Costa Rica

As I have mentioned a few times recently, my daughter is now on her Spring Break trip to Costa Rica.  We have only heard from her once since she left late Saturday night, but fortunately the good people at Costa Rican Resources have set up a blog and have been giving us families updates on their activities.  So far they have visited a volcano, spent some time at an orphanage for abandoned girls, played basketball and soccer with the locals, visited a coffee plantation and lots more. Yesterday they spent several hours building a recycling bin at a school and teaching the kids there about recycling. Here are some pictures I stole off the blog they set up.

 

My girl is in the back row, second from the left.

That’s her in the middle working on the bin.  She had to take something she could get paint on so I sent her in my Ixtapa t-shirt from my honeymoon 19 years ago. 

For the last two days they have been staying with a family in Costa Rica, but will be moving to a hotel today.  They still have a rafting trip, and zip lining to look forward to as well as a lot of other activities I’m sure.  I can’t wait to hear all about her trip. 

As part of this trip each student got a topic to do a report about.  My daughter’s topic is on one of her favorite things: food.  She did a little Power Point presentation before the trip and will do a bigger, more complete report, when she returns. They are required to keep a journal during their trip so I am eager to read what she has to say.  Heck, at this point, I would settle for a phone call, but at least I know she is okay and she looks happy in the pictures.  The guides mentioned that the students were learning to salsa dance one evening.  Boy, I sure would have loved to see that. 

In addition to taking great care of our kids and posting about about their experiences, they are also putting together a video. 

My girl will be home late Monday night. I’m sure she will have so many stories to share with us and I can hardly stand to wait.  As her Mom, it’s hard for me to realize that she is no longer my little girl. She is growing up way too fast but I’m so excited for her and all the new and exciting things she is learning and doing.  The memories she is making are priceless. I totally remember being 16 and what a fun time that was for me. However, as I told my girl, the most exciting place I got to go when I was 16 was to Portland, Oregon.  (I grew up in a small town, and going to Portland and staying at the Hilton for an FBLA conferences was huge!)

I’m sure after this trip she will have the travel bug which is fine with me.  We are already talking about a trip to London when she graduates high school in a few years.

Next week in addition to a post about my fun crafty weekend, I’ll try to get my girl to do a little post about her trip.  Wish me luck!