Getting to Costa Rica

Getting to Costa Rica was an adventure.  We left at 9:30 am on November 2nd and our flight left Salt Lake at 12:15.  The kids were great following Spence through the airport, waiting, and going through security.  Our flight from Salt Lake to Dallas went really well.  The big kids were great and Brant slept most of the time.  

When we got to Dallas our flight was delayed two hours and they were looking for volunteers to stay the night and take another flight to Costa Rica in the morning.  We volunteered because they were offering a $600 flight voucher for every passenger that would bump their flight along with a free hotel in Dallas and free meals.  We only paid $1,300 for all of our flights to Costa Rica in the first place and by staying over, we ended up with $2,400 in flight vouchers for our next trip!  It was worth the pain. 

The next morning, our should I say later that night, we woke the kids up at 2 am and let them go to the airport in the pajamas.  When we got on our plane, we sat there for an hour before the plane left.  It wasn't too fun with the kids.  Davis and Blair were ready to eat breakfast, but we didn't want to get everything out only to have to pick it all up because we were taking off.  Brant was exhausted and couldn't figure out why every time he went back to sleep we would wake him up.  He fell asleep in his car seat on the shuttle ride to the airport, but had to wake up to check the car seat.  After that, he fell asleep in the stroller, but had to wake up because he can't go through security in his stroller.  Needless to say, he was a little unhappy.  Once the plane finally took off though, he slept for the whole flight to Miami (yes, we had another layover after we were bumped).  In Miami, we got the kids dressed and got on our next flight actually bound for Costa Rica.  Again, the kids were all awesome.  

When we got to Costa Rica, and finally found all of our bags (one came on the next flight), we made it to the rental car place for more waiting.  Getting up at 2am had taken its toll on the kids, but we managed to get the car, hit Wendy's for a little food, and begin our three hour drive to the house we're staying in.  The kids all slept while we drove and we got unpacked and settled in.   



Good airport kids in SLC



Waiting at the rental car place with all of our stuff- The amount we pack almost doubled with the addition of Brant to our family.  Babies sure do take a lot of gear.

Driving in the rain- we were stressed when it started raining so hard becuase we were going to be getting to our house in the dark and the road to the house was a steep dirt hill.  We've had some crazy driving experiences with rain here, but we made it to the house okay. 

Yes, we are letting the big kids cruise with no car seats.  No, we don't let them ride like this the whole time.  They enjoyed it while it lasted though. 

These critters were at our house to greet us when we got here. 



This grasshopper is hard to see becuase the picture is terrible, but it was seriously almost the length of Spencer's hand.