Our school gave the teachers and staff (about 80 people) a teacher appreciation dinner. Matt was in charge of organizing the food. He did a great job! He was in charge of cooking it, along with about 10 others helping cook. The teachers loved it. They do this dinner every year, but the student body usually has it catered. We decided to cook it this year.

Matt, I, and many others were preparing the dinner. It was a lot of hard work, but very fun! The teachers deserved it!

These are the plates of food that all the teachers and staff got at the dinner. Salad, chicken with mushroom sauce, rice, broccoli and cauliflower, and chocolate cake and ice cream.

Kaitlyn got pajamas that came with a night mask. She actually wore it and fell asleep! She is getting too big!!

Isn't she cute!!! All Kaitlyn wants for Christmas is her two front teeth!

We had to go to Nicaragua to renew our visas. We had a lot of fun at the beach, even though Mckenzie got sick the first full day there. She got to enjoy the beach a little. Fortunately our hotel was right in front of the beach. Kaitlyn is riding the boogie board. She loved it! The ocean was pretty rough because there was a storm coming in. Pretty big waves!

Matt and Mckenzie hanging out watching Kaitlyn in the ocean since Mckenzie was sick.

Kaitlyn was having fun in the sand! Eskimo was right in front of our hotel. It had wonderful icecream! Very dangerous!!

Well, we really missed going to the pumpkin patch this year. So, we brought the pumpkins to us! We all made them together as a family. We made about 12 pumpkins and put them around the house. It makes it feel more like fall in Costa Rica. It feels like fall when it rains, but we don't have any leaves falling or changing colors!

This is Mckenzie's 4th Birthday party. We had to cut it down, but enjoy!!

(You may have to click on the play button, twice.)

We had a strawberry shortcake party for Mckenzie with 9 of her friends from school. She had a lot of fun!! Her friends loved helping her!

Here is the cake that I (Kandi) made her. She requested a strawberry cake. It was fun making it!

Mckenzie is showing off some of her new clothes that she got for her Birthday. Isn't she cute!!

Mckenzie loved her gifts that she got from Grandma and Papa, and Mimi and Pops. She enjoyed her day!!

On the morning of Mckenzie's birthday, she unwrapped Kaitlyn's gift. Kaitlyn bought her a pin from school with her own money and some candy. Mckenzie was very excited!!

This is a short video of pool side. Recently one of Kandi's high school friends came to visit and we went to a hotel on the Pacific Ocean. The girls loved the pool so we took a short video of them and Kandi and Gretchen enjoying themselves. Enjoy the clip.

During the trip to the Pacific we stopped on a bridge known for the wild crocodiles that live in the river below. The man that you see feeding the crocodiles owns the boat and people pay to see him feed the wild crocodiles. These crocodiles are really wild. There is no catch they were born wild and are still wild. We did not get it on video but at one time he feed them a fish by holding it in his mouth. KIDS DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!!!

About every day the girls will think of and create a short show for us to watch. We thought it might be fun for you to see one of their shows if you have time. The girls thought of everything they did and were not prompted at all we just turned the camera on and enjoyed the show. So please sit back and enjoy the show. Lights, Camera, Action.

Last weekend, Kandi went on a women's retreat with church. It was up in the mountains. It was very beautiful!! Kandi was way out of her comfort zone because the whole day was in Spanish but she had a wonderful time!! This is one of her friends, Sadie, and her daughter Monica. The retreat was very spiritually uplifting!! She was so glad she went!!

Gretchen, Kandi's good friend from High School came and visited us for a week. We had so much fun!! We took her to Punta Leona to the beach. Kaitlyn is relaxing in the van. Below is a picture of Matt and the girls on Crocodile River. Hang on tight Mckenzie!!

We swam a lot at Punta Leona at the beach and

the swimming pool. The first picture is Gretchen with the girls. They had so much fun with Gretchen!

When Gretchen came, she brought the girls new pajamas from Pops and Grammy. They were so excited! Aren't they cute!! Kaitlyn, Gretchen, and Kandi went and got pedicures. Matt painted Mckenzie's at the house. We had so much fun!! Pedicures are about $6.00 here. Very cheap compared to the U.S.!

While gretchen was here we had so much fun!! We had to buy Mimon Chinos (the red fruit) for her to try. She called them "Elmos toes". You peel the skin off and you see a big ball that tastes almost like grapes. They are good. Different. These bananas are growing in our banana tree in the backyard!! We may get to eat them before we leave for Mexico in December. Time will tell. We will have a lot!

A group of us had to go to Panama to renew our visas. Here is Kaitlyn and Mckenzie with a group of friends in Panama at a restaurant at our hotel.

Kaitlyn took swimming lessons this summer at an indoor swimming pool with a lot of students from school. She loved it!! She has become a little fish!!

This is Rebecca, Zachary's sister. Kaitlyn and Rebecca are very good friends. Kaitlyn sure misses her too. Kaitlyn had a sleepover with Rebecca before she left Costa Rica. They had a ton of fun!

This is Mckenzie with her teacher from last trimester, Hulda, and her best friend Zachary. Mckenzie sure misses Zachary. Zachary and his family just left Costa Rica.

This last month has been busy for all the students at the institute including us. Not only have we all been learning Spanish but we have been preparing to receive about 50 new families in the school for the next trimester (starting in August). We have all been house hunting for the new families and trying to get them a place to live. Please be praying for each of these new families as they are preparing to make the adjustments to living in Latin America, leaving their family and friends, and adjusting to the new life of a missionary.

These are some photos of the girls with some new friends at the waterfall gardens playing in an Ox cart (a national favorite). This is an awesome park that we have been to in the past but we are still amazed at the beauty that God has created. We got to see some Macaws up close along with some toucans and other birds, wow. We also had a chance to go on the swinging bridges at another park at one point. Wow they were high but pretty.

This past month we also had a chance to go to Arenal Volcano with several students from the school. It was an awesome experience, we had the chance to see Gods powerful creation first hand. Watching the lava flow out and erupt was indescribable. We could have watched it for hours and never gotten tired of it. We tried to capture some of the beauty in photos for you. One photo is the volcano in the rain during the day, one is a picture of a hot lava rock rolling down the volcano during the day so it is not glowing but still very real. The last photo is of the lava at night time. We also had a very unique experience when we saw 2 baby jaguar cubs playing in their nest in a tree.

The other night our family devotion was about the fact that Christ has gone back to heaven to prepare a mansion for us there. As we talked about this I was reminded of the beauty that God created here on this earth in a short 7 days. Then it made me realize that Jesus has been in heaven for more than 700,000 days preparing a mansion for us. I can't imagine how much more beautiful this manision will be compared to the beauty of this world. God is an awesome God that loves us so much. Please join us in praising Him for his majesty and awesomeness.