December 2024 and January 2025

 I'm not sure how I missed December. Actually, it's not that hard to figure out why since we had family here from mid-December until nearly the end of January, so I'll try to catch both months now. 

December was awesome! We went to a Sound of Music sing-along with Nora and Kassie, to the Christkringlemarkt, to Luminaria with Autumn, Teddy, Nora and Kassie and to Beauty and the Beast with Autumn and Teddy.

We had everyone home for Christmas this year and had so much fun! Being together at Christmas in the BEST!! And extra fun that everyone spent Christmas Eve night at our house. I found it hilarious that all of our adult children were up early on Christmas morning as usual and just waiting for Evan to wake up so the fun could begin. :)

Through the remainder of December and January, we enjoyed having Megan and her family staying with us. Bonus grandchild time - YAY! Mitch had surgery on his arm and is recovering nicely. It was good to be able to help Megan with the kiddos as he recovered. We did lots of fun stuff - here are a few pictures. :)

On January 21, Bryce and I left for a nearly 2 week trip to Costa Rica that ended up being one of the most adventurous trips we have ever taken. We fell in love with the jungles and beaches and mountains and incredible bio diversity that is Costa Rica! And loved being warm for little while. :)

We started our trip by driving from San Jose to La Fortuna, which is close to Arenal Volcano. We enjoyed a stop at a wildlife refuge, hikes through the jungle to incredible waterfalls and to the base of Arenal volcano, which is still active. We also took a waterfall canyoning trip that was so beautiful and incredibly fun until the final rappel which was down a 240 ft waterfall that was so powerful that I actually had one of my shoes ripped off by the water. Luckily it was recovered by one of the guides so I didn't have to do the mile hike out barefoot, but I got pretty banged up on that one. Bryce loved the whole thing, I loved all of it except the last rappel. :) Luckily, we ended our time in La Fortuna with a trip to the hot springs, which was seriously incredible!

We next drove up the mountains to the Cloud Rainforest town of Monteverde. The roads in this area are so bad, but the area is so beautiful that it made it worth it. We stopped at El Tigre waterfalls on the way and hiked through the rainforest across several hanging bridges and to amazing waterfalls, all in a torrential rainstorm. It was a fun adventure!

The views from our AirBnb in Monteverde were absolutely incredible! We loved just hanging out on our deck looking over the jungle below - stunning!  We also took a guided hike through the cloud rainforest where we saw tarantulas, spider and howler monkeys and learned a lot about this unique climate. We went ziplining high above the jungle canopy, which was so fun and both braved the tarzan swing, which was exhilarating and fun! Then we topped off our time in Monteverde by having dinner at San Lucas treetop dining, rated as one of the most romantic restaurants in the world. And it did NOT disappoint! We enjoyed the most amazing 9 course dinner seated in our own private glass pod that overlooked the jungle and town below - it was simply incredible and something we will always remember. 

Our last stop was the beach town of Manuel Antonio, which was the perfect mix of white sands beaches and amazing jungles! We loved sitting on the deck of our villa and watching squirrel, spider and capuchin monkeys playing in the trees right next to us. We also saw sloths right at our resort as well as toucans, macaws and lots of other birds and wildlife. We really enjoyed taking a guided tour of Manuel Antonio National park where we had the most amazing guide who took some pretty cool pictures for us.

We also took an ATV trip that included the chance to swim at the base of a waterfall, which we did, of course. We played at the beach and took a guided night hike through the jungle, which was amazing and only a little scary. Oh, and I suffered through a bout of food poisoning that was so severe that I ended up at an urgent care clinic in the middle of the night on an IV.  I recovered quickly once I got fluids, medicine and sugar into my system but it was pretty scary for a bit while Bryce tried to figure out how to get me medical help in rural Costa Rica in the middle of the night. But now it's just a kind of funny memory from our other wise super fun trip! We loved our time in Costa Rica and the fact that we got to miss half of January in Utah. :)

Adios for now!