Los Domingos

Here is a typical Sunday for us here in Costa Rica.

The first few weeks it was a 45 minute drive, so we had to leave at 8:15, but I was so happy the week after I wrote my letter to Costa Rica that they listened to me, and that next Sunday a huge part of the dirt road had been smoothed over and there were no potholes -

Even with slowing down for the men at work, we were able to cut 10 minutes off our time. The next week even more was cleared off, another 10 minutes off our time - so now it only takes us 25 minutes to get to church. We even hear that the dirt road is going to be paved in January! A little too late for us, but glad there have been improvements on it, it's nice, so thank you Costa Rica!

And I also want to say, after we drove up to Liberia last week, I noticed that the road from Villareal to Liberia is totally flawless, smooth, all one piece of blissful continuous pavement, so I wanted to apologize for labeling the whole country as asphalt deficient, cause it's not, but it is in Tamarindo and Villareal and from here to Santa Cruz, and since that's where I've been driving 95% of the time, I was noticing it a bit too much. This is what the paved road to Santa Cruz looks like - A pothole on this road was responsible for my first flat tire. Okay, on to church. Arrive at 9:00 - church is ready to start, we sit down on the folding chairs, which I feel make a lot of noise with my constantly moving around kids. I can usually last the 20 minute til the Sacrament is passed. The chapel is very small since it's a small branch, so there is no nursery classroom, no mother's room, no couch to sit on with kids that are being noisy during sacrament meeting (those would be my kids) so during these first two hours of church we head outside...

La la la la laaa - let's walk round and round the building... Lily enjoying herself, but it gets hot fast, after a few laps she's all rosy cheeked and sweating.

Abi drawing in Wesley's ABC book with a pen. They snuck the book to church, but since it was keeping Abi busy we kept it. Of course I still had to take her outside cause she and Wes were fighting over it. It is his book, but Abi gets to have it cause she's spoiled rotten.

During the third hour, the little kids and I join the Primary in the nice air conditioned big room.
There is a bucket of legos at the church that someone brought in to keep a little girl busy who's mom is meeting with the missionaries. My kids saw it and it kept them entertained very well.



The kids are doing great learning the songs in Spanish for the primary program... we sing the songs so much at home that even Abi is picking up the tune and some of the words.

That's Tara Martinsen leading - she's from Arizona. There are only two Tico kids in our primary right now. Not sure how many are inactive in the branch, but it's a good thing all of us Americans are visiting, as we are making up 80% of the Primary right now (one family with three kids wasn't there this Sunday. I don't know how many Ticos weren't there. But usually there are only two)

That's Hermana Pina sitting with the kids at the far side. She's great.

While we are in Primary, Corey is in the Elder's Quorum. He's a counselor in the Elder's Quorum Presidency. This is where they meet during the third hour...


Oh, so I forgot to mention, during the second hour of church it makes it hard to be outside with Abi and Lily running around cause there are classes on both sides of the church yard - I don't think they mind seeing us running around, but we do try to be far enough that we aren't too loud. Wesley and Abi like to hit trees with sticks


and they also found a frog one day that kept them quite entertained.


And finally, the parking lot. I think I mentioned previously that there are 6 parking stalls, but today I double checked what I said and now I correct myself - there are only 4 parking spots. You pull in to the property and you're at a T - you can turn left or right, two stalls on each side. Or you can just pull forward up over the curb and park on the grass/plants, as the car behind the men did in the picture above. Other cars just park behind the cars in stalls. So sometimes you're stuck.


Those are our cars stuck in the picture above. Usually it doesn't take too long for everyone to clear out. Sometimes when I'm anxious to leave, I do 10 point turns and go up on the grass and try to squeeze myself out - no dents in the car so far!

Then we go home, have an American lunch of PB&J sandwiches and leftovers the whole day, I blog a bit, write in my journal, try to take a nap, Corey takes a nap or goes to more meetings or something with the missionaries... (he's been in Liberia all day today at a leadership training meeting) and the kids run around crazy, write on walls with markers, drop raw eggs on the floor, and dirty dishes, and that's what we do on Sunday.

Hyrum frequently says he hates Sundays cause we don't do anything, and he's right, we don't. What do you do to make your Sunday's a day of rest or a spiritual day? Sunday for us is usually a day of NO's - No TV, no swimming, no beach, it's a day to NOT do things rather than a day to Do things. Please share if you have something that you do on Sundays that makes it a wonderful day for you. I'm in need of inspiration.

So that's a typical Sunday. The end.