Wrapping Up Year 2

    

We rolled into trimester 3 this year better prepared for the craziness of the final trimester of the year. Last year we were totally unprepared for the volume of events that occur in the last 3 months of school. Teaching in Austin, things always slowed down after the STAAR test in April and May, but here things just ramp up the last few months. Since we were more aware, we were better able to handle the onslaught and make sure to balance it out with plenty of nature and social activities. 

 

Mike decided to surprise his mom and fly home for a weekend in May to celebrate her birthday and what would have been his dad's birthday. 

Mike got to hang with Aunt Ellen and Uncle Dave

Mike hauled about 50 lbs of beef jerky and dried mango home in suitcases, thanks to Nana CC and Opa. Below is S's contribution to the blahg. 

S: "I LOVE BEEF 💖💖💖"

S, P, and I were suffering from some serious FOMO seeing the pictures of Mike back in H-town, so we kept ourselves busy by driving to a town about an hour and a half away, near Nicoya, and going for a hike up Cerro Caballito with some coworkers. The 180 degree vista out over the Guanacastecan plains was glorious and gave visual meaning to "la pampa anchurosa" in the Guanacaste hymn that we sign every week.

There was even a little cave you could explore on the way up. Can you tell that S was nervous?

It's hard to pick a favorite because we've got an embarrassment of riches in terms of beautiful trees, but for now, the Malinche is my favorite tree. It erupts into flame at the beginning of the rainy season around May or June. 

P joined the after school drama extracurricular program and has put on a few different performances for her casa and the public since then. In this one, she played a confident and scary lion queen. 

Meanwhile, S joined an out of school theater group that is putting on a production of Into the Woods, and is loving the friends she's making there. I'm so glad she's found theater and theater people because, along with the ultimate community, the theater community is such an inclusive and creative community. Mike and I have watched her gain so much confidence this year speaking and performing in front of people. 

My first Rumpsringa in Costa Rica! I went for a hike with a friend and coworker to a beautiful high hill with a great view of the coast. Then we hit up the best bakery in the area. 

For Book Week at La Paz, students are allowed to dress up as their favorite book character. P nailed Dory Fantasmagory! We just barely stopped her from wearing 30 pairs of underpants under her clothes. 

 

S joined the mural painting after school extracurricular and they worked together to finish the mural above on a wall at La Paz. We can't thank our friend and co-worker John enough for cultivating a creative and supportive space for these girls; they created a tight knit team and the final product was impressive.

I get to celebrate Mother's Day twice a year here! For U.S. Mother's Day, we went on a hike out to a point near Playa Puerto Viejo, my favorite beach and hiking spot nearby. 

The girls started making dinner sporadically, proving helpful since Mike's near daily tutoring after school meant that the dinner prep and cooking labor fell mostly to me this year.  

We took a fun weekend trip to Rincón de la Vieja and stayed in Hotel Guachapelin. It's the right mix of swank and adventure with a pool, 3 restaurants (all entirely gluten free!!), a ton of hiking/biking trails, natural hot springs, multiple waterfalls, and zip lining all on the property. We finally hiked the trails of Rincón de la Vieja National Park, which surprised me with it's thermal vents and boiling mud pots. 

Also had a lot of really giant ficus figs. 

P missed out on the zip lining when the cousins were visiting in December, so this was her chance at redemption and she bravely tackled the cool zip lining in the canyon. 

P: "It was very fun as my first time and I thought the experience was great." 

My 9th grade Anchor class' project was to collaborate with the local community in some mutually beneficial way, and the students chose to partner with the Flamingo Marina to give tours of the estuary and mangrove forest to local school children and educate the community about the importance of the ecosystem to the local economy and environment. They created laminated species ID brochures, studied interpretation, and led two tours of kids from Potrero and Brasilito. They did such a good job that they were invited to participate in the upcoming Whales & Dolphins Festival to give more tours to the public. 

S attended her first overnight field trip to Rincon de la Vieja Volcano. They stayed at Buena Vista Hot Springs Hotel, and she had a blast. 

I went with the 8th graders to Volcan Tenorio, and we stayed at La Carolina Lodge. It lived up to the hype that everyone gives it. It's true farm to table (we got to milk the cows, tour the fruit and vegetable orchards/fields, and see how they raise chickens, pigs, and cows) and we had a hot tub on our front porch that was heated with an open wood fire. 

The waterfall at Tenorio National Park. I hadn't done the full hike before because Nana CC's blood pressure dropped too low when we were there in December, so I got to do the whole trail, which led to a beautiful confluence of 2 streams and a very cool scientific phenomenon that creates the very blue water (hence the name, Rio Celeste). 

The kids ran in a Ruta La Paz student race at school. Ruta La Paz is the school's biggest fundraiser to raise money for scholarships. 

P: "I was behind this girl and then I sprinted as hard as I could and passed her and got 3rd place." 

 

P at the awards ceremony.

P: "I was super tired and my mouth was dry. I also stood next to my school's mascot during the ceremony." 

S with a smile at the start of the race... 

Mike during the official Ruta La Paz. He ran hard, without too much training, and ended up getting 4th place in his age/gender group. I trained for 3 months a few times a week and ended up getting 3rd in my age/gender group, but was miserable pretty much the whole time.  

P: "Me and my sister went to a swim meet, and our parents weren't there. I got 3 medals, two 2nd place and one was 3rd place. I felt stressed because my parents weren't there." 

We're not neglectful, but we both had to work that day and couldn't take the time off to go. They were in good hands with the La Paz swim coaches, but we were bummed to not be able to cheer them on.

We host a swim meet at La Paz each June as a fundraiser, and Mike, S, and P all participated. 

Even though we're very occasional soccer fans, we really enjoyed watching the World Cup and all the excitement generated by it in this soccer loving culture. We went over to our Belgian friend's house to watch the Belgium - USA game, and had the games on pretty much constantly in our house. 

One of the highlights of the trimester was finally connecting with some local ticos/ticas who play ultimate. The team from Nicoya drove out to us to play some beach ultimate, and even though it was 25 mph winds, we had a great time. We even signed up to play a grass tournament in August, which will be the first tournament I've played in almost 10 years. 

S was honored by being nominated in her class to head the Umbuntu, which is the governing board of the Student Government. They run the SG elections, monitor the voting, moderate the debate, and serve as spokespeople for their casa to communicate the ideas of the casa to the Student Government. A year ago I don't think she would have believed she could read in front of hundreds of people, but thanks to a newfound confidence in public speaking (and her daily dyslexia reading fluency practice at home), she was asked to emcee the La Paz Kindergarten graduation. We were so proud of her poise, professionalism, and confidence. 

Somehow the SNIT, famous from previous blahg posts, was put on hold due to busy schedules, raising babies, and families moving. But we really missed our SNIT friends and we somehow convinced them to bring their families down here for SNIT Costa Rica 2026!  

We rented a house for 16 right on Playa Grande, the beach closest to our house and world renowned for surfing, and we did the best we could to wrangle 8 adults and 8 children into playing spikeball, beer die, flutterguts, and Preguntados (Trivial Pursuit in Spanish). We missed the relay this year, but we got to see 4 great sunsets and the kids spent most of their waking hours in the pool, doing arts and crafts, or chasing Halloween crabs. 

I miss these chicas so much (Fran not pictured) and it was so awesome seeing them again. I regret that I spent too much time cooking and not enough time badgering them with questions about their lives, but I loved hearing about their lives now and their hopes and goals for 1, 3, and 5 years in the future.

Our last night we went on a sunset catamaran tour. I was pretty nervous about the weather, but it was yet another awesome sunset, some great dancing, and more good times. P started the dance party on the way out, so by this time she was sleeping hard in my lap because she was all partied out. 

THANK YOU Marjo, Daniel, Fran, Leslie, Caleb, and Holly for coming down and spending that time with us. We love you and your kids, and it was so nice spending time with you. We've got grand plans for more destination SNITs in the coming years, and we can't wait. 

It was another wonderful year, and we've decided to stay for another one since life is good (y todavía estamos aprendiendo español!). But we're very excited to head back to Texas for a few weeks to see family and friends.