The 6 month mark of our time here in Costa Rica snuck up and then wizzed by in late January. It surprised us since it doesn't feel like we've been here that long, and it hit us how quickly the 2 years might pass by.
Our wonderful, beautiful, wise, silly, observant, considerate, sensitive, brave, and loving Syb is 9 years old!
I usually make a birthday card spelling out S & P's names with things that highlight what they were into that year. This year Sybil shredded some black diamond ski runs, rode some serious miles on her bike (28 miler with Mike around Austin!), continued her love of (and struggle with) reading, moved to a brand new country, jumped into a new language, and joined the La Paz swim team.
She loves most things art (clay, sewing, drawing), swimming (especially freestyle and breast stroke), her friends, La Paz, and nature. She dislikes dyslexia, being lactose intolerant, mean kids, overripe bananas, and getting in trouble. She's fun to be around, 99% of the time, and I am loving watching her grow and thrive here.
She wanted to celebrate at the beach, so we went to Playa Puerto Viejo, the same beach we had Parker's at in October. This time we actually checked the tide schedule though (we're learning), and threw a sunset ("atardecer") themed party. The waves were calm but the dry season winds were stiff. She invited a small group of friends and had a blast playing in the waves and running around.
She requested a Snickerdoodle cookie cake, so I did my best. I'm especially proud of how it turned out considering I have no specialty baking supplies down here (not even a mixer, gasp!) and had to pipe it all with Ziplock bags.
Sunset at Gracia with our not so little kid. It's such a joy watching her grow up and learning daily lessons about how wrong I can be about parenting, learning, and basically everything.
P loves puzzles, and we've had some great marathon puzzle days together lately.
P striking a pose at a friend's b-day party on the beach.
We were excited to get back into our school week tradition of Friday evening sunsets on the beach.
This one was at Playa Pirata, and our buddy Megan caught a nice moment of family cuddling.
Our January weekend road trip adventure was to Rio Celeste, a beautiful river famous for its aqua blue color thanks to a chemical reaction between the merging of an acidic river and aluminum particle laden river.
They started running river tubing trips on Rio Celeste about 10 years ago. It was supposed to just be a day trip, but it rained much of the drive and kept raining when we arrived, so we decided to book an AirBnB and try again in the morning. We stayed at a fun cabin-esque AirBnB and were fortunate that Sunday brought clear weather and clear water.
We saw a 3-toed sloth right before starting, then hopped in the water! I'm not sure if it was the strong flow or the younger age of the girls, but we had two guides with us and each guide navigating their tubes and holding on to their tube's the entire time. We stopped halfway to jump off the rope swing, and it's the first time that everyone was brave enough to do it!
One of our guides gathered some volcanic mud from a small cave near the rope swing, and we all took a fancy mud bath on the side of the river.
At La Paz, each grade level has an Anchor class focused on a specific area. Mike's 6th grade Anchor class is in charge of the La Paz chickens. We have about 30 ladies, and the students feed and water them and collect and sell the eggs at our school market on Wednesdays, which is open to the public. They ran an adorable campaign to raise money by adopting out the chickens. If you adopted a chicken, you got to take a a picture with it. Here's P with her chicken, Luna.
S named her chicken Dolly Part-hen, in honor of one of our chicken's in Austin that didn't make it after a run in with Hudson.
Henderson used to come on my Parks & Rec class field trips to Big Bend National Park, where I put her through a lot of grueling miles up and down trails. For old times sake, we went for one of the hardest hikes in the area, the Black Diamond trail in Mar Vista.
Pamela retired after 30 years of teaching, then bought a camper van and adventured through almost all the states in the U.S. It was so fun to see her and hear about her post-retirement travels.
Henderson loves teaching (or emotional abuse) so much that she's going back to it! The woman who took Mike's SMIA position left in the fall semester, and Pamela is going back to Kealing to be a permanent sub in SMIA, so she and Mike had a couple of unofficial PD trainings talking SMIA. She's a damn good teacher with just the right combo of high expectations, humor, and love, so the students at Kealing are in good hands.
Parker and I went on a date night to a poetry night, called "Upwell" run by two La Paz teachers. It was a beautiful event where people read original or found poems, in English and Spanish. I read a Mary Oliver poem called "For I will consider my dog Percy" dedicated to Hudson.
4 comments:
I love your writings and hope you make this into a best seller someday
That was a comment from nana😎😎
Great pictures and she is really growing. Happy Birthday
That was uncle Hoyt
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