how i earned the travel badge

 My husband and I thought taking our 6, 4 and 2 year old kids on a month long trip to the rain forests of Costa Rica sounded like a really great idea. And for the most part it was. However, there were a few times we felt our lives were really close to the end. Like driving across an ancient banana transport suspension bridge. A newer one was being build right next to it, because the old one was so unsafe (our driver told as as we swung back and forth while stalled in the bridge in bumper to bumper traffic). Or hanging out with wild packs of dogs, or almost running off a foggy mountain at breakneck speed while none of my kids were in car seats (although at the point, maybe it did not matter). You get the idea.

But the worst by far was when our 2yo got stung by a bullet ant while crossing this flooded, landslide causing river. This kid can fall down a flight of stairs and shake it off like nothing happened. So, when he screamed for the next two hours and we carried his 35# body through the rain forest, we were obviously pretty worried. When we were back at the station, the ranger figured out what had happened and was most concerned that his breathing was okay (what? now we were really freaked out). 
 

After lidocane, Motrin and the rest of the day sleeping, he was fine. But we knew that we had pushed ourselves into a new realm of adventure as a family, and as travel seems to do, we came out of the trip stronger than ever.

Share your travel adventures with me at amy at mamameritbadges dot com and you could win a travel badge!