costa rica: day 3 (happy b-day to me)

Our third day in Costa Rica also happened to be my 27th birthday (how lucky am I?), and it was such a happy day.

You know the day is going to be awesome when it starts out with your two brothers smuggling large numbers of towels out of the hotel :).


We spent the morning at Flamingo Beach and we were pretty much the only people there (except for that one guy off in the corner having a solo yoga session; he left once we got there, I'm sure because our rowdy crew started throwing his chakras all off balance). It really was so picturesque and serene. Here is a wide angle shot of various family members spread out doing their thing on the beach and in the water.

I basically never held or took care of my children on this trip (except for at night when Pearl decided to be a newborn again). I adored having my kids there experiencing and seeing all these new things alongside us, but it was also so glorious to be able to really r e l a x (in a way that isn't possible when you are chasing around two active children) because my family members just jumped in and took care of my babies so often. Traveling with extended family is seriously underrated. Best of both worlds, for sure. Here is Rach taking Pea out for a stroll in the pretty water.


Ben and I were so! happy! to! be! there! (Rachel holding Pearl, and George and Madeline in the background.)

Pearl must've learned a few moves from the yoga man before he left. Here she is with some fine down dog form.

I like this baby and her unruly, wispy, flippy hair. Lots and lots.


John caught another crab. This one was bigger and more threatening than the tiny one that pinched Pearl, and she knew better than to pet him. I was actually surprised she wanted to get this close after how mad she had been the day before.


I married a pirate. A very sweaty pirate.


Remember when I said that we took lots of pictures of our toes? Yes, well, here are two more.



Pearl helped herself to a little personal ocean-bath, so we decided to get her out of her salt-water filled diaper and let her play.



Her little squished bottom makes me laugh.


After a couple of hours on the beach we had to head into town to catch a sunset sailboat cruise thing that my dad had planned for us. Once we boarded the sailboat my first order of business was to get a certain little girl to sleep. She was happy to oblige. Tired baby.


We were riding out to a beautiful little cove with a reef for snorkeling which was about an hour away. While Pea slept everyone else enjoyed the ride.


It was such a fun thing to see some of Costa Rica from the water-- it is so beautiful!


Once we got out to the cove we ate a traditional Costa Rican dinner and then had a couple of hours to explore-- we swam, snorkeled, and kayaked.

Mom and Rach lookin' fine in their masks.


My dad offered to stay on the boat with my kids while John and I (and everyone else) went out snorkeling. When we got back George was chomping at the bit to get out into the water, so my dad took him out in the kayak.


Pearl had happily watched everyone out playing in the water...

...Until she saw George out in the kayak. Then she wanted in on the action. I rounded up a miniature lifejacket and sent her on her way. By this time George had decided the kayak wasn't as much fun as swimming, so he had jumped into the water, and I had to get John to snorkel on over to keep an eye on him.


There they all are, a little closer.


My happy, water-loving boys.


We loaded back onto the boat and began the ride home. For some reason things got a little crazy on the boat ride back. Mostly with my kids. They were being so wild. (Also with Hannah who decided to recklessly flirt with some Canadian college boys :).) Thankfully we had many people to help corral my children.



We tried to get a picture of our family, but as you can see, the kids were most uncooperative. I am blaming the Costa Rican food we had eaten for dinner.


This was the best we could do :).


We frequently made fun of Adam for bringing a book with him EVERYWHERE we went and reading it at pretty much any free second he could. We were laughing because John took this photo of all of us hanging out together at the front of the boat...


...and then he turned around and took this picture of Adam, book in hand, giving us a dirty look for laughing at him and his book-loving ways.


A couple of the calmer moments-- one of me with George (I love that he loves me):


And one of Daddy and his girl looking at the ocean.


And then one of Pearlie giving me a kiss. Oh, wait. Scratch that. This wasn't calm-- look at her! She was attacking me. We are serious about our kisses in this family.


Have I mentioned before that George is not shy? Well, he's not. Not at all. In fact, sometimes John and I cringe a little at the comfort level he has with complete strangers. He and one of the Costa Rican boat drivers became buddies. They turned the music up and had a serious dance party. We were all thoroughly entertained.


Then G's new buddy asked for him help driving the boat. George took his job seriously, and had to be redirected from time to time because he really wanted to turn that boat around.


Pearl got to help for a bit, too. I love her little hands all ready to go on that steering wheel.


This was billed as a "Sunset Cruise," but it was a pretty cloudy day so we didn't know if we'd really end up getting a sunset. The clouds parted just enough for a decent show as we were sailing back to shore, and though it wasn't the most spectacular sunset ever, it was still beautiful.



John took this one after we had walked back to shore.


It was such a full, fun day that most of the time I didn't even remember that it was my birthday. On our drive back to the hotel we decided to stop at Super Compro (our BFF-- we were there almost daily) and pick up a birthday cake to make it a legit birthday celebration. We chose some kind of concoction that was sort of like a giant tres leches, and I was officially declared 27 once my family sang "Happy Birthday" to me in the most horrific (seriously, my brothers were singing like injured cows) tune you can imagine. Just the way I like it :).


Rainforest is next. If I can find the motivation...