Major Highlight of the Trip!

This puffy faced 35 year old birthday boy woke up to a delectable omelet with avocado and mango.  It was lots of fun to have a birthday here in Costa Rica.  Especially because the rappelling cliff jumping day had finally arrived.  It was so much fun to get everything that we've been hauling all over the country for a month and a half packed up and ready for the big day.  We wanted to to take the kids to relive a day that Lisa and I had here three years ago on our 10 year anniversary trip.  The idea was simple:  rappel off of a hanging bridge down to a dry river bed, then hike out to the main river and hike down the river, do a little bit of cliff jumping and pool swimming on the way down to the main waterfalls and finish off with a little more cliff jumping.  The original plan included rope swinging and waterfall rappelling, but life got real and I came to terms with the fact that doing high adventure with 5 little ones takes a bit of extra time.  Totally worth it, just not able to squeeze it all in one day.  I also decided that this would not  be the day to teach my 12, 9,7 and 5 year old kids to rappel, but instead, I would just belay them down.  Less stress, less setup, and safer.

Lisa with sleeping Eliza on board.  She's done some pretty crazy stuff with a baby in her belly.  This took the cake for craziest thing with a baby on back!

I did the belaying while Jade shot some sweet photos!  The kids have spent some time on our trip learning to video, photograph and edit videos.  I get a bit nervous having them video or photograph solo or the only copy, but Jade really nailed these ones!

Peeking at Lincoln as he heads down.  We figure it was around 35 ft to the sloped mountainside.  Not exactly an easy landing, but Lisa was there to guide the kids and help them down the rest of the mountain to the river.

Brigham, looking cool and confident.

Another peek through the trees.

Jade was so cute even capturing some of these little details.

Lily getting pumped for her turn.

So stylish with the matching swim trunks and helmet!

Jade's free as a bird!

After we all made it down safely, we began our trek down the river and enjoyed stopping to play in the little waterfalls!

Eliza has been getting more and more into swimming as the trip has gone on.  She wanted to have her turn in the little pool.

Lincoln, always the first one in!

This was a crazy spot where the water went under a boulder.  Of course we had to swim under.  Who wouldn't?  You only have to swim under like 2 feet but it still felt super scary!  When Lisa's turn came, she was really worried about swimming far enough and how she would know if she was out. (She's claustrophobic). We were all on pins and needles as she went through and emerged past the 2 ft. tunnel and then kept swimming an extra 6 feet and bumped into the the next boulder!  We all had a good laugh as she came up panicking that she was stuck inside!  The boulder to the right is the one you swim under.

There goes Jade!

Super mom!  While I made my way down with all the climbing gear in my bag.  Lisa heroically carried her behemoth backpack with Lincoln's pack and Eliza's PDF dangling from a carabiner whilst precariously navigating the stream hand in hand with Eliza.  Eliza just wants to be one of the gang.  She pretty much does everything we do, whether on her own two feet or chilling in the kid carrier.

Check out that load!

Jade just loved these giant boulders in the middle of our hike.


After an hour and a half of hiking down the river, we finally made it to the big pools to cliff jump!

"On the count of three we'll all jump together!"....Lily hesitates...

We have found Jade to be quite the cliff jumper.  That's the McMillan blood running through her veins.

Lincoln is a brave little soul.

Brigham got quite a kick out of doing backflips off the cliff, although not as much of a kick as the many people that watched, videoed, and photographed him did.

Lincoln making his way back up the cliff.

Like mother like daughter.

Brigham and I spent a lot of time climbing up this waterfall.  It was a whole new take on rock climbing.  If you leaned out to much, you not only got a face full of water, but got heaved off the wall back into the pool!

Brigham was pretty pumped when he finally made it to the top all on his own!

Dad was pretty pumped too:)

Like father, like son.

Backwards!  Seriously, scarier than a backflip!  Jade kept trying more and more ways to overcome her initial fear of jumping.  She definitely accomplished!  We had a hard time getting her to stop!  The sun went down at 5:45 pm, so we had to race the sun to hike back out of there!

Earlier that day Lisa and I had gone running and past this little restaurant.  From the dirt roads, one can't tell what lies through the bushes and trees.  This place was amazing!  This guy moved here from Italy and built his own building from an ancient method of cement making.

When we stopped by the place in the morning, we had unknowingly woken him up on his only day off.  He so generously said he'd open the restaurant just for us and even took individual orders!  We asked what he suggested and he excitedly recommended his favorites:  zucchini squid with gnocchi and marinara gnocchi with octopus!  I was excited about the octopus since I didn't get to try any of the octopus I'd caught the week before. He also said he'd make a birthday cake for me!

After quite the day of hiking, adrenaline, and cliff jumping, dinner made by someone else sounded fantastic.

He catered to each kid and made Eliza her own little batch of buttered spaghetti noodles!  We wanted to relax, so we let her watch Pocahontas.:)

The left is the octopus and gnocchi; the right is the squid and zucchini gnocchi.  Sooooo delicious!  Even the kids liked the squid!  The suction cups on the octopus were a little too exotic for them though...

This is the view from the street.  You just never know what's down the path.  We have loved getting to know all the different people here and their different passions.  People are so interesting!  There are so many people here from other countries!  We noticed that no one from Costa Rica moves to the US, but tons of people from other countries move to Costa Rica.  It is such a great place.  If you're ever in Montezuma, it's worth the 20 minute drive to Isla Cabuya to visit this little restaurant!  Best food we'd eaten so far!