Grandparents Visit & Day 4 Back At The Beach

My appologies for the brief hold up of our vacation posts. Around the same time we left for Costa Rica, my parents set out on an adventurous 2-week road trip from Mississippi to California and back in their Mini. After 5,000 miles of driving, touring, and experiencing, they arrived at our house for a few days before the last leg of their trip home. We love when Nana and Granddaddy stop by! (BTW, we miss you already.)
Nana and Granddaddy even babysat Micah so Tom and I could go out to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. (Thank you!)

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On Day 4 (Wednesday), we were back at the beach, and this time we were prepared for the sun. Micah was coated in 70 SPF every hour, and in addition to his swim trunks that were long enough to be considered pants, he was decked out in his rash guard and sun hat. That baby was gonna be sunburn free for sure!

Micah and his Da Da were at it again.

Micah and I took a run on the beach together.

I'll be back with more pictures from Day 4 soon. It's past my bedtime and I'm calling it a night! Toodles!

Day 2 The Beach Continued & Day 3

Here's a view of the entire beach from Day 2. Since it was the beginning of their rainy season it wasn't overly crowded.

Tom and Micah played in the sand pool one more time before lunch.

Well, this is the only picture I took that Monday afternoon. It was taken from our balcony as we were about to leave the room to go to the pool after nap time.

This picture was after we returned from the pool but before dinner.

We had dinner that night at the Italian restaurant at the resort. The food was great except we had to take our entrees to go since it was way past Micah's bedtime and he wasn't on his best behavior. We survived though and ended up getting to eat dinner in bed while watching tv.

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On Day 3 (Tuesday), we noticed that Micah's shoulders were a little too pink to go outside for the day. Apparently applying SPF 70 once every 3 hours wasn't enough to battle the Costa Rican sun. He wasn't uncomfortable, but Tom and I didn't want to jeopardize the rest of the trip by letting him get out there again too soon. To make the best of our day, we took Micah on a stroller ride around the resort grounds and toured the spa, and I scheduled my hour long massage on the beach for later that afternoon during Micah's nap. Boy, was that worth it! In order to be fair and not make Tom spend the entire day indoors babysitting, I let him go down to the beach for a while and play with the boogie boards in the waves, which is one of his favorite vacation pass times. That evening we had reservations at the resort's steak house. It was delicious.

This picture is Micah and Me right before dinner.

Uncle Chris, you should be proud of our taste in attire.

The steak house had a wild west theme and Micah really loves hats

Day 2 The Beach

We spent the entire second day outside on the beach and by the pool.


The sand in Costa Rica is very dark, almost black, due to volcanics. (...According to resident expert, Geologist Tom... I know for a fact that he makes up geological explanations and names sometimes just to look really smart :P, so you can take it or leave it.)

Digging in the sand with Da Da

...Still digging

A brief pause from digging to take a few pictures...

Happy

...And all of that digging led to this great Micah-sized pool to splash in.

After playing in the sand pool, we decided to check out the rocks before we went in for lunch.

To be continued...

Day 1 of Costa Rica

This is how we fly

...And this is the Liberia Airport where we landed. That's right. It has no walls. It's just an awning. There's a drastic difference in security from the U.S.

It took us 7 hours to get from our door step to the resort including an hour long taxi ride through the back woods of Guanacaste on gravel roads that easily compared to several Mississippi back roads. I crossed my fingers the whole ride hoping Micah wouldn't get car sick. Thank goodness he didn't.

The view from our balcony

Sunday after we were all settled in, we went for a walk on the beach. We happened to catch the horseback riding tour coming in for the evening, and they let Micah ride for a little bit too. I couldn't believe how brave he was. Stay tuned...this isn't the only animal he mounted on this vacation. We didn't get our feet wet the first night, but we did enjoy a beautiful sunset around 6:15pm. (The sun was up well before 5:30am every day...ugh)
So, that pretty much wraps up Day 1 of our adventure...

Top 10 Things About Our Trip To Costa Rica

We're back! ...And what an adventure it was.

I'll be making several posts over then next week or so to share all of the fun we had in Costa Rica. For now, here are the Top 10 Things About Our Trip To Costa Rica...

1. When we got to our room we realized we had lucked out and gotten a fabulous ocean front suite with an extra large wrap around balcony. Score!



2. There were cakes at every meal. Chocolate cake twice a day is a dream come true for me!



3. Staying at an all inclusive resort meant buffets all day everyday. That also meant no cooking or cleaning for an entire week. What a relief!



4. We got to see howling monkeys in the trees at our resort, and we also went on a river boat tour of Palo Verde and saw crocodiles (a little too close for my comfort level), iguanas, bats, exotic birds and more howling monkeys.



5. There isn't anything more relaxing than a massage on the beach.



6. It was entertaining watching Micah and his Da Da play in the sand.



7. Even though it was the beginning of their rainy season, we got to spend plenty of time soaking up the sunshine while laying on the beach.



8. Fruity adult beverages.



9. Listening to Micah's giggle as he discovers the excitement of the ocean waves all over again made my heart happy.



10. Spending an entire week with my two favorite men discovering a new country was priceless!

Stepping Stone

It's been a couple weeks since Micah and I worked on this project. Our impromtu trip to Mississippi has delayed my entry for this one. Sorry.

To fill you in, I've been trying to make Mondays something a little different and special for Micah and myself. The same old routine was starting to wear on us. So, I've been trying to come up with fun projects and field trips to help get our week off to a good start.

Last week we made this cool stepping stone. Well, I actually made it while he played in the wading pool next to me. All he really did to contribute was making his hand print. Maybe next year he'll be big enough to participate a little more.

Did I mention that it was really easy and cheap too? I picked up the entire kit at Hobby Lobby for around $6. It's regularly $10, but if you catch it on sale or have a 40% off coupon it's super cheap. All I had to do was mix water with the cement mix in a bucket and then pour it into the mold. The kit even came with the decorative, colored rocks and a popcicle stick to write with.

After a couple days of drying out, it's made its home in my flower bed.

For those of you wondering what we did this past Monday, we did nothing. We were (mostly me) pooped from our weekend trip. Next Monday will definitely be out of our normal routine though.

I will be taking a vacation from blogging next week. Actually, I'll be taking a vacation from everything next week. We're leaving for Costa Rica on Sunday! So, I will see everyone back here after June 6th.

Toodles!

Just Passing By

This moring while I was washing dishes I noticed some movement in the woods just beyond our fence. My first thought is that the quadruplet boys from down the street were playing army again. Nope. Not this time. This time we had a couple of four-legged visitors.