costa rica: days 1 & 2

Oh Costa Rica Pictures, why are there so many of you? I am staying up past my bedtime (ha) tonight to get a few of these posted, mostly to satisfy the demands of an anonymous commenter (that I'm pretty sure is my little sister who just went away to college). I need to go on a blogging kick this week because I literally have dozens of posts in the works. I have been negligent in keeping caught up this summer. Let's get started.

Since a soccer tournament almost cancelled our Costa Rican vacation, it was fitting that a soccer tournament also make it so that we had to catch a flight at 1:00 AM instead of a time when normal people with small children get on airplanes. John and I put our kids to bed at 7:30 PM like usual, and then woke them up at 11:00 PM to head to the airport. It felt wrong, but also made it pretty magical for George. He thought it was awesome to be up in the middle of the night to get on an airplane. The kids were really superb travelers, for the most part. George was easy as pie. He just went with the flow; he slept in crazy, hunched over positions on hard armrests, and sat quietly reading books when he was awake. Pearl was a little more difficult to get back to sleep on that first flight, and it was a bit stressful since I was sitting with her next to slumbering strangers that I didn't want to drive crazy. After forcing her to nurse for about 20 minutes, she fell into a fitful sleep (she wanted to lay down and get comfy, and being curled up in my lap was less than ideal), but she slept and was quiet. I might have gotten 15? 20? minutes of sleep in there somewhere, but who cares, we were going to Costa Rica.

When we got to the airport in Atlanta it was around 6:30 AM, so we ate breakfast and then our entourage headed to our gate to hang out.


People who did not have small children to chase around (Adam, Ben, Hannah, Madeline, Rachel, Dad) made makeshift sleeping quarters on the airport floor to try to get some more rest. It was a little difficult with my two monkeys crawling all over everyone. Notice George peeking his head out of the middle of the chairs and Pearl over all up in Hannah's sleep space :).


Adam (not to be mistaken for a terrorist) slept, and Pearl looked out the windows at the airplanes.


Lots of people walked by and laughed at John sleeping underneath a row of chairs. That man can fall asleep anywhere.


The happiest thing happened on our flight from Atlanta to Costa Rica when we realized the plane was pretty empty and we could spread out. Pearl fell right asleep and slept for almost the whole 4 hours because she had so much room to lay down and roll over. John and George were across the aisle and it was the easiest with-children flight I've ever been on.


Stepping off of the airplane and immediately being enveloped by the warm, damp air of Costa Rica was the signal that our vacation had begun. Our first order of business (after getting the royal treatment and being escorted to the front of the customs line-- having small, unruly children really does pay off at times like that) was peeling Pearl's sticky, sweaty jammies (overnight flight, remember?) off of her body and putting her into something a little more weather-appropriate, right there in the middle of the tiny, outdoor Liberia airport.


We hopped into our rental cars, turned on the A/C, and headed towards the coast. Our drive was only about 70 km, which should have taken an hour or so (the roads are bumpy!), but ended up taking us closer to two. We took some pretty awesome scenic detours, but they were happy accidents because you never can see too much of a new, beautiful place. We should have realized that we were a little too off the beaten path when our path took us down windy, cavernous dirt roads that went in circles to tiny, lovely houses where the neighbors that had gathered outside all stopped their socializing to stare and giggle in our direction. Clearly large rental cars filled with white people were not the norm in those parts.

We finally did make it to our hotel. We stayed here, and let me just say, it was glorious. Between the gigantic pool and the ocean being just out the back door, we didn't even have to get in the car on some days. Here we are after our first night, doing some exploring around the hotel. We were happy to be there, can you tell?


Our first full day in Costa Rica was spent mostly hanging out at the beach. We made the drive into the nearest town (Tamarindo) to do some grocery shopping (why is it that even grocery shopping feels like a party when you are on vacation?) and get dinner, but other than that, we just played in the sand and waves all day. So happy. I love these handsome boys. George was in LOVE with the ocean. We had to drag him out of the water (which was seriously the temperature of a warm bath) at the end of the day.


Despite what it looks like in this picture, Pearl really loved the water, too. She was just ready for a nap at this point and was letting me know it. That was another lovely thing about this hotel being right on this beach; one of us could take Pearl back to the cool room for her naps and everyone else could stay out and play.


Adam gave himself an exfoliating mud treatment.


And then my kids followed suit.


And then George insisted on slapping some mud onto anyone and everyone who came near him. That is why my legs are muddy in this second picture.


John caught a little crab and was showing it to the kids while I snapped this photo. Who knew that at this same moment Pearl was also giving the crab a little pet and the crab would decide to give her a little pinch? Bad, bad parents.


Poor lil' thing. She was pretty sad about it all.


John tried to show her the crab again so that she wouldn't hold a grudge against the little pinchy guy forever, but look at that face. She is a tough sell.


A close-up of the mean guy himself.


My mom played with the kids in the water,


and on the shore.


Hannah, Ben, and John held hands and were awkward. No one knows why.


Cute little babes walked along beautiful beaches.



I did not plan for them to have sort of matching swimsuits, (really, Pea's is a hand-me-down and my mom bought George's), but you know that I loved the happy coincidence that it worked out to look like they went together.


We bought this really pretty blow-up lifejacket from the Super Compro there so that George could swim and play without us having to hold onto him the whole time. It was rather unsightly, but he LOVED it. He didn't want to take it off even when he didn't need it. So thumbs up for that!


After the entire afternoon in a plastic lifejacket, there were some chin-chaffing issues so the lifejacket was removed. George didn't let that stop him.


Do pictures of feet make you uncomfortable? If so, I am sorry. This is only one of at least 30 pictures that we took of our feet. As a special pre-vacation surprise, all of us girls went and got coordinating pedicures together. And that needed to be well-documented. These toes belong to Hannah, me, and my mom, respectively.


Lastly, I'll leave you with a series of photos of Ben just casually throwing down a backflip on the beach like it is totally normal to be able to do that.







There you have it! Our first day. Next up: my birthday, Costa Freakin' style.

lightning on demand

We just returned home from a dreamy trip to Costa Rica, and there are hundreds of photos to sort through. I wanted to quickly post what is probably the most incredible photo of the whole trip now though (I can say that without sounding like a braggy-pants because I didn't take it-- John did). On one of our last nights there John, Pearl and I ran down to the beach from our hotel room (which took oh, you know, about 20 seconds-- I said it was dreamy, didn't I?), to catch the sunset. John was taking pictures (you think I am the only one in this family that is borderline obsessed with the camera? Wrong. I take most of the pictures of the people, but John is just as into taking pictures of nature and landscapes), and he had Pearl and I get into the frame for a few silhouette shots. Off in the distance I noticed the lightning and mentioned that it would be freakishly awesome to get a picture of the sunset with the lightning. But what are the odds, right? As we were walking back to the hotel I was clicking through the pictures on the camera to see a few and I seriously screamed "You got one with lightning!!!" We were both pretty excited. I've tried to capture lightning on camera before and it is almost impossible to time it. You just have to get lucky. And we did.

And just for the record, this is the picture straight out of the camera-- no editing to enhance colors, saturation, or contrast at all. Go John.



More from Costa Rica soon :).

george was worried there were actual bears in the lake

A few weeks ago we were able to go to Bear Lake for a family reunion with my dad's side of the family (ie: his mom, siblings, and all the accompanying kids and grandkids). It was so much fun. The only bad thing about it was that it was too short and I didn't get to spend time with all the people that I wanted to. It is such a blessing to not only have these people as family, but also consider them my dearest friends. I love Ashleigh, Sandi, and their family for planning such an incredibly fun reunion for us and I can't wait until the next one!

I basically only had my camera out at three separate occasions throughout the whole weekend: frosting cookies the first night, on the boat the first time I went out, and for a little bit on the beach. I missed taking pictures of many of the fun things that we did, and feel bad that not everyone is represented in these photos, but here is what I got.

Cookie Decorating:

My smiling boy and Rae Rae

Alaura and Abram

Kate the Great

Xander and Georgie

After she ate her cookies, Rach kept herself entertained by doing handstands.

Heather almost always had baby Adam (as opposed to grown-up Adam) attached to her in some way.

See? Look at how cute they are.

And Ben and John (and lil' Miss Pea) overlooked the lake while discussing very important things like Phil Hendry's latest show.

We spent all day Saturday out on the lake. We boated, rode wave runners, played in the sand, and chatted on the beach. Aside from a near-death experience with a freaky piece of metal slicing a foot open, it was a picture perfect day :).

On the boat:

I love everything about boating. I love being in the water, wakeboarding and tubing etc., but I also really love just riding on the boat, warm wind blowing through my hair, feeling the occasional spray of water. That is why I like these first two pictures-- I can almost feel boating by looking at them.

Georgie is into giving "thumbs up" lately, so he encouraged the others to join him. They were happy to be on the boat.

We stopped at the marina for a second and Adam grossed everyone out by sticking fish food between his toes to get the nasty carp to suck it out. Get a girlfriend or something, Ad.

Sick, right?

We eased George into the boating scene by letting him float around the marina on the water weenie (which he totally calls a "weenie roaster") with my sisters.

While G enjoyed himself in the water, Ben held the little Pea on the boat. She liked driving around, but did NOT like the life jacket. Maybe we broke the rules and didn't make her wear it the whole time.

Since G enjoyed the water weenie experience, we amped it up a bit and I hopped on with him for his first legitimate water weenie ride.

He was a fan. Unless we "went bizzy," ie: got dizzy, ie: went in circles. Can you believe that blue water?

Mady and Rae Rae enjoyed the weenie as well. Perhaps their ride was a little more intense and involved more "getting bizzy" than mine and Georgie's did.

G happily enjoyed his job of waiting patiently for someone to tip over and then he'd hold up the flag as high as he could.

Then we busted out the tube. Madeline and Rach held on at first.

And then they didn't.

Josh and I proudly held on the entire time.

Even when it got intense.

All the while, Daddy held our sleepy, squishy girl.

Ben and Josh got some nice air.

While Kate and Jim opted for a bit more mellow of a ride.

Abram and Jill thought they were getting a mellow ride.

Until the tube submarined upon take off and they fell in.

Abram was a good sport though, and even gave us a thumbs up once he got back on the tube for a ride. Little cutie.

Kate and Bram were proud, looking windblown and showing off muscles, respectively.

Then the boys busted out the big guns, so Pea girl and I chilled and watched.

Jim got up on the Sky Ski right away.

And then he went down. How dangerous does that blade look?

I love Ben's face in this first picture, and I love how the blade it totally out of the water in the second one.

Then people wakeboarded.

People like my husband,

and Josh, (Sorry that the best picture I have of you is where you are about to eat it, Joshie. But not really that sorry, because I love this picture.)

and the show-off Ben, doing a backflip.

Playing on the beach

We took turns going out on the water, and while others were out, we played in the dark, coarse sand on the beach.

The white stripes on G's swimming suit will forever be dingy and brownish because of this. Nevermind that my little sister is so tan that she looks African.

Who needs water when you have the weenie on the beach? Not Brax. But he did enjoy a little walk out in the water with his daddy.

I love this photo of Dallin and his boys.

Leyna took her sand scooping very seriously.

Mika and Pearlie hung out in the shade and tried to devour each other's hands. These girls are about 6 weeks apart and I am pretty sure Pearl has her by at least 4 pounds.

For some reason George really loved chasing Zack with this bucket and trying to dump it on him. It was highly entertaining to watch.

We took a big family photo the last morning, but I don't have a copy of that yet. This was the closest thing I got. Lots of people were out on the Lake, but here are those of us that were hanging out on the beach.

I love all these people so much and am so grateful for the time we spent together. Yay for family reunions!