Olive Ridleys

Yesterday was an accidentally amazing day! We had loose plans that turned out to be magical!

The kids were invited by their karate instructor to come watch a Central American region karate tournament in Managua. They aren't ready to compete just yet but I thought it would be good for them to see what it's all about. The kids and I headed over in the morning and for 90 minutes all 4 kids sat in the bleachers of the gym mesmerized and totally fascinated by the competitors. They all came away from it inspired to keep training so someday they can also compete and spar. Their karate coach was one of the local instructors coordinating the tournament and he had a few of members of his team earn medals and trophies, including the overall first place! We love the instructor, he is so good with the kids and they are loving karate!

The kids with their coach and his team

Cutest photo bomber! There were 3 mats set up with judges at each mat so there was always someone competing.

R&R getting ready for their after school karate class on Friday

On Monday for Family Home Evening we had a lesson on giving service. We learned that "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God." Mosiah 2:17  The kids each had a 5x5 BINGO chart and they were challenged to complete acts of service throughout the week to check off a square on the BINGO chart. On Monday we planned a family trip to POPS, our favorite ice cream shop, for Saturday to enjoy the sweet rewards of service with an ice cream cone.

On Monday night Redick asked what the prize would be if anyone filled up the entire BINGO sheet for a blackout. Mitchell said if anyone got a blackout they would earn a banana split! Redick was focused on that goal all week and managed to give 25 acts of service throughout the week and got his banana split!

Reid earned 3 BINGOs and got a dipped cone.

Audrey also did lots of service throughout the week and earned her cone!

 We had planned earlier in the week to go to a beach we had never visited before. On the Pacific coast near Leon there is an estuary where a river flows into the ocean. It forms a kind of reservoir/bay right there on the coast. Mitchell had read that there is a bird sanctuary there and that we could charter a boat to take us out to an island to see some birds. On Saturday afternoon we wavered about going. We wondered if it would be worth the drive or if we were getting too late a start to be able to do anything. After a brief huddle we decided to go anyway and at worst we would have to come back another time if we didn't have time to do everything. It was a nice drive and we got there a little bit before 4:00pm. Mitchell went to find out if we could get a boat to take us to the bird sanctuary and the kids found a bunch of other kids playing and joined right in. 

Pretty cool little city they made out of tourist brochures!

Mitchell found a boat that agreed to take us up the estuary to see birds and the mangrove forest. He asked if we would be interested in participating in the release of 280 just hatched baby Olive Ridley sea turtles. Um YES!!!!

These Mangroves are super neat looking!

Captain Reid! 

We had an abbreviated boat tour and saw many beautiful birds and were fascinated by the mangrove trees growing in the marshy brine. We stopped off at a secluded beach and got to see the sea turtle nesting site! One of the men working there told me that when a momma turtle comes up on the beach in the middle of the night they watch her for safety. When she leaves they dig up the eggs and move them to canvas bags that simulate the mother's nest. By bagging up the eggs in canvas bags of sand they protect the eggs from natural predators and accidents. He told me that through their preservation efforts they have a 90% survival rate of the baby turtles. If left completely to nature the baby turtles only have a 20% survival rate. 

Right at sunset, 5:30pm, we went down near the shore and got to place the baby turtles on the sand and watch them scurry out into the water! By waiting until sunset the main predators, birds and crabs, had already gone away for the day and the baby turtles could run into the water safely. It was exhilarating!

Each bag contains the entirety of one momma turtle's nest. There are between 60-110 eggs per bag. They are kept safe and supervised until the baby turtles hatch in the early morning hours and climb out on their own. Then the rangers keep the babies in a large bucket the rest of the day and release the babies at sunset on the same day they hatched.

Layne found this tiny puppy and fell in love.

At 5:30 we all gathered near the shore to release the turtles