Here’s a list of some of the highlights of 2011 for us, in no particular order.

1. Had a new healthy baby girl, Aysia, who was born at home in our bath tub in Costa Rica.
2. Enjoyed visits from my mom, sister’s family, Jen’s parents, and her uncle and cousin.
3. Watched a guy kiss a king cobra on the mouth, then put the snake’s head in his mouth.
4. Moved from Grecia, Costa Rica to Escazu, Costa Rica, to Penang, Malaysia.
5. Enjoyed a fun week in Kauai, Hawaii with my mom, sister, niece, aunt & uncle, cousins, and more.
6. Got robbed in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. Lost 2 Macbook Pros, 3 iPads, camera, binoculars, backpacks, and more. Got one computer back thanks to PreyProject.com.
7. Threw a party in Utah and enjoyed visiting with dozens of family and friends on our way to Malaysia.
8. Drove my car (99 Rav4) through several rivers in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, and almost got stuck.
9. Enrolled the kids in art classes, Chinese class, community choir, day camps, and other fun activities.
10. Donated Emily’s birthday and our Christmas to charity (Emily’s idea).
11. Went to a weekly playgroup in Escazu and made many friends.
12. Played with monkeys at a rescue center who crawled all over us.
13. Tim Ferriss, author of the 4-Hour Workweek, wrote about me on his blog.
14. Watched how the indigenous Bribri indians in Costa Rica made chocolate, then we ate some.
15. Got chased and almost attacked by monkeys in national parks in both Costa Rica and Malaysia.
16. Bought my first real estate investment property. Thanks Shaun!
17. Took family yoga and horseback riding classes in Costa Rica.
18. Enjoyed soaking in several hot springs around Costa Rica, always with friends.
19. Lived for 8 months in this beautiful and artsy house in Escazu, Costa Rica.
20. My eight year old daughter learned to love reading, and has become very fast at it.
21. Toured several organic farms and learned about the farming business.
22. Saw two opossum mating noisily on our deck one night.
23. Spent 6 days without Internet in a Costa Rican rainforest with our friends, the Kings.
24. Physically left the Mormon church. (We left emotionally/mentally in July, 2010, but continued attending until March 2011.)
25. Ate delicious Indian food (roti) for breakfast almost every morning in Penang, Malaysia and usually paid less than $6 to feed our whole family.
26. Changed my blog title from Fulness of Life to Pearce on Earth and changed the design.
27. Went to a fish spa and got our feet nibbled on by doctor fish.
28. Got used to driving on the left hand side of the road.
29. Read several interesting books on my iPad and learned a lot from them.
30. Visited Kek Lok Si temple, the largest Buddhist temple complex in Southeast Asia.
31. Saw the most beautiful orchids at the Orchid Festival in Penang Botanic Gardens.
32. Ate the most delicious, unique, and cheapest food we’ve ever had in our lives in Penang, Malaysia.
33. Watched the dragon boat races at a dam in Penang.
34. Went to a jazz festival evening concert at a tropical spice garden in Penang.
35. Continued to grow my online businesses working less than 5 hours per week on average.
36. Hung out with friends at least 2-3 times every week.
37. Explored a huge 7-story shopping mall in Penang.
38. All my kids (except the baby) now know how to ride a bike.
39. Played Mario Kart wii enough that I got bored of it, but not enough to beat my kids. (It came with our Penang house, and they played it a lot.)
40. Went to a Chinese medicine man for a very strange herbal massage treatment.
41. Watched a Lion and Dragon dance parade in Georgetown, Penang.
42. Watched amazing Indian dance performances — such energy!

What did you do in 2011? Any plans for 2012?

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First, before we left Costa Rica, we had a flock of parrots visit us in our backyard. It was a pleasant send-off. Our friends, the Bustillos, also brought their whole family to our house at 4:00 a.m. to take us to airport. So sweet! We will miss them, and all the friends we made in Costa Rica!

Parrots in our backyard in Escazu

Our time in Salt Lake City was short, but we threw a “Meet Baby Aysia Party” where lots of family and friends came to say hi, meet the baby, and wish us well on our travels. It was so nice to see everyone who came. I just wish we had more time to visit.

All my siblings

After Utah, we had a long layover in Seattle, so we met with my mom and took the light rail to the International district for some dim sum lunch. It was cold there, but the trees were covered in beautiful autumn colors, and of course it was great to see my mom. We would also see more of her in Hawaii the following week. We were lucky that our trip to Hawaii corresponded with my aunt’s trip there (she is a frequent traveler to Kauai). And my sister came to celebrate her landmark birthday of 11/11/11, so my mom decided to join in the fun, too. We all had a great time together!

Oahu, Hawaii

Our first couple days on Hawaii — before we met up with my family — were spent on Oahu. The first day, I took care of some financial and business stuff that popped up, notarizing and mailing documents, etc. After that, we walked around Waikiki, did a little shopping, enjoyed the art galleries and took a peek at the beach.

We spent our second night and day with some friends, the Gledhills, who also happened to be visiting Oahu when we were. They were gracious enough to let us stay in the second bedroom of their Marriott timeshare and feed us dinner and breakfast. Ruth is also an art teacher and taught the girls some watercolor techniques, which was fun. Such sweet people. The next day, we all stopped at a beautiful lookout point over northern Oahu, visited the replica of the Byoudo-in Buddhist Temple, and finished up the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center, where we enjoyed learning about the different cultures, languages, dress, songs, and dances from the surrounding islands.

Na'uanu Pali lookout

At byoudo-in temple replica on Oahu

Tahitian Dancers

Kauai, Hawaii

Once we flew to Kauai, we were soon joined by my aunt and her family (including many of my cousins), my sister, and my mom on the north shore in Princeville. It’s so beautiful there! The mountains on both Oahu and Kauai are striking and dramatic, with numerous waterfalls cascading down, and green everywhere.

My beautiful wife on Kauai

I simply couldn’t capture on camera how beautiful the scene below was. The rays of light from the sun were shining through and creating magnificent colors and contrasts across the Hanalei valley. And this photo only includes a small portion of the panorama.

Hanalei

One day, we went snorkeling at Ke’e beach, near the Na Pali coast. We saw a sea turtle resting under a rock, and a monk seal that came up on shore to sunbathe. We also took a short hike up the first 1/2 mile of the trail to Na Pali to see the views, including this gorgeous one of the beach we snorkeled at.

Ke'e beach

One evening we took a short walk with my sister down to Hideaway beach to look at the tide pools, where we saw some cool sea life, and of course a beautiful sunset.

Sunset at Hideaway beach, Kauai

Besides this, we spent the week hanging out with family, playing games, swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, hiking (including a barefoot hike through disgusting and slippery mud), visiting the Kilauea lighthouse/bird sanctuary, shopping, eating, and being silly and laughing together, especially my sister and me who can’t help but be goofy when we get together.

My awesome sister, Ashley

It’s difficult to compare Costa Rica to Hawaii. Both are tropical destinations with beautiful scenery and a relaxed culture. Hawaii’s mountains are definitely more striking, and they have the added benefit of no poisonous snakes or dangerous crocodiles, and being developed to U.S. standards of cleanliness, causing me to feel safer there. However, it is also much more expensive. For example, I was used to paying 80 cents for a pineapple in Costa Rica, but in Hawaii, it’s $6-8! Of course, you can live on the cheaper end (we met a family who is paying $6/day to camp out at the beach in a trailer), but food is very expensive in Hawaii.

Overall, it was a fantastic trip from beginning to end. It was so great to be able to spend time with our family and friends and be in such beautiful places. We’ll miss you all and look forward to the next time we can get together.

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Everything went perfectly with the birth, which we did in our home bathtub with a doctor and midwife present. Home births aren’t common in Costa Rica, but we’re so glad we made that choice. It was a beautiful birth and much more comfortable than our last two hospital births.

Aysia came almost a month early, was just under 6 pounds, and mommy and baby are in perfect health. Emily and Marie are enjoying being older sisters, but anxiously awaiting the day when Aysia can get up and play with them.

And now I present, Aysia Mae Pearce! Thanks to my mom for taking these awesome pictures.

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Now that we’ve made the move abroad, my businesses are more automated than ever, and I’m more used to my 4-hour workweek lifestyle, I wanted to do it again and see how things have changed. I’ll share the results with you here.

A lot of people seem to think that if you only have to work a few hours per week, you must be spending the rest of your time relaxing in a hammock drinking piña coladas. I mean, what else is there to do? Actually, everything!

I do spend my fair share of time relaxing, being with family and friends, and even doing “nothing”. But I can’t do “nothing” for very long before I get restless and want to do something more productive. I’ve found that tracking my time really helps me be aware of what I’m doing in the moment, and feel less pressured doing tasks I don’t enjoy. I also realize that time will keep moving on, no matter what I do. As long as I’m enjoying life, growing, and helping others where I can, I feel like I’m living my life well.

Disclaimer: Even though I have these tasks recorded to the minute, they’re not always accurate to the minute. Sometimes I forgot to switch my timer right when I switched tasks, so had to modify it later with a little guess work. Being off by a few minutes for several things has led to being off by a couple hours overall. But it will have to do. For this exercise, I used SlimTimer, a free on-line time tracking tool.

Work Time

I define “work” as activities done specifically to help produce income. This week I “worked” a little more than usual because I was getting some video tutorials written for one product, and launched a special offer with another. I also planned some important new features to work on next. For me, it’s normal for this category to be under 5 hours per week total.

• Music Teacher’s Helper: 5 Hours, 18 minutes. This includes advertising/marketing (1:35), checking programmer’s work (1:30), customer support (0:48), and the rest in business planning, finances, and checking stats.
• Studio Helper: 2 hours, 1 minute. This includes working on video tutorials (1:27), business planning (24 min), and the rest dealing with feature requests and checking stats.
• Other: 33 minutes. This week, I started researching a new business idea, and that’s what this time was.

Total Work Hours: 7 Hours, 52 Minutes

Family Time

One of the things I like most about my lifestyle is that I have so much time to spend with my family. We’re together pretty much all day, even if we’re not doing the same thing. I’ve only included my personal time with my family here, so this doesn’t include the time my wife homeschools the kids, or the time they spend playing together. Driving them to their art class should probably be included here, but I put all driving under Personal.

• Playing with kids: 11 hours, 32 minutes. I try to play with my kids a little every day. A lot of this is computer or iPad games with one daughter while my wife is doing homeschool with the other one. But it also includes reading to them, playing hide and seek, “restaurant” and other imagination games.
• Watching Movies: 6 hours, 51 minutes. We watched a few movies with the kids this week, in the evenings, including the 1969 Doctor Dolittle, and Tarzan in Spanish.
• Family Outings: 5 hours, 15 minutes. This includes a little hike up the mountains behind our house, and a trip to the park to ride ponies and bicycles. We also spent time together with our friends, which I’ve included in the Personal: Visiting with Friends section.
• Talking with Jen: 3 hours, 56 minutes. Jen and I enjoy just sitting and talking, as well as reading together. We want to make even more time for it this coming week.

Total Family Time: 27 hours, 34 minutes

Personal Time

Even though it looks like I have a lot of time left over for myself, I don’t really feel like I have much “free time”. I guess that’s because I try to fill my time up with things that I like to do and am passionate about. I still have a full to-do list, and do spend time on things I’d rather not, but I try to work on the most important items first each day. Overall, I’m doing what I love with the majority of my time.

• Sleep: 57 hours, 21 minutes. That’s just over 8 hours per night. This week, we’ve been sleeping in a different room where the sun hits us warmly every morning around 6:30 through the windows. It’s not conducive to sleeping in, but is a very relaxing way to get up.
• Visiting with friends: 11 hours, 22 minutes. We had some friends over for a late lunch one day this week, and we spent an afternoon out with another friend.
• Meals: 11 hours, 2 minutes. We ate out a lot this week (almost every day), and took time to enjoy our food. The meal with our friends is included under “Visiting with friends”.
• Reading: 9 hours, 8 minutes. I have some really interesting books I’m reading right now, although half of this time was spent reading articles and blogs on-line.
• Personal Email: 8 hours, 13 minutes. I had a LOT more time-consuming e-mail than usual this week. I’ve been getting a lot of e-mails from people starting businesses who want advice. I’ve really enjoyed being able to help people in this regard. Maybe soon I will have to start charging for consulting and move this into the “Work” category. :)
• Writing: 4 hours, 31 minutes. This was time I spent working on my new book about how to create an on-line business. I suppose this could also be considered “Work” since I will eventually sell the book, but that’s not my main purpose in writing it.
• Daily Hygiene: 3 hours, 27 minutes. It’s amazing how much time this takes. But I do love a hot shower.
• Sex: 3 hours, 9 minutes. Ahh… Having a pregnant wife has some nice hormonal advantages.
• Meditating and spiritual time: 2 hours, 41 minutes. I have a great place to sit for my morning meditation overlooking the hills and the city view. Very relaxing.
• Finances: 2 hours, 3 minutes. This is higher than normal because I’ve been working a lot with my accountant trying to figure out taxes, and have been looking at other investment opportunities.
• Exercise: 1 hour, 47 minutes. This includes my daily stretching and tai chi, and a little weight lifting. This doesn’t include all the hiking and walking we did as a family this week.
• And I spent anywhere from 10 minutes to 1 hour, 30 minutes on each of the following: cleaning and organizing, house maintenance, driving, facebook, games (pool, and angry birds), journal, playing the piano, shopping, time tracking, vacation planning, writing on my blog, and selling stuff on Craigslist.

Total Personal Time: 128 hours, 52 minutes

Now that I’ve gone through all the effort of tracking my time for a week, it would be a shame to simply write a blog post about it and not use the data to see where I can improve. In the weeks ahead, I would like to make the following changes:

• More time with my wife, especially reading and talking with her.
• More family time together with the kids at home. We spend a lot of time together outside the home, but when we’re inside, we tend to do our own thing. I also want to take a more active role in homeschool, helping the kids with their blogs, music, as well as math and reading, etc.
• More time working on my book. I’m excited to complete this project and hopefully it will help a lot of people looking to create a business.
• Less time reading on-line. I want most of my reading time to be focused and intentional, not jumping from item to item.
• Less time on e-mail. I had built up a practice of checking e-mail just twice a day and leaving it alone the rest of the time. But I didn’t follow that so well this week, and found my productivity waver because of it.

Have you ever tracked your time? If you’ve ever charged per hour, chances are you’ve tracked your time working, but have you ever measured what you’re doing with the rest of your time? Yeah, maybe it is a bit fanatical. But I think there is value in it at least every once in a while.

I’m interested to hear your thoughts below, and what changes you’d like to make in how you spend your time.

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Like me, my mom works on-line, so she was able to come down for a 3-week stay, even though she had to work a little while she was here. The last week, my sister Ashley’s family joined us, including my awesome brother-in-law, Justin, and their 6-year old daughter, Kennedy. We had a blast! The little cousins loved playing together, too, except for the occasional (I mean, constant) fights over who’s “first” and what’s “fair”.

Most of all, it was just fun to be all together, and have time to talk and play. Our friendships and love for each other grew and deepened, and we’re really looking forward to the next time we can be “all together”.

My mom and sister are covering the trip in detail on their own blogs, but here’s a quick list of some of the fun things we did:

• Relaxed in our house, listening to music controlled by my iPhone (thanks for bringing down the Airport Express, Mom!)
• Watched the incredible display of New Year’s fireworks over the entire central valley
• Visited the nearby towns of Sarchi (hand-painted ox carts) and Zarcero (topiary), and also Montezuma (hippies) in Guanacaste
• Played Rory’s Story cubes (a game where you make up stories based on images on dice)
• Went to Doña Ana beach with some local friends
• Drove through four rivers in Guanacaste
• Visited Zoo Ave in La Garita
• Stayed in some lovely hotels in Playa Tambor, Playa Carillo, La Fortuna, and Manuel Antonio
• Visited La Paz Waterfall Gardens
• Zip-lined through the mossy trees and fog at Selvatura Park in Monteverde Cloud forest, and swung on the Tarzan swing
• Visited the fruit market in Grecia
• Saw (and almost got attacked by) Monkeys in Manuel Antonio National Park
• Bodyboarded and played at the beach
• Taught my brother-in-law how to play foosball. I even let him win me once. :)
• Had some amazing food made by Jen, our friends, and some wonderful restaurants
• Swam in the Los Chorros Waterfall
• Listened to dozens of Beatle’s songs as we drove, as well as other music
• Ate at Café Delicias numerous times
• Drove around lake Arenal and swam in hot springs at Los Lagos resort
• Took the ferry from Puntarenas to Guanacaste
• Watched Tangled 3D in Spanish, and The Incredible Mr. Limpett
• Had some friends over for visits and meals
• Saw sloths, monkeys, iguanas, scarlet macaws, blue-crowned mot mot’s, and more, in the wild

What a fun time we had! I’m so glad they took the time to come visit. Here are some pictures and video (not all taken by me) of our time together.

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balcony

Last night, after a long 2 days of travel, we cleaned and re-organized the house, then stayed up late to watch one of my favorite old movies on my laptop, “The Three Amigos” – a very silly but entertaining show. This morning I got up around 7:30am, a full two hours before anyone else, and enjoyed a lovely morning, reading quietly on our balcony which overlooks the garden and views of the valley below. It was so relaxing. I also did my morning exercises, tai chi, and meditation there, like I used to. It felt great. I then made a list of some things I’d like to do today. Writing on my blog wasn’t one of them, but I suddenly got the urge, so here I am.

During the past few months, the list of books I want to read has continued to grow and I plan to dedicate a lot more time to reading in the months ahead, and hope to post some reviews here as well. I’ve really missed my morning reading time while we’ve been traveling. In fact, I’ve missed a lot of things.

Back to homeschool

Traveling to South America and the United States for the past two and a half months has been a wonderful and rewarding experience in so many ways. We were able to see and experience new and excited places, meet wonderful people, learn about several cultures, both ancient and modern, try new foods, give of ourselves, and receive so much more. But I think we’ve all decided that we went at too fast a pace for too long. We were flying to new destinations every week! Staying constantly in hotels (except in Utah), eating mainly at restaurants, trying to fill our days with interesting activities. We didn’t necessarily feel rushed, and sometimes even took full days to recuperate. We also feel like we got to see and do everything we wanted to. But after a while, I found myself missing the routine of productive living. I wanted to get back to working on my book and composing music, to evenings at home with my family, and to home cooked meals.

Praying mantis

That isn’t to say that I don’t love travel – I absolutely do! But I think I prefer the type of travel where I just get a one way ticket and live there until I feel like leaving. In a week or two, you can get a nice whirlwind tour of a place, and a good overall feel, but you don’t really get to immerse yourself in the culture or the language, get to know the people, and really be changed as much by the experience, to the same degree as when you stay longer, and with the intent to make it more permanent. We’ll still probably take a few shorter trips here and there (like with visa runs), but generally, I think we’d like to spend more time in a place before moving on.

A lot of people have asked me what my favorite place was in all of the areas we recently traveled to (Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, Nicaragua, Florida, and Utah). I love each of them for different reasons, but if I had to pick a place to live, it would definitely be Costa Rica, where I am right now. I’m a sucker for warm and green, and so far I haven’t found any place with as perfect temperatures, and as green and lush as Costa Rica, not to mention the relaxed people, affordable quality health care, and low cost of living. Sure, it’s got its problems, but every place does. That said, we like change, and we certainly won’t be here forever. But for now, it’s the place we want to be.

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Fall colors in Utah

Our kids have loved seeing their cousins, and have gone trick-or-treating, ice skating, jumping in piles of leaves, and playing all sorts of games with them. They’ve also had a lot of fun with the toys and dress-ups at Grandma’s house, where we’ve been staying. Our kids are a lot less shy around new friends as well, since they all speak English here!

Baby Number Three

One announcement we had fun making this week was that we recently discovered that we are pregnant with our third child! We found out while we were in Florida, and calculated that we probably conceived around the time we were at Machu Picchu, so we expect the baby to be born around the end of June, 2011.

Since we haven’t been able to get pregnant for 4 years, this came as quite a surprise, and has thrown us for a bit of a loop in our travel plans. At first I was in denial – I didn’t want to have to deal with trying to fit 5 in a hotel room built for 4, and drive a larger car that can fit three car seats comfortably. Then comes the increased cost of airfare, and having to go back to the whole diaper changing bit… <grumble> But we’re getting more used to the idea, and we’re sure this will be a wonderful change and adventure in our lives! We’re hoping for a boy.

Halloween with cousins

Jennifer has a tendency to deliver babies very quickly. Our last baby was born 9 minutes after we got to the hospital! So we’re planning on a home birth this time, with a midwife. We’re not sure where we want to live when the baby is born. Costa Rica is great, but we have to leave every 90 days to renew our visa, which will be more difficult in the third trimester and when the baby is very young. We could come back to the states (California? Hawaii?), but since some countries grant citizenship simply for being born there, we thought that might be a great gift to give our child. I’m currently using oDesk (my favorite outsourcing site) to have someone put together a list of countries for me, with visa requirements, citizenship opportunities, cost of a midwife and a maid, healthcare quality, and more. Hopefully this will help narrow down our options. If you have any suggestions for a good place to have a baby, and our home for most of 2011, please post them in the comments.

Celebrate Your Life

Last weekend, Jennifer and I left our kids with my fabulous sister to attend the Celebrate Your Life Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. We had a great time being together, met some wonderful people, and had plenty of time to think and talk. Many of the sessions were very interesting. I learned some great tips on how to make decisions by choosing the option that brings you the most joy, how to discover your purpose, and follow your heart and be more in tune to the little promptings you feel. I also realized from listening to a book publisher for several hours, that most publishers seem to offer so little compared to what they expect the author to do. So I will probably be self-publishing my book on how to create a self-sustaining on-line business, once I finish it. Maybe I’ll do something similar to what Leo Babauta did on his awesome new book, Focus. (It’s a free read, so check it out!)

We also heard a couple speakers (I won’t mention names) that to me appeared to be deceiving people. I don’t have a problem if someone claims they can talk to spirits or angels, but when they call people out of the audience, and use obvious cold reading techniques and vague guesses to make it appear they know something they don’t, playing on the people’s emotions, it amazes me that so many people fall for it. Okay, I’ll admit it’s great entertainment, and these people are very good at it (one even had a PhD in psychology, which explains a lot), but it seems pretty deceptive to me. Regardless, we still enjoyed the conference, and were glad to get some time alone together, and give the girls more time to play with their cousins.

We’ll be here in Salt Lake City until the end of the week, and then it’s back to warm Costa Rica!

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Why travel with kids?

• You get to skip to the front of airport lines, including security checks, customs, and boarding. This usually only applies if you’re traveling with “young” children, the definition of which seems to depend on the airline or airport; but in general, if you have a kid under 7 with you, then you qualify.
• Kids help you slow down and take life at a less rushed pace, appreciating little things you’d normally overlook – like the bug on the sidewalk – as long as you’re willing to do so.
• You can watch your kids’ untainted first reactions to new sights and sounds. Their questions and comments can bring interesting new perspectives that you otherwise wouldn’t consider.
• Kids give you lots of excuses for treats and ice cream, although I guess this could be good or bad.
• Be a hit with the locals. Especially in countries where you look different than the locals, you’ll stand out and draw attention to yourself effortlessly. We often get approached by people who just want to tell us how cute our kids are, or who want a picture with them. Just having kids with you makes it easier to meet people.
• Get out of traffic tickets. Okay, this one’s not guaranteed, but I’ve seen a few traffic policeman smile when they see the kids in the back seat, and I believe it even got me out of a ticket once. I think you’re less suspicious when you travel as a family.
• You have a constant opportunity to teach and answer questions, since kids are very curious about what’s around them.
• You don’t have to worry about where your kids are or what they’re doing with whoever is watching them somewhere else across the globe.
• You get to see their cute faces and hear their sweet voices every day, with lots of hugs, kisses, cuddles, and I love you’s.

Why not travel with kids?

• Traveling with kids is more expensive than not, since you’re paying for extra people; although most hotels, restaurants, and activities offer discounted rates for kids.
• There are many activities you can’t do when you have kids along, depending on their ages. Scuba diving, river rafting, long hikes, or other high adventure activities don’t work so well with kids. Neither does night life. You can often find a babysitter to watch your kids while you’re doing those activities, but it can be a hassle and expensive.
• Occasional whining, crying, and complaining about boredom during activities you find more interesting than them. For example, some kids might not like museums or lots of walking, etc.
• Traveling with kids gives you another head to be concerned about. You’re always on guard to prevent injuries, and make sure everyone stays together and safe. Despite what the news media says, kidnappings are extremely rare, even in the most “dangerous” countries. Just keep a close watch on your kids, hold their hands in public places, and you shouldn’t have any trouble.
• It’s harder to get a break from them. Sometimes, even while traveling, you’ll want a break from your kids. Getting a hotel or rental with separate bedrooms rooms can help, allowing you to rest while your kids play somewhere else. Some hotels even offer babysitting services (usually for a high price) if you want to go do something on your own.

Now it’s your turn. What benefits and disadvantages have you found to traveling with children? Do you have any experiences to share? Leave them in the comments below.

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Since time was short, we packed it with a lot of fun activities, including a couple of our favorite spots here as well as some places we haven’t been to yet. We were blessed that the weather agreed with us perfectly and gave us lots of sun for the activities that needed sun. We did run into some crazy patches of fog, and a bit of rain on a couple afternoons. But we were usually on our way back home by that time so it didn’t interfere.

Our baby ducks

We had great food as well, eating gourmet breakfasts cooked by Jen who got up before 6 every day to make them. She made several Costa Rican dishes like gallo pinto and empanadas, and some others like pancakes (with strawberry syrup), blackberry crêpes, and omelets. Every other meal we ate out at restaurants with great prices and delicious food, including trips to the Grecia farmer’s market, ice cream shops, and Café Delicias for their cinnamon rolls. I especially recommend the pineapple batido at Tica Linda on the way to Monteverde.

The day before my family arrived, we also witnessed the arrival of six new baby ducks at our house! It’s so cute watching the little yellow and black troop follow their mother to the pond for a swim. I am sure we are going to enjoy watching these little guys.

So, here is a summary of all we did on the trip.

Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge

On the boat in Rio Frio

The first day we went to Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge (or rather, a boat ride down the Rio Frio). On the way there we stopped at Zarcero to see the cool topiary, and at Muelles to see dozens of large iguanas sprawled out over the trees on both sides of the bridge. The boat ride was great, too. We saw cayman, turtles, two types of monkeys, and several different species of birds. It was about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Grecia, though, which was about an hour longer than Google Maps said. But we didn’t mind so much because the drive was beautiful! Lots of green rolling hills, interesting trees, and fresh, warm air.

As a tip I got from Doin’ Costa Rica, we bargained down the boat price a lot. Some tour companies will charge $60/person for this tour. We ran into a boat driver who wanted $20/person, which for 9 people would have been $180. After some haggling and also telling him I know someone who rented a boat for $50 flat (regardless of how many people), he agreed to drop his price to $80/flat, and I agreed. I probably could have gone cheaper, but $8.88/person isn’t bad for a cool 2 hour boat ride.

Playa Manta (the beach!)

Playa Manta

The next day we went to Playa Manta, a secluded beach on the pacific coast that’s part of the Punta Leona hotel, that Denny from B&B Grecia told me about. It’s a beautiful beach in a little cove surrounded by green hills and trees. It also had a little freshwater stream running out to the ocean, which was great for rinsing off in afterward. The water wasn’t quite as warm as I remember it being in Manuel Antonio during the dry season (like a bath tub), but it was certainly comfortable enough to swim in, and we had a great time playing in the waves, as well as walking along the shore. We were basically the only people there, too, besides a couple local guys who went fishing out in a boat. On the way back from the beach we stopped at Tarcoles bridge to see the crocodiles. Fun stuff.

The Rest

Monteverde

The other two things we did I’ve already written about from previous visits. Check out my posts on Monteverde Cloud Forest and Poás Volcano and La Paz Waterfall Gardens. This time, however, we actually saw the howler monkeys at Monteverde (not just heard them like last time). They were also very close to us – almost within arms reach! And at La Paz, we didn’t get to hold a red-eyed tree frog (the lady there wouldn’t wake one up for us). But we did walk to the waterfalls, which were pretty spectacular. It was neat to be able to see the waterfalls not just from the bottom, but from the top and from behind as well. We also saw some interesting birds I hadn’t noticed before.

Sunday

After Sunday dinner

My family also came with us to church on Sunday and really enjoyed it, even with the language barrier. Just before sacrament meeting started, President Bustillos asked my dad to sing a solo during the meeting, so he quickly picked a hymn and we pulled something off (he sang and I played the piano). With some inspiration I’m sure, my dad actually ended up picking Pres. Bustillos favorite hymn, “O My Father” and sang it beautifully, of course. After church, I directed the choir in Spanish, which my dad also really seemed to enjoy, being a choral director himself. It was fun to have them there.

We all came back to our house after church for some lunch. The Bustillos Family and the missionaries joined us and we had a great feast of rice, beans, chicken with tomato sauce, two types of salads, papaya shakes, star fruit shakes, and fried plantains. Then we had a series of foosball matches, all of which were won by President Bustillos who seems practically unbeatable. I will get him one day…

Dinner at Galería

Another highlight of the trip is when my Dad and Robin took Jennifer and me out to dinner one night for our birthdays. We left the kids at home, so were able to have a nice talk with just the four of us. It was great! We were going to go to Complejo Los Arcos – a fancy restaurant by our house with beautiful views – but it was closed, so we headed to town to go to Galería, which was fantastic. My dad said it was the best Fillet Mignon he’d ever had. I would add it’s probably also the cheapest, even though the prices in Galería are more than double most Costa Rican restuarants (ie. $12 instead of $6/plate.) We all had some ice cream with the kids when we came back home.

We had such a great time with our family this week, and are so glad they could come visit us. It’s also interesting to me how relationships can seem to deepen so much more when you’re living and playing together for several days straight, than when you’re only seeing each other for a couple hours each month, which is what usually happened when we lived within 15 minutes of each other. I actually feel closer to my family now than I did when living close to them. Isn’t that interesting?

Enjoy the pictures and videos below.

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Experiences are more important than possessions

Possessions can still be fun, but usually, they are just a distraction from what’s really most important – they’re a big money pit as well. Yes, I still bought an iPad (and even paid extra to have it brought to Costa Rica), and although fun, I still find it to be time sapper and a money pit. It can easily take me away from doing other things I should be doing. I guess this is a lesson I’m still in the process of learning. :) On the other hand, I sold almost everything I own because I realize that most of it was unnecessary and not really contributing to my comfort or happiness. I don’t really need more than 7 shirts, for example, and I feel much more free and light with less “stuff” to worry about.

Money can buy freedom

No, I’m not talking about bailing someone out of jail, although it could do that, too. I used to think the main purpose of money was to buy “stuff”. But now I realize that money can buy assets that are much more valuable, such as time, security, and freedom. If you have enough money, you’re free from worrying about covering monthly bills or losing a job, free to do more of the things you enjoy, with more time to enjoy it. You also have more resources (including time) to give and help others. It’s very liberating and empowering. Money is not evil. Rather, it is a powerful tool for good or evil, depending on how you use it.

Stay close to God and you will be happy no matter what

There is something special in the power that comes through seeking God in prayer, meditation, and reading holy writ. It brings peace through adversity, hope through trials, and joy throughout life. I believe that without a relationship with God, a man is just half a man and will never achieve a fulness of life.

Most people hold themselves back by fear

As I’ve broken away from the mold of society in many ways the past few years, I’ve been shocked to learn how fearful many people are of the unknown, even if the unknown can lead to something much better. Fear causes anxiety, stress, health problems, and unhappiness. Fear also inhibits growth. It’s better to believe that anything’s possible, face challenges head-on, and work to make your dreams happen. It’s a lot more fun and exciting, too. Sure, problems will come up along the way, but few are uncorrectable. And the ones that are usually can’t be controlled anyway, so why worry about them? Fear just holds you back from growth and enjoyment of life.

Don’t listen to the masses

Most people don’t have a clue about why they do things the way they do. They just do them because it’s what everyone else does. Even if it doesn’t make sense or they hate it, they don’t usually stop to consider alternatives. Or if they do, they’re too held back by fear (see above) to make any changes. This leads to major problems. Three examples that are going to label me as an extremist, until you take time to think about them:

• School is not education. Education and learning are life-long processes. Sending kids to school, away from the family for 4-8 hours a day, to memorize information they don’t care about 90% of the time, and will most likely never use, is not the same as education, and is not necessary for a happy and productive life. Then there’s the busywork – I mean homework that’s assigned to eat up kids time outside of school.  Why not just learn on your own about whatever you’re interested in (unschool / self-directed education)? Much more interesting. Much more direct. Much more useful. The Internet is a great teacher. Of course human teachers are still helpful in many fields, but you can find them outside of the school environment as tutors and specialists in your fields of interest. Our kids are leading their own education and doing great!
• Jobs suck life. Everyone seems to think that a great goal in life (and the purpose of school as well) is to get a job. But this job demands you to be gone (again, away from your family), for 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week, with only 2 weeks of vacation per year, causing many people great anticipation for weekends and retirement. Why do people put up with that? What you’re actually doing is making some entrepreneur wealthy, putting your livelihood in someone else’s hands, and delaying your life until you’re 60 (unless you honestly enjoy your job, which few do). There is no such thing as job security – they could fire you whenever they want. Why not flip the equation and be the entrepreneur that creates jobs for other people? If you’re smart about it, you can even structure your business to run on its own, so you make money whether you work or not, giving you control of your time and your life, rather than an employer or your business. I love this part of owning a business. Being willing to live with less can make this a reality much more quickly as well.
• Good food is hard to find. Nothing is as healthy as wholesome, fresh food. Fruits, vegetables, and meats from grass-fed animals (eaten sparingly). Unfortunately, most of what we find in supermarkets and that is marketed to us in advertising is full of processed sugars and corn, injected with chemical vitamin supplements to replace a portion of the lost nutritional value, and is generally not all that good for you, causing a myriad of diseases. This rakes in money for both the food and medical industry, but is not good for our health. A better way? Shop at farmer’s markets, grow your own food, don’t snack on junk. Fruit tastes better anyway. I’ve been trying to do this lately and it feels great. I still eat junk on occasion, but usually don’t feel that great afterward.

Still think I’m crazy? Oh well. I’ve decided not to let what the masses are doing dictate how I live my life. It just holds me back, and sucks out a lot of potential, control, and joy.

Persistence pays

Persistence, desire, and refusing to give up is what it takes to achieve a goal. Any goal. No dream is too big if your desire is strong enough and you’re willing to work at it. I’ve experienced this so many times in my life in so many areas that I no longer believe excuses to the contrary. You can do anything!

People are more important than things and experiences

As nice as it feels to have stuff and to do exciting things, nothing feels as good as a loving relationship with someone you care about. Serving and helping others, doing something for someone that they can’t do for themselves, giving of your time and means and being a friend all fill a great need in the human heart. And some relationships can last forever.

Achievement isn’t everything

I am naturally driven to achieve, to create, to perform. Sometimes too much. I have learned that sometimes it’s really okay just to “be” -  to take time to do nothing “productive”, but just sit and listen and enjoy being alive. Life isn’t a race to see how quickly you can reach perfection. Life is a journey to be enjoyed along the way. Growth comes through experience.

Producing is more fun than consuming

Watching TV or movies, reading, listening to music, buying and using products and services, looking at art – all enjoyable. But what’s even more enjoyable is creating things yourself. Making music, writing your thoughts in a journal or a blog, building a business, creating art. What you create not only blesses you, but also those you share it with – double the fun. And it comes from deep inside you, giving you a greater sense of purpose and meaning by contributing in a way that only you can do.

Keep your wife happy

My wife is my best friend and companion and I love her more than I can say. She lifts me up and helps me see my potential and areas I can grow, as well as my strengths. I enjoy being with her and am glad we have so much time together. But I have also found the old saying to be true, “When mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” I’ve learned that if I do whatever it takes to keep her happy, things go much more smoothly. And she returns the favor, too. Everyone benefits. This is a relationship I want to last forever.

Kids need attention and play

Raising kids isn’t easy, and it’s not for the idle. They need lots of love and attention, and they need you to “play” with them. My 6 and 4-year-old ask me every day, multiple times a day if I will play “paper fairies” or “stuffed animals” or something else with them. I admit that sometimes I don’t really want to, and I often don’t really enjoy it when I do. It seems that I forgot how to truly lose myself in this type of play a long time ago, but I’m trying to learn from them how to do it again. I have, however, rekindled my love for hide-and-seek, exploring nature, and creating things. And I love reading to and with my kids. Most of all, though, I enjoy just talking with them, asking them questions and listening to their answers, or answering their questions. Parenting is hard work, but it also brings a lot of joy.

So, these are some of the things I’ve learned so far in my short lifetime. There is a ton more to learn, and I hope to never stop progressing. I’d love to hear what you’ve learned in your life, too, so share your comments below. Have you learned similar things to what I’ve learned, or is your experience completely different?

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