Beach Baby Johnson: Costa Rica, Baby!!!

Crazy or Crazy!

As many of you know, Chris has had his share of travel for work over the past couple of years. It finally paid off with enough Hilton points and Delta Skymiles to take a trip to Costa Rica-free! I am getting ready to ramp up with my job (the few months before July are extremely busy) and Chris is probably going to be furloughed come April. So, sort of last minute, we decided to book the trip. Most people that we told thought we were leaving Wesley at home...they were crazy to think we'd leave him, we were crazy to take him to a second world country. Truth is, we took every precaution we could think of and it was AWESOME! The decision was either to go on a trip with Wesley or not go at all---not a very tough decision!

We flew out at 5:40 am on Sunday. Thank goodness we didn't try to go Saturday because it took us all day Saturday to plan and pack. We woke Wesley at 4am as we were headed out the door, still in his PJs. He was a real trooper! I had loaded up on toys/junk at the dollar store so we had plenty of surprises to keep him occupied on the flights. He slept on all 4 flights coming and going although not the entire time. We flew into Atlanta and had breakfast then a bit of time to run around. Wesley entertained most of the passengers in the terminal while we waited for the second flight. He was a bit cranky getting to sleep on this flight but did so for almost 2 hours.

Towards the end of the flight and for the landing, Wesley gave us a very bad scare. I made a big mistake (looking back) by feeding him Ritz Peanut Butter mini crackers. As we descended, Wesley threw up, got totally sweaty, his heart was racing, he was grabbing at his tongue and he was crying on top of it. We could not get off of the plane fast enough! We got to the customs agent and started asking for medical help. Fortunately, we carried Wesley's albuteral/steroid inhaler in our carry-on and quickly gave him a few blasts. We were rushed through customs and Wesley seemed to start improving. We decided we probably didn't need to rush off in an ambulance. Luckily, we had arranged a car service prior to arrival so it was VERY comforting to see a sign when we got through security that said "Mr. Christian Johnson". The man was quick to load us into his mini-van with our baggage and start our short trip to the Hilton Papagayo. By this point, Wesley was doing pretty well. He had the air conditioning blasting on him and had stopped sweating, breathing heavy, etc. He was defintiely tired but so were we! I definitely think we were safe to not have taken him for medical attention...he did scare us, though!

We arrived at the hotel and were happily greeted by the staff including one of our favorite bellman/tram drivers, Julio! I was mortified when Julio started grabbing our luggage and picked up the open ziplock bag of Wesley's huge blanket stuffed into it because he had thrown up all in it on the plane!!! He had already picked it up before he realized what it was and then he started apologizing to me because I felt so bad and was apologizing---it was pretty funny! Turns out Julio has a 2 year old himself and was very understanding of our circumstances! It was great to meet him as he took care of us the rest of our stay and loved Wesley!

Wesley was very hot by the time we got to our room (our room wasn't quite ready so we hung out at the restaurant beside the pool) so we gave him a cool bath and put him down for a nap. Truth be told, we all laid down for a little nap. I don't think Chris or I planned to crash but after such a long day, it was almost necessary.

We had a great dinner at one of the four restaurants and actually turned in pretty early. We had a great porch that we did hang out on while Wesley slept during his naps and a bit before we retired each night, but this night we succumbed to our day of travel! We were excited to explore in the morning and since we were sharing a room with Wesley, we knew we'd all be up early!

Below is our first experiences with the wonderful pools at the resort. There were 3 different levels or pool areas that we got to explore all week. They were different depths, some had waterfalls, one had a swim up bar, some were endless, and all were pleasant!!! Unfortunately, the day before we left Virgini Beach, Chris got "run off of the road" by a car while he was running and ended up with some pretty bad scrapes/wounds on his hand and knee. As a result, he opted to stay out of the water the first day to let his injuries heal. So, I was lucky in that I got to take Wesley swimming all day on Monday. Here are a few photos below showing you just how much fun he had swimming in the pools and playing in the sun!!! The week had just begun and we were so happy!!!

(I broke the trip up by day on the blog because there is so much to share--this is day 1 and 2-more to come!)