Jaco Beach - Hannah

Can I just say I love any beach. The sound of the water, the birds, the smell, everything. But this beach... Wow, I am in love with it.

One of the main reasons was simply because I was not cold. It was fantastic. We could sit on the beach and be completely comfortable, and when we got slightly warm we could go play in the water. But the water wasn't cold either so there was no need to get out and snuggle in a warm towel. And apparently this was not even one of the nicest beaches.

These last few days have been tough on the kids--it's hard going to school when you can't communicate. There have been some tears, so I was so glad to see everyone smiling and having a great time.

It was a little iffy on whether we'd be able to go this weekend, because we needed a couple more seat belts installed. But we were finally able to get everything into place on Friday, so Saturday morning we went to Jaco beach. Before we moved here, we thought the beach was about a half hour away. It's about 40 miles, but on the roads here it took us about an hour and a half. It's unfortunate it takes so long. At the same time, the road is so scenic I didn't mind so much. Everything is so lush and green. It's just incredible. It's like there simply can't be a spot of bare ground; some living thing is aching to make it's way up. To keep roads and yards up, people just use weed whackers and machetes. It's absolutely gorgeous.

So here are some photos of our beach day. And before you get to the end, make a guess as to what kind of wildlife we saw. You'll never guess :)

We love the beach!!!

Julia keeping an eye on Jonah

Where the beach meets the jungle

Are these not the cutest little bananas you've ever seen?

Although difficult to see, there's Michael surfing and Dylan boogie boarding

Julia chillin'

The incredible shrinking Caleb

Half the kid he used to be

A cute little head we found

Jonah + Sand = One Happy Kid

Tropical beach girl

Just in case you were wondering who this girl was

Random coconut on the ground. Because that's just cool.

Hannah's rock collection

Dylan eating lunch. The typical Costa Rican meal is called a casada,
a mixture of rice, beans, a little meat, and veggies. So tasty :)

The kids drinking their bags of juice.
Apparently this is how they're often served juice at school. 

More lunch...

Our family photo, taken by a local. Alisia, we need you.

Running from the waves

On the drive home we took a look over a bridge and saw these.
Is that awesome or what? We counted 25 crocodiles.

Don't worry Mom. We were plenty far away from these guys.

To all our loved ones back home. We miss you!