Life in August and September

 The hills are certainly green now, greener than in this picture which was taken back in May. We've apparently had slightly less rain than normal. Mornings are usually dry, with rain and quite often thunder in the late afternoon, evening and night.

 We needed a desk in our house and asked a local carpenter to make us one (no IKEA here). This is the result of our dictionary-aided conversations, a beautiful desk made of Guanacaste wood.

Last week I went back to his workshop and this time without a dictionary. Hopefully next week we'll get another desk for the boys and a bookshelf.

 The boys at the independence day parade sipping pipa frias with their friend Truman.

 Tuomas and Jenher have been best friends since day one.

In August we were invited to our neighbour's daughter's 15th birthday boat cruise. This is Stefanie jumping from the boat. Risto and Tuomas were happy to take turns with the nine bikini-clad girls.

Stefany's adoptive mother Heather and I pretending to be mermaids.

 John, Stefany's adoptive father enjoying the ocean.  Their family of three are wonderful neighbours who have helped us a lot and are also dear friends.

 After jumping and swimming around the boat we went to the beach for a bbq and games. One of the games was trying to hit the orange ball with a plantain tied around your waist.

 Another fun game was to try to move a cookie from your eye to your mouth without hands.

 We also found a dead sea snake. Oh, btw, I am not holding it.

We enjoyed some water sports, too.

Jaakko was very happy to be in the water and not go on a banana boat ride.

 

I was the designated photographer and DH the handyman.

 In addition to fun-fun stuff we have also pulled a couple of teeth, two from Jaakko (his first ones) and one from Tuomas. Don't worry, new ones are growing.

 DH working on his computer. Or actually he was listening to music full blast. I don't remember which was louder, the music or the snoring. So, if you happen to fall asleep with your hands on the keyboard you get q-tips in your mouth and a photograph.

 Another beautiful sunset.

I went on a photo shoot with a local photographer. We left at 6 am, drove to the top of a hill and worked there until the sun had risen completely.

 Then we headed to the nearby village of Guardia to take pictures of local people. She was one of a group of students.

 She really loved her parakeet. 

 

 Swimming in the rain, but it's not really cold

 Our traditional wedding anniversary picture was taken at the sunset lookout point.

 We asked the boys to set the table for our anniversary dinner. They wanted us to stay in the bedroom while they worked. Candles and a bottle of wine opened. And it was not a screw top bottle! I'm not sure if I should be proud of my 9-year-old for being able to do that. I don't know who was responsible for the plates, but he did not set one for DH.