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Show a.m. D.m. am. p.m, ~ EDITOR: RANA LEHR344-2543 THE DAILY HERALD. WEDNESDAY, MAY mo) Ss Volcanic beauty: Treessilhouette against the Arenal Volcano | Costa Rica. It erupted while the Jacobson family was camping nearby JOSEPH WALKER Seeking wisdom 22-feet-ong: The “crocodile man” feeds a chicken to a crocodile, while does not include “‘unmentionables’ the Jacobson family watch from the Got him: Russ Jacobson age 19 safety of a boat. Theconversationwas lively that day, even though the subject was, well, unmentionable. Not that there was anything unseemlybeing discussed. It was an appropriate conversation between a mother andher teenage daughter. They weretalking about, you know, stuff. Ladystuff. The kindof lady stuff about which momsneedtotalk captures an iguana in the rain forest of Costa Rica. with their teenage daughter: Unfortunately,it wasn’t just moms and teenage daughters driving together in the car that day. There wasalso 9-year-old Elizabeth, soaking it all in even though mostof the conversation wastaking place about six feet over her head. Ditto with 7-year-old Jonathan (althoughit is sometimesdifficulttotell whetherheis “soakingit all in” or just having another Nintendoflashback). . Cooling off: The Jacobson family of Springville * spent 15 days backpackingin the rain forests of Costa Rica. Here they enjoy a waterfall Then there wasthedriver, uh, that would be me. I wastrying to be PARADISE FOUND matureabout the whole thing. I sat there,silentlylistening, occasionally nodding my head. But beneath the surface, where noonecould see, I had my handsover myears and I was loudly chanting “La-la-la-la-la...” Springville family treks to rain forest HEY,I maybe a father, but I'm also a guy. And talking about lady stuff makes guys go “la-la.” So we're cruising along, minding our “lady stuff” business, when all of a suddenalittle voice emanates from the back seat: “I have a question.” Thosearechilling words to a parent, By KAREN HOAG > The Daily Herald especially coming out of the mouth of a 7-year-old boy. Especially when the topicon thetableis ... well, you know, We wondered how much he had heard. We wondered how much he had understood. Webracedourselves: “Whatisit, Jon?” He paused, thoughtfully. Then he asked: “Can I have something to eat?” Turnsout, Jon wasn't theleast bit concerned that he didn’t understand the things that were being discussed in the front seat of the car. He wascontentin his own world, except for one thing: He was hungry. But he knew whatto do aboutthat. So he focused on taking care of the situation. In many ways, I wish I couldbe morelike Jon. I find myself spending an awful lot of time worrying about things I can't do anything about. es, THESEDAYS,for example,it’s the NBAPlayoffs. When my team wins, I worry that they'll become complacent. When theylose, I worry that they have lost confidence. I worry about my team lot. But whenit comes right down toit, my worrying doesn’t makeabit ofdifference.It doesn’t help themtoplay betteror to havea better attitude or to STOP TAKING SO MANY STUPID SHOTS AND PLAY BETTER DEFENSE!!! See what I mean? It just makes mefrustrated, and that doesn’t help anyone,especially not me. Whichis not to saythat I shouldn't do everything I can to make a positive difference in the world. But in the words ofa well-knownprayer, I need to ask God to grant me “the courage to change the things that I can change, the serenity to accept the ng ch air things I can’t change, and the wisdom to know thedifference.” Unmentionable,or not. Joseph Walker is a nationallysyn- dicated columnist wholives in te PRINGVILLE — Picture yourselfsitting in a 70-degree ocean peeling man- goes and squeezing limesover them before you devourthefruit. Juice is running downyour Whoosh: The Catarina Falls in the rain forest are exhilarating to the Jacobsons. chin and arms, but you don’t Comments from Costa Rica care; you'reenjoying it too much. Besides you can just rinseoffin the warmwater. Sound like paradise? It was for a Springville family who backpackedfor 15 days intherain forest of CostaRica recently. Single dad Hane Jacobacn took. Gve Amy, age 5: “We saw coconuts dropping down; we couldn't figure out why until we saw a manup in the tree.” Mary, 9: “We went into town to see a band, They can stay with the beat every second; the lava at a resort in Tabacon.” Russ, 19, is now on an LDS mission. Hans, the dad: “Army ants clean a path to and from as they go to forage. They walk it of his children ages 5 to 19 to . cS they move their feet really fast.” so much that it clears everything off. You see the ants an areathatis impossibleto Betitojexcept byseaor plane. Fromthedesert of Utah Becca,13:“It was blast. We camped out mostof the time. We had what we used carry one-inch wide leaves. Dad's advice: “Research an area ofinterest and goforit to the rain forest of Costa on our back. | saw a wild raccoon and threw out pieces of Take things slow, and don't get yourself into a situation bread. | fed him by hand, and where you know there could Rica, which boasts an average rainfall of 22 feet per year, the family learned about the ecosystem, animal chain, predators, botany, volcanoes and the ocean. Dad spenta year planning ae . thetrip, so he timed the i backpacking for the dry sea- Hidh Galanin ee : EM, Co i ur favorite thing to do wasto take a sack of mangoes and a sack of limes and sit in the ocean,” says Hans. “We'd peel mangoes and squeezelimejuice over them. Wed warhin the oceans the water was 70 to 80 degrees It was delightful.” Cantus fs Finding their way Did they get lost? “Several times,” he admits. “We didn’t know where we were the wholetime, but we weren’t concerned. “Wespent alot of time in CanaNegro, which is the That's whenthey weren't hikinginthethree-tiered bestrainforest in the world,” hesays. “They have huge haa three levels vegetat as three levels of of vegetation it’s harder to get through. The dad carried a machete he dad carried ¢ other flowers. Lift upa leaf forest Whenthe rainforest although there are some Paha heveaye ite arivelnc pea ae Rica Thay Sritie: The: sagobeonsich Sernaville Sve thy oGsiai nice via Delta but thenrely only on backpacksfor 15 days. butterflies as big as grape- fruit. They have orchids andL 2d youseefrogs and toads elebory mlce® Snakes were present but he almost jumped on me.” be danger.” Liz, 16: “The Pacific side of About school: “Teachers were Costa Rica is better, because you can see the sun set on the ocean. | like the beauty of the rain forest; it is lush, supportive but somewhat apprehensive when | took the kids out of school for 15 days. | sought prior permission from remote andhasdifferent ani- mals. | found a place to go for my honeymoon; it has 12 natural mineral pools heated by the school. After the children madetheir reports to class, the teachers were enthusiastic.” not aggressive. They saw iguanas, parrots and rare. three- toed sloth, The rain forest is cea rs : hometo jaguars, too, but the monkeys howling andbirds ee all mene Jacobsons didn’t see any. “Monkeys were with us ; A ag ying into San Jose, ¢ ae Ruch: is family , ried the whole time and tried to steal our food,” he says with se Bay maa thebig , Family bonding F lanninga daily schedule was easy. “Thesundictates when yougo to bed and whenyou get up,” says Dad. _ciallynoticeable at night hours,but it was dark for 10; a laugh. The monkeys'were eape- nay nted a ve to *® f meee rl ae a, ee “It was awesome, Weweren't es tosleeping 10»; becauseoftheir noise;Aa they i ‘ sound like lions andtigers, " AES washadhome. Thescreened-in tent a gataencool flode wad = hours. Usinga flashlight in the ante : tent,play thegames, familyread was andtall; content to sound,” Try sleeping with est or on the beach. Hans says. Liz, 16,calls them “veryloud, a very scary Aaatie caseal eaeok barctiahaad fly.et They pitched itaie in the for- See FAMILY,C3 to ee eee wh COPY * ES |