i LOVE to see the TEMPLE

How hard can it be to attend the temple? You schedule time in your busy schedule to attend, grab your temple bag or rent there, jump in your car and bam you're there getting all the blessings He has in store for you! Not so easy! Living here has given us so much to be grateful for there in California! I didn't realize how easy we had it in California!

Problems we are facing:

Running a hotel is pretty much an all the time job! While it is an easy, fun and relaxing job, it leaves little time for traveling. We are pretty much here at all times. The only really slow day we have is Monday, which is one of the only days the temple is closed!
We do not have a car that will get us to the temple, which is only an hr away. We would have to take the bus, which is a 2-3 hrs ride. That's not too bad though! We did not bring our temple bag and were hoping they would let us rent clothes. We now find out they don't rent! Hmm...that's a tough one to try and fix! We will figure it out!

While there are so many problems, there is also light at the end of the tunnel. Brian's sister Jenny and her husband Todd are coming in just a few weeks and we have plans to go to the temple! We are so excited to go! Here is what the beautiful San Jose, Costa Rica temple looks like!





This temple was dedicated June 2000. Just 11 yrs ago. We are so excited to see this wonderful place in person!

When our time is done here in Costa Rica, we will be heading through El Salvador to Guatemala to visit Brian's family. We were so excited to hear that San Salvador temple will be having it's open house the beginning of July, which is when we would be going through. But we were sad to find out our bus gets us in at 9pm and leaves the next day at 5am! Bummer! But here is what that gorgeous San Salvador temple looks like!



While we are in Guatemala, we plan on seeing the Guatemala City Temple. Although the Quetzaltenango temple isn't open, we hope to get some pictures while we are there! Here are pictures of both!





We are so grateful for the opportunity to be here in Costa Rica! We can't wait to see these gorgeous temples in person!

Costa Rica Cooking

I am not the cooker! I'm the eater! My theory has always been "Why cook when my Dad is an amazing chef and cooks meals everyday!?" There was never a need to learn to cook. Even when Brian and I got married, I would get a text message from my dad saying there were left overs and we should come over! It's quite sad that I don't have any pictures of his cooking. I guess I just jump right in instead of photographing it! Here are a few pix of my Daddy who I miss so much!!







Now that we are in Costa Rica, WOW things have really changed! I was pretty nervous, but willing to try some stuff. I've been making some yummy crepes and banana pancakes for breakfast. I just made some yummy hashbrowns this morning! They certainly were delicious!



I had a minor mishap with some brownie s'mores I tried to make! They looked so good on the internet and they didn't look too difficult...boy was I wrong! 3 things I did NOT know before attempting these delicious s'mores: 1. Graham crackers are so hard to find here in Costa Rica, so we had to make do with some wheat grainy crackers that were more like wheat thins! 2. Baking chocolate is impossible to find in a small town! I had to use this crazy chocolate that was like wax and meant for chocolate dipped bananas, which are also nasty wax bananas! 3. Costa Rica ovens are in celsius, not fahrenheit! So when I read 325 F, I went to the oven and was puzzled why it only went to 250. So I just figured it was an old oven that didn't go very high and said...I guess just go as high as we can! We can probably get to 275...C not F! That means I baked that bad boy at 527 F!!! Yeah, not a success by any means! Lessoned learned!



A few others I have made so far are: Haupia, many different fruit smoothies, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cake with frosting and peach cobbler! All in all, we are having a wonderful time and are enjoying every minute. (Don't ask my husband how the s'more brownies were!)