The Royce Family: January 2010

Weeeerrrreee Baaaaaaaacck!! Costa Rica was wonderful! By far my most favorite memorable vacation! It started with the long plane ride there, we flew about 7 hrs with one stop in Houston. Running through the airport like maniacs trying to make sure we made it on time. The look on peoples faces were priceless when we would come barging through with our 6 bags of luggage and our 4 kids, they should all just be happy I couldn't bring my dogs too!! The WHOLE family all flew there together (minus Rach, Gio and Lottie because they came from Italy) All together we had 10 adults and 7 kids, 5 of which were babies!! After the long ride we arrived in Costa Rica and experienced our first humid night there! That was the only night we would have a/c . I think we all took up most of the rooms at the hotel and it wasn't until another guest there asked us to keep it down that we decided to go to bed. Then next morning we had our 2nd challenge (the 1st was getting there) after all 3 of our rental cars arrived we had to somehow manage to get ALL of our luggage into the cars!? Of course Rory and I had the most! After about an hour of pushing, shoving and squishing the luggage in and Chanel falling and scraping up her knee and James throwing up... we were off! What was supposed to be a 3 hr. drive turned into about a 5 hr drive up to the Arenal Volcano. We stayed at a place called Kokoro, the people there were so friendly and welcoming. And the of course it was beautiful there too, we stayed in cute little cabins. Every morning we would wake up to a thick warm fog, it was so neat. Later in the day it would clear up just enough to let a little bit of rain through, it was more like a mist, it felt so cool and refreshing. The first day we were there we went on our first jungle hike, I was completely unprepared as you will see in the picture below because all of my children and I are still wearing our Jammie's (I thought we were just going on a quick stroll through the grounds of the hotel.) The next day we went to another hotel near by, there they had the funnest pools with lots of fun little water slides around them, we got to go on a butterfly tour, a crocodile tour and in an ant house. We also went on the fastest zip line tour in Costa Rica (pictures will be posted soon hopefully). After 3 nights there we were off on another adventure, we drove down to a little town called Quepos. This drive not so long, only 3-4 hrs, but much more windy and Curtis even managed to get stuck on the side of the road once thanks to James and Chanel having to pull over to pee. This was not a good thing since the roads are VERY narrow and they usually have a drop off on one side and the people there drive CRAZY!! We had a local man lend us a tow rope to pull us out and we continued on. We arrived to the most beautiful house! It was a large house made of all concrete, full of beautiful wood work and tile throughout. The full time guests consisted of enormous katydids, beetles, cockroach looking things, moths and grasshoppers! All were BIG and scary looking! There were also tons of lizards and GECKOS! We soon learned the important roll the lizards and geckos played in the house, every time the kids would catch one I would have them let it go in the house because I knew that was at least 5 bugs less that would be crawling on me or jump out of my laundry and try to eat me! In every room of the house there were HUGE windows all with the most beautiful views of either the thick jungle, the bright blue pool or the never ending ocean. And there was no glass in the windows, they were just covered in screen, that was if you even had a window! Some of the rooms had just a huge opening, like there was a wall completely missing! Those were the rooms that were fought over the most. Rory and I were lucky enough to have the little guest house below all to ourselves and the kids. It made things much easier since our family tends to take up more room than any of the others. The house was managed by a wonderful man named Jota (pronounced hota) if I could have taken any souvenir home I wanted, it would have been him for sure. He knew so much about the land, the people, places to go and he was one of the funniest people I have ever met. My second favorite people would have been Jota's ladies... Yes, Jota had ladies. One was his mother and the other 2 were were his wife and sister, everyday Jota would say "I'm gonna go get da ladies!" and we would all get so excited, maybe that's because not only were they nice too but everyday the ladies would come and cook us breakfast, do our laundry, clean the house and then make lunch and put it in the fridge for when we were ready then they would leave and come back a few hours later and cook us a big dinner! I loved those ladies!! At night there was a guard that sat in his little chair and made sure everything was safe. And every night we would go to sleep with the sounds of the geckos chirping and the INSECTS! It was a loud continuous sound of insects! It was scary to know that pretty much everything around you was crawling with HUGE bugs but at the same time it was the neatest sound and so soothing. Every morning we would wake up to the sounds of the most beautiful birds, all full of song and they had the most vibrant amazing colors! We would also wake up to the sounds of all different kinds of animals, especially the howler monkeys... those sounds were not so beautiful, it sounded more like something dying a slow agonizing death. And all day and night we would listen the waves crashing on the shore just below us, all so fun and new to see and hear. Everything around you was alive, even if it didn't look like it, it probably was. Everyday was such a great adventure, we went new places, saw new things and ate new foods (some good and some bad). Almost every day we hiked through a new part of the jungle! JUNGLE AFTER JUNGLE WE HIKED!!! I have NEVER hiked so much in my life as I did in that week! And they weren't easy, especially because Rory would have little Rori Ana on his back and me with Ava on my belly and each of us with a bag full of sunblock, diapers, wipes, food, towels etc. etc. and we would have to be pulling James and Chanel along the whole way, begging them to take 10 or 20 more steps. Promising them treat after treat and telling them the reward in the end whether it be the beach or animals or something fun. I have to admit that I would have turned around on most of them if it weren't for Rory promising me treats and rewards too! As hard as some of them were they were always worth it in the end, even if its just to say we did it. And thanks to all the family we had with us, without their help we wouldn't have been able to do it, they made this trip so fun and memorable for us. I look forward to the day we get to go back, who knows maybe in like 40 yrs Rory and I will make that our permanent residence!?

Now we are home, back in Utah. I want so badly to walk out onto our beautiful deck and see the beautiful blue waters and green jungles and to hear the exciting sounds. Last night I wanted to turn on Ava's "nature sounds" on her swing just so I could pretend to be back. I wake up in the morning and think WHERE'S DA LADIES AT?? I have to cook my own meals, clean my own house and do my own laundry now?!? I want to feel the hot humid sun on me again, now I feel my body just being sucked dry of all its moisture and the uncomfortable cold again. It was all so exciting and fun, yet so simple and easy.

Here are some pictures in random order, it took too long to organize....

We would go to bed around 9 and wake up around 6 because the sun set and rose so early, here is Rori Ana up at 5:30 am, we weren't ready to get up so we stuck her out on the deck to run laps...

Ava loved the pool, she would kick around and get so excited she would practically go into convulsions. Jameson was in the water about 95% of the time we were there....

Rori HATED the salty water, she would make faces every time she got it in her mouth. She sure love to play in it though!

Beautiful Chanel...

Chanel decided to wear underwear on this day?

Baby Bums!!

Jameson had so much fun!

Jota assured me this snake was not poisonous, so I got as close as I could to get the picture and it got pretty mad. It had a beautiful aqua blue face.

Rori loved LOOKING at the monkeys, not so much touching them.

SO GROSS!!! James caught a gecko and it lost its tail!!!!!

What do you do when your too chicken to catch the gecko yourself? Use your babies of course....

Before the tail incident...

The sunset off our deck.

Pretty Ava...

She had her first taste of gelato!!! Mmmmmm....

After one of our many hikes... the babies fell asleep.

Ava didnt even flinch!

We had to cross a little river to get back to our cars...

It wasnt until after we turned down the boat ride that we saw the warning sign that the water was CONTAMINATED!!!!!

Chanel crying that her legs cant go any further!

Ava slept through most of the hikes.

Rory with Chanel on his shoulders, Rori on his back and a backpack attached to that. People would just stare as we walked by, you would have thought we were the freaks of nature???!