The boys turned 3 in January, and they are very vocal about what they want at all times. So, when we told them we planned a 12 day adventure in Costa Rica, that is all they could talk about for weeks. For Christmas, they got travel clothes, binoculars to see the animals, and mirage of other small gadgets to take on the trip.

Since my last post in Guatemala, which was back in 2022, we have been on a lot more trips. 2 years ago…. Seems like it was yesterday.  Life has gotten in the way for my posting, mainly running a company, keeping two small humans alive, and other obligations.  Some trips have been good, and some on the border of insanity for all. We traveled to The Smokey Mountains, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Canada, and many other smaller trips to the beach and mountains nearby. We will skip Canada altogether! Four countries down, and so many more to go.

On to Costa Rica…

The 2:30 am wake up call was not as bad as anticipated, and the boys played at the small game room at the airport in Memphis. Fun was had by all, and we had plenty of time to kill before our flight left for ATL. The first flight into Costa Rica was not bad at all, and the boys were full of energy. Based off past experiences, we decided to only stay in 2 cities during our trip. Multiple cities for 2-3 days are not enough time to adjust and acclimate for us. We have too much stuff, and the boys tend to get sick when we move too fast. We grabbed our rental car, made sure it was an automatic transmission, and zoomed over to our hotel close to the airport. We didn’t want to make a long haul the first day, and just wanted to ease into our international trip.

The first morning, we loaded up on the continental breakfast, and took off to Tamarindo about 2 hours away near the beach. We made a pitstop at a local waterfall on the way, and the boys got to play in the water, see some wildlife, and our guide got some nice photos and videos for us on the phone. They made us look like we walked days into the rainforest and discovered a hidden gem.  We were upbeat and ready to roll. They boys enjoyed the 2 hour stroll in the woods.

Tamarindo was a great stop for us, and we got a sprawling house near the beach with lots of AC and beach time. For most of our days here, we played at the beach, the pool at our house, and I took a fishing trip one day. The food was good, sun was warm, and the wind howled all day and night, gusts up to 30mph. Cooper got heat stroke one day, and he was down for a bit due to overheating at the beach. Our fair skinned, red heads don’t always do that great in the heat. All the boys wanted to do was swim at the pool or be at the beach. We enjoyed our time here, and left for the rainforest and mountains of La Fortuna.

La Fortuna, was nestled in the mountains near the Volcan volcano, which last erupted in 1968. The entire town was actually quite small and loaded with activities in the mountains from ziplining, canyoning, sloth tours, and coffee tours. We opted for doing a tour or activity in the mornings when the boys woke up and hung around the house in the afternoons. Our cabin had its own pool and a nice deck to sit outside to read and play. On the sloth tour we took, the boys had a slight meltdown, and me and Cooper ended up sitting in the car while Morgan and Sawyer took to the woods for nature watching. One of our favorite things was the walking bridges tour in the rainforest. It was about a 2 hour hike in the rainforest that was connected with a series of about 12-15 bridges hovering high up in the hills. It rained the entire time which was actually nice, and the $12 stroller rental was our best investment of the trip. Most of the photos we took always had snacks involved. For the most part, we couldn’t make it 5 minutes before, they wanted something to eat. This typically involved sitting in the middle of the trail munching on peanuts, fruit, or the infamous Cheetos.

All in all, the trip was a success, and we came away from it with minimal bruises and lots of smiles. Of course, we had our guaranteed meltdown on the last plane ride from Houston to Memphis where Sawyer slept for 14 hours due to having an ear infection, and Cooper threw up on Morgan the last 15minutes of the flight. I also never realized that flight attendants consider vomit a hazmat product and wont dispose of it. We loaded our bags in the car and made it home by 7 pm. All went to sleep, and we got up the next day ready for our normal lives to begin.