Countdown to Mommy & Daddy vacation

Aaron and I love to travel.  In my messed up childhood, one of the positive memories I have is getting to take multiple vacations each year.  Aaron did not get the same experience as a child, and has jumped right on board with my desire to see the world.  We honeymooned in Maui/Kauai in May of 2004, and that was the last time we vacationed alone.  We LOVE having our children with us, but lets face it, your travel distance and array of activities are very limited when you have 4 children under 6.
We have been back to Hawaii two times with children and LOVE it so very much, but it is very expensive, and a long flight.  We decided to search for a location that would be very similar, but cheaper and closer.  We quickly came to the conclusion that we NEED to visit Costa Rica.  We had no idea when we would actually get to go, but I was determined that it would be our next vacation destination.
As the roller coaster with the twins started to slow down, Aaron and I both realized that we desperately needed a vacation ALONE.  It literally took me trading in my big luxury SUV for a new Odyssey to make it work financially, but it was worth it (and don't tell my husband, but I really like the Odyssey).    We originally planned to trade one of our timeshares for a location in Costa Rica, but there are so many areas to see so I convinced my husband to travel around and spend a few nights in each area.
Our plan:
2 nights will be spent in the central valley.  We will be staying in Grecia where the weather is like eternal Spring time YES!!!

We will then drive 3-4 hours to La Fortuna where Lake Arenal and the active volcano are located.  We hope to go white water rafting, repelling, and visiting natural hot springs while here.  We will have a direct view of the volcano from our lodge

Next we will drive around the lake 4 hours to Monteverde where the cloud forest is located and will hike and do a zip line tour.

Finally we will be driving to Manuel Antonio......The BEACH.  We want to take surf lessons and hike in the national park while there.

I get so excited just thinking about it.
And then the anxiety sets in.  We have left the twins before, but never Camryn and Pierce.   We are so blessed that Aaron's mother and our assistant director will be staying at our house to watch all of the kids, but I am getting a little sad about not being with them for 9 days.  I know they will be fine and so will Aaron and I, it is just a little emotional.

The next time I post I will have actual pictures of our trip, and I am praying that we will have a new "Hawaii" to take our family back to very soon.

4th of July Celebration

For the past 5 years we have been celebrating the 4th of July at a party put on by some friends who's son has attended our school since the day we opened.  The first year we went, our Camryn was two and our little man pierce was only 4 weeks old.  We now go with four children, and find ourselves far from being able to mingle with the adults.  Thankfully, Camryn and Pierce can swim like fish, so we have to keep our eye on them in the pool when it gets crowded, but do not have to have our hands on them at all times.  The twins are a different story.  We have had them in our pool several times this summer and by the time we set them free on the sun deck in our friends pool, they were insane.  They both love to walk right off the step over and over and go under with no concern about who is going to save them.  Aaron and I had to set up a blockade on the steps to keep them safe.  Hopefully by next summer they will be swimming like Pierce was at 2.  We had no idea if the babies would make it to firework time after a couple of hours of swimming, but they did, and it was so worth it.
It started with Camryn and Pierce getting their very first sparklers.

I was sure that baby girl "E" would be afraid of the fireworks, and had no idea what to expect from baby boy "D."  At the first boom, "E" went for Daddy and "D" got SO EXCITED!  He would not even sit in my lap and wanted down on the blanket with the other kids where he would bounce up and down, point, and scream "WOAH" with every boom.  He even crawled over to some strangers, screamed, and pointed to the sky as if to say "Do you see this???"  Everyone around us was cracking up laughing at how excited he was.  

Needless to say we had a GREAT 4th of July celebration, and all came home and crashed!  Hope you had a wonderful time as well.