Virgin Islands….BVI’s

This summer was the summer of the Caribbean for me!  I love love love the beach…that’s no surprise….so I jump at any chance to see as much of the Caribbean as possible.  Each year my friend Whitney and I take a girls birthday trip and this year we had a hard time deciding where to go!  One day I came across a CHEAP flight to St. Thomas.  We had already decided we were going to Grenada on a pretty good deal for Travel Agents, but then when I found this cheap flight we jumped on it and changed our minds.  We were set…had it all planned out for several months!  While there we visited St. John, Virgin Gorda BVI, Yost Van Dyke BVI, and I FELL IN LOVE!!!!!  This is by far my most favorite Caribbean destination and I have been to quite a few islands.

Day 1:  We had clocked a whopping 4 hrs of sleep getting up for our 6am flight out of DFW.  I had flown in the night before at 10pm and we stayed at the Hyatt at DFW.  We were TIRED, but very excited to get to the beach.  After traveling and arriving in St. Thomas around 3pm we were ready to be at the Hotel (Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort) and get relaxing on the beach….well that did not happen!  After arriving and LONG STORY SHORT told we did not have a hotel room and we had to stay down the road and cab back and forth to the hotel to eat/use beach.  After a VERY LONG DAY…we were headed to our new hotel The Ritz Carlton!  Thank goodness they had rooms available :)  After they heard our HORROR story, they picked up our dinner and drinks while we were there :)  That saved us some $$$  We were exhausted so we headed to bed early so we could be rested to LAY ON THE BEACH all day :)

    View from our room!

 

Day Two:  We decided to head to St. John and spend the day over there!  We started off by eating at Woody’s and then we headed to Trunk Bay Beach!  IT was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen!!!!! We stayed there till it was time to watch some soccer finals!  We headed back to the ferry area where there are fun shopping and restaurants.  We ate dinner and watched the USA women loose :( 

One the ferry ride over to St. John

 

Day Three: Our LAST day and the BEST!!!  We decided to do an excursion to the BVI’s to see The Baths in Virgin Gorda and Soggy Dollar Bar in Yost Van Dyke :)  We took a power boat through the Virgin Island passed by Tortola, and then boated around the BVI’s!  We snorkeled, ate lunch on a private island, and had a blast :)

      

Impromptu Visit to SeaWorld

After a call to one of my best friends Whitney, and my mom…my plan to take Mason to SeaWorld was set!  Mason was so excited to be meeting Whitney in San Antonio to have a fast fun filled couple of days visiting SeaWorld and the River Walk.  First we had to stop over in Austin to drop off Madelyn at my parents to stay with them.  At first I didn’t think Mason was going to be able to leave Nanny and Papa’s with out a fight to stay there, but he was very excited to be staying in a fun Hotel and seeing Mrs. Whitney again :) 

 

SeaWorld:

• Journey to Atlantis was Mason’s favorite…we rode this ride 6 times in a row and never had to wait in line :)
• We Dined with Shamu and had a front row table to watch our own little pre-show up close and personal!
• We watched the penguins be fed…Mason really loved the penguins :)
• We fed the Flamingos
• It was the best timing…one of the cloudy days this summer, and there hasn’t been many!

 

 

Back at the Hotel:  We stayed downtown just off the River Walk

• We took the boat tour on the river walk
• We swam
• Mason built forts between the two beds and ATTEMPTED to sleep in them…until the fort kept falling
• Mason loved playing out on the balcony

While we were having fun….Madelyn was at Nanny’s having her own fun!!  Overall we were there for a short time but made the best of it ;)

Turks and Caicos 2011

Our second annual vaca to our favorite beach…Turks! We headed out at 4am to the airport for our 6am flight :) The kids always do great!  They are super excited when we wake them up early….then they crash by the time we take off to Miami.  We have a short 1hr layover and then a quick 1 hr flight into the Turks.  We land and are on the beach by 1pm!  The kids had a great time again this year and are ready to go back! 

Swimming at the pool!  Our room was on the first floor walkout straight to the pool, so we hung out there tons.  They also loved the pool because there is a swim up bar and they would go order smoothes!  They also have a swim up smoothie bar in the water park area of the resort! Did I mention how much we LOVE Beaches Turks and Caicos! 

Hanging out at the beach….building one of MANY sandcastles!  It was cute…all the kids would all come together and build huge sandcastles!

While Mason would play in the sand…Madelyn spent most of her time lounging on the chairs…drinking her smoothies or just relaxing!

 

Getting ready to have a YUMMY dinner at “the cook in front of you place” as the kids like to call it!  Mason…was not wanting to have his picture taken…i had to sneak one in while he wasn’t looking.  He was SUPER tired after a long day at the beach…he was lounging outside on or porch while we waited to escorted to dinner! 

He livened up when he got to “help” cook our shrimp! 

Playing frisbee one morning with daddy waiting to go have breakfast with all the Sesame Street Characters!  The were so excited to eat breakfast with Elmo, Big Bird, and Abby Cadabby…Madelyn more than Mason!  However, tides changes once we go there in person with the LARGE FURRY CREATURES!  We had a great breakfast overall!  

 

Parasailing:  I love parasailing…however last summer I did not parasail when we went to the Turks…so I knew I wanted to this time.  SOOOO….my lil buddy decided he would parasail with me!  He was excited…but on the boat ride out into the ocean…he did get a little scared.  The driver soothed things over when he released the HUGE spider man parasail we would go up in!  It was so much fun!  Mason had a blast…looking all over the island, looking below for fish, sting rays, and even trying to look to see if he could see Houston! :)  We were only up for about 15 minutes, but it was so much fun!

Hanging out around the Resort:  This year I did not get ANY pictures at the Water park!  Mason still loved going down all the water slides, playing of the pirate ship and swimming up and getting smoothies!  Madelyn’s favorite part was getting popsicles by the dozens! She also loved the pirate ship!  Usually we would start by the pool then make our way down to the beach!  Madelyn still is not too much of a sand fan, so she would just sit and watch…sometimes we would take our iPad down to the beach and let her relax watching a movie.  Mason however…loved to be buried in the sand! At one point he looked at me and said “Mom, I just love the beach”  Here are a few pictures of us just hanging out around the resort!

We’re Sailing on a Boat: This trip we decided to rent a private boat to take us on a tour of the Turks!  This by far was one of the best days we had…and we had many reservations about leaving for a 5hr excursion on a boat with Madelyn…however we were prepared!  Our butler stocked us up with food/drinks/snacks/towels etc…and we were off.  We stopped a several islands looking for Sea Shells, Conch Shells, Sand dollars, Crab.  We also made a pit stop to check out the Iguanas!  Our driver also took us snorkeling! Mason LOVED to snorkel and watch all the fish. We took turns snorkeling and Madelyn stayed on the boat, fed the fish and watched movies :)  She was a great little boat traveler…she even took a nap on our way back to shore :)  The kids ALL 4 :) had a blast exploring the Turks!