Sitting down to look at our pictures and think about what we have been doing over the last couple of months was fun. It’s no wonder I feel exhausted! We have had 12 guests visit us over the last 8 weeks and I have been to the US two times to attend classes.

Starting in February we had a visit from Natalie and David from Los Angeles. They stayed just over a week. Isaac met them (for the first time ever) while I was still in the US. Then after a couple days in San Jose, we went to Manuel Antonio, one of our favorite beaches, for a few heavenly days. I love this picture we took on the beach. We had just snuck into the National Park at closing time and avoided the $7 entrance fee. It was my first time in the park. It’s just gorgeous!

Another friend, Doug, was here for about 4 months I think. He was also in Manuel Antonio, and managed to come up for a few visits. About a month after Natalie and David left, Paula’s (my sister) former college roommate, Gabrielle, and her husband came with their 7-month-old adorable daughter, Pilar. We really had a great time visiting with them at dinner a couple of nights, and could tell they had had a good time here in Costa Rica when Rod fell asleep on our couch after dinner!

Birthdays are a fun occassion around here and we had the opportunity to celebrate a couple of them. One of them was for our friend, Lauren. Lauren is the girl pictured on the left. The girl on the right is Maguie, Isaac’s best friend. We spent the evening enjoying dinner at Lauren and her boyfriend, Tomas’, house until Lauren passed out upstairs! Then Maguie, Isaac and I decided to go out and have some fun of our own. Sounded like a great idea until my hangover the next morning!

Another good friend of Isaac’s, Mario, just celebrated his 25th birthday this last Friday and we went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants with 30 of Mario’s “closest” friends, followed by a night of dancing. I wish we would have had our camera with us, as it was quite a crazy night!

Getting back to more serious things, we had the chance to check out an area as a potential site for the retreat center. It’s called Savegre and it’s in the soutern part of Costa Rica, not too far from Manuel Antonio. It’s very lush and green. The area is really well known for its river rafting tours down the Savegre River.

It took a really long time to get out there because the road conditions were really poor. But it was well worth the drive. Yet, as you can see from the following picture, it wasn’t only potholes we had to be concerned with!We managed to get there eventually. I’m not sure if it’s an area we’ll actually consider, but it was gorgeous.

The reason we were in the area in the first place was because it was “Semana Santa” here, which means Holy Week. So the whole country is on vacation. We had 4 guests in from Los Angeles for 10 days. Jay, Tony, Brian and Marty. So in addition to the various trips they all made in the country, we all went to Manuel Antonio for a few days as a group. Here are some photos:

A gorgious view of the beach:

One of the many, many monkeys we saw:

Okay, this photo needs some explaining. For months Isaac was talking about how wonderful it would be to have a pool toy that was like an octopus so we could be coddled in the arms and have lots of room for friends to play together. But you have to understand Isaac is like a little kid. And you should have seen how big his eyes got when he actually *found* this octopus! Here is a photo of him playing with it for the first time:

A nice view of Manuel Antonio from a little further above the beach:

I had some pictures of our friends: Jay, Tony, Brian & Marty posted on this site. But then I manged to screw it up somehow and lost them. I’m still learning this software. So I promise I’ll take some more pictures of them when I get to LA in May and post them again.

Now I’m rushing to get some last-minute homework done before I leave for school in the US on Thursday. Of course, when I get back on Tuesday, I’ll be coming home to another guest. Rick from London will be here and I’m very excited! I haven’t seen Rick for years! That’s all for now. Until later…many blessings to you all.