Vacation 2011 - Turks and Caicos

For those that don't know, last year I was stricken with a sore throat. In an effort to relieve my discomfort, I stopped at a fast food establishment and bought a large diet beverage. Upon the cup were certain game pieces that offered those poor addicted persons both fame and glory if they consumed enough of the fast food. Never had these gmae pieces yieled anything more than a free small french fry before that day. Yes, on that day I was the winner of both fame and glory in the form of an all expense paid deluxe accomodation vacation to a BEACHES resort. Thus began the saga.



The journey began with all of us getting up at 0400 hours. That is really early. We were on a plane all day, arriving on the islands at 8:30 in the evening. The kids travel really well, but Nate's face sums up how much we like to fly all day.


After arriving on the Islands we stayed in another hotel the first night. Not a bad place, but it was nothing compared to what awaited us. After getting to Beaches, we made it to our room. The kids checked out the porch, this photo being the first and last time we would be at our room during the daytime.

Well, we hit the pools, pools, pools, and more pools. There were pools all over this resort.

We all went snorkeling. The resort was really family friendly. Almost oll of the activities could be done by the whole family. All three kids went snorkeling and Cecily stayed in the longest. Clearly they really liked the snorkeling gear.

Unfortunately for Nate, the smile would not last. The seas were a little choppy and by the end of the trip he was not doing so well. He was awarded the honor of getting off the boat first when he tried to paint one side a new color. Seasick!

Eli got his sea legs pretty fast and the next day we did a little kayaking. The seas were still a little choppy, but it was fun and cool to get a little ways from shore. his paddles were too long, but that didn't stop him from being a great paddler.

One of the coolest features was a surf machine. You could adjust the waves for either surfing or boogey boarding. Nate took to the boogey boarding like a fish to water. He was really comfortable and stayed on for several minutes.

Eli did a great job too.

Even Amy got in on the action. She was shreddin waves like a pro. All she could talk about was the next competition and how we needed to move to Hawaii so that she could train.

Adam was able to get up and hang on for a bit, but Amy schooled him.

Did I mention there were alot of pools. Well, we definitly engaged in some pool splashing fun!!!

Cecily loved the pools too, but she decided that she wanted to go to Camp Sesame. This is one of the kids programs that they have for all different age groups. Some of the girls took a liking to Cecily and decided she needed some new braids and beads. Cecily normally is not one that is excited for a new hairdo, but that day she was game and came out of it looking super fancy!

We had a great time both day and night. The kids got to stay up late each night so that they could pack as much fun as they could into the 4 days we were there. The pools were open 24 hours a day and the temperature at night was perfect for a 2 am dip. Fortunately for us, there was no sneaking out of the room for late night swimming.

The mandatory sunset on the beach by the pier photo.

All in all the time was super great. We would like to thank Diet Coke, McDonalds, and Adam's addiction to soda for the great vacation.