Boyd Bear Tracks

Finally, I think summer has come!! :-) It is sunny now and it doesn't rain every day like in did in the winter (here). It's nice to be able to go and play in the park again.

The ladies in the park organized an "end-of-the-year" party for the kids. We went to the INBioparque. It's a really neat place with different biospheres (example = rain forest, desert, etc.). We visited the farm area. Ellie got to hold a rabbit. Good thing we're not staying here any longer or I would have bought one (they were selling the babies). Niether one of them wanted to touch the piglets (they were pretty prickly). We also went through the butterfly house and got to see some big blue butterflies flying around. Then, we went to a big playground they have. Lucas really enjoyed the rock-climing wall and Ellie liked the huge slide. One of the slides had a big puddle at the end of it. Fortunately, neither of my kids went down that one; although, a couple of other kids in our group did (splash!!-:-( ).

After lunch (included in the party) we had a cake and a piñata. Then we had to stay around for another hour or so until the bus came to pick us up. Fortunately, they had another playground the kids could play on. Ellie slept a little on the way home, but not as long as her usual nap. So, we were all pretty tired (except Jon who had class so he couldn't go) :-).

There is a stray dog that has been sleeping in our garage (I don't think I've mentioned her before). We call her Linda (Leen-dah) and a neighbor (that feeds her) calls her Camila (Kah-me-lah). So, now we call her Linda-Camila. She follows us pretty much anywhere we go; including the park. The ladies at the park think it's pretty interesting that we don't feed her and yet she follows us around. She really likes the kids and especially Lucas. Even if she's surrounded by a bunch of kids, she'll search him out and follow him.

I had promised the kids that as soon as we had a sunny day we would give the dog a bath. So, I bought some soap to kill the fleas and when it was sunny we gave her a bath. I tied up her mouth in case she wanted to bite, but she never acted like she was going to anyway. The kids enjoyed the bath, but I don't think Linda did. :-) I kind of wish we could take her with us (she does so well with the kids and is a really friendly dog), but it's too expensive. Plus, I don't think we could get all her shots updated (or given) in time. I'm sure the lady that feeds her will make sure she's ok. Really all Linda does is sleep on our door mat, and she can do that when we leave too.

For Thanksgiving all the ABWE missionaries here in Costa Rica got together for a meal. It was really fun!! We had turkey and even cranberry sauce. And, we stuffed ourselves (as usual!). The kids and I had made handshaped turkeys for everyone (total--30!). I ended up decorating most of them. At least I folded over the construction paper so I didn't have to trace and cut 30 times! But, I did have to glue on 30 waddles and pairs of legs!!

Jon and I had a little episode with our air mattress! One night, all of a sudden, the plastic cracked and air started hissing out. I tried to fix it with tape (just for overnight), but at about 2 am I woke up and realized it didn't work. I woke Jon up and told him we needed to switch to the other mattress (the back-breaker!!). I climbed out of bed and Jon immediately sank down to the boards :-). The next day I did find the mattress repair kit and now were back to "sleeping on air" :-). Hopefully the mattress lasts the couple of weeks we have left! After one night on the "back-breaker" I think if it breaks again I'll just sleep on the floor! :-)