Aruba-Part 1

It was the vacation we had been waiting (and waiting) for!

It's been a long time coming....our last "vacation" (which was a long weekend in NYC-see posts here, here, and here) was when Avery was only 18months old....she's now almost 5! Yep, a looooong time coming for this trip!

It all started Tues, May 20th. We had a 6am flight, so Gabe, my Mom, and I were up at 3am. We got showered and dressed then woke the kids up just before 4am. Of course my kids were wound up and ready to go-there was no sleeping for them once we woke them! We got to the airport around 4:30 and everything went very smoothly, which was nice. We got on the plane and were ready to head to JFK for our layover.

Avery and Gabe

Cassandra and I

I was a little nervous about how Cassandra would do since she has never flown before. I'll admit, the first flight was rough. Luckily it was less than an hour long-she was not feeling it. I think the combination of being overtired and hungry just pushed her over the edge. Not to mention she had a window seat but was too short to see out the window!

Our layover was a little over an hour and our flights were on time. It was a pretty easy connection (thank God) and before we knew it, we were Aruba bound! The flight ended up being about 3.5 hours and honestly, it flew by! Both girls were great on the plane thanks to movies and the ipad and some toys we brought along.

Once in Aruba, we met with a car rental place and got our ride for the week (a minivan) and we were on our way driving to the house. Along the way, this happened....

We got to the house and met the manager who handed over the keys and showed us around....

kitchen

living room

my Mom's bedroom

the linai/pool

The kids dove right in the pool (as you can see in a few pics above), then we had an early dinner and grocery shopped for the week. Then we all went to bed pretty darn early.

Wednesday both Gabe and I were up around 5:30am (that's what you get for being in bed at 8:30!) and the kids were up around 7. We had some breakfast then headed out for some sightseeing.

First stop...the lighthouse.

Mom and Cassandra

Avery and I

Gabe and the girls

Next stop...the natural bridge!

We came "home" and had lunch. Cassandra took a nap, we all swam a little bit then went out for dinner downtown.

These guys serenaded us with "Over the Rainbow"-awesome!

Thursday we got up and the kids wanted to swim right away. They may have had breakfast first, but did a quick swim in the pool. Then we packed up and headed to Eagle Beach for the morning.

Cassandra's first beach trip!

Chillin'

So relaxing!

After the beach, we came "home", had lunch, Cassandra napped. Then we went for dinner and ice cream.

We let the kids swim when we got back "home" as the pool lit up and changed color. It was pretty cool. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of it!

On Friday we hung out at "home" all morning just relaxing and swimming-the kids just loved the pool!

And we had a lizard friend that stopped by frequently to see us!

Poor Cassandra was a hot, sweaty mess all week long. Her hair was just constantly sweaty and greasy looking no matter what-even fresh out of the shower! Poor girl!

Aren't they adorable?!

When Cassandra woke up from her nap, we took the kids to a little arcade that we found. They had a blast playing games and winning tickets for prizes!

Then Gabe and I had a date night-we went out for dinner then did some gambling after.

The rest of the week coming soon!!