Free AirPods

I found some more Costa Rica pictures Jorja had sent me. The first picture I looked for for a long time and couldn't find it. I wanted it to be on my Instagram post. Haha These pictures are in backwards chronological order.

Mike & Jorja ~ shenanigans after the temple

Mike, Jorja, Stephanie ~ on the tram to zip line!

Frog on the night tour

Stephanie at the fancy lunch during a downpour before the hot springs

Jorja was HOT in the treehouse!

Jorja ~ beginning our Costa Rican adventures!

Okay... back to reality... Preston got to school okay. I spent the day dong laundry. Maysen had done a ton, but hadn't had a chance to fold it. That was such a big help to me. Then I was able to use the washer/dryer for Costa Rica clothes. I watched BYU Sports Nation while I folded the other ones. That was fun. Jorja asked if we could go to Fashion Place mall. She needed a make up thing down there. Her AirPods stopped working so she grabbed them because there is an Apple store there. We set an appointment up at the Apple store and then went shopping. Jorja needs some pants without holes for FSY. We got a couple at H&M. Jorja went to the Apple appointment while I paid at the other store. (The guy had told Jorja that AirPod appointments were usually really quick. While we were both waiting we got the notification that our table at Cheesecake Factory was ready. I paid and got our table. Jorja told me what to order. Jorja waited and waited and finally left. As she was walking out a worker stopped her and apologized for not getting to her. He told her to come back after lunch. So we did. Lunch was delicious. Then we went back to the Apple store and waited some more. Finally a girl was able to help us. Jorja told her what the problem was. she took the AirPods back to run a test on them. She came out and said both of them had failed the test. (Both ears) She told Jorja that her AirPods were still under warranty and she gave Jorja a new pair. We weren't charged for anything. We were surprised. That was definitely worth the wait.

I was sitting on the floor with my lap top getting ready to play a game of Dominion. Someone threw a ball for Bear to chase right over my head. Bear crashed into me and my laptop. It broke my screen even more. Now I have hardly any spots without lines on them. I'm pretty sad about that. I don't want to get a new laptop.

Home Again!

I get up a lot earlier than everyone else everyday. I used the time on this trip to type a record on my notes app on my phone of what we did the day before. That is very helpful as I blog now long after the fact. I tried to get a picture here of how much room Mike has. I was on a little sliver of bed and Mike has half of the bed not being used. I couldn't get a good picture though. Mike woke up when I took the picture and asked what I was doing. I told him. He said that I shouldn't run away from him so he wouldn't have to chase me. Hahaha. My feet always feel claustrophobic when I sleep. I have to have them sticking out of the covers or it drives me insane.

Mike and his million acres of bed

We had plenty of time to pack up this morning. We had breakfast and then met our driver around 10:00. We were at our gate about three hours early. But that's better than five minutes late! We had just sat down to play a game of Nertz when Mike asked if we were missing a suitcase. We looked around and it suddenly dawned on me that I never took my carryon suitcase off of the conveyor thing when we went through security. Whoops. Luckily we had a lot of time. It took me awhile to find my way back. I spotted my suitcase right away. It was in the middle with all the security people. When I was finally able to get someone's attention they asked me to wait. One of the guards looked through her phone and found a picture of me going through security. She asked me to confirm that it was me. Then she needed my passport and scanned it. Then I got my bag back. I guess if I was going to leave my suitcase anywhere on this trip that was the perfect spot. When it was left alone security was all around it. And we had time to kill. Glad I got it back though. 

One last shot of maps while we were in Costa Rica

We had no trouble getting home. Flights were okay. Getting through customs was fast. (That was nice after the hours it took us to get into Costa Rica.) Stockton picked us up and then we were finally home! Bear dog was soooo excited to see Mike. The kids were all up so we hung out downstairs for awhile and gave them their gifts. We got Maysen and Preston shirts and we got Stockton a two person hammock. We talked for awhile and got to bed around 1:30 am. Preston has school tomorrow. I hope he isn't too tired!

7-11 in the Dallas airport. I don't know why I thought that was so funny.

Costa Rica Temple

Today was a relaxing day. We ate breakfast around 7:30, then our driver picked us up a little after 8:00. He dropped us off at the Costa Rica Temple. We had time to walk around and we even met a family from Utah. They live about five minutes away from us and the kids go to Brighton High School. The dad was super excited Jorja was going to Hong Kong. He kept telling Jorja how much she was going to love it. I was very happy when he told her how safe she would be there. He said you could be walking down the street with $100 bills hanging out of your back pocket and the people in Hong Kong would stop you and make sure you didn't lose anything. Glad she is going to a safe place. As much as we have loved our trip to Costa Rica, I'm so glad she isn't going here. The roads are so narrow and it would be dangerous to walk down them. I would be so worried!

Anyway, we did a session in the temple. It was my first time going through a session in another country. We had headphones so we could listen in English. Later they had some workers who could speak English at the veil. The celestial room was pretty small and crowded. I thin a lady was going through for her first time because there were a lot of people there supporting her. Four different American ladies were there. They are living in Costa Rica for a year, I'm not sure why. I think the lady's husband was there too because in the celestial room a man was there just weeping.

Stephanie & Jorja

Costa Rica Temple

Mike, Stephanie, Jorja

Stephanie, Mike, Jorja

Mike, Jorja, Stephanie

Across the street from the temple

Temple Grounds

The temple really is an oasis here

Stephanie & Jorja

Our driver picked us up after the session and took us to get covid tests. Man, those things are expensive! $60 a test. We also have to pay $29 to leave the country. That's $267 just to go home. It took a long time to get the test done, but we are all negative! Yay us! After the test we asked if our driver could take us to get ice cream. Jorja wanted to go to Pops. We saw those stores lots of places. I had an ice cream with jello in it. Haha. We got our driver a cone. He picked coconut. He told us that American ice cream is so good. He is right!

Random chandeliers at the hotel

Mike thought it was hilarious that the cabinets in our room looked like a face.

The rest of the day we just chilled at the hotel. We played Nertz, watched Seinfeld, slept, random things like that. When it was time for dinner we walked to a pizza place that wasn't too far away.

The only picture I took at the pizza place. Cactuses with Jorja in the background. Haha

Crazy that our trip is over. Tomorrow is going to be a long day, but I'm so excited to be back with the kids at home. Glad they have been okay without us! Maysen said Bear dog keeps waiting by the garage door. He's probably the only one who had a hard time with us gone. Hahahaha Silly dog.

Waterfalls and Alajuela

Oh my gosh! Today was so fun and I have hardly any pictures to show of it. We went back to the adventure park. Our shuttle picked us up at 7:10. Breakfast didn't start until 7:00. Mike called the reception area yesterday and asked if they could put some food together for us. (The waitresses idea last night.) We kind of wanted to get up at 5:30 or so and walk to the beach, but it was raining HARD. The shuttles didn't start until 8:00. So, we finally started the long walk in the pouring rain. Mike and Jorja had the frog tong rain jackets that Steve let us borrow. That was great because it could go over their backpacks. I carried an umbrella from the hotel room. I think it took us about ten minutes to walk there. Our poor luggage was soaked! Mike checked out and the lady at the front desk handed us three sack lunches. It was a hoagie sandwich, muffin, crackers, juice box and an apple. The shuttle picked us up right on time. I ate my entire lunch on the way. Sure glad I didn't have to go on the 4 hour hike on an empty stomach! The adventure place had said they would store our luggage. They let us put it behind their counter. We got all signed in and then waited for over an hour. They told us that the guides went up and did the hike to check the equipment and to make sure the waterfalls weren't too dangerous. They did this because of all the rain. I was more than okay waiting while they made sure everything was safe. While we waited we got to watch the monkeys in the trees. There were a lot of them. They would climb to a fruit, take a bite and then chuck the entire fruit down to the ground. Fruit was flying everywhere. Haha

I had bought waterproof pouches so I could take my phone on the hike. Also so we could put our passports in there. We weren't sure how safe we would feel leaving our stuff there, but it felt pretty safe. At the last second I decided not to take it. The tour place highly recommends not bringing phones. I thought that I would just buy all the pictures they would want to sell me at the end. That way I wouldn't have to stress about it. Plus I was worried it would take me forever to get my phone out of the punches and that would be annoying for everyone. Welp, they had no one taking professional pictures on this tour. Dang it! The hike was amazing! We started with a tractor ride for 15 minutes. Then we got out and hiked for about 40 minutes. We did one 'almost' zip line/fall to get to the first waterfall. We rappelled down six waterfalls. Man do I wish I had pictures of that! It was absolutely stunning! I wish I had a picture of Jorja climbing halfway down a giant waterfall. She sure faced her fear of heights square in the face. She was so brave this trip! The water was pretty warm too. I said that to one of the guides and he was surprised. Then I added that this would be absolutely freezing in Utah. Repelling down the waterfall was pretty scary for me. My hands were so tired about 3/4ths of the way down from the big waterfall. I was worried I would hit my face against the rocks, but I didn't. There were a couple of falls where you had to fall in the water at the bottom and pull yourself out holding onto the rope. We also had to slide down rocks like a mini water slide at some point. The last thing we did was jump off a high dive platform into a pool. (The platform from yesterday.) It was about 2 or 3 meters high. They pointed 'don't jump there, there, or there or you will get hurt. Look for those bubbles out there and jump.' I was scared! It took me a long time before I could force myself to do it. Jorja went a lot faster than me, and she is terrified of heights! She sure hasn't acted like it this trip! (When we booked this tour it said that you could jump or zip line down. I planned to zip line down. Or I thought there would be stairs. There wasn't. The only way down was to jump. I did not expect that. At least the water was clear and not muddy like it was yesterday.) One funny story. Jorja was looking at these things that must have fallen from trees. The guy from Tennessee told me they were soft. They looked like porcupine balls. I picked one up and was surprised that it was. I carried one so I could ask one of the guides what it was. After I walked a ways I was in a spot where I could ask. I showed it to the guide and asked what it was. He yelled, "Oh my gosh! You picked that up?" That totally scared me and I threw it. The guide just laughed and laughed. Hahaha it was funny. When we finished jumping into the pool we walked along this metal walkway/stair thing to the tractor that was waiting for us. It took us back to the beginning. They had fruit waiting for us and lunch. It was such an amazing experience. We were with a guy from Tennessee and two people from Israel. I'm so glad we did this, even though it was terrifying and we have no pictures to show of it. It was awesome and so, so, so, so beautiful.

We got cleaned up and then went to lunch. Our driver was already there. We were supposed to meet him at 12:00, but we didn't get back until 1:00. We invited him to eat lunch with us. Lunch was really good. Rice, beans, beef, chicken, jimaca sticks, plantains, salad and a flan dessert thing. We never got to go to the beach, but this was so much fun. Also, the weather was great while we hiked. Thank goodness for that!

Our driver brought us to our last hotel back in a city outside San Juan called Alajuela. The hotel feels pretty nice. We had a lazy rest of the day. Dinner was in the hotel and was quite expensive. Jorja didn't want anything. I talked her into sharing with me. That was perfect. While we were there we found out there is a pizza place close enough to walk to. We are going to check that out tomorrow. Today was another really really good day. I'm so glad because usually this day is hard for me. My mom died 26 years ago today. Last year was absolutely awful. I should always plan to do amazing adventures on her day.

Door to the bathroom in our room

Balcony

Jorja

Mike ~ the room keys in Costa Rica have been so funny!

You had to hang this one of the light for the lights to work

Punta Leona

We packed up early. Sent our order in for breakfast. Walked down there and had hot food waiting for us. We finished, said good bye to our awesome room and hopped in the van. We had a long drive ahead of us. The driver was supposed to drop us off at the adventure park for our 1:00 appointment with 4 wheelers. There was a bit of miscommunication. He thought he was supposed to drop us off at our hotel. It worked out okay. The hotel stored our luggage and we got on the 4 wheelers just fine. Roy was our driver and apologized lots. We had such a great time on the 4 wheelers. We instantly got covered in mud. Normally I hate mud on me, but this was super fun. Jorja's chain broke off on the way back and she finished the tour behind the guide. That way she got to enjoy the scenery. We stopped at a place where we could see the ocean. It was beautiful. Turned out that was the closest we got to the ocean this trip. Oh well. Haha. I ended up buying the professional picture package. There were so many good pictures, especially of Jorja. Too bad all the pictures have their logo on it. Hahahaha, I still love them though. 

Mike, Jorja, Stephanie

Jorja

Jorja & Stephanie

Mike & Stephanie

Mike

Stephanie & Mike

Mike

Stephanie

Jorja

Mike

Stephanie

We stopped at this waterfall area. There is a platform about two meters high by the waterfall. Tomorrow we will end our tour there. I had absolutely NO intention of jumping off the platform. Welp..... things didn't go as planned. At least the water wasn't brown when I had to jump. There was a lot of rain today and it made for a lot of mud. Perfect for our adventure today. Crazy how the water was clear the next day. Perfect for our adventure that day. Man this has been a fun trip!

Stephanie, Jorja, Mike

Jorja wanted us to make the 'Aggie' sign. I think it is supposed to be a bull's horn?

Better view of the platform I did NOT want to jump off. Hey, it's higher than it looks!

Stephanie, Jorja, Mike ~ You can see the ocean back there!

Jorja

We finished our tour covered in mud from head to toe. They had outside showers we could wash ourselves off in, and then inside showers with a little more privacy. We used both. I decided not to even attempt to change int o my other clothes and went back to the hotel as I was. (A little wet, but no mud.) I heard Jorja scream as she was leaving the bathroom. She found a tree frog on the bathroom wall! What??? She moved the tree frog outside and loved every second of it.

Perfect sign for the Porge.

Jorja and her new friend

We got back to the hotel and the shuttle took us to our room. It was quite a ways away. We all took showers and then decided to go on a hunt for dinner. We found an open restaurant at the bottom of a different hotel. Mike & Jorja shared steak and pizza. I had a hamburger and it was delicious. We were the only ones in the restaurant and the lady let us stay for awhile. It was raining hard outside. We watched some Japanese game show about toddlers doing errands by themselves. It was funny. We also watched a Seinfeld. Finally the rain let up enough for us to make it back to our room. Guess our beach day is out. Oh well, today was really fun. We have an early morning tomorrow so we just went to bed early. Like 8:00. Hahaha