The Highlight is LAVA!

We've been here a little over a week now. It's still somewhat unbelievable and crazy but Mitchell and I both realized that things are beginning to feel more familiar than overwhelming now! That's progress! It's been a busy week of running errands to get more settled and also trying to have some fun at the same time. I successfully navigated my way across the city, on 3 different highways and found Walmart! That may not sound like much but I'm celebrating all of the victories right now. My housekeeper, Carla, started working this week. I have so many feelings about that! I would love to raise my hands up and shout FREEDOM FROM HOUSEWORK!! However, there's more to it than that. In all honesty, though it is amazing not to have to mop my own floors and scrub my showers, it's a bit uncomfortable too. If I am home while she is cleaning I feel really guilty about sitting and playing with the kids or reading something while she is hard at work sweating it up! There is also a huge class divide here between the haves and the have nots. By hiring her we're not taking advantage of her lower income status at all. In fact, she really appreciates the work and the income we provide. Since we can afford to hire her (normal wage is $150/month full time) it is expected that we would, and even considered stingy if we didn't. It's also uncomfortable for me to have another woman come into my home and see all of the messes. I am a clean for the cleaning lady kind of person! This will take some getting used to. It is really nice to be able to use my time for other things like personal interests and outings with the kids. Overall it's a pretty great arrangement and we all love Carla. She is super sweet.

I mentioned last week that the days start early here. Mitchell and I are up at 5:30 everyday and loving it! **I need to get some black out curtains for the kids' rooms though! The point of getting up with the sun is to have some personal time!** We spend those early morning hours studying the scriptures, exercising, reviewing together our budget, reading the local newspaper to become familiar with local interests and to practice our Spanish, setting goals and getting organized etc. I will highly recommend getting up early, it is so great!

Want to see some more pictures?? ...haha, of course you do! Enough blah blah blah, here we go!

Coolest park ever!

This awesome park is in the same subdivision as Mitchell's office. It is so cool! I love all of the big jungle trees that provide shade from the heat of the sun.

This is the face of a boy who can no longer be contained by his pack and play for naps. He thinks his new trick is pretty clever too! Mom thinks it is less so...

Lesson learned: Always bring your clean laundry inside to dry if you're going to leave the house during the rainy season!

Even in Utah this is my happy place! After a couple of hard days this week Costco, or Price Smart as it is called here, felt so familiar! We even had pizza from the food court for dinner like the old days!

On Friday I took the kids to the zoo! I had been dragging a bit on Wednesday and Thursday. It's hard for adults and kids to completely change everything around us. I feel for the kids, they didn't even have a say in this decision. They are just along for the ride, like it or not. Friday I was determined to make it a good day for everyone. It was! The admission to the zoo for the 5 of us was a whopping, $130 cordoba and that includes 10 cords for premium parking. I can't do the math in my head either. C$28.5=$1 USD so the zoo cost us $4.56! Yeah, that's cool. It was a pretty neat zoo too! 

Parrots

Audrey had just learned on Thursday that the national flower of Nicaragua is Sacuanjoche (Plumeria). She was super excited to find one!

These monkeys (not the ones in the green shirt and yellow dress, the ones in the background) were so entertaining! 

I have no idea what kind of bird this is but it stood about 5 feet tall!

Watch your fingers there Reid!

Reid and Redick were really impressed by these giant leaves!

We bought a bag of Pithaya, dragon fruit, from a roadside fruit stand. Super convenient! They sell right to your car window while you wait for the light to turn green! They are very eye catching with the bright pink skin. We weren't sure what to expect because some of the locals don't like it too much. It is SO GOOD! Think kiwi but not as tart. Yum. We're adding "dragon food" to our regular list.

Saturday is our outing day. We really want to see and experience as much of Nicaragua as we can while we are here. We will do some tourist focused trips and also some more local experiences. Yesterday was definitely more tourist focused but it was worth it! We made our first visit to Volcan Masaya! Of the 19 volcanoes in Nicaragua it is the closest to us. Not only is it an active volcano which means earthquakes in this area for us, right now the molten lava inside is exposed and visible!! Oh my goodness, it was amazing and the photos DO NOT do justice! You all *need* to get your passports now and get down here because this could close up at anytime!

I am on the hunt for a large print of this painting. I absolutely fell in love with it. It is supposed to be a representation of all of the beauty and industries that Nicaragua has to offer. 

We were amused by the Hawaiian name for this type of lava. The kids looked for old flows of "Lava AHHHHH!" to step on. Haha!

This is a beautiful country! Everything is lush and green.

The crater. Below that sulfuric smoke is boiling angry lava!!

The ancient inhabitants of this area called this crater "La Boca del Infierno" "The Mouth of Hell." I can see why. It looks pretty menacing down there.

The smoke cleared a little for the picture and you can see a slight red glow. We could see it better though. You could see the lake of molten rock boiling and splattering and churning down below.

A little closer view

After seeing the volcano we explored Masaya a little more. I wanted to go to the artisan market to look for a print of that painting I liked so we explored. This cute little park is in the main town square adjacent to the large catholic church. I liked Masaya a lot. It has so much more charm than Managua.

Home Depot! Another familiar place.

Last night Audrey and I decided to go back to the volcano after dark to get another look at the lava pool. Fun fact, there are only a handful of places in the world where you can observe a lava lake! The night view was definitely impressive.