Our Trip Home

We had quite the adventure getting home from Costa Rica. The plan was to leave Sunday morning at 7am, which meant that we were up and out the door by 4:30am to return the rental car and check in at the airport on time. As we were walking out the door of our rental house, Aspen asked in his sleepy state, "How many days until we can come back?" Yes, he loved it there.

Anyway, we all boarded the plane on time and waited for things to get moving. We waited for about a half an hour before the pilot came on over the loudspeaker and said there was a maintenance issue and they are waiting for the mechanic to come to work on it. We waited some more, an hour goes by and again the pilot comes on to let us know that they are actually still trying to track the mechanic down (probably a local Tico still at the bar...). Finally the mechanic showed up and started working. Pretty soon the wing was being taken apart as he searched for the problem. Yep, every flier with kids worst nightmare happened to us. We were stuck on the airplane for 4 hours before they finally gave up and let us off. Unfortunately, that was only the beginning. Now they had to figure out what to do with all of us for the night and how to get us out of there. We spent another 4 hours in the hot, outdoor airport while they worked it out.
Amazingly, the kids did great considering all we had been through. There was one other family with kids on the airplane, and Aspen made friends with their boys. They had a great time playing together on the airplane and in the airport. Journey was as easy as usual, and just rolled with the day, finally passing out from exhaustion just as we were boarding the bus (1pm) for the hotel.

For all the stress and exhaustion of the day, the airline did put us up in a nice all-inclusive resort for the night. We were all so happy to get there and see all the food and let's be honest here, drinks! The kids were excited to see the pools and couldn't wait to jump in. All that went a long way to erase the pain of the morning.

The next morning we repeated the whole "to the airport" drill. Boarded the airplane and this time there were no problems. We were all much more exhausted, but amazingly there were no melt-downs on the way home. God was really with us and I did a lot of praying on the way home that we wouldn't be the ones with the screaming kids on the airplane :)
When we finally touched down in Portland, even Journey was excited and saying "yay!"

Albertsons

Okay, not too many people care about my grocery savings. I know that, but there are a few who are a little crazy like me and would like to see. I had a great day so I have to share.

35 cans organic tomatoes

20 yoplait yogurts
6 powerade zeros

2 glad cling wrap

6 campbells cream soups

1 darigold yogurt

1 Alb. orange juice

1 pack mashed potatoes

Total......................$11.28!! (It should have been $8.28, but a $3 promo didn't come off and I didn't notice until I got home. Oh well.)

I will post about our trip home from Costa Rica when I have time. Let's just say it was verrrrry long!

It's Time To Go Home

This is the club house at Hacienda del Mar (where Mark's condos are). It's getting close to being finished and is going to be beautiful.
The back side of the clubhouse. Checking out the pool area.
Our last day of swimming.

Yay! Look at the fuzz. Journey's getting some hair!

We have had a great time here in Costa Rica. Two weeks really gives you a chance to relax and unwind from our normal, busy lifestyle. Actually, it also gives you enough time to miss it again :)

The first week went pretty fast as we were doing so many new activities. This week wasn't quite as action packed.

Just so that I will remember later what we did...

Monday - African safari zoo

Tuesday - we went out to Mark's project to see the project and show Aspen and Journey. There was actually a lot of progress since we were here in June, so that was nice to see. From there we drove up north and saw the entrance to the Four Seasons (guarded, so we didn't go in). Then we went exploring through the jungle on barely a road looking for a deserted beach. We never did make it as we were stopped by a 30 foot wide river. Passable in the hot season, but not in the rainy. We could see two houses that were cut off across the river. We talked to a lady who lived at the river's edge, curious I'm sure about a car full of gringos that far off the beaten path. She knew no English and we didn't know enough Spanish to figure out how far away the beach was once we crossed the river (she told us she knew a place to get through). We settled for Hermosa Beach and lunch at The El Velero.

Wednesday - Mark had meetings all day so we hung out at the villa for the day

Thursday - Mark had more meetings. He dropped us off in Coco for a couple hours in the morning before meeting us for lunch.

Friday - We had heard from a couple different people that we should go check out a town called Puntarenes. That was a mistake. We drove for 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Walked around and got lunch there. Were hastled by the Ticos, and left in less than 2 hours. Driving that long with small kids is not fun! We did get in a lot of "I spy with mine yittle eye.........". We did have fun with that!

Oh, and it rained all day.

Saturday - our last day here. We had a great day. Found a cool new coffee shop, played at the pool a couple times, and had dinner at a cool beach front restaurant. The weather started out rainy, but turned sunny and beautiful. Probably the least humid day of our trip. We had a great time as a family, and we won't soon forget this trip.

More From Our African Safari

Getting ready to go feed the giraffes.
This is the "savannah" part of the zoo where the giraffes, zebras and many other animals we were able to drive by live.
Zebras!!

Our first look up close at the giraffe. See Aspen and Journey's faces? They weren't so sure about that huge animal being right in their faces :)
This was the friendliest (and hungriest!) of the 4 giraffes they had there. They actually flew the giraffes in by 747's a couple years ago!
They are getting a little more comfortable...
They are such gentle animals. You can just see Aspen's head behind the giraffe's. He was finally okay with them being so close.
Petting it's long neck.

We were tired and hot after riding around for over an hour and a half looking at all the animals, but we had a great time and have hopefully made memories that will last a lifetime. At least for Aspen. We also got tons of videos of the giraffes. Where else can you interact with them like that?

African Safari

Today (Monday) we went to a real zoo. Well, actually, more like an African Safari. It was incredible and we really felt like we were in Africa. Our guide told us that it took the owner 15 years to get all the permits and permissions necessary to open the zoo. Just for the 5 giraffes plus permits it was over 10 million dollars!

We were driven through the park in a variety of safari-like vehicles - hummer, land rover defenders, etc. The roads were very rough and we were able to see a lot of animals up close, including wart hogs, zebras, ostriges, antilope, camels and of course our favorite, giraffes.

We 4-wheeled, and I mean 4-wheeled, to this beautiful waterfall in the park. It was an adventure that Aspen and Mark especially loved.

I am hoping that this picture can be lightened or something because it is really a great one of all of us together. It's rare that we are all looking at the same thing!

Journey was a brave girl and fed the camels carrots.

Looking at a real ostrige egg.

We were supposed to be able to feed the ostriges, but they were out of long carrots. They were fun to look at though!

I will post more of the giraffes next....

Tamarindo

Look Mama!
Yep, doesn't get any funner than this.....

A rare moment of playing together on the beach.
Aspen loved the ocean in Tamarindo. Much gentler surf than up where we are in Ocotal. We went further down the beach where the beach was much more crowded, and Aspen made friends with a Tico boy on vacation from San Jose (capitol of Costa Rica). He was just so happy to see another kid that he didn't care if he knew what he was saying :)
Daddy taking Aspen out to play in the big waves.

We took a day trip down to Tamarindo on Sunday. Aspen has been hit and miss on liking the beaches here. The surf is pretty heavy up where we are in most areas. We did find a great beach in Playa Hermosa (2 towns up), but when we went out on the beach, the sand was so hot that it burned our feet terribly. Aspen didn't know what to do when that happened and he just froze. It was horrible. Mark was in a meeting and not there. I had Journey in my arms and had to run across the sand as fast as I could until I reached the water. Aspen just stood in the burning hot sand screaming. Ever since then, he hasn't wanted to go onto the sand, even with his shoes on.

Mama....

...Journey called to me from the back seat, and here is what we saw when we looked back.

Silly girl :) She loves to do things to make us laugh. This trip she has been calling my name constantly from the backseat to look at what ever she sees - a cow, dog, people, etc. But this was a little different. She just wanted to show us how silly she is.

More Pool Time

This is Journey's favorite place in the pool, right by the stairs with plenty of places to hold on.
The only thing missing is Aspen's blow up floaty thing that he found. It has provided so much entertainment. Oh, also the balloon that he was given that is also being used as a floaty or to splash everyone with.


Peek-a-boo!!!

Snakes

After we were done with the monkeys, we got to go see the snakes. They had probably 20-30 different varieties.

Another family picture attempt. Complete with a snake.
120 lb. piathon - Aspen wasn't so sure he wanted to get too close.
Aspen was facinated with the snakes, but didn't really want to hold any himself. I don't blame him!
Journey enjoyed it too, as long as she didn't have to touch them.

Yep, that's my girl :)

Our guide through the zoo was great. He remembered Mark and I from a couple months ago, helped take pictures for us, and gave us so much information about the animals. I didn't get any pictures, but we also got to go see the butterflys and frogs.

Monkey Madness

We went to the petting zoo today and had such a blast playing with the animals. All the way there Journey was making monkey and snake noises. She knew we were going to see them and was excited too :)

The monkeys liked to pull and play with Aspen's hair.
Aspen petting the pet raccoon and the monkeys. Journey was facinated with the monkeys and giggled when they would reach their hands out of the cage to touch her.
We were surprized when Journey wanted to get into the monkey cage too. She liked to feed them, but would get overwhelmed when they would jump all over her.

A family picture in the monkey cage.

There are more pics to come of the snakes and the rest of our day, but this is is for now.

Lots of Water Time Today

Well, not a great picture, but we did get out on the beach for a while to play. The ocean is a little too rough and dangerous for the kids to play in. The breakers are big and the current is very strong.

Mark took the kayak out into the ocean today. He was able to get out, but coming in was a different story. Let's just say that the ocean had it's way with him....

Aspen is our little fish. He is at the pool as much as possible, and is basically the only thing he wants to do.

There is a whole section of the pool that's shallow just for kids. So nice since we forgot a lifejacket for him.

Exploring the rocks around our beach.

First Morning

Mark and Aspen woke up early. As in 5am, to the smell of a skunk. Ahhh, Costa Rica. Gotta love it. Journey and I rolled out of bed by 7am, and we were off to explore the beach before breakfast.
Journey isn't comfortable enought to walk on her own on the beach. Maybe by the end of the trip?
Here's our beach. Beautiful, soft sand with huge breakers close to the shore. It is pretty intimidating to Aspen and so far he prefers the pool.
Journey was not in the mood for pictures. Especially with Aspen.
Here's the view of the beach from the pool and restaurant. We are told that it has been raining non-stop from all the hurricanes up until yesterday and today. Maybe we brought the sun with us?