Adios Nicaragua

We've been home for almost a week now and I've been wanting to do this post but just haven't found the time.  While I still don't technically have the time I decided I needed to do this before I forget too much.  It feels like forever since we were sitting in the warmth of Nicaragua.  There are many many things that we have already missed, a few of them are:

Our friends.  The kids and I all made some good friends there.  Both with other ex-pats and locals.  The little community of ex-pats there is amazing.  From the moment we got there we were welcomed into a large family of awesome people.  I was trying to figure out how it could be that they were all so fun to be around, it seemed like every time I met a new person I left thinking "man I'd love to get to know them better".  I decided it was probably due to the fact that they are all very laid back, go-with-the-flow kind of people, if you aren't like that, trust me you won't stay in Nicaragua.  We also made some great friends with locals there, all of which were incredibly friendly and welcoming.  I worried when we went down that the locals would look at us as intruders in their land (sort of the way most of us Americans do with foreigners) but they were completely opposite.  Even through the language barrier they did their best to make us feel at home.  We will be forever changed by the people we met there and we can't wait to see them all again.

The beach.  My whole life I've wanted to be near the beach and it did not disappoint.  So many good memories were made on the beaches there.  I am missing the beach even more now that we're back in the cold of Utah.  The kids and I enjoyed learning to surf, relaxing and watching the sunsets, playing with friends and basically just always having a good time.

The Restaurants.  SJDS has some really good restaurants.  Some are good for the food, others for the view and some for both.  One unique thing about the restaurants there is the fact that kids aren't really expected to be reverent.  Several dinners were had on the beach and the kids would run near by in the sand and many kids were running around barefoot and filthy through the open air restaurant and it was completely acceptable to everyone around.  It makes going out to dinner with kids a lot more bareable. 

Daily maid service.  Need I say more?

Spending all day with my mom.  Living next door is great but it was really great to have my mom live with us for the last 7 weeks of our stay in Nicaragua.  I am constantly learning from her.  I will never be able to repay her for the help in which she gave to me there and I don't think I could have done it without her. 

Monkeys, geckos and parrots (oh my!), etc.  I loved seeing all the animals of Nicaragua.  I could sit and watch monkeys all day long, I will miss walking down the road and hearing a parrot say "Hola", I will miss having geckos running up my walls in my living room.  The sea turtles were awesome.  We never made it on a whale watching tour so that will have to happen on our next visit.

Gellatos.  There was an amazing Italian Ice Cream shop in town.  I am already craving it like crazy. . . Creme, Nutella, Staciotella, mmmmm I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.  And for those of you that know my mom you know that she does not do sweets, well we even got her hooked on this stuff.  Pretty sure they put an addictive chemical in it that makes you crave it fortnightly.

Amazing Sunsets.  Seriously, EVERY night I was amazed at the beauty of the sun setting over the ocean.  I never got tired of it or used to it.  It was different every night and every time I thought I'd seen the best one yet I was amazed to see an even better one a few days later.  While we do have some beautiful sunsets here over the mountain, I will definitely miss the sunsets from Nicaragua.


What we won't miss about Nicaragua:



Being away from Jeremy (and our other friends and family).  And while the list of things we miss may seem longer than the list of things we won't miss they are equally weighted.  As much fun as we had we missed our husband/dad terribly and we are happy to be home and be a complete family again.