Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

I’ve had mixed feelings about this vacation since we booked it. We had shortlisted Colombia, Morocco and Costa Rica and if I’m honest CR was the least exciting for me. It has just never really hit my traveling radar. It’s a very beaten path which just generally turns me off. There was nothing about it that seemed unknown or exotic. Although, I suppose, in some ways it’s a prefect number 33. Plus Charlie really wants to see a volcano and apparently it’s not just about me.

Turns out though, easy was just what we needed to pull off this trip. While getting to Costa Rica is not nearly the excursion we normally set out on for a family vacation, it was enough after a month and a half of opening a shelter followed by a week of the flu which left us with about 48 hours to pack up and get ready.

As our first trip without a baby we are already seeing the light at the end of the luggage tunnel. We managed to pack ourselves into two carry on suitcases without having to stuff things into the playpen this time. We unfortunately still have the car seats but the bags also weren’t full of a bunch of stuff this time either. And this is the last trip we need to bring someone’s bed with us!

We had a relatively easy flight path. Charlottetown to Montreal with an overnight before heading to CR this morning. The kids all fell asleep without incident in the hotel room last night – three kids under 6 – that’s essentially a miracle. We were up and out at 520 this morning; a record for Charlie and timed our morning through the airport perfectly. The kids did incredibly on the flight, even Nora! 8 hours on a plane and no meltdowns or tears – miracle #2.

We got settled into our rather weird guesthouse just before sunset and much to Charlie’s disappointment ran out of time for a dip in the pool before nightfall. We headed into town to grab some pizza and cash (after we had to 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♂️🤦‍♀️🤦🏽‍♂️ our way through a toll earlier) and tucked everyone in for the night. Tomorrow calls for some pool time for the kids, some sun time for me and just a generally chill day.