I went to the Stadium of Fire! I went when I was a teenager, I’m thinking summer of 94 and I loved IT! I remember thinking it was the coolest thing I had ever seen so, Ben and I got tickets this year! and it DID NOT DISAPPOINT – we LOVED It. It helps that we are already big Brad Paisley fans but the show was just really neat. I loved the patriotism that you felt there and all of the good songs that were sung. I would definitely go again. LaNell and Caleb were great company. I picked the perfect in the shade, straight on view, Cheap seats. It was Awesome.

It was a great night. So glad we dropped the kids off at their cousins, Rose included 🙂 It makes this overcast 4th of July with Ben gone seem bearable. Ben is at scout camp all week. I think I’ll try and brave the late night fireworks with the 4 little munchkins and be grateful for this country and the freedoms I enjoy.

 

Tuesday Night April 5^th

We dropped Benji, Packer, and Cali off at the Falabellas at 6pm – they were so excited to spend the night with their cousins. They happily told us goodbye and ran off to play. Then we headed for a long night of airplane hopping. We left at 8:30pm – Salt Lake City to Los Angeles to Miami and finally into Liberia, Costa Rica at 10am. Not the most restful night of sleep but we did have empty seats by us so we got to bring Rose’s car seat and she slept pretty well.

Wednesday April 6^th

the first thing to catch Rose's eye - the humongous fan at the airport

We got our luggage and made it through security real easy and were greeted by 80ish men vying to be our Taxi to our Hotel. Luckily we had a shuttle waiting for us as part of the all inclusive package from work so they found us and loaded us on a mini bus and Ben, Rose and I with 2 other couples from work headed to the south west to the Riu Guanacaste Hotel. I was surprised at first by how dry everything was, it reminded me of Oroville in the summer. We learned that it is the very end of the dry season so it is as dry as it gets and the rain will be coming soon. (as you will see from our pictures it was still green in lots of areas and very pretty.) The drive to our resort was just over an hour. The dirt road to our fancy hotel caught me off guard (supposedly there was a contract problem between the hotel and the government) and the locals all drive fast on those skinny windy roads but we made it and checked in at the resort around noon. We spent the afternoon checking out the hotel set up. We unpacked, walked down to the beach, checked out the pool area, had our first of many refreshing juice drinks from the bar, and were stopped several times to show off our little white skinned chubby blue eyed baby. At 6pm we went to the Liberian Buffet Restaurant. The food was AMAZING. They had anything you could think of and it was all really tasty unlike a normal buffet. Our favorites that night were the tostadas and mangoes and lots of good meat. That evening we listened to the Riu Band and watched the “Broadway” show. They were both a bit cheesy but we were entertained. We went to bed exhausted after a full day and a red eye the night before.

Thursday April 7^th

We woke up and had more mangoes for breakfast, also tried cucumber shakes and bacon and eggs. Then we headed down to the beach. We put Rose in her carrier and we just started walking the beach. We went a ways down to the other end of the beach enjoying the scenery, shells, birds and hot hot sun. We walked back towards the Hotel and then went swimming in the ocean. It was so warm. Rose liked it except when the BIG waves came. What I thought was amazing was that it was just the right temperature. I was never cold the entire time even getting in and out of the water you were just always comfortable. The sun would go behind the clouds and it was still perfectly sunny and warm. I loved it.

So then we went to lunch at the restaurant down by the pool and had the best Guacamole ever! Yes we ate lots of other stuff but I went back several times for the Guac. That afternoon we chilled at the pool. Swimming, reading and eating ice cream. Right at sun down a security guy came by with a baby sea turtle in hand!! He let Ben hold it and then told us Muchos muchos and pointed to the beach. We headed down to the beach and they had about a hundred little baby turtles that had just hatched! SO cool. We watched them squirm around in the ‘cages’ and learned that the conservationists were keeping them until 4am when the hotel lights would be off and the babies would have a better chance of following the moon out to sea. That night we had a company dinner at the Steak House at 8:30. They gave awards to everyone that was there and talked about the company and goals and how each of the employees had gone above and beyond in their role. We didn’t get out of there until 11pm.

Friday April 8^th –

Another yummy breakfast to start the day off right. After that we played a little tennis – a little being about a half of an hour before we were dripping sweat and baking in the sun. Then back to the pool 🙂 Yes, it was perfect pool weather at 10am! It was actually a bit sunny but the pool is so big that we were able to keep Rose under the bridge for shade most of the time.

We got dressed for the day, grabbed a snack and then headed out on a shopping tour. They took us to a few souvenir shops where we purchased trinkets for the kids. Wood seemed to be their specialty, anything made of wood. Then they dropped us off at the city park in the middle of Liberia. We had seen a Pollo Campero restaurant on the way in and Udine has told us that they have the best chicken ever so… even though we had been eating nonstop for 2 1/2 days we had to go try it, and… It was REALLY good. We walked around town a little and talked about how it reminds us both of our missions in Brazil. And then we sat in the park and talked (tried to let Ben talk) to some of the locals. Then we headed back to the hotel where we had 6:30 reservations for the specialty Chinese restaurant. We were in no way hungry at this point but we helped ourselves to plenty of food and topped it off with Mango Cake. We chilled for a bit and called it a night when Rose got grumpy.

Saturday April 9^th

We had a 7am River Cruise! So we got on a mini bus at 7am, after grabbing a little bread just like I used to eat every morning on my mission 🙂 The bus had a few stops picking up other tourists and trading us to another bus but we had a fun tour guide that told us all about the old town of Filadelphia and explained the way they grow sugar cane and melons and how they thrive on manual labor because it provides jobs for everyone. He showed us Iguanas and different types of birds and about 2 hours later we were at the river. We got on a boat with our tour guide and a boat captain and headed out. The water is brown so you can’t see what is in there but I did feel it and just like everything else in Costa Rica, it was warm. They showed us a few different Night Birds, and a few little crocodiles lounging on the banks. We saw lots of iguanas and bats.

Then we headed the opposite direction and started to hear and see the monkeys. Our captain took us over to one of the trees where they pulled out a banana and started making monkey noises. Within a minute the monkeys just started coming towards the boat. They were white face monkeys about the size of rose but obviously skinnier and with super long arms and legs. A few of the monkeys jumped onto the boat and then in the boat and then there were about 15 monkeys climbing all over us tourists and eating pieces of banana! It was really neat to see them that close up and feel them.

We saw a couple of Macaw’s. Thy were super pretty. This picture doesn’t do them justice…

After that excitement we headed a little further down river and found a 6 to 8 foot crocodile that was in the water! Our boat captain went and grabbed some chicken meat and started luring the croc towards us! He put the meat on a stick and then brought it right in by the boat where he came up and grabbed it off the pole. He started hand feeding him after that. We had definitely never seen a crocodile that close up. Their mouths are long and they have TONS of sharp teeth. Very cool.

That was the grand finale of our river cruise. We tipped them well and got back on our bus for 2 and a half hours back to the hotel. That afternoon we had another yummy lunch complete with guacamole and ice cream and then went to the shops at the resort to look around. Then the beach was calling us to come swim one last time. Rose was asleep so Ben and I took turns watching her and swimming. I told Ben that I kept feeling something in the water so I got out… he went in and discovered that there were hundreds of little fish right on the shore line! I went back to see for myself and there were – tons of little fish coming in and out with the waves and swimming right into you and not caring. We laid on the beach until it got too hot and then said goodbye and headed to the shade of the pool. We swam some more and relaxed and soaked in our last moments of wonderfulness. Then we did the same at our late dinner. We enjoyed all of the yummy buffet food and drinks and visited with some of the Mozy group. Then we went over to the stage and enjoyed some Michael Jackson music/impersonations before calling it a night.

Sunday April 10^th

Our hotel departure time was 11am so we had time to get packed up and then enjoy one more all you can eat Riu breakfast special. Have I mentioned yet that Rose was a celebrity there? Everyone stopped to talk to the baby and tell her how beautiful she is. She got soo much attention and just loved it. We checked out and got on a bus for the airport in Liberia. We paid 26$ per person to leave the country, checked in with American Airlines and then went through customs before buying our 5$ soda to keep us cool in the outdoor airport. We had a 4 hour flight to Dallas and then made it through all of the US customs and declarations and security and recheck your baggage and then our flight to Salt Lake was running late but a lightning storm was coming in so they hurried us out of there but took the longer southern route to avoid lightning. It was on this flight when we went to watch a show we realized we had left our tablet on the plane from Costa Rica 🙁 boo… But we made it to SLC around midnight, and home around 1am. It was an awesome vacation. I feel like I actually relaxed a little and still got to see and do lots of cool things. The all inclusiveness and all paid by the company-ness were awesome. We loved our vacation to Costa Rica – Pura Vida!