joy to me

5/15/09

Hodgepodge of Costa Rica

more view from the balcony: sunrise and daylight

We rented a car seat for Sophia from the rental car company. Little did we know it would be from the 80's. That thing was ancient, but Sophia loved it none the less.

Our daughter makes friends wherever we go. This little local girl only spoke a few words of English, that didn't put a damper on their fun.

One last sunset

We loved our much needed Spring Break. The country was beautiful and the people were friendly. It was so nice to have Daddy around all the time. (We hardly see much of him with his 80 hour work weeks.) It was wonderful and very hard to say good-bye.

Hanging around the Pool

We rented a condo, but had privileges at this beautiful resort.

Love her dimple

Right across from the kiddie pool was a grassy area full of playschool toys. Sophia was in heaven.

And yes even the iguana enjoyed sunbathing around the pool

Costa Rica- the beach

The water was so warm. It was the perfect temperature. Sophia loved playing in the waves. Every time a wave crashed us she couldn't stop giggling.

5/12/09

Palo Verde Road Trip

We drove to one of the National Parks while in Costa Rica. We didn't actually visit the park but hired a guide to take us on a boat ride along a river next to the park. We saw lots of wildlife in there own inhabitants. It was a little more exciting than when you go to the zoo. We didn't know what we would see or when we would see it and a lot of times the animals or birds were hard to see at first because they all camouflage into their environment so well. We saw lot of beautiful birds and crocodiles. We also saw a couple of monkeys and iguanas (one was orange).

On our drive there we found a Burger King in the middle of nowhere and had to stop. They even had a little plastic playground for Sophia.

Cattle on the road {my Nat. Geo photos :) }

It was seriously just a covered area with a bus behind it where all the food was cooked

The boat ride

Crocs

Iguana

If you look hard you can see two monkeys hanging out in the trees

5/11/09

She's hooked alreay

(Remember to hit the pause on the music player below so you can hear the video clip)

5/7/09

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.