And we're off!

Wow!  It's finally here!  We have been talking about and planning and preparing for this trip for over a year.  The day was just as crazy and long and hard and fun and exciting as we expected.  After weeks of packing and trying to get things all wrapped up at work, we still only ended up getting a couple hours of sleep last night.  But 3:00am finally came.  I woke up in a total daze and had no clue what was going on.  I finally came to my senses and we were up and loading up the last couple things.  Brigham woke up himself and was wide awake and ready to go.  Jade was out like a light, but as usual, she just popped up and began freshening up in the bathroom.  Lincoln said something funny that I'm too tired to remember and LilyMae the same.  Dalene and Sid, our awesome friends and neighbors took us to the airport.  I was super bummed when realize that I forgot the suitcase of towels and rappelling gear.  They even went home to try to break into our shed and run it back to us, but to no avail.  Everyone at the airport was super helpful with our 5 kids,  14 bags, 2 car seats, 7 backpacks and a few stray blankets. We made our first flight with no problems and it was so much fun seeing the kids' anxiety and excitement about flying.  LAX was a pretty chill 1 hour layover.  The kids played Uno and Blink while we waited.  The flight from LAX to San Jose was scheduled for 8:15 to 4:30.  (With time changes, that translates to 6 hours and 15 min I believe)  The kids were rock stars considering the length of the flight.  A couple fuss fits, but nothing major.  An old man with an off-white beard  came up to me and said, "I sure enjoyed watching your and your family during the layover at the LAX."  He said that he has 11 kids!  That's just amazing.  It was so exciting to finally arrive and be on our way.  One of the first super fun moments for me was riding on the shuttle in San Jose.  It was just after dusk and the traffic was crazy.  The city lights were all aglow and Lincoln was just mesmerized looking out the window at all the sites.  I am so excited about all the new things they will see and taste and experience.  We had our rental car all arranged at Enterprise Rent-A-Car but when we got there, the guys looked at us like..."You're Crazy!"  With our insane amount of luggage and the vehicle that I had selected, there was no way to make it all fit.  I kind of just thought we could Beverly Hillbilly it.  I brought like 12 tie down straps to strap it all to the top, kind of like I load up my trailer 10 feet tall back home.  Apparently, they don't want more than 2 bags on the top of the car.  Pshhh!  It ended up being a total blessing because the guy at the car rental place introduced us to a driver with a large van that could take us to the first condo we were staying at just out of town (right next to the maximum security prison we found out!).  At this point, we were really tossing around the idea of not renting a car and just hiring a driver on the days that we wanted to go on an adventure.  The cost of renting the type of vehicle that we needed was just astronomical. The end of the car story is that when our driver, Edgar, picked us up the second morning, he had called a few friends in the industry to see if he could find a vehicle we could rent.  He found the perfect van!  It was still way more than we wanted to spend, but it had full insurance coverage and we felt that the trip without a vehicle would just be too difficult.  It just felt like a necessity to have the freedom to go where we want, when we want and take the time to travel as fast or slow as we want.  Costa Rica, HERE WE COME! ROAD TRIP STYLE!  Sort of:)

Once we arrived in San Jose, we stopped at the grocery store to try to buy some food.  Let me say we are so SPOILED in the US!  There is no variety at all!  But we were so grateful for potatoes, carrots, are new favorite vegetable, choyote.  This is our breakfast and then our dinner.  I love using leftovers! And thank goodness they had noodles for the kids!

I love everything about this picture!  As you can imagine, having 5 kids and so much luggage in a foreign country airport was a little stressful!  Lily wanted to be so helpful and push 4 suitcases, a bag, and the paddleboards.  They stacked higher than she could see and she had to navigate it through the crowds, outside the building and to the shuttle and at multiple points, couldn't see where the rest of the family was to know where to go.  (I was behind her making sure she got there:).)    It stressed her out, but she made it and I was so proud of her!  I love watching the kids do hard things!