Our Costa Rica Adventure: February 2018

This was a National Reserve just down the street from where we were staying in Isla Cabuya. It was a really nice place for a morning run and this day, we enjoyed a Sunday afternoon walk with the kids.

A fallen wild bee comb. Wish it had some honey it it!

A big lovely millipede on the forest floor.

I've been noticing the little signs that this trip is bringing us closer as a family. This picture captures one of them. I love that the kids all help each other and work together! It brings me great joy to see them loving each other!

The kids are so good at enjoying the journey and stopping to see the little things, rather than just hurrying through the hike. We played in this gorgeous river for an hour. The scenery is so unbelievably beautiful and peaceful and quiet. It felt good on the Sabbath to be in God's creations. Even though we couldn't attend church, Sunday felt like a different day. I love Sunday.

The kids have all enjoyed finding all sorts of crazy leaves, seeds and flowers. They are very different from what we have back home. It all feels so much like Jurassic Park!

Eliza was having a ball filling this cup with water and dumping it back out. She managed to find out how to keep her balance in a few different positions while reaching down to the water.

One of the kids found this vine perfect for swinging on. Of course, everyone had to give it a try!

It never takes much prodding to get Lisa to do something crazy...even in her Sunday best:)

Lots and lots of vines to climb!

It was all set up to be an amazing day. One that I had been planning for a year. The day would be the great Montezuma adventure, including bridge rappelling, river hiking, cliff jumping, rope swinging and waterfall rappelling. When we arrived at Montezuma, we got the sad news that there had been a lot of rain the night before and the river was raging, and indeed it was! We had been there just a couple days before and it was apparent that this was not a safe place to take our kids this day. We were all bummed out about that, but it just so happened that on our way to the waterfall, we crossed a bridge that went over a small river. Above that river was a giant tree with limbs perfectly placed to allow for a bridge jumping rope swing! So when we found out we couldn’t do Montezuma, the rope swing became the clear backup plan.

We got to the river and I scoped out the area. There were two branches perfectly place, but the trick was going to be getting my climbing rope attached to the branch. Climbing is the first thing that comes to mind, but unfortunately, it was too hard and too dangerous for me to climb. The next option would be to tie a rock to the paracord and huck it over the branch first and use that to pull the larger climbing rope over the branch. The next problem was that the branch was about 45’ off the ground and that is a really high throw. I decided to swing the rock around to get physics on my side. After 2 dozen throws and about 45 minutes, I finally got it. Then I got my climbing rope pulled over and began to walk the end of the rope to the handrail of the bridge. Dang! It was about 15 feet short. Time to try the next branch that is closer to the bridge. This time I threw the rock from the bridge and boom, first try. (Had I had my laser measuring tool, I could have figured all this out in the planning stage! Ah tools how I miss thee.)

I got the climbing rope all secured and sent a test dummy boulder for the first swing. Bingo. It was like 12” above the water. Just what we wanted. Next up, Brigham the brave. Decked out in his wet suit, keens, climbing harness and helmet. (I thought he looked like a cute little canyoneerer.) As I was setting the whole rigging up, a couple from Canada pulled over and spent about a half hour helping me tweak the last few parts of my rigging and then watching the kids swing. We had an absolute ball. LilyMae instantly flips upside down and starts reaching her hands down towards the water. Lincoln would swing and then just lay back in his full body harness until I went down to unclip him. It ended up being a totally dreamy day. Just like a $250 tour except we got to go as much as we wanted and didn't have to pay a dime.

When my turn came around, I wasn’t exactly sure how far from the water my feet would be. I went ahead and jumped off the railing, swung down, lifted my feet, and my bum skimmed right across the water! It was hilarious! Lisa was such a champ to take care of Eliza during all this. Playing with her on the river bank, throwing rocks etc. Lisa went as well of course. This is one of the highlights of the trip for me. Like most mothers, she is 100% engaged in taking care of the children’s needs. Driving here and there and everywhere, constantly consumed with activities, decisions, cleaning, teaching and the list goes on. Costa Rica has provided a few breaks from all that. In the 6 weeks that we’ve been here, I’m sure she’s had at least 45 minutes to herself! A minute here, a minute there, it all adds up. So the highlight for me comes when Eliza is sleeping, the kids are all satisfied and playing and I can get Lisa in a harness or on the edge of a waterfall. This time, it was in a harness, suspended over the edge of a bridge. I can feel her adrenaline building and then without notice, let her swing away! I just love hearing her scream and seeing her big smile as she swooshes through the air. For a moment, just for a moment she gets to break freeeeeee!

After Lisa finished her turn, the kids went over and over and got crazier and crazier as they went. Swinging upside down, spinning around and dragging their hands in the water. Then I had another turn and I could barely get enough! Hopefully the pictures do it some justice.

LilyMae getting crazy!

We would try to give some high-fives on the swing back up!

Lincoln getting silly in his full body harness.

Another high-five!

It seems like at almost every turn, there is a beautiful view here in Costa Rica.

Jade playing like a monkey!

High five with Jade-o-rade.

A passion fruit tongue.

Thank you giant branch for being just where you needed to be.

It was actually really hard to balance on the railing. You had to lean back really hard in order to not fall forward, but it was hard to lean back because of the length of the rope.