Courtrights in Costa Rica! (part 1)

After celebrating our Courtright family Christmas at home, we all set out to enjoy our biggest family gift - a long-awaited vacation to Costa Rica! This was the trip that we tried to book for March 2020, and then March 2021, but Covid travel restrictions got the best of us and forced us to postpone. We finally made it happen for the perfect family vacation to ring in the new year of 2023! We rented an Airbnb and a family golf cart in the coastal town of Tamarindo Guanacaste, and we couldn't wait to explore and embark on some Costa Rican adventures. We kicked off the fun first day with a beautiful walk on the beach in search of some breakfast.

After our yummy breakfast, we continued exploring the area before returning to our condo. We were staying at a beautiful beachfront Airbnb home with 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a huge floorplan with so much space to spread out. Our 6-person golf cart wasn't quite ready, so the company dropped off a fun all terrain vehicle for us to use for the first day. We hopped in and explored the area of Tamarindo where we were staying. It was a bustling little town with lots of shops and restaurants - so fun to see and explore! We checked out the local stores for food and drink supplies, and we were looking forward to enjoying all the unique little restaurants. One funny thing about the area we noticed right away was that there were little scorpions everywhere which were frequent visitors inside the condo. 

During our stay, one of our favorite family activities were the many days of Euchre games - inside, outside, and even in the pool with waterproof playing cards! I enjoyed watching the competition but was a little reluctant to play by myself. By the end of our trip, the kids had taught me to play and we were all enjoying the family rivalry. 

On our 2nd day, our family golf cart arrived which fit all 6 of us. This was probably our favorite and smartest decision of our trip - having an easy and fun way to get around our area, which could become quite congested with traffic at certain times of the day. Our newest driver, Connor, even took turns behind the wheel and was a great help with trips around town. 

Throughout the week, we enjoyed countless golf cart rides, meals on the beach, shopping adventures, and coastal cocktails. I snapped away for photos of our fun family memories and felt so thankful for the awesome family time.

One of our favorite activities of the trip was our family surf day, where Jeff and the kids had a personalized surfing lesson followed by a couple hours in the ocean where they practiced to catch some waves. They all did so great, each catching a wave while I hung back taking photos and videos of their fun. One thing was for sure - surfing was exhausting and they were all so wiped out from the adventure, but they sure had fun trying it!

Some of my favorite times in Costa Rica were our casual, impromptu rides to town for meals. The vibe is so laid back and chill, which reminded us of our time in Thailand that we all loved. It was so nice to have the focused family time with no stress and a break from the winter holiday chaos. As they say in Costa Rica, pura vida! 

Courtright Christmas 2022

After wrapping up our Morgan Family holiday visit, it was time for us to head back home to meet up with Collin and Kevin for our Courtright Family Christmas! We have various traditions from over the years, but from time to time we change things up to keep it interesting. This year, we kicked off the family fun with our usual Christmas breakfast while opening our family stockings. It's always so fun to see all the goodies in the stockings, stuffed and overflowing!

Next up, we like to exchange wrapped presents, and this is where I tried to get a little creative this year. One of my colleagues had mentioned a fun game she plays with her kids where she wraps all the presents but only marks them with various numbers, and then her family has to try to guess which presents belong to which person based on the labeled numbers. I thought I would try that this year to see how it went. When it was time to hand out gifts, I told Jeff and the kids to try to figure out which gifts belonged to each person by reading the numbers. I felt like most of the numbers were pretty obvious - such as the birth date or birth year - but there were a few interesting ones that took some time. Probably the one that took the longest was 17, which was the number of years Jeff and I have been married, so it was HIS gift. Other ones that stumped the kids were 11 and 13, Collin and Kevin's graduation years. It only took a few minutes for all the gifts to be sorted and handed out, but it was a fun twist that I'll probably try to recreate next year in a similar game.

Everyone was excited and happy with all the gifts, but there was one gift in particular that was going to require a lot of time and effort to enjoy - Connor's new ping pong table! Without hesitation, he began laying out all the parts in the garage and assembling the table step by step. He had a little help from the family along the way, but I couldn't help to crack up when Collin and Kevin pulled up some camping chairs and just watched the assembly chaos unfold while Connor, Jeff, and Kaitlynn finished up the table. After all, what are brothers for, ha! When it was finished, the ping pong table was a perfect addition to the Courtright garage with lots of intense games ahead!

As much fun as we had during our Courtright Family Christmas, the real holiday fun was just beginning. On the day after our family celebration, we all packed up and left the country for our next family adventure!

Morgan Family Christmas 2022

Before we knew it, Christmas was here and we were all ready for the usual fun and celebration with family in East Texas. The cousins were excited to be reunited for the first time since June, and it took no time at all before the games-playing commenced. It wouldn't be Christmas or any family gathering without Dominos, Chicken-foot, Sequence, Risk, and any number of other boardgames! So fun for the whole crew!

On Christmas Eve, we held our usual family gathering to enjoy yummy food, exchange gifts, and soak in the family time. These cousins have such a special bond and it always warms my heart for them to be together making their own core memories and inside jokes that they'll cherish for a lifetime!

On Christmas Day, we all set out for our annual extended Morgan family gathering. This year, we met at the recreation center of the church where they have a full kitchen, lots of seating, and even games for the kiddos. It's such a great space for everyone to gather, and we all brought yummy food to enjoy while catching up. We then circled up for our usual white elephant gift exchange, followed by an EPIC game of Left-Right-Center that nearly brought the house down! It was such an awesome day of Christmas joy and celebration with no shortage of laughs, and we felt extremely blessed for the wonderful time together during the holidays!