Hi family and friends! We're having a great time here in the rainforest of Costa Rica. Today we focused mainly on science; we worked hard in the morning to learn and observe as much as we could about Ants so that we could start the process of picking out our experiments.

We did a lab in the morning along with some book work so that we could get a good basis for our research. We took samples of our Leaf Cutter Ant Colonies' fungus gardens to find out if there is Escovopsis in our samples. Escovopsis is the bad fungus that attacks the good fungus (Leucoagaricus). We also talked about Pseudonocardia which is the antibiotic creating actinobacteria that is on the Ants that fights off the bad bacteria/fungus.

All of the food here is so clean and fresh, but most importantly delicious. Eggs, fruit, and rice and beans is what we've had for breakfast everyday, but we don't think you could ever get sick of it. Lunch and dinner were just as delicious, if not better than breakfast. It's currently past our bedtime here in Costa so here's a food picture of our dinner. . . we're too tired to type.

We're all alive and well, and having a great time, and we definitely haven't forgotten about all of our loved ones at home, we wish you could all be here with us. I'm (Maggie) happy to announce that the cute doctor fixed Kaelyn's thumb after she fell in the river on day one, it's just a sprain and she's feeling much better, we all hope for a quick recovery. 

Miss you all like crazy!

Love,

Kaelyn & Maggie

p.s. Shout out to Kaelyn's *amazing* softball team! Good luck at Nationals, also shout out to Marge's fam!