joy to me: Pura Vida

Pura Vida (POO-rah VEE-dah), used by Costa Ricans since 1956, literally translated means "Pure Life." Contextually, it means "Full of Life" "Purified life", "This is living!", "Going great!"
-Wikipedia

Our trip started no where close to Pura Vida. We got to the airport and found the long line for check-in and started to worry when we saw one agent helping everyone. (We couldn't do the computer check-in because we were flying with a child under 2.) Not even 5 mins into waiting in line and Sophia throws up. She had only had milk to drink since she had woken up so you can all imagine what it looked and smelled like. Within the first hour of our trip we were down one change of clothes for Sophia and had missed our first flight. We made it to the counter 30 mins before our flight left and they said they would not be able to check in our luggage. Thankfully the agent worked hard to get us on the next flight to Miami. She said because the lay over was so short we would make our connecting flight, but our luggage might not. At this point we were willing to live with out our checked bags for a few hours if it meant we would still make it to Costa Rica that day.

On the first flight to Miami Sophia was very tired and felt warm. I didn't pack the thermometer in the carry-on luggage, but we knew she definitely had an elevated temp. Rob said her being sick on our travel day was a blessing in disguise. Although it made it a little more stressful I think he was right. She really just wanted to cuddle and sleep on me and there is really not much more you can do on a plane than that.

We made our connecting flight and somewhere over the Caribbean Sophia throws up again. I change her into her last pair of clothes that were in the carry-ons and then tried to clean myself up. I unfortunately did not bring a change of clothes and smelled like vomit for the rest of the trip. The plane wasn't very crowed so the couple sitting behind us moved seats. I don't blame them, I would have done the same thing. But somehow I was still offended and sat there tearing up. It had been long day already and our day wasn't even half over. Sophia slept the rest of the flight.

We arrived in Liberia to a small little indoor/outdoor airport with no air conditioning. A giant ceiling fan was there for cooling. We walked down the steps of the plane and a few yards later were waiting in line for immigration. A few more yards to the right we picked up our luggage. (Yeah! It made the plane.) A few more yards to the left and we were walking through customs. Then a couple more steps and we had exited the airport. Yes, it was that small. I'm not complaining, (well except for no air conditioning) it made everything very convenient.

We rode a shuttle to get our rental car and it felt good to have finally made it there. We were ready to start our adventure. We stopped at a big supermarket to get some groceries and then drove about an hour to our condo in Flamingo Beach. That evening we had high hopes of eating, resting, and then taking a walk on the beach. We got the first two accomplished and the third never happened. The sun sets pretty early there and we all soon followed.

The next day Sophia and I awoke to a beautiful sunrise. While Rob slept in we took a walk to find the beach. When we got back we all put our swim suits on and enjoyed a day at the Resort's pool and the beautiful beach.

Side note: Rob ran into one of his classmates and his wife on our first day there at the pool. He didn't know Blake would be there. If was a nice surprise. Three days earlier Blake had been sitting in front of Rob during their Surgery Shelf exam.