New house in La Fortuna, Costa Rica

The 'Peter Pan House' didn't suit us. We moved out early and got a different rental in northern Costa Rica near the Arenal Volcano and La Fortuna. This is us driving down our driveway, Tucker and Savannah are opening the gate for us before we go

Homeschool Study Areas

The kids are adapting to the new homeschool study areas in our home near La Fortuna, Costa Rica. If you look closely, you can see Tucker studying Spanish in the covered patio: Savannah writing in the hammock:

San Jose, Costa Rica

We enjoyed heading into Jose, Costa Rica for the weekend.  It was about 10 degrees (f) cooler than where we are staying, had great food, and beautiful Christmas decorations. The sign says, 'SJO, Vive!'.  SJO is the abbreviation for San Jose. Eating at a Soda.  The local diners

The National Cathedral in San Jose, Costa Rica

I always enjoy visiting the Catholic Cathedrals in cities I have visited.  The National Cathedral in San Jose, Costa Rica was no exception.  It was absolutely beautiful inside, which was complemented by the Christmas music and the Nativity scene. It was a nice break from the noise and business of

The National Theater of Costa Rica

The National Theater of Costa Rica was built in 1897.  It was originally to be funded by the coffee barons, but they eventually stopped funding the construction and the tax payers picked up the bill to finish it.  It is considered the fanciest historic building in Costa Rica and had

The National Museum of Costa Rica

The National Museum (El Museo Nacional) was an old military fort that was converted into a museum when the military was disbanded following the Costa Rican Civil War in 1948.  It was a nice museum including pre-columbian artifacts and history, as well as Costa Rican history. The butterfly room as

Parque La Sabana - The Central Park of San Jose

The central park of San Jose is called Parque La Sabana, pronounced just like Savannah's name in Spanish.  There were quite a few people riding bicycles and walking through the park.  Some people were playing soccer and there were quite a few street vendors.  Much of the beauty

Chocolate Experience at Soleil - La Casa del Cacao (House of Cocoa)

AirBnb had a listing that caught my attention: 'San Jose, Costa Rica Chocolate Experience'.  I couldn't pass up an opportunity like that.  We were going into San Jose this weekend, so we signed up. The Chocolate Experience was hosted by Soleil - La Casa del Cacao

Room for Five: Hotel La Rosa Del Paseo, San Jose, Costa Rica

Traveling with a family of five is always a challenge.  Restaurant owners look at you with dismay as you enter their busy establishments, taxis and Uber cars are just too small, but hotels provide their own unique challenge.  You never quite fit in just one hotel room, getting two rooms

Attending Church in Spanish

Living in a fairly rural area, transportation for a family of five has been challenging.  Actually, it has been just about impossible.  We have ended up going into town with just two or three people at a time.  So church poses an interesting challenge -- we want be there together

Playing in the River Machuca

Leaf-cutter ants on the trail we took to get to the river. We heard there were some good swimming holes on the river next to the community we're living in, so we took a trail and found one. Then we took a different trail and found some better

5 Tips to Master Uber in Rural Costa Rica

As of Jan 2019, Uber is available throughout Costa Rica, but is hit or miss outside of San Jose.  There are pending government / legal actions that could impact the service in the future, but for now, it is available. Taking Uber from our semi-steep, rocky, winding, dirt road to a

La Ecovilla and Orotina

Walking to the pool in Ecovilla. The pool is next to two open-air clubhouses. We got here on New Year's Eve, so the community was having a dinner and party that night. We went for a little, but left before things got too crazy! A nearby small town

Leaving Virginia for Costa Rica

After filling up our storage unit to the brim,,.,. we headed to the Reagan Airport early in the morning to catch a flight to Costa Rica. This is called the "Peter Pan House", and it's in a community called "Ecovilla", about 45 minutes west

Life Condensed

What if you could condense all of your material possessions into a small box -- what might that look like? Ours looks like this: (and yes, that hand truck does have hand actuated dual disk brakes).

Sweet Farewells

We have been able to make some good friends here, so farewells have been bitter sweet.  Fortunately, one of the farewells was a little extra sweet at Cold Stone Creamery. Carson was able to say farewell to good friends at church too.

Rich Blessings

A note from Savannah:

Missing Grocery Store

Either our family is very friendly or we go to the grocery store way too often (or possibly both), but we have become friends with the woman that prepares the sushi at Safeway.  She has always been so welcoming that Angela and Savannah go our of their way to talk

Christmas Present with Presents

While much of our time right now is consumed with Christmas Future, but we made sure to spend some time on Christmas Present with some fun presents.

Christmas with Aunt Andrea and Uncle Brent

It was so nice to have Uncle Brent and Aunt Andrea visit us for Christmas! Aside from their wonderful company, we got some boxing lessons and were able to go for a nice nature walk through our neighborhood and creek. Andrea taught Savannah some boxing skills. This is the creek

Gray Family Friends, Fairfax, VA

The Gray kids invited the Knight kids to go swimming

Homeschool PE Class Goodbye Party, last day

Coach Zack let Carson, Tucker and Savannah choose the sports they would be playing during the last week before the holidays, since it would be their last classes. They played dodgeball on their last day. Then coach announced that there would be a surprise: pizza, cookies and cupcakes after class.

RockCreek Holiday Party

Our children loved the annual RockCreek Family Holiday Party.  It featured a balloon artist, face painting, a magician, crafts, movies, candy, good food, and even Santa and one of his elves.  They especially enjoyed the family gift (a video game console).

Farewell Dinner

We had a great Farewell Dinner with Vishal and family.  The kids played so well together and the food was delicious.

Church Christmas Party

The Oakton Ward throws quite a party.  It was themed after How the Grinch Stole Christmas and included a live performance of the Dr Seuss book.