Costa Rica in August and September- rain with a twist. No regrets.

 I wondered if we would have any regrets or doubts about deciding to stay on after returning from a great trip home to the Northwest. . . as usual, the kids resilience and strength continue to out-everything than I can imagine. Not even buckets of water dumping each afternoon is enough to scare them off.





The kiddos are well.

There is no question that having a year under your belt makes a big difference. 

Gigi in the first weeks of school has been a trooper with tough assignments like analyzing population data for a paper on India or conjugating 50 irregular verbs for a French test. J is tackling French like he goes after a soccer ball--- with determination, grit and some raw talent for emulating a killer French accent. Well, the latter comes from hearing his friend Pierre speak to his Mom. Lucky dog!

The boy behind the French accent (he also speaks English, Spanish, and German fluently)--- isn't that obnoxious??? He also owns a hedgehog!

 There is no question that having to learn Spanish has helped J figure out language acquisition as an academic endeavor. His French teacher is direct, tough, and teaches in a way that last year might have sunk him. The two older kids went through a week of meditation training called, "The Art of Living". That's probably a whole post in itself. Baby-O is fully a Little Girl-O who has jumped into her first year at The European with abandon. She sings every day to live violin and piano. She bakes bread. Rolls down hills (dang the white shirt uniform!). And will have no formal academic work. I am not worried. Seeing her break away to run into school every day is enough for us. 

Studying one of the many sculptures on campus. Yes. She had just realized it was anatomically correct!

Little Girl-O (hmmm will have to have her pick another moniker!) was an Indian to celebrate Independence Day.

Gigi and J on the other hand had to pick up trash. . .for 3 hours.

The school pushes. Challenges. But. . . as I recently caught these words by Eleanor Roosevelt posted on one of the school boards it reminded me why we are here.

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience"

Seeing a cockroach giving birth sure nails that.

Yes. That sac will produce between 15-40 beauties.

Moving on to the question of whether or not this is all a cakewalk in paradise? Perfection on a tropical platter? No way. After darting to my car in a tropical downpour yesterday I will say I feel like I have evolved. . . feeling something by my ear I knew by now to tackle it like the kids' do their schoolwork: swiftly, aggressively and completely. Yep. In a millisecond a small roach struck the odometer panel and disappeared into what? A crack that I didn't even know existed. I drove on numbly only pausing to give thanks that the 48 cows who live down the way were just about to be put out to pasture but hadn't begun their slow trek down our single track road yet. That seemed a bigger triumph than the disappearing roach act. Yeah. Paradise on a platter all right. Note to anybody coming to Costa Rica. Check your hats before placing on head!

It's hard to be too grossed out anymore because living here you have to appreciate the reality of co-existing with it all. Our great old friends the 'Bah-bers' from Tucson came and spent some weeks in country and we couldn't have had a better time with such gracious and hilarious people. Brent is the one above in blue clearly super into seeing a sleeping scarlet macaw on a night hike we did in the Monteverde Cloud Forest. Yes, we also loved seeing a gargantuan white rat that scaled a tree faster than we could blink. Oh yes. The neon snakes hanging from tree branches didn't cease to thrill. Thank God Bridget Barber taking some um, roaches home by accident only led to virtual laughter.

In your mind's eye you imagine this:

But there is a whole lot of this:

This baby was over our table at a restaurant. We were eating outside. . .

Oh, and Little Girl-O was lying in the hammock with Rick when she pulled something that looked like this out from one of her legs:

Bet you didn't know that these guys have little spikes with a toxin on them to boot. Her leg is still healing and we sure won't think about caterpillars in the same way.

Come visit anyway! 

What's not to love??? As long as it's behind glass at Monteverde! Our littlest ones loved looking at a massive insect collection at Selvatura while the big kids zip lined.

It's up in the air who had more fun.

At least the insect group didn't get so dirty!

We go back to preschool days with the Bah-bers and it was a blast to see the kids having so much fun after all of these years.

Especially over crocodiles!

Or buying fruit on our way to the beach. 

Or Jonah and I killing our coming ashore!

So two seconds earlier we looked like this:

We proudly stepped out of our vessel thank you.

Speaking of friends, I was so happy to spend my birthday with my fellow Year of the Pig and born on the same day friend extraordinaire Denette and 2 of her sons who came to visit and make a visit to Nicaragua and back again.

There's one of the boys showing J how to take on a bota bag!

And the other!

What's not to love about spending your birthday weekend with paella, Flamenco and sangria??

You just know this guy has one whale of a life story. . . Don Vicente a Spaniard expat owns the restaurant, Lluna de Valencia, and beginning from his days of as a friar to working in war zones, and throw in being displaced more than once- it'd be worth a trip to Costa Rica just to meet him. He will squirt wine into your mouth so be prepared!

He is such a generous guy that he loaned me a massive paella pan to make a fuss of my own for my birthday. I was up the night before in a panic about what the heck I was thinking to attempt  such a feat for a crowd but we got super lucky. I had Dieter the South African Fire God, turning the fire 'up or down' and it was a great celebration. I am incredibly blessed to have made such nice friends here. Eduardo serenaded on his guitar. Tara stayed until 2am to help me do dishes. The kids made a tremendous ruckus of their own but it felt like a great start to this next year on the planet.

Vicente taught me to put the rice on in the form of a cross and it struck me that being on sabbatical and then becoming an expat has been closer to a Hail Mary pass than anything. You wish. You hope. You imagine. But you never really know how it's all going to turn out. One big lesson I have learned this year, and I think the kids' have too, is that trying is the hardest step. 

The paella came out better than I could've imagined. So has our time here. I'm glad I didn't think too hard about any of it before taking the plunge. 

Speaking of taking the plunge. It's been special to watch our friends' who came and visited us last  April embark on their own sabbatical year here. 

The girls' have been strong and game and although the first months aren't always easy, it's been fun to make memories together and see them prevail. 

Taking Carol in her new car today to a gas station for the first time transported me back to a year ago when I didn't want to take the keys from the guy who sold us the car because I was absolutely petrified to drive. . .

It turns out I had good reason to be very afraid.

 It is not easy to drive in Costa Rica because there are almost no road signs, the streets are extremely narrow and due to budgets and nature, potholes abound as do cunetas---- translate to terrifying crevasses---- the word ditch is just too much of an understatement---- that exist like a Roman aqueduct to transport loads of water during tropical downpours.

Yeah. Just like this.

From The Fitlife: Costa Rica Adventure

For the rest of my life I won't be able to reverse without neurotically checking for cunetas! Yes. I have been in them twice. One time Gigi and a friend's father had to stand on the car to bring it back to horizontal. Driving is not for the faint-hearted but it is surmountable. A lot like life here.

We are settled back in our school routine  and speaking of school, I am really excited to share with you that I am going to begin taking classes (on Monday!) towards a year-long program at UCLA to receive a certificate in college counseling. I loved the role of connecting people to the right places when I was a headhunter years ago, I can't wait to apply the same 'thrill of the hunt' in helping young people get to where they want to go. Wish me luck!

 Oh, speaking of luck, please channel Gigi some as she competes in her first Fencing Tournament this weekend. We couldn't be more proud of her.

Lest you remember only the scary stuff- I will leave you with some images of the last weeks. Miss you!

J coming off a surfing afternoon.

My yoga mates came to the house for a celebratory birthday yoga class and as always, I was reminded how much fun it is to have a sense of play. I felt only younger!

Our Boxer, Roman will be making the long trek from WA to Costa Rica soon. Denette is responsible for this gorgeous photo!

Lastly, I wanted to take you along for the walk that I do from our house. It never ceases to feel surreal that this is an 'out the door' walk. Can't wait to share it with you.

There were creatures in that giant of a flower. The lane shows you how the hike begins.

Right before I was going to post this I found pictures that Gigi took of our 'hike out the door'. I know Bridget, you are still having nightmares about it! There are some maneuvers involved which Gigi captured wryly.

I continue to be amazed that I share this journey with so many of you, more than 5000 folks have visited since our last post, I am corresponding with one family thinking about taking the plunge. All I can say is that it'd be a lie to say it's all been easy or a fairy tale and equally a lie to say that we regret our decision to change everything in less than a month and be landed in Costa Rica. If you have arrived at this blog because you are thinking about taking a sabbatical or a trip abroad with your kids of any age. . . go and buy your ticket. You won't regret it. If you are a friend, we miss you and hope to see you here. Thanks for reading and as always for your support.