Free Time - Hannah

So what do boys do when the majority of their toys are at home?

Climb trees

Follow their big brothers

Arrange flowers - this one by Dylan

Resurrect old toys found behind the chicken coop

Make mud balls - made with much skill by Dylan and Jonah

Play with one of the many dogs

Be Tarzan

Play on the hammock

Play hopscotch

Zonk out for a few hours

Last Names - Caleb

In Costa Rica, and most of Central America, last names are really confusing. This is how it works:

Everyone has two last names, a first last name and a second last name. For example, the father could be named Diego (first name) Rojas Chacón (two last names) and the mother could be named María José (first name) Rodríguez López (two last names). If they decided to name their son Luís Carlos, then his full name would be Luís Carlos Rojas Rodríguez.

The names never change when they get married so husbands and wives almost always have different last names. You always have one of the last names of each of your parents, but the last name of your mother doesn't get passed down any more generations after that. This means that the women would pass a name down to their children, but not their grandchildren.

Good and Bad at School - Jonah, Dylan, Caleb and Julia

Jonah

 
Today lunch was super, super, super, super, super, super, super yummy. There was a drink and I think it's lemon juice. And there was boiled eggs and some hot soup and I think there was 2 cut-up carrots in the soup. And we go to eat lunch at 8:10. And sometimes we have rice and beans.

I don't like it because sometimes there's a line and sometimes I'm really far. Sometimes in the line we go to wash our hands with soap and sometimes for our moms to pick us up. We play with some stuff but I don't really play. I just sit there against the wall because there's nothing to play and I don't know what to play. But sometimes I play with toys that are like dominoes and sometimes we play tag, but it's where you stand around in a circle and holding hands and if the person's coming through you put your hands up to let them through. And sometimes when we're in class I see people jump roping.

I like school. When I get home from school, I get to play on the iPad. And sometimes when we go to school I get to play on the iPad while we're going. 

Dylan

School is a lot different than last year because I know a lot more Spanish, so I can talk better to other people in my class. And since I know a lot more Spanish it's more fun to go to school. I can actually do a lot more of what the other kids are doing, like talking and understanding, not just like copying notes from a book into my notebook. 

My favorite subject is P.E. One time we played kickball. But like nobody plays kickball in Costa Rica because everybody plays soccer. But kickball is one of my favorite sports. So it took like 10 or 15 minutes for them to figure out how to play, and they were just kicking like 2 feet. And when I kicked the ball it went over the pitcher's head. So P.E. is really fun. And English class is easy because, well, it's English.

Caleb

School is definitely a lot better than last year, but it's still boring and hard. I can talk to a lot of people, but I still can't understand my teacher very well (she's probably the worst person to not understand), because she talks really fast. When I have school with my main teacher, I have never done anything besides take tests and copy notes into my notebook, including during last year. 

Today at school, my teacher wasn't there, so a different teacher taught my class. We played a game instead of copying notes. There was a rope about 4 feet off the ground and the class was divided into two teams; each team needed to get across to the other side without touching the rope, but they had to go above it. That was fun, and after that we had music, which I like a lot. That was my whole day today, but the school days aren't usually so fun.

On Thursday mornings I have Catholic religion class, but I always read during the whole class. On Mondays, Tuesdays and sometimes Wednesdays, I have English class, and the teacher usually needs my help :). Besides those I have an art class, music class, industrial arts class and all of the classes with my main teacher--Spanish, science, math and social studies. Math is really easy. Usually, the problems are so easy that I can do them without hardly thinking. Then I can finish them almost immediately after the teacher finishes writing the problems on the chalkboard.

The girls haven't stopped bugging me about who I like, and they're getting worse. By now, some boys are asking me about it and even some girls from other classes. One time, two girls from the other sixth grade class came up to me, and at the same time, they both asked if the other was cute or ugly. Julia helped me think of things that I can say when someone asks me those kinds of things without hurting anyone's feelings or being doomed to teasing until we go back to Utah. If I'm asked if someone is pretty or ugly, I can tell them that "true beauty is on the inside." If I'm asked who I think is the cutest, I can say that "everyone is pretty." If I'm asked who my girlfriend is, I can say that "I don't date until I'm 16." If I'm asked who I like, I can say that "I like my siblings and parents."

One day, the kids in my class were playing spin the bottle. The first time, the boy and girl had to give each other kisses on the cheeks, but the second time they got the same person, they had to give them a kiss on the lips. I decided not to play that game.

Sometimes, my teacher writes on the board, tomorrow we don't have school or tomorrow we get out at 10:00 or things like that. I just go along with it, even though I don't know why. I tried out for the futbol (soccer) team and made it. This Monday is the first game. I don't really know much about it, just that I'm on a soccer team that plays against other schools. I don't have a schedule, I don't know when the season ends, I don't know if it's a tournament or we just play a set amount of games and I don't know where the games are.

Overall, school this year is better than last year, and it's more fun, but I'd still rather stay home.

Julia

I think overall school is better than it was last year. My Spanish is better so I can talk to people easier and understand my teachers a little better. My mom said to write about what I like and don't like, and when I think about it I can't think of anything that I like. 

It's basically boring all day. I sit through classes and don't do anything, and in between classes I don't do anything either, unless I sit by someone or they sit by me and we start talking, but that doesn't happen very often. Lots of times I end up having to walk home cuz I'll find out that school gets out early that day for who knows why. School gets out early on average once a week probably. The only reason I go to school is because our parents bribed us. If we go to school every day we're supposed to until we leave then when we get back to Utah we can have a party with our friends.

Zip-lining in Quepos - Hannah

Last Saturday we had a great time zip-lining with Canopy Safari Tours in Quepos. Zip-lining through the rainforests is a popular tourist activity in Costa Rica, and there are lots of locations where it's offered. We weren't originally planning on doing it because it's expensive. But since we saved money on our flights home, we decided to splurge with some of the savings. It was at the top of everyone's lists (well, maybe except Jonah who was cautious but very brave). And we figured it was still less than Disneyland, and way more fun in my opinion.

Quepos is about three hours away from our house, so we did have a bit of a drive early in the morning. When we got to Canopy Tours, we started our tour with a forty-five minute bus ride to the zip-lines, where we enjoyed some watermelon, pineapple and a new juice--made fresh from cas fruit.

We also explored the pretty butterfly garden and saw some cool snakes in the serpentarium (though none as cool as the snake by our house last year).

After seeing the wildlife, we put on our gear for the adventure. We went on a short hike, and then went through a series of platforms high up in the trees.

We went on ten zip-lines. . .

. . . as well as two rappels, a suspension bridge, and a Tarzan swing.

We finished it off with a Costa Rican lunch--rice, beans, chicken, veggies, salad and fried plantains. 

It was pretty much an awesome day.

Creativity - Hannah

Our experience so far in Costa Rica has caused me to think about how we tend to approach our lives. Sometimes people get the idea that they don't want to be like everyone else. They want to be unique. So they rebel. Maybe they dress differently, voice shocking opinions, look down on others, or even delve into illegal activity or drugs. But what they need to realize is that there are many more ways to be good than there are to be bad. We can create a good life that is magnificent, yet completely unique. C.S. Lewis, in The Great Divorce, said, "[L]ife is... like a tree. It does not move towards unity but away from it and the creatures grow further apart as they increase in perfection. Good, as it ripens, becomes continually more different not only from evil but from other good."

I believe that one of the ways we express various forms of good is through creativity. And when I'm talking about creativity, I'm looking at the word very broadly. I love a talk given by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, in which he said, "The bounds of creativity extend far beyond the limits of a canvas or a sheet of paper and do not require a brush, a pen, or the keys of a piano. Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before--colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter."

For some reason, this idea has been on my mind lately, especially in terms of family life. I believe that there are endless varieties of good family environments you can create. This experience in Costa Rica is only one of many scenarios we could have chosen to create for our family. It has been amazing and memorable for us--we have snorkeled, visited volcanoes, zip-lined through a rain forest canopy, seen all kinds of wildlife from dolphins and jellyfish to toucans, bats, and crocodiles, been immersed in a new culture and language, and tasted new fruits and foods. We've also struggled together, trying to become familiar with a culture and language foreign to us, but hopefully learned that we can lean on each other and do hard things.

I've seen other families take creative, unique, and good approaches to their family life. Some create wonderful family traditions. Others enjoy time together in dance, travel, cooking, service, camping, music, or sports. Some families create space and time for teaching moments, or for talking and listening to each other. Some play games together. Some families create support systems for struggling family members. All of these are varied expressions of love, and all of these bring into existence something that did not exist before--such as strengthened relationships or laughter.

Sometimes, I've found, it's easy to become passive about family life. It can be easy to let life happen to us, rather than to actively create positive experiences and time for our families. It can be easy to feel like you're always playing catch-up. But even during hard times, when families are struggling with circumstances beyond their control, this creative approach to family life can still be applied.

I'm reminded of a friend of mine who has struggled with health problems since she was a girl. She always wanted a larger family, but due to her fragile health, she could not have more than two children. She struggles with feelings of inadequacy--her own mother was a marathon runner with boundless energy. Yet I've seen my friend create a beautiful family life for her girls and husband. She is completely devoted to her family, and her children will never feel like their mother was too busy for them. Her children, though still young, have become capable and compassionate.

Fiona Givens, co-author of The God Who Weeps, states that "Our lives are more like a canvas on which we paint, than a script we need to learn -- though the illusion of the latter appeals to us by its lower risk." This can also be applied to our family life. Rather than simply following what everyone else is doing with their families, or what was done in our families growing up, we are given a blank canvas on which to create something amazing. Of course we are all limited by the instruments and mediums we have been given--we may have financial limitations, handicaps, health concerns, or family members who make choices contrary to our own desires, or even to what is good. But given the tools we have to work with, we can choose to sit back and see what comes to pass for us, or choose to actively create an incredible family life filled with adventure, compassion, strength, love, and peace. Like any artist, we're bound to make mistakes; but that should never stop us from continuing to participate in the creative process.

We are children of a very creative God, and He wants us to become like Him. He wants us to be agents who act, rather than objects to be acted upon (See 2 Nephi 2:26).

I hope that when we return home after our Costa Rican adventure, we will not become passive but still be able to create new adventures and experiences for our family.

Costa Rican Pants - Hannah

A friend of mine described these dirty legs as Costa Rican pants. Running around in the hills, dirt and mud, it's bound to happen.

It does make for some pretty dirty laundry. Check out Dylan's socks. How does that even happen? There's no way these bad boys are getting clean, especially with just cold water. Oh well, I just wash them and then don't look at them too closely when I put them away.  

Seminary - Julia

Since the new school year just started and I just turned 14 I've been able to start going to seminary. It's once a week on Fridays at 4:30 in the afternoon and goes for about two hours. I've only gone twice so far but I really enjoy it, we talked about Lehi's dream last week and it was a really interesting lesson. Last Monday, because of the lesson, we made a Lego representation of the dream for family home evening :).

My seminary teacher is from the states and speaks English so it's a lot easier to understand him when he speaks Spanish than to understand any native speaker, and if I don't know what something means I can just ask him. I find that I can understand the large majority of the lesson though.

My teacher and his wife and 6 kids have been traveling a lot recently, starting in Alaska, they've worked their way in their car down here and are going to Tierra del Fuego, the southern tip of Argentina. They stay a few months in different places to experience what it's like, I know they've stayed in Utah, Nicaragua, and now Costa Rica, plus some other countries in Central America. They will probably leave around the same time that we come home, so I'm glad that he can be my seminary teacher while he's here. I've learned a lot going to seminary and it's a really awesome spiritual experience, and I can't wait to take it again in 9th grade :).