Christmas in Costa Rica

We've just celebrated our first Christmas in another country. It was definitely a different experience for us. No immediate family, no traveling to Pennsylvania, no snow . . .. Well, despite the differences, the whole family had a great time here. On Christmas Eve, we celebrated with the Stewart family, the Hendon family, the Turner family and Ron Marcote. The kids had fun playing outside and we all enjoyed a barbecue. How's that for Christmas celebrating? Christmas morning Dave and I woke up and had some freshly brewed coffee and we all read the Christmas story together. Afterwards we let them open up presents and spent some time playing together.
When we finished breakfast, all of us went to church service together. Christmas night we had been invited over to the house of Steve and Kathy Harris, veteran missionaries here in Costa Rica. There we enjoyed a delicious Christmas meal along with the Dahlager family, also veteran missionaries in this country.

First Days in Costa Rica!

We are now in San Jose, Costa Rica. We are settling in to our new home which is beautiful, albeit very different from homes in the US. Rebekah started orientation at her school today and came home happy
and excited to tell us all about it.
Dave and I were given our first assignment: a short paragraph of introduction to practice and learn for Tuesday. We have a lot of work ahead of us . . .

Bet you've never seen a hat like that!

Jonathan and the other kids at one of the churches we visited had fun after service finding new uses for the offering bags. I'm not sure if this one is his color . . . but he sure looks cute!

Coffee and Missionaries - Inseparable?

After a picnic Saturday with lots of sun and playing outside, Joseph looked at up at friends of ours that evening and said "I need my bedtime." Think he was a little wiped out?

The next day at a Mexico Missionary Fellowship all 3 kids sang for the group and got to collect an offering! You can imagine they thought that was pretty neat. Each walked away with about $15 each . . . this morning when I asked Jonathan what he did at the get together he said, "I sang a song, I took an offering, and I drank coffee" (he actually had chocolate milk while Dave and I had cold coffee drinks), a few minutes later he said "we were at a coffee house and there were missionaries!" - the two must go hand in hand . . .

Traveling with kids

The whole family was able to enjoy some fun in the pool as we stayed overnight near St. Louis, MO. Rebekah is holding her breath and learning to swim underwater. All 3 kids enjoy jumping in and having Mommy or Daddy catch them. Although the kids have been great traveling, we all appreciate a little down time. On the way home from our service we were able to stop and have lunch with a pastor and his wife who have become great friends. The kids enjoy seeing their goldfish and feeding their dog, Maggie, special treats. On the way home from there we all ate some delicious cherries when we stopped to stretch our legs a bit.
Traveling has been a positive experience, but there are times when we'd enjoy switching on one of those DVD's meant for travel . . .

K.C. Kids

When we visit new places we get the opportunity to meet some great people. Our kids love it when those great people have great kids! Our kids had a blast when we went to a Mexican restaurant and visited a park in Kansas City. They met Tamar, Noah, and Esther - each one had a buddy . . .

July Pics

We've been enjoying the summer and this hot, hot weather here in Missouri. If you're like us, you've been lacking rain as well. The kids have tried to stay cool swimming in their kiddie pool this summer. They absolutely love spending time outdoors.