Pictures

Volcano Irazu 11,500 ft. Still very active.













Crop spraying the "Old fashioned" way.













Culivating potatoes with an oxen team. Very common.



















Check out the legs on that one!













Cuahita, Costa Rica. Caribean side
(How did the little one get so cute?! Must be the fella taking the picture.)













Brooklyn at the Catholic National Basilica.

The Ocean is for fish

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve always been a little afraid of the ocean. Now I’m deathly afraid of it. And I’m never going on a boat again.

Dad wanted to go deep-sea fishing. We were able to find a really good deal (note: cheap doesn’t mean better in this kind of thing but nobody told us that) Anyway, we even decided to take along Brooklyn so that we could all go. It was going to be a fun day out on a nice fishing boat (we didn’t realize that “good deal” does not mean “nice fishing boat”) We were sure we could handle Brooklyn between the four of us and thought it would be fun for her to see us catch fish. And we packed some toys to keep her entertained.

Mom and I worried the instant we saw the boat. No bathroom. This was an 8-hour trip and there was no bathroom? Not only was it not a “nice fishing boat” it was not a very big boat. There were already three “guides” plus three other tourists that joined our little trip and the five of us. But they had brought the “big” boat. As we loaded into the boat (not easy for us land-lubbers) I realized that the only way to get around to the front of the boat was by climbing outside the cabin along a narrow ledge. No thank you. So mom and I settled in on the only bench in the boat facing the rear of the boat right behind the “captain” in the cabin.

As we moved away from shore I could see it would be hard to hold Brooklyn but I figured once we stopped to put in our lines that we could figure something else out. As we moved further out to sea the waves got a little bigger. Pretty soon the boat was slowing down so that Sean and Dad could climb back to the cabin. Mom and I were shocked to see that they were absolutely drenched! They had been sitting in the perfect spot to get splashed by every wave that the boat slapped over. They were cold and wet but we were all still excited to go catch us some fish.

I was holding Brooklyn and trying to balance myself on a tall bench when suddenly my feet were not under me anymore and I was landing hard on the floor of the boat. (Not that my falling is such a rare occurrence but it adds to the adventure of this story!) Brooklyn didn’t like that so Sean took over my seat holding her. I must admit I was glad, because I was starting to feel a little nauseous.

At some point, as I was barely holding on, somebody mentioned we were about an hour out from where we would stop to fish. In the back of my mind I was wondering how I would survive just the next hour (remember: 8 hour trip). Then Brooklyn started throwing up. She’s always been pretty sensitive to motion. Poor thing hadn’t even had breakfast yet but I had a bag ready for her and she let me know whenever she was going to need the bag, which was often.

Then one of the men that came along with us lost his hat. Why in the world they thought it was worth fishing back out of the sea, I don’t know but they did and so they stopped the engines and were going in reverse and bobbing around in the sea trying to get the hat back. At this point I could see mom wasn’t doing so well and neither was I. Actually, Sean and Dad looked a little green themselves. The men that were in the front of the boat also moved back to the cabin where they could warm up. (I’m not talking about a big cabin here.) We got the hat but next thing I knew Mom was leaning over the side of the boat. Yes, she was sick. And then (no joke) the man next to me breathed on me. And his breath was bad. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was a good thing I had Brooklyn’s sick sack in my hands at that moment.

By then it was pretty obvious to everybody that this wasn’t going to work. We did end up turning back around, PRAISE THE LORD! The other men decided to go back out and get their money’s worth (they weren’t ready to “count their losses” yet). They ended up finding even rougher seas and not much else. Not a good day to fish. Dad, why did you think that was going to be fun, anyway?

I’m never getting into a boat again.

And back to school we go...

• Well, that was a quick break. Here we are already back in classes. We had a great vacation time. We just finished our last extended vacation time in the foreseeable future.
• We said goodbye to my folks yesterday. We had a special time together visiting the Caribbean side of Costa Rica and also going to the tallest volcano in Costa Rica. Nevermind that we all were miserable sick in a boat on rough seas or that winds at the volcano were so strong we were nearly blown into the crater!
• I’m going into mourning. Brooklyn is apparently done with afternoon naps. Short of drugging her, I can’t think of any way to keep the naps going.
• Brooklyn’s teacher was telling us today that Brooklyn is a little on the bossy side. She tells her classmates to eat (in Spanish) and if they don’t do it she gets in their face and says “TIME OUT!” At least she isn’t giving spankings…yet.

Pray

Please be in prayer for a meeting between MAF officials and the Ecuadorian government tomorrow. We're hoping to get things ironed out so that our pilots can fly again.

Thoughts

• We welcomed the Dickson family to Costa Rica yesterday. They are here to learn Spanish before Rick takes over as Latin America Regional Director. They have been in Africa with MAF for several years. That makes 3 MAF families in Costa Rica again.
• I'm ready to go to Ecuador. It feels weird knowing that we'll be going in only four months. In many ways, I've already said good-bye to Costa Rica and I'm skipping ahead to the next phase. But I know that isn't how God wants it. We still have lots to do here in Costa Rica and we can't be missing out on what God has for us in the next 4 months. But our house has taken on a more temporary feel again, knowing we need to be getting rid of the extra stuff again before we leave.
• How weird. School begins in a week. And we're the "big kids" now. 3rd Trimester. Seniors. Wow. And we're supposed to be the smart ones! This should be a fun trimester of practicing what we've learned and digging a little deeper into the heart of the language. I would definately say that Sean and I know Spanish now. That doesn't mean everything comes out as it should or that we are totally clear on some of the rules - that's what this third trimester will hopefully help us with. Pray for good teachers for us!
• I'm getting anxious about the maid's Bible Study. I'll probably start it in 2 weeks. Yikes! God gave me an excellent outline for the study. We'll be studying on Christlikeness and what that means. I'm looking forward to it but I really don't feel ready and I feel a lot like Moses must have - "but Lord, I can't talk!" Please pray with me for these ladies. I don't want this to be a mediocre study or one of those things that doesn't "stick". I want God to use this study to change our habits, our attitudes, and our lives for the better. And I know that is what He wants too. Let's pray against the enemy's tactics to stop our progress!
• Sean just got home. He was downtown most of the afternoon working on getting his Costa Rican Driver License. He's official now. And only after standing in 3 differnent lines for one hour each!!

She's just so cute

Brooklyn is getting really talkative. We can't understand much of what she says but she's very expressive. Occasionally we catch words like "moo" or "puppy" but the majority is still blabber. (unless, of course, it's Spanish!) I can tell she's going to be quite a talkative young lady. She's also been singing a lot. She makes up her own songs and sings a combo rendition of "Twinkle Little Star" and the "Alphabet Song".

And she loves animals...can't leave them alone. She was funny with the beagle last night. She carried the dog's food bowl all over the house so he would follow her. Pretty soon she was feeding the poor dog one kibble at a time - but not before she tasted it first to be sure it was okay. That's what we call "GUACALA!" in Spanish. It is a combo of "yuck, gross, and icky" and says it better than any English word I know.

Brooklyn is still convinced that everything that flies is a "ducky". We have a hummingbird feeder that Sean fills with sugar water and the other day Brooklyn was outside playing near it. A hummingbird came and was drinking the water (agua in Spanish) and Brooklyn yelled very loudly, "NO, Ducky, dat's Dada's agua!"

Happy 2006

Is it really possible? Wow. A whole new year already. We're amazed when we look back at 2005 - we sold and moved out of our house, finished packing all our earthly belongings, finished raising our support,"moved" to California to MAF headquarters for training for a few months, and came to Costa Rica. And now our time in Costa Rica is over two-thirds complete. What a year. God has been good.

Well, last night we got a bit of a feeling of what "shock and awe" must feel like. Fireworks. Loud, big fireworks. They were going off in spurts throughout the night but we definately knew when Midnight hit (yes, we were in bed and I don't see anything shameful in that). A lot of U.S. cities have fireworks shows. San Jose doesn't have its own show but every citizen of San Jose sets off his own little fireworks show. You can probably imagine. We could hear the whole city shouting and yelling, sirens, and fireworks going off right beside our house and all across the city. It was actually a bit unsettling, considering we had been sleeping peacefully for a couple of hours already! We might have been running for cover if we didn't remember that it was the New Year. Surprisingly, Brooklyn slept through the whole thing. I don't know how. It was pretty cool at first but it went on and on and pretty soon I was kinda mad at these people disturbing my sleep. "All right all ready, so it's a New Year. Now go to bed!" If we could have had a nice view of the city, I'm sure it would have been amazing. As it was, we couldn't see much from our little house.

Don't get me wrong, we did celebrate the new year. We ended up going to the house of some missionaries from White Rock, British Columbia. We went to school near White Rock for a year and used to love taking a drive to White Rock, which is on the coast. Anyway, we just happened to meet this family at a Chinese restuarant on Friday night and were invited to their house for New Years! They have a couple of acres (totally unheard of in this city) and so it was nice to have a little space. They also have a kitten, a beagle dog, fish, and a hamster. Brooklyn was in heaven. The girl could hardly contain herself. At one point she walked into the room carrying the kitten.... with hands wrapped tightly around its little neck. It's eyes were bulging a bit. We hope it recovers okay. We set off a few fireworks ourselves. It was a great time.

Pictures

We thought you might enjoy a few recent pictures.


Poas Volcano


I see a modeling career in her future...


Family photo. December 26, 2005


Brooklyn got to hold a Red Eyed Tree Frog!


She's a very good mommy to her new baby dolls.

Good-byes and Earthquakes

• We said goodbye to the Cannons this morning. I don't think we'll ever get used to that. It is always hard. But we had a great time together. Although we don't get to be with family as much as we would like, the times we do have together are precious and unforgettable.
• Brooklyn appears to be a little sick. I'm pretty sure that its mostly just pure exhaustion. She's been playing hard, missing naps, getting to bed late, and waking up early this past week. Even the potty training thing is out the window since we traveled so much. She has been grumpy and weepy today. We're trying to give her lots of rest today.
• We felt an earthquake this morning. It wasn't a very strong one but definately was noticeable. That was a little weird! Little earthquakes are a rather common here, this is the first one we've felt since being here but supposedly there have been several little ones since we arrived in May.
• This next week will be pretty quiet. We have a few little errands to take care of. We'll welcome our new Latin America regional director (read: BOSS) to Costa Rica on Monday. He and his family will be here to learn Spanish. Then my (Becca's) parents come in next Thursday. (YIPEE!) They'll leave the same day we start back to school on the 10th and then it's back to the old routine for us. Wow. Something tells me that our last 4 months in Costa Rica will go by very quickly.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Well, it's December 25.... We are enjoying our time with Sean's family. We got back from the beach yesterday, it was a great trip. Last night we went to a special Christmas Eve program and dinner at our church. The fireworks were going off past midnight last night. A few of them really lit up our room! We had heard that Christmas Eve was a big deal down here. It wasn't very quiet last night but it was festive!

We hope that you are enjoying Christmas with your loved ones. Don't forget to take the time to really think about the "Reason for the Season". The fact that God chose to send His Son, Our Savior, down to us as a little baby is so amazing. He could have taken just a few minutes to accomplish His purpose but chose to work out His plan in a very special way. Christ lived just as we lived - with one difference, He never sinned. But He certainly understands us and how we feel. From little babies, to children, to adults - Christ was there. Thank you Lord!

Merry Christmas. May your day be filled with peace and joy...and a little bit of Christmas fudge.

Countdown to Christmas

In a little over 24 hours, we'll be picking up Sean's parents and sister at the airport! YIPEE!! We are excited, getting things ready and doing last-minute errands. We haven't seen Sean's family since we left home (Colorado) last February. Boy, are they going to be shocked when they see Brooklyn! It will be so much fun seeing them again, enjoying Christmas with them, and showing them around Costa Rica. We're taking them to the beach, to a volcano and showing them around San Jose as well as celebrating Christmas here at our house. This will be my first year ever having the Christmas company in my house and I even get to cook a Christmas dinner for them. I feel so grown up or something. Always before we were going to our parents' houses and letting them cook for us but this is a special treat to host them in our home. The turkey is waiting, the fudge will hopefully not be all eaten up by the time they get here, the Christmas tree is looking as good as it's going to get, the beds are made, the floor is shining brilliantly (thanks to Isabel), and the Pepsi is in the fridge. The only thing left to do is find some egg nog.

Remember as you travel Cannons - "KEEP YOUR TRAVELING HATS ON AT ALL TIMES!" We love you and we'll see you soon!

Climb Every Mountain...

Yesterday Sean and I went on a date. We left Brooklyn with our househelper, Isabel, and went for a hike. It was beautiful. And cold. We climbed - or at least thought we climbed - up to a cross that we can actually see from our house. It is on the top of a mountain that overlooks San Jose (well, for us it was more of a hill than a mountain...hey, we're from Colorado). It was a great hike but we forgot jackets so we were a little cold. We were disappointed, though, to realize that we didn't actually climb to THE cross but just a cross. There are 3 crosses up there, which we didn't realize. We were pretty high up and couldn't see the other one, so we thought we were there. We felt pretty proud of ourselves as we made our way back down the narrow, overgrown trail but when we looked back up to where we had been, we saw that just a little farther up was the real cross. Bummer. Oh well, we had a great time and enjoyed fresh air and an awesome view. Now, of course, we need to go again. Another date!

El Cascanueces

Last night I went to the National Theater and saw The Nutcracker. That was my first live ballet - who knew I had to come to Costa Rica to experience such sophisticated culture?! But it was beautiful. I enjoyed the time with a bunch of other ladies from language school. I was glad Sean wasn't there, though, I just don't see him getting much of a "kick" out of watching people dancing around on the stage...when you put it that way, who would?! Brooklyn stayed home and played with Daddy while Mommy had a nice evening out with the girls. I even wore real dress shoes - not flip-flops! Impressive, I know, but for the record I nearly fell and twisted my ankle so it's back to my old standby again.

There are Giants among us

This morning when we arrived at school, the teacher who I did the spinning competition with had some interesting photos. She had found on the internet our pictures along with all the other participants of the spinning competition. It was pretty funny. Note the difference in size between me and the average tico (Costa Rican). Yes it is obvious to say that we stand out a bit. www.ticomania.com is the website if you want to see more. It is all in Spanish so good luck navigating if you choose to go there. There are other pictures of me, but this one is the best.

I did it!

Yesterday, as Rebecca stated last week, I had a competition of spinning. It was for two hours and I don't think I have sweat that much since at least high school football, maybe never. For those of you who don't know what spinning is, here is the unofficial definition: "Spinning - the act of pedaling really hard and fast for a specified time period on a stationary bike, thus inflicting lots of pain and even more sweat." So there we were yesterday with around 200 people in a dance hall of a nice shopping mall, all pedaling our little tails off thinking we were going somewhere. You might ask , how you determine a winner of a spinning competition. The answer, you don't. Yes, this was basically one of those things I just needed to do, something to conquer, and challenge; as if Spanish isn't enough. I went with my grammar teacher who is a fitness nut, and her friend. They both did great, and after starting about an hour late, ( its Latin America, remember?) we conquered the "spinning-competition" about 2 hours later. Did I mention that every 30 minutes a fresh instructor was introduced to continue the torture with great effect? I hope I don't sound like I am complaining. I am not. I love physical things where you need to overcome your physical pains and just continue on. I think it was Sir Edmund Hillary that said, before becoming the first person to successfully climb Mount Everest in Nepal, "I am climbing Mount Everest because it is there." Those are not his words exactly, but it conveys the idea. Anyway, I would have to say that I don't think I would ever do a spinning competition again, but now I can check it off of my "to do list." Rebecca and I are trying to get geared up for maybe climbing Costa Rica's tallest mountain this next year, maybe in March or so. It is almost 12,000 feet high, which is quite a bit "shorter" than other 14,000 ft. mountians I have climbed in Colorado, but we will be starting a lot lower. Just another goal we have while we are here. We'll keep you posted.

Church was really good today. One of the students from our school that is graduating this week and going to Spain with his family delivered the sermon. He did a great job. I have found it is really hard to speak Spanish when you are not totally relaxed, at least at this point in my skills. Afterward the church really honored them and sent them off with a blessing. It was neat to think we will be there ourselves in a few months. I think I would even try the preaching bit if I was asked. Maybe. On second thought, maybe I would just do another spinning competition instead :)

Christmas Angel

Today was the Christmas Program for the Kinder at school. Brooklyn looked so cute up there ringing a little silver bell with all the other two year olds while the older kids sang. The best part was when she and another little boy started fighting and hitting each other with their bells. Precious. Our little angel.

Prayer Request

Please pray for the program in Ecuador. The Ecuadorian equivelent to FAA has grounded MAF. We have had situations like this over the past couple of years . There is a group in Ecuador that believes that MAF is stealing money and jobs from Ecuadorians and they demand that we hire an Ecuadorian pilot within a month. MAF has had Ecuadorian pilots in the past and there are several Ecuadorians that work with MAF in Ecuador but at the present we don't happen to have an Ecuadorian pilot and this appears to anger some people. Pray for the team in Ecuador as they try to sort things out and resolve the issue as soon as possible.

6 days of classes left!

I know, we're pretty spoiled to get a nice long Christmas Break. But then again, this is probably the last one we'll ever have. It is very possible that Sean may be flying on Christmas day next year! Yeah, I'm pretty sure he'd rather be doing that than having three weeks free. You may remember how terribly bored we were during our last break from school. Neither one of us are very good at "vacations". We love adventures, traveling, doing, and even working... but we go absolutely crazy with a completely "action-less" day. Sean starts cleaning toilets with screwdrivers (don't ask) and I start thinking too much which is always dangerous. Brooklyn is just like her parents. We get pretty grumpy.

We do have lots of visitors coming, though. Looks like we'll keep pretty busy which is wonderful!

Sean is off at a Spinning class right now. He's always really loved riding bikes - especially in the mountains. Pedaling on a stationary bike in a room full of sweaty people isn't quite the same as a ride through the aspen trees in the mountains of Colorado, but it at least gives him something to do. He's even doing a Spinning competition this coming Saturday!

I went to a party this afternoon. It was for a Bible Study group that I'm going to be teaching next trimester that is for househelpers of language school students. As I sat there, looking at all those precious souls I started to wonder WHAT IN THE WORLD I HAVE GOTTEN MYSELF INTO! These ladies are so special and this is just one of those things a person doesn't want to screw up! It isn't really the Spanish thing that I'm worried about (although that is certainly a factor) but it's more the whole idea of leading these ladies in a study of God's Word! Pray for me and for these special women. My prayer is that these ladies come to know Christ in an ever deeper and more real way...and that is also my prayer for myself - so it will be a journey that we take together. This is a God thing and I'm excited to see what He does with it!

Restful weekend

We didn't do much this weekend. It was kinda slow but, then, we haven't had one of those for a while. We have a park right next door and now that the weather is so much nicer, we 've been taking Brooklyn and the puppy there almost every day. Brooklyn is quite the big girl climbing up the slide, swinging on the swings and pretty much telling us where to go. She loves running races with Daddy, too. And she always wins!


Here she is beating Dad for the 5th time in a row! Just call her "Flash"!






















You talkin' to me?

And so ends another month...

• Can you believe that tomorrow is December?!? Where did this year go?
• We are down to 10 more days of class.
• We ate Chinese food tonight. Fed the whole family for about $4 and even had leftovers! And it was very good. Yes!
• The weather has been just awesome! The rain suddenly stopped about a week ago and it is warm and breezy. Didn't realize how much we missed blue skies and sun. No, it doesn't feel like Christmas but we are easily convinced that this weather is more than okay!
• Brooklyn is sitting beside me coloring herself purple with a marker. Cute. She's been sort of hit and miss with the naps (please no!) and also hasn't been going to bed so easily. Last night at about 9:30 (an hour and a half after we put her to bed) she was still going strong. We caught her playing with her toys on the floor - she'd even taken off her pajamas. Why does she have to be so darn cute when she's being so naughty?
• Our puppy Ana is getting big. When we first got her we were amazed at her calm, sweet demeanor. Then we found out she had worms. Now that the worms are gone, she's a real puppy - still sweet but "calm" no longer applies.
• I (Becca) was able to talk to my Grandma for just a few minutes on the phone last night. What a treat! It doesn't seem right at this time of year to not be planning a trip back to Kansas to visit her and all my uncles, aunts, and cousins. Mom and Dad are there right now - Dad is hunting with his brother-in-law for some innocent creature. I have to laugh - most Texans and Kansans go to Colorado to hunt but now Dad goes to Texas and Kansas!
• Have you seen "Beyond the Gates"? It's a documentary about the 5 missionary men that were killed by a tribe in Ecuador about 50 years ago. It's a great film - Nate Saint, one of the men, was an MAF pilot and lived in Shell, where we'll be living. His house still stands - our friends, the DiCrastos, will actually live above his old hangar. Check out the film!