It’s been a while since we’ve updated our blog. So much has transpired since our last posting. I thought I would start with a quick trip we took during Grayson’s Easter break. Kilon researched and found Cataratas del Torro which owns ~100 acres of land containing a walking trail to a 400 foot waterfall. This was the perfect destination because it could be a day trip and was a new place to visit. Cataratas del Torro is close to Juan Castro Blanco National Park (this is the newest National park in Costa Rica…established in 1995). We traveled to Sarchi and looked [View Full Entry]

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We started our morning by calling paw-paw Stuart to wish him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY STUART! BVS: Last week Grayson hand delivered an invitation to attend his school on Sept 18th. I didn’t know what to expect, but boy was I pleasantly surprised. The parents and children sat in a circle. I was a bit confused because the instructions were in Spanish so I watched Grayson and would follow (hahahahahaha). I did recognize a word or two here and there. It helped that the vocabulary was geared toward 4-5 year olds. The songs began and they were in English (whewww). [View Full Entry]

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Grayson was invited to Jose Andres 5th birthday party. Jose is a child in Grayson’s class. The party was held at ‘Gym Party’ on Monday from 3:30 pm - 6:30 pm. Grayson gets out of school at 3pm so it was a rush to get him home, bathed, and changed for the party. We were 20 minutes late as were a lot of people. Gym Party is setup as a pirate theme from the invitations, the hosts, to the play area. The play area was great with zip lines, rock wall and a giant pirate ship. I was excited Grayson was [View Full Entry]

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September 15th is Independence Day in Costa Rica when they celebrate their independence from Spain in 1821. Festivities consist of big patriotic parades and fireworks (sounds familiar). People dress in the Costa Rica flag colors as well as typical Costa Rican attire. The school celebrated on Friday and Grayson wore his red, white, and blue. Saturday they had a flag raising but we were unable to attend since we decided to travel to the beach for a little R&R. We traveled about 20 miles south of Jaco (which is located on the Pacific coast). We have visited Jaco before and were [View Full Entry]

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Zarcero is located west of San Jose past Grecia and Sarchi. We traveled through a small town, Naranja (I would love to tour this town if we make a trip back to this area). It was a pleasant drive to Zarcero and worth seeing for a day trip. I can proudly say we did not get lost on this trip! Zarcero has a small park in the middle of town that surrounds the town church. The park consists of sculpted shrubs that are spectacular. We read a gardener became inspired in the 1960's to shape the bushes. The shrubs are sculpted [View Full Entry]

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The International Baptist Church hosted a Family Camp. The camp was held at La Montana Christian camp facility. http://www.lamontana.org/ We had driven past this facility on our way to La Fortuna back in March. We noticed La Montana because we had stopped for brunch at a soda located across the street from the camp. This facility was designed to reach out to the youth of Costa Rica. The grounds consist of a pond for swimming, walking trails, archery range, soccer field, a couple of rivers, volleyball court, high ropes, and a mud obstacle course. In addition there is a recreation building [View Full Entry]

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We spent a few days searching for a car. Kilon and I were undecided on the exact model etc. We were told to NEVER trust the odometer. Look for paint and body work to be an indication the car had been involved in a wreck (from witnessing the driving I’d say a good portion have been involved in an accident). We were originally looking at Honda CRVs and Toyota RAV4s. The CRV and RAV4 were too low to the ground for our purposes. After looking at 20+ cars we decided on the 2005 Toyota Prado Land Cruiser (2 door). We based [View Full Entry]

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Grayson has been sick for a few days so we decided to venture out to an ER or a clinic (it’s Saturday so we didn’t think we would find a doctor’s office open). A neighbor recommended a doctor nearby. We followed him to an odd indoor mall. We arrived at 8:50 am and the office didn’t open until 9. A nurse was already there so she did the prep work (took temp, weight, height). We were sitting in the waiting room and the receptionist arrived with 2 teenagers. Shortly after their arrival they screamed and ran out of the office. There [View Full Entry]

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The week of August 20th - Kilon and I spent most of the week running around while Grayson was in school. We met with ARCR (Association of Residents of Costa Rica) in San Jose. This company basically walks you through the proper procedures for obtaining residency. They gave the OK on our paperwork. They told us we needed passport photos and we needed to be fingerprinted. To facilitate this process a gentleman walked us down the road to a small hole in the wall below grade level. I have to admit I was a little concerned. The room was probably 8’x16’ [View Full Entry]

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We arrived on Saturday and Grayson started school on Monday. I wasn’t fully expecting him to start the first day. We went to the school to gather information on how to obtain the school uniforms etc. The teacher greeted us, gave us the information and asked if he could start today. We were totally caught off guard and Grayson was escorted away. Kilon later mentioned this was the best way for it to happen. I was unable to get myself worked up beforehand, but yes I cried all the way home and was on pins and needles for most of the [View Full Entry]

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