So, to our trip....
We headed to Costa Rica with my parents. Just the four of us. We flew into San Jose, then drove our rental car to where we were staying. We made a quick stop at the Costa Rica temple. It is beautiful! The temple is our goal, so this was a great way to start our trip.
The temple grounds were amazing. Definitely the most beautiful thing we saw in the city of San Jose.
My parents are so cute. They still do sweet little things.
Both Kent and I loved having them with us. It was wonderful spending time together and getting to experience new things together.
This was our house at Congo-Bongo. It is a small group of jungle houses in between cities on the Caribean side of Costa Rica. Check our their website http://www.congo-bongo.com/ if you want more specific info about that. Our house had 3 bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen. It was literally in the middle of the rain forest. We had wildlife all around us. Our house was so open to all of this; it was AMAZING.
The day we arrived, we saw this sloth up in the trees right near our house. We also saw a toucan (but didn't get a picture).
We saw these Howler Monkeys quite a bit, but we heard them even more. The sound they make is something else. They sound huge, but they are just little guys. They were often in the trees right by our house in the morning. That second picture is a mommy and baby.
There was lots, and lots of wildlife and beautiful plants. Here are a bunch of pictures. Some are not for the squeamish. All of these things were right near our house. 
It was a short walk through the jungle to the beach. When you got close to the beach, there were crabs EVERYWHERE. I am not kidding, EVERYWHERE! It's a good thing they were shy, or they would have been very intimidating. Kent got a couple on video. Pay attention the the sounds of the jungle too. It was never quiet.
One of the best things down there was the fruit. We ate the best pineapple, mangoes, and coconut I have ever tasted. We ate a whole pineapple everyday. Has anyone ever had a white pineapple? Oh my goodness! Yummy, yummy, yummy. Now everything here is a disappointment.
There is a local place that makes coconut ice cream that was to die for. I wouldn't have even considered trying coconut ice cream, but they were out of the one I wanted. Once we tried it, we had to have it everyday until we left. It was SOOOO GOOD!
The local people ate a lot of rice and beans. We made rice and beans with eggs and local salsa most mornings. It was yummy.
To mix things up a little, we decided to make french toast. No maple syrup, so we made our own pineapple syrup. So, so yummy. We did that after my parents left, and we felt bad they missed out. My parents were there for the first half of our trip.
I loved the beach. We had it mostly to ourselves. We only shared it with the other guests at Congo-Bongo. The water was warm and clear. The sand sloped out gradually, so you could walk way out.
We got married right here. So those wedding pictures were all taken on this beach we got to enjoy through out our trip. The path we were on in the jungle is the one you walk through to get here. You get to see more of how beautiful it all is in those pictures.
We also got some R&R. It was a wonderful trip. This place came highly recommended from a friend. We would highly recommend it as well. It was AMAZING!
What a dream. That about sums it up for me. What a dream I never dared dreaming!
