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I had a wedding in Colorado, and we were able to visit Ryan and Amanda over there. It was so much fun to see them, and Peter loved his cousins. They warmed up to Peter really fast, and Cheyenne was so cute with Peter, although she had  a hard time sharing her stuff at her house.

Amanda is an amazing cook, and I learned a few things while there that hopefully I can perfect this year! We went rock climbing, and it was so fun to watch the kids go up.

We made Orange popsicles for the kids, and Peter went to town!

Peter loved trying to come to me while I was taking some portrait pictures of Ryan. It was pretty cute.

Peter was able to meet his cousins out in Wyoming! We had so much fun spending Pioneer day with them! It was so much fun! They had an awesome parade, food, and lots of fun goats! We really enjoyed it, and we love seeing my sister Sabrina and her awesome family! Peter also really loved laughing when he looked at the dog. It was sweet, and he LOVES animals.

I always tell Taylor that one day we need to take a trip where we just relax the whole time and not go from place to place all the time. I don’t know if I’ll ever fully convince him of this, but at least this time he did keep this request in mind when he did the planning (which he always is in charge of, loves to do, and does a great job of). We were lucky enough to find a really good deal to stay at an all inclusive resort for 5 nights in Jaco. I won’t lie and say that it was the most luxurious place in the world, but it was definitely nice to relax and not have to worry about finding meals for a few days. It was also very fun to get as many specialty drinks as we wanted, something that both of us really enjoy. It was also nice that it was right on the beach and had a fun pool to hang out at, a tennis court to play on, and a pool table as well. As you can see, we included Peter in all of our activities. It is a bit of a disadvantage playing tennis while carrying a baby, but I’d say I held my own against Tay for carrying a baby while playing! The resort was also close to town, which we went and visited a really cool farmer’s market which had a bunch of fresh fruit that we enjoyed for a few days.

This is a pic of one of my proudest moments as a Mother, the time Peter spit up all over my face. Although it is funny looking back at now, at the time I was a little mad at Tay for stopping to take a pic before he helped me clean up 🙂

Our weary little traveler resting after a long day of adventures:

One of the things we loved the most about bringing Peter was being able to meet a bunch of people that we might not have met otherwise. It was incredible for us to see how much the people of Costa Rica absolutely adored Peter. We would have people stop us at dinner, in our hotel, on the street, just so they could look at Peter and gawk over him. Some of them would even grab him because they wanted to hold him! If you know Peter, you know how personable and loving he is to everyone he sees. He will make eye contact and interact with any person he sees, and if they give him just the least bit of attention he will give a huge smile and laugh. We went to church one of the Sundays we were there to the closest ward we could find, and the lady we sat next to couldn’t get enough of Peter. From the moment she saw him she wanted to hold him all of Sacrament meeting. Even when he was getting fussy she didn’t want to give him up. It was actually really cool to see how much the people of Costa Rica loved our little boy. We’re so grateful to have met some really amazing people, and to have gotten to know the culture and places of Costa Rica.

P.S. Peter is not wearing pants in this picture because a few minutes before his poop exploded out of his diaper all over his pants (and Dad’s pants too!).

Until next time Costa Rica, Pura Vida!

I wasn’t ready to do hikes that were too crazy as I’m still recovering from having Peter, but Taylor convinced me that we need to go on this one to see the famous Arenal volcano. It ended up not being too bad of a hike, and the view of the volcano was definitely worth it. We were worried when the day started that we might not be able to see the volcano because of cloud cover and rain, but we were lucky and things cleared up just enough by the time we got to the view point. It was a pretty cool sight to see, and I’m glad we did it. Peter on the other hand was a little fussy on this hike. It came right during his morning nap, and he wasn’t falling asleep in the little backpack we have for him. I breastfed him to calm him down when we got to the viewpoint (Tay had to snap a pic!) which calmed him down a bit and he feel asleep on the way back (isn’t he too cute sleeping in his little pack?). We saw some pretty incredible plants and trees on the trail as well, including the huge tree we’re standing next to called a La Ceiba tree.

After our hike we went to relax our muscles in a natural hot spring river. La Fortuna is well known for their hot springs, and have a lot of hotel resorts where you can pay big money to go soak in them. We decided to go the free (and natural) route and hiked down to the river to relax in there. That’s more our style, and it was super nice. Peter, like with all water, loved splashing and hanging out in there with us.

Another hike we did in La Fortuna was to the La Fortuna waterfall. The walk down to this waterfall was much longer than advertised to me, and consisted of a few hundred stairs before me made it to the fall. I may have complained just a little bit to Tay on our way down (and up), but it was a cool waterfall I have to admit.

Okay so this was one of the craziest things I’ve done in my life. Tay convinced me that we just HAD to go on this crocodile tour close to Jaco. It was amazing to me how big some of these guys get! A few of them are upwards of 100 years old, and they just keep growing until they die. Some of the older ones weigh over 1,000 pounds! The tour guides give them names like Osama Bin Laden and Justin Bieber, which I thought was kind of fun. The guides would beach the boat on the shore of the river, and whistle for the crocs to come. Watching them come up from behind us slowly was probably the scariest part of the ordeal. They get SO CLOSE to the boat, which is only a few feet above the water level, and it felt like they were looking right at me every time. The crocs then go up on the shore, where the guide feeds them raw chicken. It was a pretty crazy experience, and I made sure that Tay was holding on extra tight to Peter while I took pics and video.

One thing that Peter absolutely loves is water, and this trip was no different. He enjoyed his time in the water so much on a couple of occasions that he had a few too many mouthfuls of sand! It was funny and sad at the same time when he pooped sand for the next few days. Luckily he didn’t seem to get sick or mind too much, so that was good. We were lucky enough to enjoy a beautiful sunset at this beach, Playa Mina:

We loved the food in Costa Rica! This is an example of a very Costa Rican plate, which we found to be quite delicious.

One of the activities we enjoyed the most on the trip that we did was exploring some hanging bridges. We were able to get some amazing views of the rainforest in the Arenal area, it felt like we were monkeys going from tree to tree! We did make the mistake of bringing our stroller along on this adventure. The signs said that the whole road was well paved and stroller accessible, but we soon learned that this wasn’t the case. It got pretty bumpy and steep in a few areas, but Tay did a great job of pushing the empty stroller while I carried Peter in his backpack 🙂

An example of a torrential downpour in La Fortuna. Luckily we watched this one through the window of our Airbnb.

This is a restaurant in La Fortuna we absolutely loved. We went back twice to try different things, and the owner of the restaurant adored Peter. Whenever he got cranky while we were eating she would come over to hold him so we could eat. Talk about great customer service! I was pretty impressed by how well Taylor was able to communicate with people using his Portuguese. He could get by pretty well even if people could only speak Spanish. It was fun to watch them do their best to communicate with each other, I could tell he enjoyed it.