December 31, 2011

It's a Reggae Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

The kids keep saying that it doesn’t feel like Christmas.  Too warm, too green; too much like its been for the past six months.  For Dayna and me--while we like white Christmases--we’re not having a crisis with the 80 degree days . . . . We hope all is well with everyone up north (or south, wherever you happen to be!).  We miss being close to family and friends—especially at this time of year--and hope that you are all well.  Enjoy the snow, and know that we are thinking of you!

Our "back yard" on Christmas Morning--
No snow this year

Keaton has come down to join us for a few months.  It is fun to have everyone under one roof again.  He arrived on December 21; unfortunately not without complications.  Since was coming down on a tourist visa—which has a maximum of 90 days validity—and his return ticket is not until April, they did not want to let him board in Salt Lake, and then once he arrived in San Jose, Immigration did not want to let him in.  Stakes were particularly high, given he came carrying all most of our Christmas gifts (don’t think that was an argument that was going to matter to Immigration officials, but certainly it did to his siblings).  Thank heavens for cell phones.  After several phone calls back and forth, an Immigration supervisor took mercy on Keat, and let him through. 

Keeping busy on all fronts lately.  Besides our normal work and school lives, on December 10 we started  “La Copa Nefi”.  This is traditionally a one-day soccer tournament among the youth in the eleven congregations that we help with in the young mens and young womens progams.  This year we are expanding it to several Saturdays over a four month period, and have included the competition to include a Scholastic Bowl portion, and genealogical indexing.  Soccer is a big deal for folks down here, so that portion was easy to pull off.
The Nerd Bowl section was the big unknown going into the event, but it turned out great.  Kids took to it easily.  Rounded out the competition nicely, and underscored the Church’s emphasis on eduction to the youth.  Round two is next Saturday.

Is it time yet!?  With Church, our traditional brunch and the
 rest, we didn't actually start opening gifts until after noon
this year--definitely a record for us.

After four months of "camping" in our apartment, our furniture and “stuff” arrived on Halloween.  More than normal amount of damage and goods missing (more of the latter than the former), but we are, nonetheless, really grateful to be settled.

Really, really green lake in the crater at Irazu

For most of the past month, we have had our friend from Bolivia, Ramon, staying with us.  (We have mentioned Ramon in an earlier entry).  He is studying in a UN sponsored boarding school in nearby Santa Ana.  Spending a month with us is giving him the chance to better his English.  No doubt, it is also giving him the chance to question the sanity of having four kids.

Our explorers, ready for action at Irazu

Speaking of camping—a few days ago the boys and I went to the coast for a couple of days of it.  Much warmer down there.  We spent time fishing and exploring (Keat's "palmera" fish was really, really good).  One of the best parts was an unexpected encounter with wild Spider Monkeys on a small island near where we were snorkeling.  Dalton decided to “dance” with the leader of the three.  For a few moments, it was hard to tell which was man, and which was beast . . .

Costa Rican racoon
("mapache") at Irazu

On Tuesday, Brynne, Braden and I took the afternoon and drove to the top of the highest mountain in the area:  Irazu.  It took less than an hour and a half to get there from our house on the south side of the Central Valley.  Rather amazing—the road goes literally to the edge of the crater at the top of the mountain.  Brynne, our budding photographer, took some 200 pictures (made for a deliberate, artistic walk across the crater).  Her one hundred or so "favorites" can be found on Facebook.  A few of mine are included here.

Cows in the valley on yesterday's hike

Today, in the backdrop of no-small-amount of-protest, we went on a hike (yes, really, a hike on New Year’s Eve day) with some friends up one side and down the other of yet another mountain in the valley.

Gotta confess that for a while as I felt the age in my knees and the unexpected very bitter coldness of a cloud /front and wind that moved in, that I was questioning our sanity too—but, eventually, the sheer beauty of the back-side of the mountains that line the south side of our valley left us all in awe.  The kids may never admit to it in this lifetime, but we all had a great time on the climb—in spite of the physical challenge—and were glad we made the trek.

Us with some friends (the Quiros family, Pablo Zuniga, and his sister).  This is the first of three crosses on yesterday's hike--city is in the background, so is the cold front that snuck up on us with "gale force" winds.

Tonight we made our way to a nearby Chinese restaurant in honor of the New Year.  After eight hours of hiking, there was plenty of appetite to devour the dishes in front of us.  Just for the record, we will soon officially be starting the year of the dragon in the Chinese zodiac.  It is one of the most fortuitous in the twelve year cycle . . . one of us in the family has the illustrious good fortune to be a dragon.

The stream where we rested on the back side of the mountain.  By then it was warm and calm--felt like paradise.

Glenn and Keaton half-way down the back-side.  Don't let it fool you--
this section alone was like an hour on a Stairmaster.

We came home and waited up for the fireworks that have been sold all over town for some time now in honor of 2012.  We have a view of the Central Valley from our apartment windows—a lot of action is going on out there!

We are looking forward to Dayna’s parents coming down in a couple of weeks to spend some time with us.  We are going to do some more exploring—this time near the Caribbean side of the country.

Happy New Year to all, and Pura Vida!

Glenn, Dayna, Keaton, Dalton, Brynne, and Braden