Taking a Break....in Costa Rica.....

Day 1 : Hesitant to leave kids and flew to Orlando and on to Costa Rica... arrived and waited for friends...friends miss flight. We explore hotel and close surrounding areas and eat a great dinner.

Day 2: Friends flying to Costa Rica and we are trying to convince the hotel employees to take the river trip we had planned with us... they would not take just 2 people but we had no success. Went through San Jose to see the LDS Temple but had tires slashed and was followed by two men to get our money and luggage taken.... Kip surprised the jerks with his "espanol" and scared them off.  Went to mall to wait for friends and ran over a nail.... same tire. Changed tire second time picked up friends and off we drove to Playa Negra to surf. Arrive go for a night swim, laugh, visit, and settle into our "huts"

Day 3: Wake, eat, surf all day with 30 and 50 sunscreen get completely fried. Laugh, live, play!

Day 4: Wake up.... "more severe burns showing up", Kip and I bitting at the bit get up at 6am surf, find tons of sand dollars, walk the beach, body surf, watch pelicans eat fish, locals fish with nets, time flies and we are MORE burned.  Take off with the "sunburned crew" who want to make no body contact with each other as we squeeze into the SUV, eat at our fav.... Lolla's which looked like a slice of heaven. Beach front, great food, shaded by palm trees, perfect.... other than our burns....

Day 5: Up, packed into the itty bitty suv and drive to Arenal. See fun wild animal and stop... Brody feeds wild animals and they all come... freak us out and we hop in the car laughing! Good times, arrive at hotel, in what seemed like a paradise with a/c and amazing fruit, and natural springs warmed from the lava. Meet "Johnny" our fav. who took us to see the volcano and then to night swim in the springs and waterfalls, and ride down tunnels of warm water... SO FUN!

Johnny...

Day 6: Great food, pack and hike into a gorgeous waterfall, swim in freezing water, live, laugh, play! Drive back to San Jose for our last night's dinner and good byes... I cry my eyes out ... "because I'm a girl," and had such good times with such great people and not ready to face reality of my real life.

Day 7: Get kids souvenirs, return car, and say good-bye to all of Kip's new hispanic friends at Budget, snuggle my great hubby the whole way home.....get home to a perfectly put together home. Thanks to my great mother-n-law, Alana for cleaning literally every inch, cabinets, drawer, closet of my home with kids happy as ever.

Day 8: Reality, still hurting from the sun, soaking every last minute with Alana, sitting here crying and listening to kids crying themselves to sleep because grandma leaves in the night.......

Great & Much Needed Vacation .... created wonderful memories and feel so close to my hubby!

Here's the start of our pictures... look for more to come as I get CD's of our friends photos from their cameras!