~Heading Home~

We are all so sad to see this vacation coming to an end.  We had the best time ever, and it truly was just what I needed to escape reality for a week.  It is going to be really hard to go back.  Jerry and Darinda, thanks for the memories!!!

I told my kids to enjoy 1st class one last time.  This may be the only time they get to ride in it, lol.  Our family pretty much took up the entire 1st class cabin.  Actually we did, with the exception of 1 lady.  And she was not happy that 1st class was filled with little kids, lol.  But come to find out she was upgraded and didn't pay for her seat.  Darinda let her know that we were all one family and that we did pay for our first class tickets, lol.  She was a little nicer after that (but not much).

Garrett had to make sure his monkey and sloth were all safely fastened, ready for take off.  He's the cutest!

~Zip Lining~

Costa Rica had some of the best ziplining that I've ever done!!!  And I don't thing anything will ever be able to compare.  It was so cool!

Lexi has never been zip lining before and was a little unsure, but she did great.  She had to zip line with others thought, because she was so light and they knew she'd get stuck out on the middle of the zip line if she didn't have more weight with her.

It was so cool to zip line through the mist.  It totally reminded us all of Jurassic Park.  On some of the zip lines you couldn't see where the line ended.  It just disappeared into the fog.  Kind of creepy, but so cool.

The Ropelato zip lining group.  We only had a few little girls in tears because they were too scared, but we were so proud of them all for toughing up and going through with it anyway!

Once Lexi got the hang of it, she was fearless.  There was a German woman in our group that was really scared.  She said that if Lexi could do it, then she could do it :).  Way to be an example Lexi!!!

zip lining into the fog.

Hunter and Lexi getting ready to got on a line.  This was my favorite activity that we did down here in Costa Rica.  We were told that this is some of the best zip lining in the world, and I totally agree with that.  It was unbelievable!!!  What a way to end an amazing family vacation.

~Ropelato Family Photos~

There are perks with having a photographer in the family.  She was able to do family pictures while we were all together.  I'm not sure how excited the guys were with getting kind of dressed up for some family shots, but they were good sports.

Jerry and Darinda with all the grandkids, minus Jackie who is serving a mission in New Mexico. (these aren't  the pictures Randee actually took, these are just from my camera.  I'm sure hers turned out better)

I love that these two are best friends!

Love my boys!

Fun action shots of the girls jumping into the pool.

Enjoying some coconut juice from coconuts they found this morning that had fallen off the trees throughout the night.

Here are the pics Randee took of the family

~Crocodile Tours~

On our way back from riding horses, we pulled the bus over so we could all walk over a bridge and see the crocodiles down in the river below.  It was amazing!  The crocodiles were HUGE!

We counted 20-30 crocodiles all sunbathing on the rivers edge.  We commented that if anyone fell over the side of the bridge, there would be no saving them.  Kind of a scary thought.  But we were so excited to go out the next day on a crocodile tour.  We thought for sure we'd see even more crocodiles at a closer look.

This was our means of transportation.  We had to have a bus, so we all could fit, lol

The crocodiles on our tour were not as big as we had imagined, we did see some baby crocodiles which was pretty cool, though.  I think everyone, including the tour guide, had more fun watching Dave fly his drone down by the crocodiles to try and get them to jump.  It really just ended up scaring most of them away, though.   I think we got 1 to jump.

Not our favorite thing we did this trip, but heading back for pina coladas was a must since it was so hot!