Costa Rica!!

Uncle Eric, Auntie Kristin, Summer, Daddy, Mommy, Colton, Grandma, Grandpa

 My parents gifted our whole family with a trip to Costa Rica!!!!!  We had a total blast being 100 degrees warmer than back home (it was in the 90's!!), swimming, being on the beach, and being together.  My parents rented a 4-bedroom condo for the week and we got to stay there last Tuesday through this past Tuesday.  My mom is always great about taking pictures, so many of these are from her :).

Little Summer did awesome pulling a suitcase almost as big as her!  (The kids shared a bag but we still had 3 pieces of luggage and a stroller to push Colton in, so she was a really big help!)

Both kids popped right awake when we woke them around 5am.  They were both so excited to be at the airport!  Colton cried a few times in the days preceding and tried to put on his coat and boots saying "Ready to go Costa Rica Momma", so when it was finally time, he was ecstatic!

The MN airport had a mini indoor park for the kids to play at while we waited for our plane--brilliant idea!

Watching our plane get ready to take us aboard!

Our seats

While I gave it a valiant effort to get Colton to sleep on the 5 hour flight, he managed to wait until only 7 minutes before landing (bummer)....A 7 minute nap to get us through the whole day starting at 5am???  It actually went better than I would have predicted, fortunately!

Suckers were the perfect distraction as we waited for our luggage.

This was our "bus"!  My parents rented this so we could all drive together, and it was really amazing to fit all 8 of us + our luggage in one car!  My dad did great driving the stick-shift all over the windy, hilly Costa Rican terrain, and I had fun trying to get directions from local folk (in Spanish) on how to find our Condo.    I really did have a lot of fun using my Spanish throughout the week, as many people did not speak any (or very little) English!

After a big day of travel, we finally arrived at our destination just before dinner--what a view!!!!!!!!!  Seriously, this was our pool, and beyond, the ocean.  Perfection!!!!!!!!!!!

Love this shot of daddy and son looking out into the ocean

My beauty queen loved the sand and shells.  She seriously couldn't get enough.

Auntie Kristin and Uncle Eric looking out at the boats

Lots of little tide pools among the rocks on the coast provided the perfect quiet areas for toddler play and parent relaxing :)

My sandy man

Summer loved "watering the rocks" with grandpa

I just love this little guy!

Both kids loved the pool and swam all over by themselves (with floaties of course!)

I've always loved my guy's eyes--gorgeous aqua blue just like the water :) (Summer's smile is cute in the background too!)

Auntie Kristin taught Summer one of her cheerleading stunts and Daddy made a great base :)

Summer and Grandpa in the pool

My favorite family shot of the week!

Uncle Eric and Summer practicing letters together one night before dinner

Just floating around....

We had quite a few dinner's literally "on the beach" (notice table is sitting on sand and ocean is in background) as many restaurants set up tables on the sand.  Not only was it gorgeous, but it provided the perfect entertainment for our kiddos (walking around, giant sandbox, etc) as they waited for the food to come.

One morning we went to the Monkey Park. 

Colton's favorite--he kept talking about the "lion" (even tho it was a leopard!)

Summer and photographer Daddy--**note I will do a separate post with some of the amazing pictures Paul took--he is really talented!

My favorite

One day Paul, Grandpa, Kristin, and Eric took a day trip (4 hour drive one-way, hairpin turns in the stick shift bus!) to see/swim the base of a waterfall and go ziplining in the rainforest.  (It wasn't a trip for kiddos, and preggo mommy couldn't zipline, so Grandma stayed back with us and we had fun in the pool and at the beach).

Eric, Paul, and Kristin swimming by the waterfall

Ready to zipline!  This place had 12 consecutive zips down a mountain in the rain forest.  pretty cool!

Paul

Here comes Paul!

Paul on the giant tarzan swing

My mom coordinated everybody in black and white to take family pictures the day before we left.

Our little family of....FIVE ;)  (Baby #3 is 20 weeks!!)

Colt and Sum

We all loved watching the monkeys (at least 10) that climbed around the trees outside the condo, and Colton did a great job mimic-ing their "oooh oooh aaaah aaaah"!

Sisters!  Mini golf.

Paul and I had a date to walk the beach while my parents took the kiddos to the pool one morning.

Huge waves breaking on the rocks = awesome!

My highlight - walking this beach! 

We had a long day of travel to get home, but both kids did amazing!  After we got our luggage at the airport, we had to wait a while for Paul to get the car (covered in LOTS of ice and snow from the major storms we missed), and my PJ-clad kids had a blast playing in the airport stairwell with Colton's cars...waaaaaaay past their bedtime :-)

These little travelers did way better than I would have anticipated--despite stomach flu before and during the vacation (yes, Summer threw up 12 times the day before we left, and the bug continued to spread throughout the family), loss of sleep, and change in schedule.  They were real troopers!

 Mom and dad, thanks for blessing us with this amazing trip!  Not only was it fun to be someplace warm and sunny (especially this winter) but so much fun to have family time as well :).