Los Suenos

When Taylor lived in Costa Rica, his cousins had a home in the city where they spent weekdays going to school and working, but then every weekend they'd drive out to their beach house and play.  While he was there, Marriott announced they would build a mega resort just 1 beach down from them but Taylor of course never got to see it.  So staying there and reliving memories was high on his to-do list.  The resort did not disappoint.  All that blue water was definitely calling to Isla so after checking in we changed into swim suits and headed to the beach.

Which unfortunately was very disappointing.  We think they built there because they could put in the size marina they wanted, but the beach here is volcanic sand so it's brownish black and rather coarse.  Also, any kind of sunset is blocked by the mountain so there's not even a beautiful beach sunset to enjoy.
Isla was pretty funny.  We set her in the sand and she instantly tried to balance just on her bum.  She definitely didn't like the feel of the sand and spent the whole time picking up 1 leg or hand and then having to put it back down to balance herself.  We tried to build a castle and she was just not interested at all.

Okay I take that back, she was interested in eating it.

And truthfully, it was really sticky sand so it got all over her the second she touched the sand at all.

Off in the distance there's a small island that Taylor and his cousin used to paddle board out to.

Since the sand was a bust, we tried out the waves.  Isla enjoyed walking in the muddy, wet sand.

With our help of course.  I was hoping she'd be walking by the time we got to this trip- she started crawling back in January and all my boys crawled for just 1 month before they walked, but not Isla.  Crawling works for her- except on Sundays when her knees get caught in her dresses and she gets really mad.  So walking with a little help.

But sadly, while the muddy sand was a hit, the waves coming to get her were a bit too scary and she was not a happy camper.  Cute, but not happy.

So we headed back to the amazingly huge pool with more bridges and islands and waterfalls than we could count.

The next day we walked over to the marina just to check it out.  Gotta love a climate where plants grow so easily.

And I love that Isla likes to ride on Taylor's shoulders with her fingers inside his ears.  He doesn't love that as much as I do.

After our walk, we checked out, did some last minute souvenir shopping, and drove back to the capital so we'd be packed and ready for our very early flight the next morning.  Isla enjoyed playing on the hotel floor with Taylor's golf balls.

And once we were home, we were all excited to see that Grandma and the boys had not only survived but had a great time together.