Arrival In Costa Rica

The start of this adventure was a 3:30 am wake-up call to get the airport by 4:30. As per custom I was stopped by security because I don't seem to 'get' the whole no liquid thing. Security let me slide with my four individual applesauce containers. After that it was 3 easy flights to San Jose. At 2 pm we arrived to lush green mountains just as we remembered from our first adventure in Costa Rica 13 years ago. Our next stint at the car rental wasn't so easy. Apparently there was a brawl before we arrived and everyone at Europcar as well as the police were involved. We sat there for 2 hours waiting for our car. Xavier met a pal and so began his immersion back into Spanish. Unfortunately so did mine. My Spanish has gone from bad to very bad.

The car was received and we ventured through Alajuela up to our moutain Ecolodge, Tacacori. We drove straight up and had a lovely view of San Jose. Martin decided that we needed to get some exercise so we walked to find some dinner which took us to 6pm or in Costa Rica pitch dark. And so we walked home up the mountain in the dark and got back safely after dodging some cars and motorcycles.

The kids were up early and so we had breakfast, got packed and showered by 8 am. We stopped at Costa Rica's version of Byerlys and noted that Costa Rica has become very expensive since we were last here. I quickly spent about $100 dollars on snacks. Yikes!!

Mexico 2009

10 hours after we left our house we arrived at Xpu-Ha Palace in Xpuha, Mexico, one hour south of Cancun. We were dropped off at a beautiful open air lobby in the jungle and handed a hibiscus scented wet towel and a glass of champagne. We were then carted off to our two story thatched roof room in the jungle. After we arrived to a beautiful, clean room a bottle of red wine and a fruit plate was delivered. We changed and had dinner at the outdoor restaurant where there was not only a cat begging, but also a sweet faced raccoon. Because we were so tired we went back to our room and went to our very comfortable beds. Quinn woke us daily at 6:30 after he peered out the window and announced it was morning time and we all needed to get up. We ventured out to check out our environment and found a beautiful water park complete with 3 swift moving water slides. We also discovered a fresh water estuary with a rumored manatee. Xavier and Martin were fortunate enough to get bikes but because they didn't have tricycles Quinn and I walked. On our tour we found the deer sanctuary, turtles, crocodiles, flamingos, bird dome, monkeys, margays and coatimundi (my personal favorite). We were able to see the croc feeding. They eat two raw chickens every two weeks. Martin and Xav also saw the snake feeding where Xavier somehow was not disturbed watching the pythons eat live mice. The hotel also boasted a couple of cenotes, or underground rivers where plenty of fish and turtles were waiting to be fed, which we obliged daily. If we could we would come back to this hotel annually. It was far better than the rest of the places we have stayed. The service was fantastic and the grounds were beautiful. Xavier made two friends-Koya and Mason who both happened to be from Alaska. Xavier and Mason held down the kids club and they spent their time together biking all the paths. Xavier noted that "Mexico has a lot of dead ends." The beach in front of the hotel was unfortunately devastated by the 2005 hurricane and all that was left a very rocky, unswimmable beach. We had to walk to another hotel property to get our beach time. And it was a good thing we got some beach time because apparently Quinn chose to eat sand rather than eat the plentiful food the resort provided. While Xavier was at the kid's club Quinn happily hung out with mom and dad.
Our second week we ventured to Playa del Carmen to the Iberostar Quetzal. The lobby again was breathtaking and the grounds and paths and jungle were fabulous, but then we got to our room. After our last hotel this room was a dump. I tried to get over it and focus on the grounds, the beautiful beach with the typical Caribbean white sand and clear waters, and the sound of howler monkeys. Xavier again made another friend, Brady from Chicago, and they spent their days at the kids club with Michelle who thankfully loved their energy. I would periodically hear shouts of "no Xavier" "don't do that Xavier" as we sipped our new favorite the Banana Colada. The ice cream stand was right at the entrance of the beach and Quinn announced one day that he would have "fresa" ice cream. While Martin and I enjoyed the banana colada unbeknown to us Xavier had found coca-cola at the kid's club. Aye caramba! We knew then why he was running the beach 100 miles per hour. He tried to reason with us that since we were drinking so much beer that he should also drink soda pop all day. That kid doesn't allow much to slip by him. Here we enjoyed the howler monkeys, peacocks, other big birds, agoutis, flamingos, chickens and RATS! Ugh! One night after a good number of drinks I heard a thrashing in the jungle and look to see what I thought was a small coatimundi and then realized was a big rat.
It was so nice to get away from the cold and get some warmth and fresh air. We all enjoyed our time away but two weeks was a little excessive for the kids.

Fun times

Quinn not collecting pinata candy at the kids club.

Brady from Chicago one of Xav's many friends.

The night Quinn got a bead stuck up his nose and Martin had to take him to the in-house doctor. We never did find that bead.

Mason from Alaska

Koya from Alaska with slick dancin' Xav

Monkey hanging out above the playground

Another strange bird wandering the property

Peacocks perched on someone's balcony

Agouti-a rat like scampering critter

Grande iguana

Martin and Xav hanging out at a cenote feeding the catfish.

Searching the jungle for the elusive coatimundi

Quinn's favorite the margay or tigirillo.

Los Animales de Mexico

Strange bird following Xav around looking for snacks.

Sneaky racoons searching on our porch for

for a handout.

Alejandro the tucan

The elusive coatimundi coming out of the jungle after the food bucket was jostled.

Warmth and greenery

An attempt at a family photo.

Happy bubble gum chewing, game playing, hammock rocking Xav
Grounds at Iberostar

Our big, relaxing porch at Xpu-Ha

Beautiful Xpu-Ha

Sand eating, battling in the ocean, and giving Green Lantern a bath

Water Fun

Yellow flag day

Doesn't this beach look beautiful? We heard it was great for snorkeling but didn't.

Mexican Vacation

This hotel was huge and had a long walk bridge between our rooms and the main lobby which is in the background. We got a lot of walking in which was a good thing because of the ice cream bar, mojitos, churros con chocolate, chocolate cake for lunch and tons of butter on everything. Check Xavier out wearing his swim goggles to lunch.

Part of our day was spent in one of the pools of the hotel. This pool was closest to our room and had wonderful little slides in the middle. The kids really made some headway with feeling comfortable in the water and starting to swim on their own. The inflatable vests, compliments of Target clearance, were a great help, but there was still a lot of swallowing of pool water. yuck

The first day that we arrived at our hotel we went out to check the beach. Xavier got right in and started playing in the sand and running into the ocean, which was surprising since it was a red flag day and the waves were a little rough. He is a fantastic little traveler who is very willing to try new adventures. Although he did state at one point that he would rather be at grandmas watching movies. Quinn was afraid of the ocean and would scream if you touched the tip of his toe in the water. He preferred to sit under a palapa with pops and drink fresh pineapple juice while pops sipped a beer--yet another wonderful amenities of the all-inclusive.

One of the other wonderful things of the all-inclusive was the lazy river or 'leazy river' according to the hotels brochure. Each morning after breakfast and schellacking of sun screen we would relax on the lazy river. The shot above is only of Martin and Xavier, but they also had a four person inflatable so we could hang out and look for lizards on the cement sides of the river together. One day Xavier and I just got out of our four person and behind us was a SNAKE. I hate snakes. The guy trying to fish it out of the water couldn't tell us if it was poisonous or not. We also saw many birds, a pizote (raccoon), a monkey, toucan and parrot. Oh and of course the ubiquitous street dog.

If you ask Xavier what his very favorite thing about being in Mexico he would say the ice cream. There are some very lovely amenities staying at an all-inclusive and one was the ice cream bar. Xavier hit it twice per day. We had to undo a notch in his pants by the end of the trip. Quinn also learned that he actually does like ice cream-strawberry. He didn't figure it out until day 5 so that is why he has doesn't have ice cream in the photo only a lovely monkey face.

The Shark and The Pirate

The shark, the pirate, and their mom made their way to the Johnson Street Businesses Halloween Extravaganza. This was the perfect Halloween Trick or Treat experience as it was held in the daylight on one block of Johnson St. and not at 7 pm, in the dark and cold. We were on the same path as a very scary Grim Reaper who had the ability to make Quinn scream inside every store. Quinn has a difficult time with what is real and what is not. He also had a hard time with all of the masked monsters coming to our door. I suspect he is watching too much Scooby Doo with his brother and his imagination runs wild with thoughts of monsters.

Starting them early

Quinn, Zoee and Xavier are lined up at various gambling machines at Lures n' Beer or Lured Away or something like that, a bar in Weyerhaeuser, Wisconsin. We were celebrating Martin's 38th birthday. When we arrived Xavier exclaimed, "This is perfect grandma. This is beautiful." The bar/restaurant was full of smoke and scantily clad ladies on the screens of the gambling machines. I spent a fair amount of time in these sorts of establishments growing up, and I survived. This is small town life and also not unlike what I saw in several European countries. Kids go where their parents go. We had a good night and ended up seeing a bunch of my cousins show up with their children. :)

Quinn Deere

Quinn asked that I put this one on the 'puter.' Quinn and John Deere are tight.

Soccer Star

This is Xavier in the middle of a fast-paced preschool soccer game. Notice he is just standing there. We got plenty of the just-standing-there shots. During all games he was either too tired to kick the ball, needed a hug, or was thinking about watching Scooby-Doo. Once he was even able to get his shirt stuck over his head mid-game. Now soccer is over and he is involved in something much less competitive--yoga. At first he didn't want to try yoga because he thought it was girly(I don't know how he picks up these things) then I talked him into it because Grant (a boy) was also planning on taking it. After his first class I asked him if he did downward dog, child's pose, etc. and he said yes but he also did a stinky butt pose. Hmm haven't heard of this pose.