Campbell's Liv & Maddie Party

Our girl had been mentally preparing for her Liv & Maddie party for months. We talked about her having a swimming party after she turned five and a few weeks before we sent out the invites she decided she wanted a basketball party. We explained if we were going to do a basketball party we could've had her party on her actual birthday and not waited for the pool to get warm. Needless to say we compromised and the swim basketball party was born. It was unseasonably cold the weekend of her party. On her actual birthday it was probably 85 degrees and I'm guessing it topped out around 68 on party day. #momfail #lessonlearned

We are so thankful for everyone who braved the cold water and celebrated our favorite six year old! Here are a few pictures from the party.

Celebrating 10 Years – Costa Rica

We went back and forth about where we wanted to travel for our 10 year anniversary. When I say we were all over the place I mean Iceland, Europe etc. I seemed to have forgotten that I don’t really care for cold weather. Which I was quickly reminded when we went up to New York for the sweet 16. We finally decided on Costa Rica and it did not disappoint. We wanted the beach for relaxation purposes but also wanted some adventure as well. I have heard the comparison to Hawaii over and over again but with monkeys.

We flew out of Charlotte bright and early Tuesday morning and got into Liberia around lunch time on Wednesday. We also discussed next time there is a direct option on our travels that’s the route to take. It’s directly worth the extra cost. We grabbed our rental car and headed to our beautiful resort in Guanacaste. It was about an hour drive from Liberia. April is the end of dry season so when I say everything was dry it looked very much like the dessert.

We checked into our resort Hotel RIU Palace and headed to schedule our excursions, well Austin did and I headed to the pool cocktail in hand. We loved our resort and I have been very pleased with all of the RIU hotels I have stayed at. For us All Inclusive works best. We spent the rest of the day at the swim up bar. We actually met a couple (Ben & Jessi) from Florida who were also celebrating their 10 year anniversary. We ate dinner at the steakhouse and headed to bed relatively early after a long day of travel.

Wednesday we were up bright and early for our full day of adventure. We booked our excursion through Swiss Travel and it did not disappoint. My biggest thing for me when we decided on Costa Rica was that I wanted to go to Volcano Arenal. Don’t ask me why that was just my only request. We were up bright and early and headed to La Fortuna. Unlike Guanacaste, La Fortuna is the rainforest as they experience 10 months of rain. April is actually a dry month for them. Everything was super green and luscious. We took a boat ride on the lake there and as it was did it started to rain. This lake is the largest lake in Costa Rica is actually man made. Unfortunately it was super cloudy during our ride so we couldn’t see too much of the volcano. Next stop was the canopy tour and the zip lining at which point it began to downpour. Apparently these are the longest zip lines in all of Costa Rica or so we were told. I loved this part of our trip despite the rain it got my adrenaline pumping. Of course as soon as we were done the rain stopped and it cleared up. Next up we headed to the Hot Springs which was much needed after being poured on. It was so relaxing. Lastly we headed to dinner at the bottom of the Volcano before calling it a day and making the 2 ½ hour ride back to the hotel. Was it a long day? Absolutely. Would I do it again? A hundred times over.

Thursday Austin played golf at Four Seasons Costa Rica Golf Club at Peninsula Papagayo. This is the one of the top 100 golf courses outside of the US. I opted to hang back at the hotel for a spa day. Austin wasn’t really feeling very well after he returned from golf. We’ve seemed to have bad luck with illness traveling lately. We tried to eat dinner at the Japanese restaurant but ended up calling it a night after appetizers.

Friday Austin woke up feeling better. We went out with our Florida friends to fish. Ben was excited to catch a rooster fish but we didn’t have any luck. We caught plenty of snapper and tuna. It was a relaxing day out on the boat and no one got sick. Side note: we saw a brightly colored snake in the water and were quickly told that if we were bit we would die in five minutes. Jessie nor I wanted to go down in the boat to use the restroom for fear we would get sick. So when it was my turn to potty off the back of the boat I was told to get back into the boat and when I turned around there was the poisonous snake. Back at the resort the restaurant cooked up our catch for us. I’m not usually a fan of fish but I was a big fan of the blackened tuna. We spent the rest of the day by the pool and decided to eat dinner with our friends. After dinner and a few drinks we tried to catch the Grease show but we caught the tail end and called it a night.

Saturday we shopped for souvenirs and spent the rest of the day relaxing by the pool and looking for any reason to stay in Costa Rica. We successfully ate Japanese and hit up the Casino. We were both underwhelmed by the Casino but I expected we would be as much as we frequent Vegas. We can’t comment on the Disco Tech but we heard that you had to buy drinks which is pretty pointless at an all-inclusive.

Sunday we had an early wakeup call (3:45am) to head to the airport. That was our second lesson of the trip. Early flights are okay leaving to go on vacation but not going home. Sunday was depressing and I was a bit agitated with Delta as I attempted to get home early to celebrate my birthday with Campbell.

We loved our resort. There is also RIU Guanacaste which is right next door but we were told our resort was the nicer of the two.

We had a wonderful trip and this will definitely not be our last time visiting Costa Rica. We were told December is the best time to visit as it’s the beginning of dry season and it’s not as hot as it was during our visit. I didn’t really bother with hair or makeup seems how it was warm and humid but let’s be honest when I’m on vacation that’s pretty optional. It was nice spending time together just the two of us but we certainly missed out girl. She will definitely join us on our next excursion. Question is where to next????