Costa Rica, Baby!

Ahhh, babyless in Costa Rica. Just Austin and me and wait...our two 17-year-old brothers! With two teenage guys along, this was an adventure-filled vacation. It was so fun that I didn't have a chance to regret that there wasn't a lot of soulful gazing into each other's eyes on the beach at sunset.

I got lots of pictures of the wildlife,

lots of pictures of Austin gazing off into the distance,

and lots of pictures of trees/jungle.

My favorite activity was the one I really didn't want to do at first...crawling through a water-filled cave.

I mostly didn't want to do it because of the spiders...and yet I ended up with this picture.

I think this was my favorite thing because it was not something you could do anywhere else...most caves I've been to in the U.S. have handrails and a uniformed guide and strategically placed lighting. At the Venado Caves we got to touch the wildlife and the cool formations, we each had a flashlight  and our un-uniformed guide just took off in the darkness and told us to follow him...in Spanish.

Costa Rica was beautiful...I'm so glad we went!

How to get to the LDS church in Quepos, Costa Rica

 This post is for anyone out there googling this, trying to figure out how to go to the Mormon church in Quepos.

[May 2015 Update: "Thanks to your blog post we were able to find the church in Quepos.  I work for the Church (in an unrelated department), so immediately upon return from my vacation, I made sure that the LDS Maps was corrected.  The Branch was begging me to do so. The site is now fixed."
--Thank you, Joel!]

We wanted to go on Sunday during our vacation but all the lds.org website said was that it was by a furniture store. (False). We asked locals throughout our stay there and no one knew where the church was...Saturday afternoon loomed and it was our last trip into town and our last chance before Sunday to figure out what time the LDS church in Quepos met and where it was located. Of course, I had been saying little prayers the past few days to just find this place already, and as we drove around the block in Quepos that Saturday afternoon, who should we see, but two very conspicuous Mormon missionaries! (I know, this sounds like it should be a story in the Ensign or something.)

Austin and I made our little brothers jump out and flag them down--the American missionary seemed pretty happy to hear someone speaking to him in English--and they walked us to the church because they said it would be too hard to tell us how to get there. Well, if you don't have a convenient missionary to walk you to the LDS church in Quepos, here are some directions as of August 2012:

"It is now on the main road coming in from Jaco/Pocares/Damas right on the edge of town. If you are traveling towards Quepos it is on the left hand side next to "Los Horcones" Hotel and Restaurant. It is across a little canal/river."

Church on the right in picture

Church still starts at 9:00, sacrament meeting is first. When we went it was the Primary Program which was really fun. We felt a good spirit and were glad we went!

Feel free to email me at e.a.sobczak@gmail.com if you have photos, anything to add to directions, etc.

Monster Post

I might not be posting for a little bit due to upcoming travels. (My house is fully equipped with a nerve-shattering alarm system, so don't try to camp out here while I'm gone.) Anyway, here are a lot of pictures for you to look at while you pine for more posts.

To kick off our Halloween festivities, Cici cast a spell of cuteness over us all...



We painted pumpkins instead of carving them this year. Is that a cop-out? It was a lot faster and a lot less work for me. Plus Sammy could actually participate. Note: must utilize bobbypins more while growing Sammy's hair out.

Sammy was a ghost for her preschool party. Costume #2 wasn't finished at this point. See below.

Costume #2 was begun when I had too much time on my hands, and promptly abandoned as more interesting projects came up. However, after some marathon sewing a couple days before Halloween, it turned out in time:

I really think my adorable toddler may have a future as a child model. She draws heavily on Derek Zoolander for inspiration.



Anyway...



Cici was a squirmy fairy...

And a wormy apple...(there was a little worm on her apple costume, fyi. It was, however, a cute worm.)

I was crafty and made skeleton cookies from ourbestbites.com. Sammy gave them demonic red eyes. Although I was crafty for my kids, I really wasn't crafty for myself in terms of finding a cool costume. I have nothing against adults and teenagers dressing up. I will freely give you candy if you come to my door, but only if you have a cool costume. If you're throwing on a wig just to get candy, may I advise you to go to Target the day after Halloween and spend 5 bucks on 50 percent off candy to save yourself the hassle. 

And if you wait another couple of days, it will be 75 percent off. Although the selection might be slim.

And with those words of wisdom, I will close mine epostle. Hasta luego!