We are home. We hit the ground running back into real life Sunday and it hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be.
Our Costa Rican vacation was truly the greatest vacation I have ever been on. There were no mishaps, wish we could'ves or disappointments. Its was truly relaxing and enjoyable...every moment. I am truly grateful that my husband is not only that but he is also my best friend. He can make me laugh and laugh and he can make me smile. He is the greatest when it comes to just going with the flow. When we described our time to one of our buddies they replied sounds like true Jager fashion. And there is no other way to describe our time. Although we like to run around around like chickens with our heads cut off a lot of the time...we are actually truly laid back individuals we enjoy taking things as they come not worrying to much about the day ahead and focussing on the moments in front of us. This vacation was a great reminder of how we truly love to be.
I didn't realize until I was on vacation how much I truly needed one. I can truly say I was more than a little burnt out in a lot of different areas. Didn't take more than 2 days to realize this. I spent much time in Costa Rica in prayer. Prayers of thanks and pleas for remembering how nice peacefulness feels. Busyness can become a severe burden, a burden much of the time of my own doing.
But on to the good stuff. For ten days I lived in my bikini, I packed way more than I needed. Next time and yes there will most definitely be a next time, we will take one bag. I didn't wear make up for ten days:) I laid in the sun with my baby everyday and we talked about all the good stuff, shared lots of kisses, and marveled in the wonder of Gods creation. We saw 1 scorpion, had a close encounter with a lethal and aggressive snake, counted endless amounts of monkeys and iguanas, had innumerable geckos for roommates, lots of different birds, and plenty of other creatures. We lived on the sweet wonder of incredibly fresh fruit and vegetables. Avocados that spread on toast like butter, fruit you could smell through its skin and fish fresh from the sea. My tastebuds are lonely now:)
We decided not to rent a car so we walked absolutely everywhere. The town we stayed in was incredibly rural. No cash machine, no real grocery to speak of, and no paved roads. It was awesome actually. We were never in a hurry to get anywhere and we shared lots of good conversation on the road. I am also quite sure we wouldn't have seen as much wildlife as we did if we had had a car. It was fun. It made us feel young, and carefree.
We went zip lining, and on a SUP adventure. Both were super fun. We also went on a 6km hike each way to a dried up waterfall(40 M high). It was beautiful!!
So onto the pictures. It may take a few days to share what I would like to. Its just the way it has to be.
This was our first day. We were at the only little soda that served "mexican food." Yep no tacos to be had in Costa Rica. What they had was much better. All of the food was fresh and lovely and perfectly seasoned. Also Tikos (Costa Ricans) do not like spicy food so nothing is in the least bit spicy. Even the salsa is more like a fresh salad. It was lovely...the food. This was also after we realized the decent tiny market was about 45 minutes one way from our house:)
WE saw lots of monkeys..all of the howler variety. Their bark is worse than their bite. They move very slowly because of their slow moving digestive system so God gave them a lions growl to ward off predators. You can hear their growls from very far off distances. We have heard the worst they will do is poop on you if you get to close. They were so cute and their babies were so sweet. Amazing creatures!
The trees were also amazing I am not sure what this one was called but I just loved the green lines that an up the sides as a sign of life that was waiting for the rainy season.
The flowers in our neighborhood were fluorescent in color. Julie you will have to tell me if this is a decent attempt at macro or not:) It hought of you when I took it.
This was our view for breakfast the second day we were there. The restaurant really looked like something out of movie or something. Smack in the middle of the beach sat a palm hut with a restaurant under it. It was gorgeous.
And this is who joined us for breakfast. Meet the Tiko version of a blue jay. They were everywhere.
And they were not shy I saw a lady donate an entire plantain pancake to one and he took it right out of her hand. Oh plantains......they were part of our diet in a big way. And they were one of the things i learned how to make properly while I was there. Bobs(Brians friend from Calvin) wife Claudia(a Nicaraguan native, she was born there and that is where they live) taught me how to make them authentically two different ways.
This was a typical road in Playa Negra....now you can see why we didn't mind walking everywhere. It was breathtaking.
This was lunch Day 2.
This may look like nothing special. I must tell you the flavor in this dish was nothing short of amazing. This meal was a start of a long lasting love affair with the restaurant where we ate it. We ate there often and lingered in every course. I had dessert at lunch and dinner every time. They made one thing for each meal, there was no menu. The place was actually a surf hostel and so we got to make some friends there as well that ate there daily as part of there room and board. Lunch was 5 dollars and Dinner was ten. Dessert was 2 dollars...and was made fresh and delicious and often on the fly. I was in food heaven. The owners were french (Pascal and Camille) and had moved to Costa Rica from St. Barts about 18 months ago. They became friends to us quickly and I traded pool time(Camille is 8 months pregnant) for cooking lessons. I am now a master of the most delicious rendition of banana flambé that I have ever had in my life.
Iguanas everywhere.
The beaches were amazing, clean, water as blue as blue can be. We spent a lot of time there. We learned about sunburns from the sun at the location so close to the equator on day 2 the hard way:( From there on out we were serious about the sunblock.
At Sunset the beach would become alive with the movement of these little guys. In numbers beyond my ability to count.
You will get plenty of pictures of sunset from me. I love the sunset. I love that the sun sets here just liek it does in Costa Rica. I love the promise that comes with the sun setting, that it will rise again in the morning. The understanding that when the sun sets it marks the ending of one day and leaves you with hope and anticipation for the the next. Yep I love the sunset!
Okay well that is about it for today. I'll come back tomorrow with some more.
One last one of the two of us for the road. I can tell you I think I appreciated this vacation way more than I would have 10 years ago. And the husband says we won't be waiting 10 more for another. WINNING!
Relaxation...Bliss. 
Peacefulness is something I am trying to keep in my survival kit now. Something I can just whip out of my back pocket anytime I need. 
This was at the Hacienda where we went zip lining. 
Our last meal at Kon Tiki. My favorite place to sit and eat while were gone. Fresh Tuna seared to perfection with a sesame soy reduction(yum) with ratatouille and rice. 
Bananas Flambay......lots of buttery limey goodness inthat sauce with just a dash or two of the best rum you can find. I die:) By the way this is the recipe I bartered for. 
These two run Kon Tiki. They also became our friends over the time we spent there. They have the cutest little girl named June who speaks Spanish, English and French in her two year old tongue, it was the sweetest thing. They are also expecting another little girl in June. Their food was to die for it made me swoon, it takes a lot food wise to make me swoon. I learned as much as I enjoyed my meals. 
And what we knew was.....we didn't want to bring anyone home with us. So out with the bad. Thanks for reading. This trip was something I will remember forever. I truly soaked up every moment of it. I felt truly blessed to have been able to take the time and just go for it. I felt truly blessed that we had set the goal of taking it ten years ago and were blessed with the ability to do so! And to my vacation mate. I love you babe!! Vacation with you was a dream!!
It was really cool to see what the bottom of a river looks like. Thats Claudia down there. We saw no other humans on our hike.
We did see lots of these little guys though.
There were hundreds of tiny frogs all over the rocks we were on. They were so cute. I had to catch one so we could show Elliot, he is known as the frog whisperer around these parts.
Heres Claudia and I at the base of the waterfall. Funny story....we had found these tiny white orchid looking flowers laying all over the ground on our walk and being girls we decided to accessorize our hair, they smelled fabulous. All was fine until we stopped at the bottom of the waterfall. We were soon attacked my giant bees who thought they smelled great as well. We ditched the flowers rather quickly:)
SO the boys decided to scale the waterfall. Much to us girls dismay. We were pretty quiet about our disdain. However I will tell you I was thinking about the strong potential they each had for falling and causing serious damage to their bodies. And I am not being dramatic Brian told me half way up he realized the error in his thinking. We were no where near medical attention. We had no way to communicate with any one, and none of us could have hauled them out of where we were. Alls well that ends well I suppose. Brian and I have gone over our don't get dead policy in length since then. The funniest part or I guess it is funny now is once they got up they couldn't go down the same way:) So they had to wade down through waste deep leaves and branches, which is where the snakes and scorpions hide. The worst that happened was Brian got a huge gash on his calf and burn on his knee. We are thankful for Gods protection again I 'm not being dramatic.
This monkey was just hanging out on our way back down the mountain. Brian was able to get super close without irritating her.
Claudia and I made a feast for the boys. She taught me how to make plantains two ways(forever grateful). We aslo made sailfish. We weren't big fans. It was chewy and thats how it was supposed to be. The rest of our meal was fantabulous though and the company even better.
So thats what I will leave you with for today. I think I have two more days of posts to wrap up the dreaminess of our trip. I also took some video so I am going to try to upload those somewhere. Than you can see me flying across the treetops:)
I blogged out there. Read books out there it was a dreamy spot. By 5:30 it was already close to 80 degrees outside.
Okay so before I share anymore pics I will tell you I have a tattoo on my right side. It is two cherry blossoms that intersect to make the shape of a cross. Cherry Blossoms are the sign of new life in the asian culture and that is what the symbol of the cross means to me as well. Even having it on my side means something else to me but I am not ashamed of it. I hope none of you find it offensive. I do not plan on getting anymore, But i truly love the one I have, it means a lot to me.
This is one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip. There was a tiny fishing village down the beach about five minutes. We watched them bring in the catch many evenings. It was always a family affair as their kids would be running about and dogs galore. It was fun to watch.
I found this little guy hiding in my bathing suits one morning. Bob and Brian came to my rescue and caught the little devil. Then we took photos of him and promptly killed him.
Brian braved the waves while Bob was here. It was fun to watch him. Those waves were super intimidating...so much force.
This beach was named after the wave there, Little Hawaii. There was a river that fed into the ocean there after making a stop in a lagoon. It was breathtaking.
One of my favorite pictures of the Beejer fromt he whole vacation. There were two guys that had an old oil container filed with ice water and coconuts. One guy carried the jug the other carried a machete. The guy with the machete would make a tiny hole in the top and insert a straw. BAM!
This is my buddy spike. He joined us for breakfast everyday. He was huge and the only male on the property as far as we saw. Iguanas are quite territorial. No one was going to encroach on his ladies.
And since nothing can compete with Spike I leave off here today. Tomorrow I will share some photos from one of my favorite adventures that we took. A hike into the jungle and share a story of my husband and Bob deciding to climb a waterfall and not knowing how to get back down. Now I've got you hooked. See you tomorrow!!
This was our first day. We were at the only little soda that served "mexican food." Yep no tacos to be had in Costa Rica. What they had was much better. All of the food was fresh and lovely and perfectly seasoned. Also Tikos (Costa Ricans) do not like spicy food so nothing is in the least bit spicy. Even the salsa is more like a fresh salad. It was lovely...the food. This was also after we realized the decent tiny market was about 45 minutes one way from our house:)
WE saw lots of monkeys..all of the howler variety. Their bark is worse than their bite. They move very slowly because of their slow moving digestive system so God gave them a lions growl to ward off predators. You can hear their growls from very far off distances. We have heard the worst they will do is poop on you if you get to close. They were so cute and their babies were so sweet. Amazing creatures!
The trees were also amazing I am not sure what this one was called but I just loved the green lines that an up the sides as a sign of life that was waiting for the rainy season.
The flowers in our neighborhood were fluorescent in color. Julie you will have to tell me if this is a decent attempt at macro or not:) It hought of you when I took it.
This was our view for breakfast the second day we were there. The restaurant really looked like something out of movie or something. Smack in the middle of the beach sat a palm hut with a restaurant under it. It was gorgeous.
And this is who joined us for breakfast. Meet the Tiko version of a blue jay. They were everywhere.
And they were not shy I saw a lady donate an entire plantain pancake to one and he took it right out of her hand. Oh plantains......they were part of our diet in a big way. And they were one of the things i learned how to make properly while I was there. Bobs(Brians friend from Calvin) wife Claudia(a Nicaraguan native, she was born there and that is where they live) taught me how to make them authentically two different ways.
This was a typical road in Playa Negra....now you can see why we didn't mind walking everywhere. It was breathtaking.
This was lunch Day 2.
This may look like nothing special. I must tell you the flavor in this dish was nothing short of amazing. This meal was a start of a long lasting love affair with the restaurant where we ate it. We ate there often and lingered in every course. I had dessert at lunch and dinner every time. They made one thing for each meal, there was no menu. The place was actually a surf hostel and so we got to make some friends there as well that ate there daily as part of there room and board. Lunch was 5 dollars and Dinner was ten. Dessert was 2 dollars...and was made fresh and delicious and often on the fly. I was in food heaven. The owners were french (Pascal and Camille) and had moved to Costa Rica from St. Barts about 18 months ago. They became friends to us quickly and I traded pool time(Camille is 8 months pregnant) for cooking lessons. I am now a master of the most delicious rendition of banana flambé that I have ever had in my life.
Iguanas everywhere.
The beaches were amazing, clean, water as blue as blue can be. We spent a lot of time there. We learned about sunburns from the sun at the location so close to the equator on day 2 the hard way:( From there on out we were serious about the sunblock.
At Sunset the beach would become alive with the movement of these little guys. In numbers beyond my ability to count.
You will get plenty of pictures of sunset from me. I love the sunset. I love that the sun sets here just liek it does in Costa Rica. I love the promise that comes with the sun setting, that it will rise again in the morning. The understanding that when the sun sets it marks the ending of one day and leaves you with hope and anticipation for the the next. Yep I love the sunset!
Okay well that is about it for today. I'll come back tomorrow with some more.
One last one of the two of us for the road. I can tell you I think I appreciated this vacation way more than I would have 10 years ago. And the husband says we won't be waiting 10 more for another. WINNING!
Don't mind my toes. I have pretty unattractive feet. They are wrinkly like an old ladies and they are knobby and swollen most all the time:) Its just how God made me. It always appears as if I have been sitting in a bathtub all day they are so wrinkly. At least the polish is pretty.
Other then all that its pretty hard to contain my excitement at this point!! Others may find it a bit annoying. I can't help it.
