Our last 10 days in Nicaragua; Jed & Jeff & Carol were there!!

Our last 10 days in Nicaragua were very busy and fun.  Jed and Jeff and Carol came to spend the last week and a half with us. It was sure exciting to have them come. We met them in Grenada at the Hotel Grenada.  Here's a picture of the hotel courtyard to show you how beautiful it was.

One of the first things Jed did was to buy these cute little boys ice cream cones.

   And then we went on the boat tour of the islands like we had done the last time we were in Grenada.

           We stopped to visit the Nicaraguan family who live on one of the islands.

                And then we went by monkey island and had Lucy visit our boat again.  She is so cute.

The next day we went to Laguna de Apoyo.  It is a big, beautiful lake that was formed by a volcano. We were told the water in the lake is full of natural minerals and that  there were health benefits to swimming in this lake and so, of course we took advantage of this "fountain of youth".

                                This is Juan, our tour guide.

After Laguna de Apoyo, we went by the orphanage and visited with our friends there.

          Logan got to see his special friend Danny. They have a cute friendship!!

                                All of the kids are friendly and love to have visitors.

We then drove to San Juan del Sur and to "our home away from home".  Camryn had put up this welcome sign for Grandpa, Jeff & Carol.  Our villa was also decorated with balloons.

 Tuesday began with Jed and I taking a short run and then..........

 a monkey sighting.  The monkey really is in those trees sleeping.  It is hard to see in the picture.

Our main activity of the day was to go to Anita's and help feed the children again.  What an awesome experience!

We stopped and picked up the missionaries to go with us to Anita's and help.  Elder Bringhurst was going to be transferred the next day and we wanted to say good-bye to him.  It has been fun to get to know he and Elder Mendez.

On Wednesday we hiked up to the Christ statue.

It was a beautiful view and the statue was awesome.

That night we went to the beach to watch the sunset and the kids played in the water.

We got some dinner at the restaurant on the beach.  Jed's soup had some interesting sea creatures!!

              He was generous and shared some of the creatures with the rest of us!!

On Thursday night we went back to La Flor beach to see the turtles come in to shore to lay their eggs.  There were not nearly as many this time and it was still interesting but a little disappointing compared to the last time we had seen them.

On Friday we spent the day at Playa Hermosa just playing in the water and sand!!

                                             One last surfing adventure for the Redds!!

Who knew that you could find sand dollars that were actually alive?  We found several that were living and breathing and they were really cool!!!

       On Saturday we did the zip line again.  Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!

                  And of course we loved seeing the monkeys along the way......

             

                  and this cute little donkey at the end of the zip lines!!

On Sunday we enjoyed going to Church in Rivas.  It was their District/Stake Conference and the mission president was there.  It was a good meeting.  It is so touching to hear the hymns and testimonies in Spanish.

  We met Elder Watteyne, who had replaced Elder Bringhurst when he got transferred.  He is from Logan, Utah!!

      After church, we went back to San Juan and told some of our special friends good-bye.  This is Max.  His is a worker at Palermo.

                   
                                This is Mora.  She did Krisit's laundry.

On Monday, we spent the morning packing and helping to paint Alvero's house.   For those of you who don't know about this project, go to this link and learn about it. http://www.hipmum.com/2012/08/housing-project-building-a-home-for-family-of-6/
It has been such a amazing thing to watch what the generosity of so many people have made possible for this family.  The house is almost completed.  This was the first day of painting.


                         Here is a picture of the tin shed they had been living in before the building project.

As you can see from the pictures, the new house is a very humble, small, cement home, but they are so grateful that they will have somewhere to live where they will have protection from the wind, rain and elements.

This is a picture of Alvero with Julie McBroom.  He was incredibly humble and grateful.  Julie is the one who has spearheaded this project for this family.

We had to leave to go finish packing and wait for our shuttle to pick us up to take us to Managua.  It was time to say good-bye to our special friends.  Irlanda was the one who had given Spanish lessons to Kristi and the kids.  She had become very special to all of us.  She is Alvero's sister.

After we went back to the villa, the shuttle came and we were on our way.

We stopped in Rivas and said goodbye to the Elders and then we were on the road.  

We stayed overnight in Managua and flew out early Tuesday morning.  So excited to get home but it was with mixed feelings that we said good-bye to this beautiful country and the people we had learned to love.