Canada
While staying at our first family cottage in Canada, the girls had a wonderful time at the beach (or "ocean" as Taelyn called it). The weather was a bit chilly, but that did not stop the girls from swimming. Kaelia especially liked playing the sand, and Taelyn enjoyed going in the water and throwing things in to the water.
We also spent some time at a second family cottage where we met up with some of our good friends from Michigan originally but that are now teachers with us in South Africa. We had a lovely time hanging out at the beach in town, grilling, and playing washers.
Cooks Farm Dairy
This was just a small trip up the road for a little ice cream that turned in to quite the traumatic experience for the girls. We started off with a little ice cream; the girls both loved this part. Then we ventured over to the cows to pay them a little visit. Taelyn was eager to pet them right away while they were eating some feed from ground, and the cows seems pretty docile so she had no problem with this. Kaelia, however, was a little more reserved. Once she finally got the nerve to reach out and pet one, the cow lifted his head after a big slurp of feed and licked Kaelia on the face. Not only was she covered in cow saliva, but his feed was now in her mouth! She did not like this part.
Next, we visited the calves, hoping for a gentler experience. Taelyn got to feed them with haw on the ground, so she instantly became someone that the cows liked. But after she ran out of hay, one calf mistook her hair for hay and started munching until his teeth got stuck on her hair clip. It took a great deal of effort to pull the hair out from between his teeth and a lot of screams from Taelyn.
Kaelia's luck was not much better here, either. She was fairly curious about these little cows and walked up to one to say "moo." The calf turned around and put his face directly in front of her face and called out the loudest, deepest moo that we have ever heard. The pure volume of the sound completely took her by surprise, and she was in tears again! So we picked her up to comfort her, and all of a sudden the cow started eating her skirt.
After a few breakdowns, we thought it was time to go, but we had to pass by the original adult cows who were feeding to get back to our car. Taelyn's spirits were rejuvenated once again, and she immediately picked up some hay to feed one of the cows. Apparently the cow saw a large bundle of hay running towards him and was excited too. Similar to her calf experience, the cow attached her head, thinking that her hair was hay, and it knocked her down on the ground. Catastrophe struck once again, but at least the cow did not connect with her hair this time.
The girls left exhausted and with mixed feelings about cows. The general consensus was that we needed to take a break from cows and go back to Africa where we can pet friendly lion cubs instead. They certainly won't try to eat our kids!
Costa Rica
Justin and I also went to Costa Rica for a week this summer. It was quite an adventurous trip and one that we had wanted to take for a few years now. We started our visit in Playa del Coco, the top scuba diving location in the country. It poured with rain the day we were there, but it didn't matter because we spent our time under the water anyway. The sea was full of blow fish (hundreds of them), turtles that actually swam alongside of us, a huge, green eel, and lots of rays (manta and sting).
Next, we traveled on to La Fortuna. Our favorite experience of the entire trip was canyoning here where we repelled down waterfalls in the middle of the rain forest. We also had a great time on a canopy tour, zip lining from tree to tree, and we spent one evening at the best hot springs resort we have ever been to.
We ended our trip with a day of white water rafting just outside of San Jose. The river got up to Class V rapids which made for some thrilling moments. Overall, our trip was eventful and unforgettable!
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