panoply of pictures

before i turn in for the night here in costa rica, i put together a bunch of random pics for this post. no real order. no rhyme or reason. just some pics that i liked. enjoy!

(by the way, before we go to the orphanage tomorrow afternoon, we think we are going to spend the morning at the xandari resort & spa. this place has won lots of awards. we think it is about 30 minutes away. there are lots of different things to do at the resort: 4 kilometers of private scenic trails to intimate river vistas and dramatic waterfalls; botanical gardens; an indoor/outdoor restaurant; a "spa village"; and more. stay tuned...)

tomorrow: hogar de vida (homes of life)

shannon and i are so excited to go to the homes of life orphanage (hogar de vida) tomorrow afternoon to deliver all of the donations for the children! we can't wait! (grandma and carol will also be going along. they both donated to the project and have been very excited about it.) i will be calling my contact there tomorrow morning just to confirm everything. we hope to post pictures and video tomorrow evening to share with all of you who have been following our "packing hope" project, and especially for those of you who donated money and/or items! we feel so lucky (and so humbled) to be able to represent all of you as we go to the orphanage tomorrow. thank you, thank you, thank you!

ants

on our waterfall hike at vista del valle, we ran across a long line of ants working with amazing precision and strength to carry little bits of leaves into their colony. it was awesome. the pictures don't even begin to capture this experience, but it's the best we can do! griffin and ainsley loved it!

vista del valle (and more!)

today was my favorite day so far here in costa rica. the day started with a 5:30am family hot tub session, then only got better from there. we had a simple breakfast of pastries, strawberries, pineapple, and yogurt, then grabbed our bags and were out the door by 7:30am for a beautiful, leisurely 30-minute drive through the mountains from atenas to the vista del valle resort. we were going there to check out the resort (which is very rustic with amazing views) and to hike on one of the many private trails there.

specifically, we were headed there to hike "creek trail," which we were told was doable for the kids as well. as you would imagine based on the name, the trail follows a creek through the rain forest then dumps into an amazing waterfall.

we made it to the resort by around 8:30am after driving on some of the worst roads so far. we got changed into our hiking gear and headed out.

we soon ran into a man named glen who owns a private house on the resort. he moved from south florida to be a part of a "children feeding children" project. basically, he helps teach children about agiculture and horticulture. he has a model greenhouse set up that is using the verti-gro model. he was a great guy. and we had a great chat as he told us all about his work and then helped us get on the short trail to the waterfall. the trail was extremely wet, muddy, and slippery, so we did not follow the creek. we pretty much took a shortcut straight to the waterfall, which was treacherous enough. the kids loved being in the outdoors (we'll post another post soon about the ants we saw).

after the waterfall, we took our time getting back to the car. then, the kids were doing so well, we decide to keep on trucking and headed to another city called sarchi, which is known for its crafts and furniture making. we also went through the town of grecia, which had its own unique "flavor" as well.

while all of our destinations today were great, we found that the journey to the destinations was as good as (if not better than) the actual destinations themselves. it is always such an exciting adventure to drive around a foreign country - and especially one as beautiful as costa rica! of course, we got lost a few times. but that is all part of the experience.

we stopped for lunch at another good restaurant before heading home around 2:30pm. then it was time to get in the pool! non-stop action! all, in all, it was an amazing day!

enjoy the pictures.

hot tub wake-up call

this morning our family of five all woke up simultaneously like clockwork at 5:30am as the sun blasted through the windows. so, we decided to start off the day with a family dip in the hot tub right outside our bedroom! shannon and i enjoyed it while ainsley and griffin played with their feet in it and mallory watched from her pack 'n play. not a bad way to start the day - a day that was full of adventure as we were out and about from 7am until after lunch! our busiest (and probably best) day yet in terms of venturing out! more on that later.

here are a few pics of the hot tub wake-up call!

baby tarantula?

i was called upon last night to kill a big spider. i told everyone that i think it was a baby tarantula (tarantulas are very common in costa rica). what do you think?

rewind: la fiesta del maiz

in a previous post, i mentioned our random stop the other day at la fiesta del maiz (the festival of corn) for lunch. this is the main restaurant of this variety where bascially everything on the menu is made out of corn in some form or fashion (with few exceptions, like chicken or other meats). the food was suprisingly good. who knew you could do so much with corn?! but the person who definitely loved it the most was ainsley! she chowed down!

here are a few pictures from that fun experience!

once all the corn fun was over, griffin had to go out in style riding a cow! that was his biggest excitement of the day besides buying a pineapple at the market, which he had talked about non-stop ever since we told him we were going to the market!

(inside joke: "corn? corn? when did i eat corn?!")