Costa Rica, part four

We woke up early and spent a few minutes bird watching from our balcony. It’s hard to see from this picture, but there were so many tropical birds perching and flying around in these trees. 

After breakfast, we went out on a fun white water rafting adventure. Along the way, we stopped in a small town at house for food and bracelets.




To get the van up this dirt road on the mountain they had to attach a rope to the car in front of us to assist the van up the hill. Talk about exciting!

Within two minutes of being in the raft, Eric fell out. Two minutes before we finished our rafting, I fell out. 

But in between we got in the water by choice.

We made a stop along the way and walked to a waterfall. And we were given fresh pineapples. Yum.

It is pure magic to stand in a waterfall.

We all loved the white water rafting. It was rapid after rapid—much more than I have ever experienced in the times I have been down the rivers of Colorado.

That evening, we were back in paradise swimming in the pools and basking in the sunset.

I just wanted to soak it all in. It seriously was the most beautiful place you could ever stay at. 

This was our table for pretty much every meal we ate at the hotel. We loved our evenings to eat and talk and laugh!

Cost Rica, part two

It was the fanciest experience I’ve ever had to sit at a table nestled in the jungle overlooking the ocean while being served fresh juice. There was such a variety of foods to eat and try at breakfast. I became a fan of Costa Rican beans and rice for breakfast.

We took a stroll around the resort grounds and saw our first monkeys of the trip up on the trees.

Swinging from jungle vines will not go down as a skill of mine.

Eric was in heaven spotting all the wildlife.

There was so much beauty around the resort.

Our outing that day was surfing and kayaking.

The boys all opted in for a surf lesson while us girls were content on the beautiful beach and in the perfect ocean water.

We walked to a local restaurant for lunch. There were monkeys on our path on the way back.

Then we went kayaking through the mangroves. I called it mandrakes (like from Harry Potter) so many times that I thoroughly confused myself.

Eric and I got a double kayak. Everything reminded me of Disneyland on the jungle cruise. I saw how well done that ride truly is! Maybe now I will go to Disneyland and think “wow this reminds me of Costa Rica” instead of everything I experience reminding me of Disney.

Look at those mangroves!

Another monkey right there on the branch next to us.

It was so fun exploring these tight corridors.




We asked our guide about weather and he assured us it wouldn’t rain. Seriously 15 min later, we got a downpour as we kayaked. Hahaha. We got a little shelter from the mangrove trees. And then it stopped just as fast as it started.

We ended the night with dinner at the hotel restaurant. Fun day!

Costa Rica, part one

Throwback to January when we went Costa Rica on an AMAZING trip to celebrate Eric's 40th birthday!!

It's finally time to document what is now in my top three best vacations ever.

We were gone 9 whole days. NINE DAYS without our kids. Half of the time I missed them like crazy and wished they were there to show them things and share the experience with them and even planned for when I would take them there someday. And the other half of the time I forgot I even had kids. ;)

We had a day of travel to arrive in Costa Rica. Unfortunately, because of an unexpected plane change in colorado we arrived in San Jose but our luggage did not. That meant two days living off of what we could buy in the hotel gift shop and the swimsuits we packed in our backpacks.  

We didn't meet up with our friends until the next morning at breakfast. Then we took a three hour drive to Manuel Antonia area. We stayed at Hotel Parador and I highly recommend it!

We grabbed a quick yet not so quick lunch before leaving for our Catamaran. 

All of the fresh fruit and juice on the boat was a little bit of heaven.

Perfect ocean views and we got to see so many dolphins swimming in the water.

Our boat stopped and we got to swim and snorkel, slide and jump off of the boat.

We watched the most beautiful sunset as we ate dinner on the top deck.














I don't have any still pictures, but we had a fun dance party on the way back to land!

We got back to our hotel and did some late night sneaking into the pool.

It was a perfect way to start our trip. Costa Rica is beautiful!