Boo's News & Kay's Days: January 2009

It's been a while, but we wanted to let you know we are still here!

We went back to Arkansas/Missouri for almost 3 weeks at Christmas and in spite of the cold, had a great time. We were able to see my parents, Dustins parents and all of my sisters and their families. We also got to see alot of our friends, but unfotunately not all of them. We also were able to get our fill of "The good old USA".

The day after returning to Costa Rica we had a small earth quake in the afternoon, and I thought "welcome back!". It turned out that was nothing! The next day we had a BIG eathquake! It was a 6.2, centered less that 20 miles from us. We live on the 4th and 5th floors and let me tell you, we were movin'! Luckily all of the kids except Zoey were down in the pool, or I'm sure they would have been alot more traumatized. I grabbed Zoey and ran for a doorway. It lasted for 40 loooong seconds. Although we had alot of things fall off of shelves and walls, we were lucky in that we only had 2 minor things break.

The tragedy is that this is a 3rd world country and alot of people live in substandard housing and concequently there are alot of people closer to the epicenter who are without housing now. It's fortunate that it wasn't a highly populated area and I think the death toll was only around 43.

After the quake there were a few thousand aftershocks in the first 2 days, most so small you can't feel them, but we felt at least 20. We are still experiencing aftershocks, but have somehow gotten used to them.

Austin stayed an extra week with my parents and missed all of the excitement! It was his first experience flying alone and he did great! He even got through customs in spanish by himself!

Here are some pictures from our holidays- Enjoy!

All of the Smith Grandkids Christmas Eve