Costa Rica, Part 2

We headed to the beach for the second half of our trip! We rented an incredible beach house near Tamarindo. We had a long drive there from Fortuna, so we stopped for some river tubing at Rio Celeste. 

It was hilarious and we had a blast. It felt like bumper tubes. The water was somewhat low so we hit our bums on rocks a million times and the workers had to work hard to keep us going and get us unstuck a lot. It was super fun and one of everyone's favorite activities of the trip.

You can't see it here, but this is at the end of the ride when many of us jumped into the water with a rope swing. So fun! Violet and Davis weren't up for it--maybe next time.

The drive was long to Tamarindo and our house ended up being more remote than we realized. But--the house itself was incredible. The kids basically lived in the pool.

We went to the beach every afternoon to try to cool off. Tamarindo in April is HOT. Like, unbearably hot. But the ocean was super pleasant and the boogie boarding was amazing.

Dinner in Tamarindo. We attempted the night market first and quickly realized we needed to sit down and be served. Also, the night market freaked our kids out a bit for some reason.

We did a fun estuary tour out of Tamarindo and loved it. Saw lots of cool animals!

Violet's tooth was very loose at the beginning of the boat ride...

And then she lost her tooth! She threw it at an alligator after and now has an epic tooth-losing story. No one in her class believes her that she threw her lost tooth at an alligator in Costa Rica. I think her new smile is just about the cutest thing ever. We still have a lazy tooth fairy in our family who has yet to make a visit to Violet.

Iguanas

Lots of gators!

More iguanas. We saw lots of cool birds too. We also got off the boat to visit some howler monkeys.

We got to visit a super nice beach club as an amenity for our beach house. It was so fun. We hung out there a couple of different nights after the pool.

Amazing sunsets.

The kids were always hunting for hermit crabs and other wildlife.

Buckets full of hermit crabs.

This gigantic grasshopper landed in the backyard one night and the little boys were in heaven. (Until Cooper and Davis found its leg in the yard the next day and were very worried about it. I overheard their discussion about it and it was very cute.)

BFFs hanging out in a cabana at the house.

Lunch at Lola's

Group shop in our matching apparel

Lindsey bailed on our swimsuit after pictures so she wasn't invited to this picture. Turns out it was actually a tricky suit to boogie board in and I ended up showing a lot of skin as I would tumble in the waves haha. Not pictured is the time I took a serious tumble and lost my expensive sunglasses in the ocean. And by some miracle Avery found them by her feet.

Everyone had a blast boogie boarding.

Beach club shenanigans with Uncle Jason

I went for a walk one morning and heard howler monkeys yelling at me! 

This guy was a full-blown stinker by this point in the trip. (Maybe the whole trip?) I think he was pretty tired. I was also super stressed at the house about him drowning. We had rules set up to keep him safe but I was pretty stressed, especially the first day or two.

Our last day decided to rent a private boat and go out on the water. It was a blast and such a nice break from the scorching Tamarindo heat.

Living my best life.

We loved hanging out, drinking unlimited drinks (the kids loved pina coladas), and looking for dolphins and sea snakes. We ended up seeing a ton of both! It was magical.

We headed to a private beach for exploring, playing in the water, and snorkeling.

Max and Cameron swam from the boat to the beach. Not pictured--the snorkeling at the beach was actually pretty good. But Violet and I ended up in shallow water with a bunch of sea urchins. She was super frantic and I was actually quite stressed too. 

They fed us dinner on the boat.

The kids kept this bartender very busy.

The prettiest sunset on the way home.

Lots of foot tickling when you were sitting up here.

Love this group so much and so grateful for this magical time we got to spend in Costa Rica together. It was the best trip.