Life is pura vida, but it seems to have picked up to be almost as fast as back in Austin which explains the long time between posts. I'm having a hard time figuring out why, maybe it's the workload Cara and I are both experiencing at the same time. We are both teaching new courses this year which is requiring a lot of time for preparation as well as the added stress of not fully knowing where our schedule and lesson plans will take us next and if we've fully prepared our students to succeed at the upcoming objectives. Maybe it's because I've also taken on at least 4 hours of tutoring outside of school per week (one of the sessions is for an 11th grade IB math class which requires at least 1 to 2 hours of prep before the session). This has lead to longer weekdays and work bleeding into the weekends. Not sure I've found the right balance there, and something I need to continue to reflect on as the year unfolds. And maybe another contributing factor is the fact that Cara and I have not put in the effort and money to make sure we have time to ourselves without the girls. At Austin, it was so easy to tap our community built over 20 years to sneak out for a night. While we continue to build that community here, it's time I put this extra tutoring money to good use and find a babysitter we can trust. Either way, I still have many moments throughout my week that allow me to slow down and appreciate where we are. It happens often as I'm floating on my surfboard, watching the girls boogie board, driving with my windows down at a leisurely 60kph, or riding my bike along our neighborhood gravel roads. Truly pura vida.
Amazingly, we are over half-way through this school year. Recently, we committed to another school year so we will be back for year 3. The girls are doing well at school, learning Spanish, and making friends. Cara and I continue to study, but clearly need more time to become anywhere close to fluent. Can't leave yet!
A lot has happened since our first post this school year back in September. We won a halloween costume contest, went swimming at a new spot, spent a long weekend in Santa Theresa, celebrated our 25th anniversary together, and hosted both of our families over Christmas and the New Year.
Halloween! Our family theme was Gods and Goddesses, and you know we brought it to the school Halloween/Dia de Mascarades costume contest. We won $40 to our favorite local bakery, and best of all 18 visits to Purr-Vida Cat Cafe!
Now that we have a bike for everyone, we have been enjoying the gravel roads around our house together. Very little traffic, pastures filled with cows and horses, trees with the occasional howler monkey troop, and beautiful mountains. We are very lucky to have this access from our doorstep.
We took an awesome day trip to Pozas Los Coyotes with new friends Mark, Ashley and their two girls. Mark is a first year teacher and they have two daughters very similar in age to S&P. An awesome day with awesome people.
You can rent tubes here and swim your way up the river through a few slots and rapids to then enjoy the leisurely cruise back downriver to the relaxing pools for rock jumping and rope swinging.
Scarlet Macaws spotted on the way back from Santa Theresa.
Anniversary hike! Cara and I left the girls with our neighbors Sam and Joe and headed out for an anniversary hike at Puerto Viejo. 25 years! The highlights were spending time together and watching a few sea turtles swimming off the point.
TikoBadge achieved! After catching a nail, we taught the girls how to remove it and plug a hole in a tire. Sure to be a lesson we'll repeat.
Student vs. Staff volleyball game. I did my best to relieve my fellow teacher's nerves by making the first couple/several unforced errors. Thankfully we found some rhythm and got the W!
Champion Teachers from L to R: Me, Denis, Cara, Isa, Ema, and Liz
S led this year's latke making at Hannukah! Here she is shredding onion in our "Gringo Guy" sunglasses.
S and her friend P signed up for a musicals class at the local music school. Each week they sang musical songs for about an hour and finished the class by putting on a performance of about 3 songs.
An amazing sunset after an afternoon on playing beach ultimate with some of our students and their parents. Good reminder to do more of these.
Opa and NanaCC came to visit, otra vez! This time we went to Rio Celeste and Volcán Tenorio before spending a few days together on the coast.
The Rio Celeste waterfall was beautiful, but closed to swimming.
Poison dart frog found at the AirBnb we stayed in that was right on the river!
Can't remember what was happening here, but so happy our girls had some quality time with their NanaCC.
We spent a good amount of time with girls down at the river, swimming and exploring, and climbing the rocks.
More Rio Celeste area views
On the way home, we stopped at some of our favorite hot springs: Rio Negro Hot Springs. Here are NanaCC and Opa with their volcanic mud bath. They looked decades younger after.
New Noche Buena tradition! We went to Miami Ropa Americana as a family to buy "fancy" new to us used clothes to wear during our Christmas Even Tex-Mex feast.
Low tide at Grande al lado del roce. The girls call this "the window"
NannaCC and Cara brought the cheer and decorations this year. Our house was very festive.
Beautiful sunset together at Portrero
Within 48 hours of dropping off NanaCC and Opa at the airport, we were back picking up our badass 14 person van and my family for their visit. The while immediate family came down! Dave and Ellie, Ellen and Ryan, Nana, and all the cousins.
We immediately drove to La Fortuna to spend the New Years around Volcán Arenal.
Nana on a sloth tour!
Night Tour! Lots of frogs and one deadly snake.
S was brave enough to join her cousin on a zipline. She's the first in the family to do it. She loved it!
Baldi Hot Springs, never disappoints! Love this photo.
After coming out of the rainforest, we returned to our dry coastline to an amazing house David found on VRBO. Our infinity pool overlooked Playa Langosta and we were able to walk to nearby restaurants and a great surfspot. Life was good. The highlights of this house: so many comfy beds, an outdoor yogo dojo, our back patio/pool, and the cousins particularly like the TV room.
We spent a lot of time lounging around the pool and playing board games.
One morning, we headed out for an on-shore fishing adventure. Cara, Uncle Ryan, myself, P and R all climbed in one boat, while S joined Uncle Dave and family in the other. We motored out to the rock islands you can see offshore from Flamingo and our guides batted the lines and hooked the fish for us to reel in. Cara and P caught the beautiful jack you see above.
After a few hours of fishing we all met back up at a secluded beach only accessible by boat for a swim.
The break was full and fun. While we did not start the second trimester well rested, our hears were full. We are so grateful to NanaCC, Opa, and my whole family for taking the time and spending the money to come visit. We love you so much!
1 comment:
Hi! Just minding my own business over here, but chiming in to say SAVE YOUR TUTORING $ for a much needing night out and I'm babysitting. Seriously! Let's get something on the calendar!
Post a Comment