so our view was minimal. But a friend of ours was able to get a couple of pics. We were also not able to stay long because it was thundering and lightening. But we made it back to the hotel safely.

Aaron and I were also able to go on a date while we were gone. It was the most interesting and fun date we have been on. We went horseback riding! I have never ridden a horse before so the next two days my back and bottom were very upset with me. During this horseride, I learned two very important things that you should never do while riding a horse. One is never ride a horse with a full bladder. We were finally able to stop and take a break at an observatory with no bathroom, so behind a tree I went(the horse went while we were riding, and I almost did!). The other thing I learned is don't follow the horse in front of you too close, because when the horse in front of you has gas you see and smell everything. My horse had gas first and I thought it was so funny because Aaron was behind me. Then the horse in front of me decided to have some too. Oh well it made our trail ride comical.

There were a few different pools at this hotel. One pool and slide was a regular pool with cool water. The other pool and slide was a hot springs pool heated naturally to 90-100 degrees. It felt like bathwater. Mylee went down the slide once. She didn't care for the slides very much. Evie, on the other hand, went down the hot slide probably around 20 times and twice by herself, with me catching her. She would come down with a look of terror on her face and immediately say again and crawl out of the pool. Guess who is going to be our adventurer! We had an amazing time there as a family and with other IMBers. Click on the link above to see some pics of our trip and the volcano as well. Below is a video of the girls helping us sing one of our favorite spanish songs. I regret you can't hear the girls very well, but you can watch them do the actions. Before you start the video you will need to go down to the red music box and push pause (parallel double lines) so you can hear the sound. Have a great week.

A Break At Last!

Children's Museum

We have finally, officially, reached the end of our first trimester of language school! Aaron received his evaluation score of Intermediate Low as well(Please see previous email for a break down of the levels). We have both reached our goal for the first trimester. But we were only able to do this with the help of your prayers reaching God's ears. We were able to kick off our break with a surprise trip to the Children's Museum of San Jose (Museo de los Ninos). The girls had a great time and us as the parents did as well. There was a lot of hands on stations and play areas for the girls. The best part was it only cost us 3,000 colones to get in which translates to 6 dollars for our family. Evie is still at the age she can get in for free most places. Above is the link to see the pics from our day at the museum. However, I have to warn you there were some pretty interesting things on display here that you would probably never see in the US. So it was a very comical experience sometimes. But the girls are still young enough they really didn't know what was so funny, and it was all in spanish, so most of the time we didn't even know what it was saying. However, we could put together the gist of what it was talking about with the pictures helping a lot!

Friday the 15th was Dia de Madre or Mother's day here. You would've thought it was Christmas because everything was closed! So for mother's day I received a clean house from my wonderful Aaron and kiddos. They had the time to clean it because I was gone most of the day with two other women painting a room at the school. There is a room that is called the Student lounge/library that we sit in quite a bit during the trimester. We were all sitting there one day and someone finally voiced what we had all been thinking... "This room could really use a paint job." So we received the permission and all the supplies to get the job done. We were so excited to see the end result and are very anxious to use the room this next trimester. The before and after pics of the room are right after the pics of the museum. Tune in next week for pictures from our first trip to Volcano Arenal. Please pray this week for traveling safety for our family the 4 other families we will be with. Hope you have a blessed week.

3 Days Left!

What a blur this week was for me because it went by soooo fast. I (Gabrielle) had two tests this past week and one more to go next week and Aaron still has 2 more to go. I also had a pretty important test done but one they say you study for just like you study for a blood test! I took my language proficiancy test that the IMB requires us to have after each trimester. What happens is I go and talk, in spanish, for 30 minutes with our mentor Rebecca who does these tests all over Mexico. She then rates me at one of these levels:
Novice
Intermediate
Advanced
Superior
And then those are broken down to low, medium and high.
And then those are broken down to basic, mid and strong. Very technical.
To be able to go to Mexico Aaron and I have to reach a rating of Intermediate High, atleast.
So I went and talked and came out with a rating of Intermediate Low Strong! I couldn't believe it. Aaron has his Language test Tuesday so we will have his score by next week. By receiving this rating it gave me so much more confidence that what I was sent here to do is attainable.

This week the school held a function that I think has been the best function yet. At the end of every trimester the school holds a garage sale! I was so excited to attend and buy used stuff. I even walked around 4 different times just to look again in hopes of finding something I didn't find the first time. Oh the things we take for granted! A few items we were able to get: backpacks for the girls (High School Musical for Mylee and a smaller pink and black one for Evie), a couple books for Evie, beach toys to take with us in a couple weeks, a reading book for me, new kitchen towels, and a small christmas tree with a few ornaments and a string of lights! I was so excited about that. And we bought one more item for the girls that you will be able to see in the picture link below. They absolutely love it and I only paid $5 for it! Have a great week!

A new toy

The Count Down

In the Kitchen

This was just a regular, boring old week in the country of Costa Rica. Nothing exciting really happened. We did have a short week because of the holiday on Monday so that made it go by really quick. We had our new friends the Gillen's over for lunch on Monday to have grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, steamed veggies, and Ghiradhelli Chocolate Brownies! It was a great lunch. The girls were excited because they had other friends to play with them in their swimming pool. We ended our holiday by going over and playing a couple rounds of Golf (new card game) with our friends DJ and Christina Burton. It was a great end to a really long weekend. Which meant Tuesday was really hard to get up and get back to school.

Today Mylee and Evie helped me make some more brownies. Above are a few pictures of them helping me out in the kitchen, with their friends in the pool, Mylee playing dress up in my clothes and a few other snapshots taken throughout the week!
May you see the small blessings this week!

The count down....only 8 more school days!