Pura Vida! - Part 4

Ok, last Costa Rica post!  Sorry so many... it was just too hard to narrow down all my pictures.  The rest of our trip was very nice and relaxing.  We enjoyed a lot of playing at the beach, pool, snorkeling, and scuba diving.

There was actually some really good snorkeling right off our beach... well, at least I was enjoying it until I swam into a patch of jelly fish (or at least jelly fish parts) and got stung really bad all over my body.  I was out of the water at that point and was a little nervous to get back in... but yeah, other than that the snorkeling was great!

We also took a boat out to a couple other snorkeling spots one day.

My favorite thing we saw were all the Spotted Eagle Rays!  They are so graceful and beautiful to watch swimming through the water.

All the scuba certified people went out scuba diving one day while the rest of us stayed with the kiddos.  Jeff really want to get all certified before we went on this trip, but it's really tricky with his flying schedule and regulations.  He ended up being able to a quick intro class in a pool while we were there, then got to go out with everyone else and do a little diving.  He was very excited and LOVED it!  I wish I had some pictures of it...

We've got three birthdays all within the first week of August, so we got a cake and celebrated while we were all together!

A view of our beach and the area surrounding our resort.

We loved all of our beach time!  Just a short walk away from our rooms too.

The kiddos loved their beach time too :)

Oma and Opa and their three adorable grand kids!  Covered in (and some eating ha ha) wet sand :)

Ahh.... Paradise.  I'm all ready to go back!

Pura Vida! - Part 3

Monteverde Continued...

So now we're on to the best part about our adventures in the "Cloud Forest!"  Our next, and final, stop was the Zipline Canopy Tour!!  Seriously. So. Much. Fun.

The tour included a series of 15 ziplines (the longest being 1 km long!!) that took us flying through the forest!

Little Brielle and Parker even got to come on this adventure (they rode with their moms) and they loved it!

Helmeted and harnessed... ready to fly!

The crew

Ziplining through the trees

This is the view of the longest segment (1 km long).  It was an amazing experience soaring over the tree tops through the clouds for such a long time!!  The view was breathtaking!

They had a surprise waiting for us at the end of the zipline tour... what they call "The Tarzan Swing."  Pretty much you climb to the top of a really tall tower, get hooked up to the swing, and before you can change your mind, they push you off.

Please enjoy the next series of pictures.... :)  

(in order to fully enjoy, click to enlarge!)

Those who know Jeff, also know that he's terrified (seriously...) of heights - yes, yes ironic I know since he spends much of his life thousands of feet in the air :).  So you can imagine how shocked I was  when he willingly participated in this activity!  He went first so he wouldn't have a chance to chicken out ha ha, but he did it and I was SO proud of him :)

And this is how much he enjoyed it.... ha!

My turn.... They told me to step up to the edge, but I started freaking out.  They didn't even wait for me to get there... they just pushed me off!  Ha ha!  Talk about terrifying!  (as you can see from my face ha)

Sheer terror!

Phew, I survived!

We got pictures of everyone else as well and they are all pretty darn hilarious - though I didn't think they would appreciate me posted them on the internet ha.  Some are more hilarious then others :)  But seriously, whenever I'm in need of a pick-me-up, I just look at all those pictures and I can't help but laugh out loud ha ha!  Good times.

Pura Vida! - Part 2

Our second big excursion was a long drive out to Monteverde - a "cloud forest."  Not to be mistaken for a rainforest.  It looks and feels like a rainforest, but it's up at a higher elevation.. in the clouds ha.  This was definitely my favorite day.  You'll see why :)

 Beautiful scenery on our drive up to Monteverde

Our first stop in the "Cloud Forest" was the Reptile House...

 Lots of cool frogs...

 And snakes... eww!

Our second stop was the Hummingbird Garden which none of us really thought sounded that interesting... but in fact it was actually pretty cool!

 There were hundreds of hummingbirds zooming through the air constantly (often right past your head ha ha!).

In the Hummingbird Gardens with our wonderful tour guide Mark

Next we went on the Sky Walk, which was an easy 2 mile walk through the forest.  It took us over a series of 8 bridges - some closer to the ground, some in the middle of the trees, and others at the treetops and above.

Beautiful scenery - very green!

 This just shows a little of how the bridges were (you can see one of them passing through the trees in the distance...)

 "Hot Lips" flower 

 Lookin' totally stylish in our flashy ponchos :)  We didn't think to bring rain jackets... but at least we had these!

To Be Continued...