¡Pura Vida!

by Tamara (the mom)
**Warning- this is a long post**

Pura Vida translated in exact terms means "pure life". The slang for this term is "This is living"!

For those of you that know me, I am a bit high-strung (understatement). You also know that the pic above is my signature "I am completely relaxed" pic. Do you see the view that I have? How can you not be relaxed???

I feel that I haven't kept you in the loop on our whereabouts. Christmas and New Year's are a BIG deal here. Needless to say, the hotels were full and our "coming here without hotel reservations" kinda backfired. Luckily, when we stayed in Jaco, the staff at Morgan's Cove made accommodations that allowed us to stay from Wednesday until Sunday. In Jaco, we went spent New Year's Eve, went zip lining and horseback riding (well, kinda...mostly just visited the local hospitals).

We are now in Manuel Antonio. This is my ABSOLUTE favorite place in Costa Rica. It feels like Gilligan's Island to me. We went into Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio (or the national park). The park is the 2nd most visited national park in Costa Rica. You hike through the bottom of the rainforest that opens up to the most beautiful beaches.


When we were here 14 years ago, there were monkeys and iguanas EVERYWHERE. Due to the increase in tourism and development of the area, the monkeys and iguanas were absent. We had really built this up with the girls, and they were so excited! Needless to say, we were all pretty disappointed. Until...we saw this at the end!



There are very few things that I can be a snob about...BUT I absolutely LOVE 5 star hotels!!! As I was explaining to the hubby, you pay to get pampered by the staff and for the super duper comfy beds! With that being said, we are staying at the La Mariposa! (It means "the butterfly) We toured the hotel when we were here on our honeymoon. It has always been a dream of mine to stay here and...it has been worth the wait! The view is amazing! I give this place 5 Ludlam Smiles!
(This is our view! Pictures do not do it justice!)

(I woke up before everyone this morning to have my morning devotional and watch this!Isn't God amazing???)

How about having breakfast and coffee to this view:

We are definitely...¡Pura Vida!

by Lauren

This is me in one of the funniest chairs that I have ever seen...but it's SO cool! We are staying at a hotel that has a gorgeous view. The beds are so comfortable! I guess life doesn't get much better than this.

After the horseback riding incident, I haven't been able to swim. I have had to wear a plastic bag over my hand. Now, I have figured out how to keep my arm out of the water so I can still get into the swimming pool.

I have always liked horses...until now! When we first started out on the horses, I thought "This is going to be so fun!". Then something moved in the jungle and scared my horse. I wasn't holding on tight enough and flew off the horse. Somehow, I was able to land on my hands instead of my head. I immediately jumped up and said "Mama, I broke my arm!". Then it hit me that I was scared and in pain! Three hospitals later, I got to meet the coolest doctor! Now, I don't want a horse anymore!

by Lexie

Hi, people of the blog...it's me, Lexie, again! I am here to tell you about an amazing thing that happened yesterday. So, here it is...we saw MONKEYS! They were everywhere! It was like monkey here, monkey there! Everyone was feeding them bananas even when the signs said not to. I thought it was funny because everyone knows that monkeys like bananas. One was trying to drink out of a coconut but he dropped it. Another monkey stole it. I thought that was pretty mean! Now, about the above picture, these monkeys saw their reflection in the bus window. They were mad because they thought it was two other monkeys that might steal their food. Or...they might have thought that they were having a bad hair day!

This is a picture of me drinking the BEST LEMONADE IN THE WORLD!!! I meant, literally, I am not joking! This restaurant was built around a HUGE plane. It is a C-123 Cargo plane.

Shin splints, sunburns, and...the ER!

by Tamara
Well, today is January 1st...and it has been quite a beginning to the new year! When I went for my morning run, I got in about 1.5 miles and had to quit. I had the WORST shin splints of my life! I don't know if it was from running in the sand the other day or what's going on. What I do know is they hurt like crazy! (Guess that I am sidelined for a bit!) I had to walk back the ENTIRE way. During the walk back, it dawned on me that God knows what I need better than I do. By not running and worrying about my "time", I was able to slow down and "smell the roses". Instead of running on the beach, I had decided to run through town. Everything was just starting to wake up. Mostly, it was just the locals doing what locals do...grocery shopping, going to work, grabbing some breakfast, etc. I felt so privileged to be a part of it! Imagine, if I had have been running, I would have missed all of it, especially this sidewalk:

So, the girls got way too much sun today! (I promise that we coated them down with sunscreen NUMEROUS times, Judy!) Anywho, we needed to get out of the sun so we decided to go horseback riding. We were told by the guy at the front desk that the ride consisted of riding into the jungle where we could see monkeys and macaws, and possibly ending on the beach at sunset. Sounds perfect, right? Here are the girls at the beginning of the ride:

Well...about 30 seconds after this picture was taken, we started up the hill into the jungle. The guide sent the girls in front of us all. Some wildlife spooked their horses and BOTH of the girls' horses reared up. Lexie was able to hold on and, by doing so, caused her horse to stop. Lauren didn't have the same luck. She was thrown from her horse!

Now, all of you know that the Ludlams can't go on vacation without visiting the local ER! The only difference this time is that it wasn't Mo in the ER!!! Needlessly to say, 7 hours and THREE hospitals later, this is what she looked like:

Luckily, it was just a broken arm and LOTS of cuts and bruises! Lauren was such a trooper. She was in a lot of pain until the 1st hospital put a splint on her arm. Mostly, she was scared! I can't blame her. The poor baby was injured in a foreign country! By the way, that is her doctor that she is standing with (and he is THAT tall!). He was so cool that I think we ALL had a crush on him (even the hubby)! I mean he was just cool...drove in from the beach on his motorcycle just to set my girl's arm! Hmmm...a long haired doc with a motorcycle that lives on the beach in Costa Rica!!! Sounds like PERFECT son-in-law material...I really hope he has a son!!!

Ok, all joking aside! Many of you that REALLY know me understand my new obsession with pennies. Basically, I pick up EVERY penny that I find (even if it's tails up). Every time that I find a penny, I say a little pray. I feel that this is God's way of sending angels to remind me to count my blessings and pray for those in my life that are having difficulties. I am also becoming a little superstitious in feeling like they bring me good luck. The picture above is of Costa Rican coins. The small silver coins are 10 colones. I compare them to our pennies. I picked these two up on my run/walk this morning. At the time, I didn't feel very lucky. After the short horseback ride, I feel that we are the luckiest people alive! I felt God's arms of protection ALL around us. There are SOOOOOO many "what ifs" that have gone through our minds. My daughter (possibly even daughters) could have been seriously injured today. However, God protected us! Our trip is going to dramatically changed from here, and we will adjust! I'll take a broken arm any day over "what could have been"!!! Thank you, our wonderful Lord above!