Necy comes to Costa Rica

This past week Necy came to visit and Lucy had a blast seeing her grandmother again. Her favorite thing to do with Necy is to read books together, especially her new Elmo book which Necy brought with her.


Necy took Lucy and I to a wonderful resort while Sean was in Honduras. It was a beautiful place and it was a great place to relax.


The resort had a pool which Lucy loved especially when she was in Necy's arms.


It was such a joy for Lucy to have Necy around for a whole week and she got quite spoiled during that time. Every morning Lucy still goes into Necy's room looking for her and asking about where she is.


Necy gave Lucy quite a education on all of the flowers that we saw, while meanwhile Lucy gave Necy a education on the Costa Rican ants.


Thanks for coming Necy! We love you and miss you already. Can't wait until you come back in August.

A Year and a Half

Today was Lucy's 1 1/2 birthday. It is so hard for me to believe how fast she is growing up. It is amazing to watch her change and I really feel like I have a toddler now, no longer a baby. She learns new words every day, both in Spanish and English, she is beginning to just echo everything that we say. Her favorite thing to do right now is to read books, which is great to get a little extra time with my daughter. Her personality is really beginning to develop and she is very much a playful, fun loving, adventuresome girl. Here are a few pictures from our day at the park so that you can begin to see what a big girl she is becoming.

The Love Continues

My mother arrived in Costa Rica yesterday with 2 bags full of fun and exciting stuff. It was better than Christmas! You can see the picture below most of the package included maternity clothes, food and candy that we were missing, book, toys, and clothes for Lucy, and much much more.


The greatest gift was a pillow top mattress cover which has made our bed so much more comfortable. Last night was my best night by far since we have been here. This will be so great for my pregnancy!

Lindsey's Birthday Love

I took a picture today of all the cards and packages I got in the mail and wanted to share them with you to let you know how very thankful I am for all of it. It has been hard adjusting to life here in Costa Rica in many ways and one of those ways has definitely been loneliness, I was so thankful this birthday to receive so much love from those of you back home. You have made my birthday very special this year and for that I am extremely grateful. My birthday here has seemed to last 2 weeks with all the mail and today my mom comes into town with a whole bag full of American goodies- what a blessing!

My Friend Liam

Liam is the son of William and Amanda Eubank, fellow missionaries working in Honduras who we knew before arriving in Costa Rica. William and I actually grew up together in the same church and now we have been together the past few months in Costa Rica and our ministries should overlap a good bit in Honduras. This past week we have had the privileged of keeping Liam during the day while his mom was in school and his dad was on a mission trip. It also gave me a chance to see what my life would be like with 2 babies around the house.

Liam and Lucy's favorite time together was after Liam woke up from his nap. Lucy wanted to get in the crib with him. It was very cute when Liam was sleeping because Lucy would walk around the house saying "shhhh baby" as in be quiet the baby is sleeping.


Liam is very advanced and at 10 months walking everywhere. Lucy re-learned how to share her toys this week since she doesn't have to do that too often here.


This was another day after Liam woke up but Lucy thought it would be fun to sit back, relax, and read Liam a book while he explored her fish mobile.



Liam is leaving on Saturday for Honduras and we will not get to see them again until we get there. We are sad to be saying goodbye and I know Lucy will miss her sweet friend Liam. We look forward to many more play dates in La Ceiba.

More Beach Fun

These are the last few pictures of our trip last weekend. As you can see we pretty much had the beach to ourselves, it was very remote.


This is about as close as Lucy wanted to go to the water. She enjoyed watching the surfers from afar though, and playing in the sand.



There isn't much better than a sunset at the beach.


We were hot and sweaty all weekend. I guess it helped prepare us a little bit for what the weather will be like in La Ceiba. For now we are going to enjoy the cool breezes of San Jose.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

When we moved in we didn't have any mirror in our whole apartment. Since then we have invested in a little one to put in the bathroom so that I can actually see myself when I get ready. Lucy rarely gets to see herself and this weekend at the beach she rediscovered herself all over again.

(For long-time Lucy's World readers, you may remember that this is not Lucy's first experience with a mirror.)

A Turtle Saves the Day

When we first went out to the pool on Friday, Lucy wanted nothing to do with it. She just kept repeating "no" over and over again. She wouldn't even put her feet in, and we thought we were in for a long weekend. And then she spotted the turtle. She hopped on, rode around the pool, and never wanted to get off. Thank you inflatable turtle!


As you can tell, our little fashion queen had two different swimsuits, and two different hats.


After riding on the turtle for about 20 minutes, we coaxed her into the water where she proceeded to have a blast.


We loved having to pool so close, our room was just on the right side of the picture, and the ocean is strait back beyond the trees.


Lucy spent her time between the turtle and the water, always staying happy and cool.

Beach Trip

We had a long break from school this past weekend so we decided to take a family trip to the beach. We went to the closest beach to San Jose, Playa Hermosa. It is off the Pacific side of Costa Rica and is known as a surfer beach. It was very different from any beach we had ever been too, the sand was black, and the waves were huge! Overall we had a great time and really enjoyed our time to relax and see more of Costa Rica.

Before we left Lucy and I decided to paint our toenails for the occasion. This was all Lucy's idea, it is fun to watch her want to do girly things.


This was Lucy's first trip to the beach and although she wasn't too sure about the ocean she seemed to really enjoy sitting in the sand and watching the surfers.


You can see from this picture the black sand and the beautiful palm trees in the background. Playa Hermosa is a little bit of a undiscovered place and therefore it is very remote and quiet.


Our place we stayed at had a wonderful pool which we loved. Lucy especially enjoyed riding on the turtle.


Home at last! This is how we all felt today when we finally arrived back in our house in San Jose. It is a 3 hour bus ride, plus about a total 30 minute taxi ride to get there so by the end we were all beat.



We will post many more pictures this week about all our adventures we had while at the beach. We decided that Lucy was in great need of a vacation because when we arrived Lucy proceeded to sleep 14 hours each night, and take 3 hour naps during the day. We all enjoyed our R&R.

Babies Babies Babies!!!

In the span of about a month, Lucy has gained 4 more new friends. We thought all these babies and all these good friends deserved their own post.

March 6: Baxter Gillian Purdy. The second son of our dear friends from our first year in seminary.



March 8: Martha Evangeline Noll. The second daughter of some fellow missionary friends in Japan.



March 25: Camilla Grey Kulp. The third daughter of friends during our second year in seminary.



April 7: Krieg Justice Arrowood. The first son of college friends at Furman.

Zoo

We had heard that the zoo here in San Jose was nothing special, and although it doesn't really compare to an American zoo, it was perfect for Lucy. The zoo was small enough that Lucy could walk around the whole thing. We got there soon after it opened and so it turns out we got there at feeding time which was great for all the activity, and I think we were about the only people in the zoo for the first 30 minutes. So for $3 we might be going to the zoo every weekend :)

The monkeys were by far one of Lucy's favorite things to watch.


The zoo had a jungle feel to it which was cool and it made the shade nice and enjoyable though out the zoo.


The sloth was one of my personal favorites.


After every animal Lucy saw she would immediately say "more more" because she couldn't wait to see what was next.


The zoo also had lots of cool tropical birds. As you can tell Lucy was sporting her outfit with a Toucan on it and she thought it was great that she too had a bird on a shirt.

Big Sister Lucy

That's right Lucy is going to be a big sister soon. We are pregnant and due October 30th (same day as Lucy's due date).

Here is an ultrasound we had 2 weeks ago. The doctor's office here was great! The doctor we saw spoke fluent English and he has ultrasound equipment right in his office so I am pretty sure there will be many more pictures to come. We are calling the little guy "Tico", which is what the Costa Ricans call themselves.


Lucy has fallen in love with her baby dolls and loves to feed them, rock them, and play with them. She has also become quiet the helper around the house loving to "set the table", throw things in the trash, and help fold clothes. We are hoping Lucy will continue to be such a big helper when the baby comes.

A Big Day in San Jose!

We have a park called "Los Sauces" a block from our house. This is one of our favorite places to go with Lucy for her to play, run around, and meet new friends. This weekend as we were walking through the park we noticed some construction workers and come to find out they were building our very own playground! Every day we went to the park Lucy was anxious to play on it and today at last it opened. What a blessing this is to our family.

Lucy loved climbing up and down this thing, I am sure it will improve her walking skills.


Look at me mom!


The slide, by far the greatest hit for Lucy and it is just her size.


The whole playground (minus the swings and the see-saws). Notice all the many kids, at one time there must have been 20 kids playing on this thing- it should be great practice for our Spanish.