The day after Christmas, we woke up bright and early to head to the airport to go to Costa Rica with my Mom's side of the family. Grey was so excited to go on an air plane...he had been saying "Grey air plane" for weeks. After arriving there 2 hours early, somehow or another my Mom, Dad, Dan, Grey and I end up missing the deadline to check in luggage and therefore missing our flight. Everyone else was okay to go so we send them off without us. Luckily we were able to get on a different flight to Panama City, Panama (yes, at first when they said Panama City I thought "Florida won't be that bad of a place for a layover" - WRONG!). After getting to Panama around 9 PMish that night, we tried to get a so-called "taxi" to go to our "five-star hotel" according to Robyn and Morgan. This "taxi" ended up being a guy off the street driving us in his personal car so we quickly got out! I would hate for us to end up "missing" in Panama! We finally get to the hotel and needless to say it was not as nice as Robyn and Morgan thought. It was do-able but Dan and I were a little nervous to get under the sheets :). To add to all of this, our luggage didn't follow us so we only had the little that we carried on (just the necessities).
The next morning we head to the airport (and yes, we got there really early to make sure we didn't miss this flight) and land in Costa Rica an hour or so later. In order to make up for lost time, we decided to take the hopper plane to Manuel Antonio. I had never ridden on this small of a plane before...it was basically just us and two other guys and the pilots. It was super windy so that made the plane ride even that much more fun :). I think my Mom was praying the whole time because we did quite a few dips that would make you almost lose your stomach. We landed safely though on a runway that was basically a small clearing in the middle of the rain forest and had planes parked at the cul-de-sac at the end of the runway. All that mattered though was that we were finally there!! Whoo hoo!
So we grabbed a much needed beer and headed to the villa to meet everyone. Luckily it was a short drive and we got there around lunch so we didn't miss too much of the trip. Grey did amazingly well through this whole fiasco - he couldn't have been better! What a trooper he was.
Dan, Bobby, Cricket and I headed off to town to grab some stuff while we waited for our luggage, which thankfully arrived the next day. After that, though, we were all set and ready to enjoy our trip! The villa was amazing and was right next to the National Forest and had a great view of the ocean. Monkeys (or as Grey calls them "munchies") would literally come up on the deck and pool and you could hear the howlers at night. One time two monkeys were climbing all over the villa and Dan and I were afraid one had gotten into our room because we had left the balcony sliding door open. Luckily it didn't or else I would have made Dan get it out (sorry Dan!). Grey was in awe of all of the "munchies" and would say, "Munchie, where are you?". He also loved the iguanas and would go down the street with my dad to find them.
Dan and I got to surf, zip line through the rain forest IN THE RAIN, get a massage on our villa terrace, and go on the sunset sail cruise with everyone. Others went white water rafting and hiked through the rain forest along with other activities. We all had a blast! My dad was so sweet and would watch Grey while we were all gone. Every morning my dad and Grey would walk up to the juice bar and get a fruit smoothie for breakfast. They found a dog that looked like Bailey (Morgan's dog) and Grey thought Bailey had gone on the trip with us :). He would ask to go take Bailey on walks and one time Bailey was on the roof of the restaurant by our villa and Grey couldn't figure out how in the world he was on the roof!
Overall we had the best time and I was so sad to leave the warm weather to come back to Dallas to the cold and work...ugh! Thanks Mom, Dad, Cricket, Ronny and Bobby for making this happen! We can't thank you enough for all the fun we had spending with you! Can we make this an annual trip??? :)
Top REMINDERS for the next trip:
1. Make sure to check in at least an hour ahead of the flight
2. Park the car as a group and as close as possible
3. Make sure to use your legal name on your airline ticket (Judy) and you have a ticket booked (Ronny and Grey)
4. You don't need to pack anything except 2-3 shorts/tops, sunscreen and a bathing suit (EVERYONE)
5. Carry on #4 above along with toiletries in case your additional luggage does not make it on time
6. Don't split up when trying to track down lost luggage while at the same time trying to make your next flight (me and Mom)
7. You DON'T need a car seat in Costa Rica
8. You always get there somehow so don't stress
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| Grey at IAH waiting to check in. He was so excited and loved carrying around his air plane bag! |
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| Marcus and Grey swimming the first day we arrive at the villa pool |
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| "Munchie" |
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| More "Munchies" |
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| Morgan and Grey |
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| Afternoon naps on the hammock with Grey and my dad. How sweet is this picture! |
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| Grey busting a move at the pool to the music. |
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| Walking down to the beach....the walk up was terrible! It was a workout! |
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| Playing at the beach |
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| Life is good! Grey in the pool, sippy cup and was playing with his Daddy! |
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| The sunset sail, aka. booze cruise. We ran out so they had to go to another boat to restock :) |
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| Snorkeling on the cruise. We brought Grey in the ocean with us for a swim afterwards. |
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| Pops and his girls :) |
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| The Fam |
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| Ronny, Cricket and Ronny Jr. |
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| Getting a smoothie at the juice bar |
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| Playing with Daddy |
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| Stopped for a drink during a walk along the beach New Year's Eve |
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| The sunsets were amazing! |
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| Bobby, Cricket and Judy |
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| A lunch stop at the alligator bridge on the way back to the airport. Ahhh, SNAP! |
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| Grey was pooped when we got back to Houston. He even slept with his "muchie" around his neck. |
