La Fortuna Tours

Our trip was made up of several small tours. People showed up to drive us where we needed to be (always on time), and then they showed us around each place. It was often just our family, or at most two or three other people with us. It was lovely!

One of our favorite things we did on the trip was a raft float. We saw so many animals on the tour, and the abundance of wildlife is one of the things that makes Costa Rica unique. I'm going to do a post next of several of the animals we saw throughout our trip. 

Another highlight of the trip for me was the hanging bridges tour. It was a bit rainy during our tour, but we were mostly under leaf cover, and since we had rain gear, it was just atmospheric. There were about 10 bridges we crossed, a few of them about the length of a football field! Jake found out he is a little bit afraid of heights, but he did great crossing the bridges anyway. The views were stunning.

One free morning, Jason took Eli and Logan down the road to a place people like to cliff-jump, while Ali, Jake, and I enjoyed a morning at the hotel pools.

Another tour we did was a sloth-spotting tour. It was raining again (but again, we weren't too bothered because we were in a jungle, so mostly protected), so that meant that the sloths were huddled high up in the trees. We saw them through the scope, but they weren't active. Too bad. We did see lots of other animals, birds, and flowers on our walk, though, so it was still a good time. (Can you spot Jake in this picture?)

One evening at our hotel dinner, there was a dance show. The dancers were quite good, and our server told us that some of the dances they performed were traditional Costa Rican.

Costa Rica!

For years, Jason and I knew we wanted to take our family on one big, epic, foreign trip before Ali and Logan leave our home. The original plan was Egypt, but it got too complicated and expensive. Then it was Jordan to see Petra, but then the war broke out, and they cancelled our tour. So then...we decided on Costa Rica! It ended up being a very fun trip, and we were so glad for the experience and the adventure together.

We didn't have a direct flight (we get spoiled living near Chicago, so we usually do), but they were both fairly short flights, so it wasn't too bad. As we were getting off our first flight, the Pilot invited Jake into the cockpit and let him sit in the driver's chair!

The day we got there, we just went to our hotel in San Jose and relaxed. But our views from the hotel told us this was going to be a pretty country.

The next day, we had a several-hour drive to La Fortuna. We stayed in a hotel right across from the Arenal Volcano. It rains a lot there this time of year, so sometimes we couldn't even see the volcano because of cloud cover. We were very lucky that the day we had our hike around the volcano, the skies were clear, so we could get fun pictures! You could even see the steam that is always coming out of the top, but it is often hard to see because of the clouds.

Thanks for Coming

It was so fun having my parents here for graduation, and then for a couple of days after Mexico. They made sure to visit Ali and Eli at both of their places of work, took Jake to the store to buy him a belated birthday gift, and went fishing with Eli.

My dad also helped me with my ever-present puzzles.

My mom altered dresses for both Ali and me! 

Come back soon!

Jake Graduates from Elementary School

We had another graduate in the family this Spring- Jake graduated from Elementary school! We've had kids here for 13 years, so it is the end of an era for our family! They must have started a new tradition after our other kids left of doing a clap-out for the 5th graders on the last day of school. The parents are all waiting in the gym where they end after walking the halls of the school with all the other grades and teachers cheering them on- I loved it!

Jake was lucky to have Mr Fair as a Principal; he does such a good job with the kids. Here's a quick story that shows why I like him: One afternoon, Jake came home upset. He told me that at the end of the day, he was with a brand new student waiting for the bus, and Mr Fair came by and said something like, "Watch out for this kid-he's trouble!" and Jake thought he was serious. I told Jake I knew for sure that Mr Fair was joking, but that I could email him to double-check if Jake wanted me to, and Jake said that yes, he'd like to make sure. So I emailed Mr Fair, and within a minute of sending it, Mr Fair called my cell phone. He apologized to me for causing Jake heartache and asked to speak to him. He reassured Jake that he had been joking, was sorry he hadn't made that clear, and that, in fact, Jake was an amazing kid. See? Great Principal. 

Our fifth-grade team has the kids rotate for different subjects to get them ready for Junior High, so here are all of Jake's teachers: Mrs Fisher for homeroom, Mrs Ricca for ELA, Mr Rogers for Math, and Ms Sack from last year because she is his favorite:)

We had a few friends over for our annual end-of-the-school-year ice cream party and called it a wrap!