Time to renew the passports....

Well, our 90 days was up and that means we have to leave the country to renew our passports. Our wonderful Canadian friends decided to take this trip with us since they have never been to Nicaragua and I guess they consider us the "experts"now..ha ha..that seems funny as we think about our first experience trying to cross the border. Seems so long ago now. Anyway, we are gearing up for a few days of fun, adventure and sweat mixed in. I have had to split up our trip into 3 different posts so....don't miss any of them if you want the whole story.

Welcome to Nicaragua again Martinsen Family!! We were so excited to have Alex and Mariah with us this time.

This is where we will spend our first night...back on Ometepe where it all began.

The lovely ferry that takes us on the hour long ride to the island

This monkey is the mascot of the dock. He is chained up and a little grumpy about that.

Alex shocked us all by actually buying a "perro caliente"from this vendor! He only ate one bite before he knew he had made a mistake. Is this the same kid who would not even eat a strawberry before his mission and now he will try unidentified meat products in a 3rd world country??

About to get on the Ferry.....I tried to capture our trip in these posts below without taking up too much time for details. So, enjoy the posts....

We rented scooters to take around the island since it is the easiest way to get around...more fun and less hassle than the local buses. We had 2 on a scooter except Alex had his own motorcycle until.....

Mariah had a little accident just as we were getting started for the morning. Ended up at the local clinic getting the wounds cleaned up and bandaged. Such a bummer for her. It shook her up a bit but we were all so thankful that it wasn't worse. It was interesting to experience the local health care on the island. Would have been nerve wracking to have anything more than scraped up feet and knees being treated, but hey it was free...even the prescriptions were free. NOT in favor of socialized health care, but I guess in this case it was nice.

Here is our little patient after the wounds were cleaned and bandaged up. She still looks pretty even when she is injured huh? We had all been on our way to the natural springs to swim so she is dressed in a cover-up and flip flops....we found out the hard way, that is not proper attire to be driving a scooter in!


It was a wonderful moment to be reunited with my "island sister", Leyla. Oh how I love this lady!

Her sweet little girl Melissa is painfully shy and does not like her picture taken. She was peeking out the door at us.

Baby chicks were getting lots of attention from our gang

Leyla and Emerson had a cage full of baby parrots that all the kids were having fun with too.

Love Emma's face in this picture as she is trying to get the parrot on her finger

There....she got it

Next we went around the island to Ojo de Agua (eye of the water). It is a beautiful natural spring that is so clear and refreshing. The water is supposed to have healing powers and make you younger as well...what do you think? Do I look younger????

3 Martinsen men enjoying the springs...this is really a beautiful place. Hard to capture it well through pics.

Emma and Luc had a blast here. They get along so well. We had arranged for a taxi to pick up Leyla, Emerson and the kids but it apparantly never showed up so they were not able to meet us here. Such a disappointment! We were able to fit their son Heyido on the back of one of our scooters so at least he was able to come with us.

We went back after the springs and made sure they got a taxi into town to have lunch with us. Simone from the Hotel cooked us up a wonderful Italian pasta with the best meat sauce we had ever tasted!

Here is a group shot of our family with them. This is truly one of the sweetest families we have ever met and we love them with a bond that will last forever. My heart was pounding as I knew that saying goodbye was only minutes away now....

This was painful. We tried to hug hard enough to make it last forever. Leyla will always have a very special place in my heart. I feel that we knew each other in the pre-existence and I promised to find her. The miracle is that we did find each other. I can't put into words how I feel about her and how we connected. I don't know when we will ever see each other again, but I hope that the Lord allows us to have that blessing again in this life...if not, then I know we will see each other again someday. Her life is on the island and most likely it will always be there. Life is hard for them . I feel so incredibly blessed to have what I have when I see how they live. They are always smiling though. Such a beautiful lesson for our family.

Us on the ferry and them on the dock....we waved and blew kisses until they were just a small speck on the island.....until we meet again. We love you!

A day at the Ranch

This is the 1400 acre ranch that Keith owns. He has hired a local family to run it and they take care of the horses and cook for Keith's visitors that come for the day. This is just one of the old buildings on the property. Getting the horses ready. I spent the whole day thinking about my dad and how much he would have loved this place! Very rustic and cowboy-ish...right up his alley.

I was happy to sit on a rocker and keep Mariah company since she was not able to go on the horses with her injured feet. We sat and talked and ate fresh warm bread from the kitchen.

After they all came back from the horses we sat down to a meal that had been prepared over the open fire. Traditional meal of rice, beans, tortillas and chicken. Tasted amazing.

I had to get a picture of the type of oven they use. I don't think it has the self cleaning feature that I am used to, but it seems to work just great for them. This cute little girl in the background lives here on the ranch.

2 other cute little faces that I captured here.

Here is a shot of the handmade tortillas we had with lunch. So delicious.

The women worked all morning making this wonderful sweet bread. They take it around to the neighbors and sell it. Our family and the Martins each bought a bag of 50 pieces for only $5. So yummy!

Lora was in pure heaven with her horse. We had a hard time getting her off when it was time to leave. She is a natural on a horse.

Lane and Emma were partners for the day. She was a little nervous at first but ended
up loving it.

This is Lane and Keith, the guy that owns the ranch. He reminded me a little of "papa Bud". Super nice guy and loved having all of us there for the day. He is originally from the states but has lived in Nicaragua now for 11 years. He is a retired family practice doctor.
We took so many more pictures of this day but just wanted to post a few here so you get the general idea of the ranch. The kids had a blast today.

San Juan del Sur

This is the wonderful Bed & Breakfast that we stayed in here in San Juan del Sur. Only $50 a night and it was beautiful. This is all of us loading up to go out to the ranch with the horses.

Getting ready for breakfast. Luc was a little anxious...patiently waiting.

So many pretty little sitting areas at this house...very relaxing

Trying to capture the open atmosphere of the house. Open courtyard, hammocks...so beautiful.

Here is the view from the back of the house. Alex is enjoying some time in the pool. Still working on his tan. Abram had several jumps from the balcony into the pool before he got shut down by the adults. Trust Abe to get right on that one. The house is directly across the street from the beach so it is a fun place to be. We really enjoyed our time here. Mariah and I were saying how much "nana"would love to get her decorating hands on this place and give it the extra special touches that it needs. Just needed a woman's touch as far as the decor but the house itself was beautiful and we had a great time!

A Wonderful Week

It is hard to believe that Alex has been here with us now for for over a week. I can't even explain how wonderful it is to have us all together again. Here are a few shots of some things we have done this past week...

This is a shot of us with some wonderful friends we have made here. Eva, Joe, Niki and Luc (The Martin Family) from Canada... they decided to follow our crazy example after meeting us here last August when they were here on vacation and returned home to start making plans to live here for 6 months. They arrived again a few weeks ago and we have been hanging out with them a lot and having some great food and great conversations about our different cultures. We are all taking a trip to Nicaragua together this week. Should be another fun adventure! Pino and his son Domingo are also in this picture. Good friends as well. We all had dinner together on Sunday evening.

Alex and Mariah. I just love seeing them together again.

Me and my boy that grew into a man during the last 2 years, but he still loves to give his mom hugs so it's all good.

Here is Alex with his 3 favorite girls in the whole world. They happen to adore him as well.

Alex and Mariah just "hanging out" ....Alex is working on that tan, trying to catch up with the rest of us.

Alex is getting a little instruction from Abram as he is about to try surfing for the first time

Father and son just enjoying a little together time

This time together is so precious to me. I am treasuring everyday as I know it won't last for long. Alex is already making plans to go out east and work for the summer, and Mariah is headed back to BYU in less than 3 weeks. Oh, I wish I could just keep them all under my wing forever but I know I need to let them go. Having us all squished together on the couch for 2 days of General Conference was just pure joy for me. I savored every moment. My heart was full not only because of the spirit of conference, but because we were all together and conference weekends are very sentimental to us. None of us wanted it to end. I am so blessed. I feel so much gratitude for my children and my husband. I feel very undeserving of them, but thankfully we have a loving Heavenly Father that blesses us in spite of ourselves.

"...and we killed the fatted calf"

Our friends here decided that in honor of Alex's return, we should have a grand fiesta. In Costa Rica, that means having a pig roast....so....meet Wilbur. We actually didn't name him, since he was only with us for a short while before he became dinner and that would have traumatized poor Emma even more!

Since Lane is the father of the honored one...it was deemed appropriate that he should do the "deed". Here he is being shown exactly how to do it. Lane wanted to make sure it was as dignified as possible, so the last words the pig heard were "Gracias por la comida" (thank you for this food) We actually have video footage of the whole thing but thought it was a bit too graphic for the blog. You can order your own copy for $9.99 ha ha

I will spare you the details (since I couldn't watch, I don't have many to share) but needless to say, Lane hit the mark and here was our pig getting a little closer to becoming dinner. They had this thing from squealing to swinging in less than 20 minutes!

Sorry if you have a queasy stomach, but for all the aspiring surgeons in the family, thought you might like this picture

Just a few of the natives here watching over the innards making sure they don't burn since they are the favorite parts.....(can I just pause for a gag right now?)

These innards are cooked along with the skin, gotta get it nice and hot so as to burn all the hairs off

Our Portugese friend Joe was the grill man...we all had our jobs. He loved his apparantly!

Another shot of Joe cooking up all those parts and pieces

I preferred to stay in the house and take pictures...we had about 40 people in our little yellow house!

Just wanted to document that there was at least ONE Martinsen that actually ate the pig. (I guess a mission leaves you little choice but to not be picky about food as you can see that Alex and Elder Whitlock had no problem with the pork) I am not ashamed to say that the rest of us are just meat snobs ok. It is just hard to eat something that was snorting and squealing at you less than 2 hours before...especially when you might get a hair stuck in your teeth if decide to actually try it. No thanks. We were careful to be discreet in our disdain as to not offend our friends. As for the rest of the crowd, they thought it was the greatest thing ever! There wasn't much left of Wilbur by the end of the night.
The fiesta was a huge success and definitely a homecoming that Alex will NEVER forget!

Welcome "Home" Elder Martinsen!!

Emma captured how we were all feeling as we were waiting for the plane to arrive!

These 4 kids could not be more excited....searching the crowd to find him....

I held it together really well until we got our first glimpse of him in the crowd making his way towards us...

And.....here he is! He was just GLOWING!!

Of course mom gets the first hug....it was a good one too.

And his little sis Mariah was next in line....doesn't he look happy?

Love this picture! Why are dads always so composed??

Emma had to get her squeeze in too...all of them did of course, but I think dad was too teary eyed behind the camera to capture all the hugs.

Together again, all 7 of us. Pure Joy.