Turks & Caicos - Finally the End

Day 7
Sheesh, I sure talk alot about vacations.  Sorry.  I am getting old and my memories fade almost as quickly as my tan.  So I have to get some of this stuff down before I forget it all. 

On day 7, Preston and I went scuba diving!  Grandpa and Grandma and Val agreed to watch the kids for us again.  Yay!  I am telling ya, it is the only way to travel.  (Actually, I am pretty sure the kids preferred it when Preston and I were gone.  Everything is more fun with just Grandma, Grandpa and Val, without mom there telling them to stop throwing sand and don't hit your brother with the shovel and don't drag your beach towel through the water and stuff like that.  Dax especially loved getting to hang out with Grandpa every day, and was even asking Grandpa to help him go potty instead of me, but Grandpa wasn't too excited about that.  Anyway...back to the trip) 

Preston and I have been scuba diving since we were married so we have been quite a few places.  Preston likes to get a couple of dives in whenever we go on a trip.  Unfortunately, my camera is only good for snorkeling so I didn't even bring it with me on our little scuba adventure.  After we were on the boat I realized I could have taken pictures of all of the beautiful scenery we saw as we drove the boat around almost half of the island to reach our dive site, I could have used it to take pictures of us as we were all suited up in our dive gear, and I could have used it to take pictures of Preston as he snorkeled around the boat between dives to try and keep himself from getting too seasick.  But oh well. 

We did two dives off the western coast of the island.  The waters were much less choppy here than over on the north side where we were staying, which was good for Preston.  We did two dives, one was called the Chimney because there was a kind of tunnel in the side of the reef that we could swim down.  The coral was really pretty, and we saw lots and lots of fish.  We also saw 4 or 5 pretty good size reef sharks, and I was really wishing I had my camera with me so that I could have shown the pictures to Dax.  I saw a turtle, an eel, and a couple more rays.  Preston saw some garden eels, but I missed them.

After we got back (and Preston ate a big lunch since he wasn't feeling well enough to eat any of the snacks on the dive boat), we decided that since it was our last full day we better go souvenir shopping for real.  I like to get a Christmas ornament whenever we go on a vacation, so we looked around a little and found one that I liked.  Somehow the kids all ended up with a t-shirt, and I got a hoodie to keep me warm in case the Atlanta airport was as cold on the way home as it was on the way here.  Everyone else picked up a few things, and we finished our little shopping expedition at a cute little ice cream parlor that had a sandbox out front:

Dax and Cora ordered the "Extra Large"

Just kidding...it is plastic.  Looks real in the picture, though doesn't it?

We went back to the house to regroup and decided to go and watch the sunset back at Sapodilla Bay, since the sun didn't set over the ocean at our beach.  Before we left, I wanted to get a picture of these pretty flowers over the doorway to the canal behind our house (where there was a kayak we never got around to using).  Preston made me go get in the picture, so I here I am:

The sunset at Sapodilla Bay was amazing:

After the sun finally set, we put the wet kids in the car and headed back for dinner and bedtime. 

Day 8

Our plane left on Wednesday about mid-day, so we got up early (actually Dax got us all up early every day, but that is how he rolls) and went back to our beach for one more tickle:

One more chance to feel to sand beneath our feet:

...and one more snorkel.  Goodbye little stripey fishes and pretty corals!

Goodbye beach!  I hated to leave those chairs all lonely and empty under that umbrella.  Seems wrong!

 We somehow packed up all our stuff into our 72 suitcases and headed to the little Provo airport.  As we took off, Preston took this picture out the window of the airplane.  You can see the barrier reef off the coast of the island and the deep ocean beyond.  Our little beach is down there somewhere!

The kids did great on the flights home, and we are now pretty much adjusted back to our lives on the mainland.  It was a really fun trip...now to start thinking about next year...

Turks and Caicos Part III

Day 5:

It was a little cloudy the morning of day #5, so we thought we would do a little souvenir shopping (no pictures).  However, the sun soon came out, so we didn't get much shopping done.  However, the the kids each got a souvenir, and they all wanted a stuffed animal.  Arden got a spotted ray, Cora got a turtle, and Dax (of course) got a shark.  He was all about sharks on this trip, and every time we got to a beach, he would say, "Mom, are there sharks here?"  I wasn't sure if he was disappointed or relieved when I told him that there were probably none.  We quickly gave up the shopping and headed to lunch.  Afterwards, we wanted to go to our beach again, but it was very WINDY by our house and a little too choppy for snorkeling.  The kids had so much fun at Sapodilla Beach the day before that they were begging to go back to the "beach wif no waves."  We decided to try Taylor Bay beach, which was near Sapodilla.  It was really similar, and again there were no waves!  Dax fell asleep on the way over, and continued his nap on the beach:

 Cora didn't take a nap.  She only took one nap the whole vacation, which made her pretty tired by the end of the day.  She got a little cranky at times, but she didn't have the energy to pull her usual bed-time shenanigans and usually went right to sleep every night.  So, we just went with it.  Here is Grandma with her little doggie-paddler (that is Cora swimming around her knees):

 A few of us tried snorkeling again.  There were a few spots of coral over by the rocks you can see behind my mom in the picture above that had some fish swimming around them.  We also saw lots of anenomes like this one:

 Here is another view of the beach...that is Arden out in the water splashing her Grandpa:

After a while me and Daxton wandered over to a dock by the rocks, and the water was so still that we could look down into the water and see a bunch of fish swimming there.  Dax loved to watch them, there were some yellow striped ones and a purple and yellow one.  Dax would drop a grain of sand into the water, and the fish would all swim over to see if it was food.  Soon Cora and Arden and Grandma came over and we all enjoyed watching the fish for a while.

Day 6
Preston's birthday!  We had wanted to go on the half-day "Snorkel and Conch" tour, and Preston decided it would be fun to save it for his birthday.  We had to be at the Marina EARLY to catch our boat.  Here are the girls as our boat was driving along Grace Bay:

The price of the tour included free Rum Punch and soft drinks.  There was only two other couples on our boat with us, and only one of them drank any Rum Punch...I think we were a pretty unusual bunch.  We headed out to the barrier reef for some snorkeling.  It was pretty choppy, so the kids stayed on the boat with Grandpa and Grandma.  I brought my camera and took lots of pictures.  There were lots of fish and beautiful coral.  Here is another of my favorite fish, a rainbow parrotfish:

The guys from the boat threw a few potato chips over the side of the boat, and these triggerfish were there to eat them up.  The kids thought it was hilarious that the fish liked to eat potato chips.

I also saw this great big spotted ray.  I hadn't brought my flippers because they take up my whole suitcase and Preston says I swim too fast when I wear them.  As this big guy was swimming away from me while I was trying to take pictures, I was wishing I had packed them so I could have gotten a little closer.  Oh well.

After we were done snorkeling,  we drove the boat over to a shallow place where there were supposed to be alot of conch to catch.  I caught a great big one all by myself (okay, so one of the guides on the boat pointed it out to me, but I had to snorkel out there, go down and get it and carry the thing back to the boat...they are HEAVY!) If you don't know what a conch is, this is it:

Conch (pronounced "konk" in Turks and Caicos) are the slimy little things that live in these beautiful shells.  They are plentiful in the Turks and Caicos reef system, so this is one of the few places in the world where it is legal to catch them and keep the shells.  Preston caught a few of them, though some were small and had to be thrown back.  After we had caught a few, we headed over to Little Water Cay, which is also known as "Iguana Island."  We found a place to park the boat on the beach, and then our captain and his mate showed us how to "harvest" the conch.  They cut into the shell around the top, and then asked who wanted to pull the conch out of his shell.  No one volunteered, so he asked Arden if she would do it.  Being a brave and adventurous soul, she agreed.  She grabbed the little beastie's "foot" and pulled.  This is what came out:

Um, ew.   They showed us how to clean them for eating, and then told us to go and find some iguanas while they made us a "delicous conch salad."  I was a little skeptical about the salad...I had had cracked conch (breaded and fried conch) and conch fritters at restaurants around the island, but I wasn't too sure about eating them raw.  I pushed that to the back of my mind and off we went to find some of the famous iguanas.  They were all over the place!  Dax had a great time chasing them around, and here he is sneaking up behind a little one while Preston and Cora watch:

 Here is what they look like up close...very dinosaur-ish:

We eventually headed back to the boat (Grandpa and Dax came in last, of course).  The conch salad was ready!  They had cut the conch into small pieces and mixed it with tomatoes, peppers and onions.  It was a lot like salsa, and they gave it to us with hot sauce and chips.  It was actually DELICIOUS!  I ate two bowls full.  Arden ate quite a bit, and even Dax and Cora had a few bites (though I am pretty sure Cora still prefers pizza, despite what she said on her birthday post).  After that we headed back while we finished up our drinks.  Look at how blue the water is!!

After we got back and relaxed for a while, Preston decided he wanted to try parasailing.  We have thought about doing it on a few previous vacations, but had never actually done it.  Val was in!  Grandma and Grandpa declined and offered to watch the kids.  Cora said she wanted to come, but we doubted they had a harness small enough for her, so we told her she better wait until "next time."  He agreed.  The parasailing company came to our beach to pick us up, and we actually got to do the parasailing right in front over Grandma, Grandpa and the kids!

Here is Preston and me getting hooked into our harnesses...

 And up we went!  Here is a picture my mom took of us from the beach:

And here is a picture Preston took of the beach...we were HIGH!

 It was really easy and SO much fun.  We could see so much!  We could see across the whole island to the other side.  We could see all the way down Grace Bay.  We watched a ray swimming below us.  It was awesome!  The hardest part was getting back onto the boat.  The wind was gusting and so the parachute would go a little crazy at the end.  It swung quite a bit just as we were trying to land, and I hit my leg a little, but it was no big deal.  Val went solo...here she is, ready for takeoff:

 Her landing was perfect, lucky girl!  Parasailing was one of the highlights of the trip for me!  So much fun! 

That night, we had Preston's birthday dinner at a restaurant called the Tiki Hut nearby.  They had really good conch fritters, and all of our food was great!  We skipped dessert because we had whipped up another cake for Preston (yes, we had finished off Cora's cake even though it had only been two days) Here is the birthday boy, blowing out his candles!

He got a new grill for his birthday before we left on our trip (I didn't want to check it), so I brought him a small present so he had something to unwrap...Season 4 of Psych, one of his favorite TV shows.  Happy Birthday Preston!! 

I promise I will finish next time....

Turks and Caicos Part II

Day 3:

Beach again!  That's why we came, right?  You have probably noticed that I kind of like the beach.  The warmer the water, the bluer the waves, the better.  That is why I drag everyone thousands of miles.  Is it worth it?  No question.

We got up (well, the kids got us up...Dax does NOT know how to sleep in, even on vacation.  Especially on vacation), got ourselves breakfast, and headed down to the waves.  The highlight of the morning was when we buried Preston in the sand (I blamed it on the kids, but it was really my idea.  Shhh...don't tell). 

Do you see Preston's hands sticking up?  He tried to read his book through the burying process.  It was pretty funny watching Cora run over his belly, forgetting that he was under the sand.

After Preston escaped, Cora continued her sandcastle building, with a little help from Grandpa.  Daxton found a bunch of water noodles, and commenced beating everyone with them.  Before long, Arden picked one up and fought back and they had an epic battle in and out of the water.  He is getting so big that even though she is 6 and he is 3, they are pretty evenly matched. 

Me and Preston did some more snorkeling, and I actually remembered to bring the camera this time!  We found this stingray and his fishy friend while swimming over some sea grass beds on our way to find coral.

I was really impressed with how good of shape the coral was in since it was so close to shore.  Usually when coral is that close to a beach, people tend to trample all over it, but these coral heads had beautiful purple formations growing on them for the fishies to hide behind when I was trying to take their pictures.

 I saw one of my favorite fish - the Queen angelfish.  See her crown?

 And there were lots of these little purple guys swimming around:

We also saw lots of snapper.  Whenever I see snappers swimming around, I plan to eat snapper for dinner.  Yum. 

After we were beached out, we headed back over to the house, had lunch and rested by the pool.  This time, Cora fell asleep in my lap while the other kids splashed around.  We were all still a little worn out I guess.  

After naptime, we took a little drive around the island.  We drove to Sapodilla Hill, where sailors who had been shipwrecked on the island had carved their names long ago.  The oldest markings were from 1707:

This one says 1821 and 1819 on it:

Hope these guys made it off okay! 

There was a pretty view of Chalk Sound from the top of the hill (which wasn't a very tall hill, but nothing on this island was very tall):

Day 4:

Cora's Birthday!! My baby is THREE!!!  First off a little bit about Cora the 3-year-old:

Weight:  28.2 pounds (24%)

Height: 35.5 inches (16%) - she is little. 

I asked her a few of her favorite things.  Here they are:

Favorite color:  Puh-puh (purple).  No.  Pink.  No.  Red.  No.  Bwoo.

Favorite TV show:  Octonauts!

What she wants to be when she grows up:  Dwiver of da pwane (pilot)

Favorite thing to do:  Ride on a boat

Favorite food for breakfast:  Waffoos (waffles)

Favorite food for lunch:  Chicka nuggets

Favorite food for dinner:  Conch (she is lying)

Favorite dessert:  Cookies

Cora is a tough little girl and can't wait to grow up.  She is 95% sweet, but if something is going on that she doesn't like, she lets you know about it LOUD.  She is very feisty and holds her own against Dax.  She loves her blankie, singing, and playing outside.  She is a great snuggler and she is very smart.  She is a great talker and talks ALL day.  She is already excited for preschool.

Back to the trip!  Since it was Cora's birthday, I decided we would take a little drive over to Sopadilla Beach, which we had seen from the hill the day before.  I had read on the internet that it was great for kids.  It was a little tricky to find the road, but the beach was perfect for a just turned 3-year old.  There were no waves, and the water was very shallow...I had to walk out quite a ways to get up to my waist.  Here is the birthday girl!  Close up:



Far away:

The kids resumed sandcastle-making, and with Grandma's and Preston's help they had quite a big moat.

As you can see, the beach here was BEAUTIFUL.  Preston, me, Grandma and Val went out snorkeling, but it was mostly grassy here.  There were some rocks along the side of the beach, and we saw the most fish over there, along with some anenomes. 

As I was snorkeling my way back, I noticed a little white and yellow fish swimming around my mask, so I stopped swimming.  The fish stopped too.  I started swimming again, and noticed he was swimming along with me, right underneath me.  I stopped again, he stopped again.  I put out my arm, and he swam forward and stopped right under my hand.  I played with him for a couple of minutes, expecting him to swim away at any moment, but he didn't.  I lifted my head out of the water to see where Preston was, then swam over to him, with my little fish friend swimming right under my chin.  I showed him to Preston, who watched us for a while, then swam off back to shore.  I played with my little friend for another minute, but then I started feeling guilty for leaving the kids with Grandpa for so long, so I waved bye-bye to my fishie friend and stood up to walk back to shore.  When I got there, Preston told me he had been going to get the camera to get a picture of me and my fish.  Oops.  So, we didn't get a picture of him and me together.  I asked some locals later about what kind of fish it might have been, and they said it was probably a juvenile "horse-eye jack."  I looked up a picture on the internet, and it looks about right.  So, imagine one of these, only very small, only about 3 or 4 inches long: 

 And then imagine him swimming with me:

There you go.  It was the first time I had a fish following me instead of the other way around! 

The beach was so nice, we stayed until we were starving for lunch.  There was a restaurant only a minute or so away, so we headed there for lunch.  We felt a little silly going to a semi-nice place for lunch in our swim suit coverups, but once we got inside and sat down, most other tables were dressed for the beach as well.  Cora got to sit by Val, and was pretty excited to tell everyone, "Its my birfday!" 



The restaurant had a beautiful view of Chalk Sound (called that because the land around it is chalky white, which gives the water in the sound a crazy-beautiful light blue color). 

After lunch, we drove around a little and then headed back to our own little beach.  That night after dinner, Cora got her "birfday party," complete with cake (looking back, I should have done something with her hair after her shower, but oh well.  Too late now.  Sorry, Corbie)  Here she is, right before she blew out her candles:

And presents!  I brought along some presents in my luggage, so she got to open them up.  She got a dress-up Minnie doll (kind of like Polly Pockets, but about twice as big), an Aquadoodle penguin, and a stuffed "Bot" toy from Team Umizoomi.  

She couldn't have been happier with her "party," even though it was just us and there were none of the balloons, decorations or games that usually go along with a party.  Cora is (almost always) such a sweetheart, and I don't know what I would do without her.  I love you, Corbiecakes!  Now stop growing up! 

That's it for tonight...stay tuned for another installment another day. 

Turks & Caicos Part I

I am going to have to break this vacation up in to sections because: #1 I took way to many pictures for one post, and #2 I want to write down some of the stuff that we did each day before I forget it all.  Most of you will probably be bored by the details, but I like to go back and read about our past vacations, so if you just want to look at the pictures, feel free. 

Anyhoo...this year we decided to go to the Turks & Caicos islands in the Caribbean.  For those of you who may not know, they are in the British West Indies.  I learned that these islands are probably where Columbus made his first landfall in the New World (or at least that is what the islanders told me).  We stayed on the most populated island, which is called Providenciales (or, "Provo"). 

  

DAY 1:
We were travelling on SkyMiles and now that all five of us have to have our own seats, we had to choose the flights that didn't use up very many miles.  So, we left on the red-eye to Atlanta.  The RED-EYE.  I know, right?  Isn't it a great idea to bring a 2, 3, and 6-year old on a cross-country flight that leaves at 12:55 A.M.?  We thought so too.  I must admit, I was a little bit dreading the flights, especially when you hear about families getting kicked off airplanes because their toddlers are out of control.  I did NOT want to be on the news.  I drilled it into the kids' heads that on the airplanes, we are QUIET.

Did I mention that my parents and my awesome sister Val agreed to accompany us to help herd the kids around?  They did.  It is the ONLY way to travel.  We split the kids up amongst three rows on the plane and hoped for the best.  Cora slept almost the whole flight, after giggling her way through takeoff.  Arden slept quite a bit, but not the whole way.  Dax, who got to sit by Grandpa (his most favorite person in the whole wide world) stayed awake THE WHOLE TIME.  Sorry Grandpa.  Dax didn't scream or anything, he just played and talked and wiggled and sang.  I had packed the kids each a backpack full of fun stuff from the dollar store (stickers, coloring books, little toys, etc.), so Dax pulled everything out and wanted to play with it.  I didn't sleep at all, thanks mostly to the fact that I was sitting directly below the speaker for that super-loud "DING!" noise they like to make on airplanes before they say anything over the PA system, or turn the seat belt light on or off, or just because they could tell I was almost asleep and liked to watch me jump awake.  It woke up Arden a couple times too, so she gave up and played with her backpack o' fun too.  Not as much sleeping as I was hoping for, but the kids were pretty quiet for the most part, and we didn't get kicked off the plane.  Success.

Needless to say, by the time we reached our layover in Atlanta, we were kinda tired.  We grabbed some breakfast and then headed to our gate.  It was soooo cold in the airport and we still had some time, so I stole Arden's blanket and then grabbed Cora to snuggle and lay down on the ground for a little nap:

Soon, we got on our last airplane that would take us to the beach!  The kids were excited!  I was excited!  We didn't move!  After we sat for a while, they told us there was some mechanical problem and so we had to get back OFF the airplane and they would bring around a different one.  Joy.  We packed up all our stuff and went and found our stroller and went back out to the gate, where the waiting was much less fun, now that it was cutting into my planned beach time.  After about another hour, we were finally on our way.  I sat between Dax and Arden on that flight, and soon after takeoff, both of their little heads were in my lap and they were OUT.  Cora slept too (after giggling her way through takeoff).  Awesome.

We landed, got through customs, and then headed to the house we were renting:

It was a part of a group of about 4 houses owned by the same people.  Ours was back from the beach a little, but right next to the pool area.   To get to the beach, we had to walk down this path (that is Val down the path a ways):

But first things first!  Food!  We hadn't really had lunch yet, just a bunch of snacks on the airplane, so we were starving.  We walked to nearby Turtle Cove Marina and had linner at a place called "Shark Bites."  Dax is totally into sharks, so he was pretty excited, especially since there were fake sharks hanging from the ceiling.  On the way back, we decided to walk along the beach a little before it got dark.  We were still in our clothes, so we told the kids not to go in the water past their knees.  See how good they listen?

If you can't tell, Arden is wet up to her armpits, Cora isn't far behind and i think Dax is wet to the top of his head.  Oh well, look how happy they are!

Me and my parents headed to the grocery store to pick up some food since we had a full kitchen and were trying to save a little money.  The first thing I saw when I walked in was a bag of those little Cutie oranges...for $12.99.  Yikes.  We didn't buy those.  Most everything was about twice as expensive as here, but the produce was especially bad.  I guess there aren't very many farms on our island :-)  Preston, Val and the kids played at the pool while we were gone.

After that we were all pretty tired, so we went to bed.  We had all three kids in one room (we are ever optimistic), but despite being zombie-tired, they wouldn't leave each other alone.  We tried to put Cora in the bathroom like we did in Siesta Key last year, but she just SCREAMED.  We put her in our room for a while, but finally she ended up back in the kids room where they eventually went to sleep.  They were much better the rest of the week, but that first night was a struggle.

Day 2:

BEACH!  The beach next to our house was on the western end of Grace Bay beach, one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  Most of the hotels/resorts are on the eastern end, so it was pretty quiet down by us.  And there was a little reef straight out in front of our house with some awesome snorkeling (I'll post some snorkeling pictures next time).  Here are a few shots of us enjoying our first full beachy day:

Cora in her floaters.  She is an awesome little swimmer with these things on.  She is fearless, which is scary for me, but fun for her. 

Arden wanted me to take lots of pictures of her playing around in the water. 

Daxton didn't hold still for one second the whole day, so this is the only picture I have of him where most of his body is actually in the shot and not blurry.  He just happened to be running through one of Arden's little posing sessions:

There was a chest of sand toys for us to play with, and the kids got started on their sandcastle-making too.  Cora is concentrating really hard on whatever she is working on here:

After a while we came back and ate sandwiches, then the kids played by the pool.  There were lots of beautiful plants around, like this one:

The pool was ridiculously narrow, but pretty long.  The kids loved it.  And there were floaty toys to play with.  Preston even got in on the action.

After we were done playing at the pool (or trying to read your book by the pool while constantly saying "StopRunningStopRunningStopRunning!") we went for a walk down the beach to some nearby tide pools.  There were hundreds of little snails, some little fish, and even some little crabs like this one Preston caught:

Cora had to pick up every snail she saw, which made it a long walk.  After we got back, Preston and I headed out to dinner by OURSELVES.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa and Val for watching the kids!  We walked down the beach to a restaurant, and enjoyed the sunset (in defense of my hair, it was very windy):

We walked back under the stars, which were very bright there on the island!  I read some more in my book (I was reading a book called Moloka'i by Alan Brennert...it was really good but I was crying my eyes out which is not exactly vacation-y) and then it was off to sleep. 

Just like right now.  To be continued another day...