Tara Talk: The Frantz family does Costa Rica

Last year at Christmas time, my family members and I (mainly my siblings) were throwing out the idea of having an all-Frantz family vacation in Costa Rica. Obviously I was all about this idea because that meant that my family would come to visit me in this beautiful country AND I would get some vacation time off work! Mom and Dad had been here to visit me the past two Septembers, Peter and Toni had been here for vacation before I lived here, and Courtney had been an intern with us at SI my first summer...but to have them all here at the same time would be so different and such a treat. Fast forward to this past spring, and the decision was made that November 2014 was for sure going to be a Frantz family vacation in Costa Rica!!

A lot of preparation was done on my family's part because they were the ones traveling here and I kind of just sat back and gave advice about what type of clothes to pack, etc. To be honest, I was a bit nervous about spending an entire week together in a house with no escaping one another. I am blessed to have a family that all knows and loves the Lord and enjoys spending time with one another, but I am not naive and know that sometimes too much time together can cause conflict and personality clashes. As a rule, we are not quiet, super chill people either, and so the potential to butt heads was great. But I am so happy to say that we had an absolutely WONDERFUL week together with no real feelings getting hurt or conflicts to deal with. I think that the Lord blessed us with sweet times together, and I was able to be refreshed and encouraged by each member of my family at different moments. Of course, one of the highlights was spending the week with my niece Kate, who was born only two weeks before I made the move to Costa Rica. She is such a fun, smart, friendly and beautiful 2 1/2 year old (of course, I'm biased) and it was such a joy to hang out with her so much.

What did we do while we were all together? We got sun burnt on the beach, boogie boarded, zip lined, went deep sea fishing, played games, cooked, went out for good eats, prayed, laughed, trekked through the rain forest, and just hung out. And a highlight for me was having them all come to the Tutoring Center for library time on Friday and get to see where I work and who I work with. My Tico students were so excited to meet my family that they always hear about, and it was such a blessing to see them interacting. You can only share with people so much through words and pictures, but to have loved ones visit the community where you live and work is invaluable. My students will be talking about playing four-square, making paper airplanes, and playing Uno with my family for many weeks to come.

Here are some picture highlights of our time spent together: