Nassau, Bahamas: Day 7 and 8

On our last two days in the Bahamas.....we were ready to be home. Not to sound ungrateful at all (because we were clearly still having a fine time and enjoying ourselves!), but we were SO ready to see our kids and get back to our normal daily life!

On day 7 (Thursday), Nick had conference most of the day again. I spent most of the morning blogging and looking through pictures and watching TV. Sounds like a lame way to spend the day when you're in the Bahamas, but I was SO sunburned that I didn't really want to sit outside (and COULDN'T sit outside without feeling like I was on fire!). Nick had a short lunch break, so we got to hang out for a bit and eat some lunch together. The rest of the afternoon, I walked around the resort a bit and then read and napped. It was kind of amazing.

The only picture I have from day 7 is this.......

 In all fairness, it was THE BEST cheesecake I've ever had. So it warrented a picture :)

Day 8 (Friday) was our final day.  Nick had conference in the morning until around noon. I spent the morning going through our room and packing everything up. I always get SO paranoid we're leaving something behind, but I think I managed to get it all! I spent some time out on the balcony soaking up the last of the ocean air and the cool breeze. Once his conference was done, he came back to the room and we decided to recreate this picture from our honeymoon....

10 years ago.....

And now....a little older, a little (tiny bit) wiser and more in love than ever!

 While we were excited to get home, we were also a little sad that our time in paradise was coming to an end, just like we were sad to leave Mexico on our honeymoon. Hence the pouty faces in the pictures.

After we got our room all packed up, we took our luggage with us and grabbed a quick bite to eat. They served grilled hamburgers every day, so we just ate that. I didn't want to eat too much because I get SO nervous when I get on a plane. I hate sitting by strangers, so I was super paranoid the whole time that I wouldn't get to sit by Nick and that it would be awkward.

After lunch, we took a shuttle to the airport and made our way through customs. It was a loooooong line, but a fairly simple process. We boarded the plane and what do you know.....I sat by a stranger. For the next four hours. But at least it was a comfortable plane and we were able to watch movies, so that was good! And I had a window seat and got to see the best views...

 We flew into Chicago and had to almost run to our connecting flight. Poor Nick. He was walking SO fast and since his legs are so long, of course he was pretty far ahead of me. I was doing the best I could, but my short stumpy legs just couldn't keep up with his! We FINALLY both made it to our gate just in time to board a plane home! It was a super tiny plane that I was SUPER nervous to get on, but it managed to get us home just fine. And I had the best view of the whole trip once I got to the airport!

I've never been so happy to see these sweet faces. We missed them SO much! Tessa just kept hugging me and staring at me and saying, "Mommy! I'm SO glad you're home!"

Overall, it was such a wonderful, relaxing, restoring, peaceful trip. It was just what Nick and I needed to regroup. We were so glad we got to go and felt so blessed to have family that we knew would could trust taking care of our kiddos at home. That really made it easy for  us to fully relax and not worry about their well-being too much! 

Hopefully it's not another 10 years before we go on vacation together!

Nassau, Bahamas: Day 5 and 6

So apparently, I took no pictures on Day 5 except for a picture of a weird, mystery bruise on my leg that's bright blue. And I don't figure that's worth sharing with anyone--ha! On Tuesday, we did absolutely NOTHING. We ate breakfast, went to the beach, ate lunch, took a nap and then Nick's conference started that night, so he had a meeting that night and I ate dinner by myself and read the whole evening. It was a wonderful day!


On Wednesday, Day 6, Nick had his conference all day. I was kind of nervous I'd get bored, but what do you know! I didn't! This is all I have to show for Day 6....

As you can see, it was a really hard day full of laying by the pool. Unfortunately, I did a really stupid thing and forgot to put sunscreen on my legs. They turned into a very dark shade of pink--oops. It hurts REALLY bad. But it was a lovely day laying on the beach and sitting by the pool, so I guess it was an okay payoff.

We had dinner at O Nikkei, the Asian restaurant. We sat at the hibachi grill--it was a lot of fun! We'd never been to one. We got to try sushi too (of course I removed any fish that was in it first). They served salad and we got to choose from a main course of seafood, chicken or steak. Nick chose seafood and I got chicken. We both really liked it!

We ended the night with green tea ice cream--it was......different. But good!

After dinner, we fell asleep early--this vacation has been a lot about RESTING! And we've loved every minute of it!

Nassau, Bahamas: Day 3 and 4

Sunday, we got up around 9am and ate breakfast at the market place again. After breakfast, we decided to go to Atlantis to see the aquarium! We decided to take a taxi and even though it was more expensive that a Jitney, it was nice to just hop in and get taken exactly where we needed to go without any bus transfers or cramming in with a bunch of people!


Now here's my thoughts on Atlantis....kinda hated it. I LOVED the aquarium. It was super cool....but I could've lived my whole life without setting foot in the actual resort. It was SO big and there weren't very many signs telling us where to go or how to get there. There were people EVERYWHERE. LOTS of people. It was okay to visit, but I could not imagine staying there. You had to walk forever to get to anything and it just wasn't very peaceful. I think the kids would have loved it, so I guess maybe if we had the kids with us, I would consider it. But definitely not anyplace I would want to stay for a relaxing peaceful anniversary vacation.

But onto the aquarium! It really was beautiful and fun to walk through! We saw some crazy, interesting sea creatures!

 We got to touch star fish and sea cucumbers. They were SO gross. Amazing--but gross! The star fish had a ton of little suction cups on the bottom of it. It was so cool!

And we found Nemo!

 After we left the aquarium, we had lunch back at our resort and spent more time on the beach. I wore my hat that Nick said was super extra. But I liked it! It was too windy to keep on very long, but it was cute!

 

He was my cabana boy all day and got us both drinks. I could get used to this!

We had reservations that night at Cilantro (the Mexican restaurant at our resort). It was pretty good--decent guacamole and queso! The options were kind of limited, but it was tasty!

After dinner, it was family karaoke night, so we headed to the lobby to watch that for a few hours. It was very entertaining! Nick ALMOST talked me into singing with him. But I couldn't do it! After karaoke night was over, we headed to bed.

The next day (Monday), we had breakfast at the market place (again). We hung out on the beach until noonish. Then we had lunch at the beach bar--they were grilling hamburgers and hotdogs. They were so good!

After lunch, we took a walk down the beach to a pier at the neighboring resort. It gave us a beautiful view of the ocean!

We eventually headed back inside and played the world's biggest game of connect 4. I beat Nick about 18 times before we finally quit playing and went upstairs to get ready for our dinner reservations.

We ate at Aqua that night. It was an Italian restaurant that had decent food and felt very fancy.

We had a fun night!

Nassau, Bahamas: Day 1 and 2

Our trip to Nassau has been amazing! Long story short, we'd been planning on taking a 10 year anniversary trip in September 2018. However, Nick's company scheduled a conference for him in Nassau, Bahamas in February, so we decided that I would tag along to that and we would let them pay for half of our vacation! It worked out perfectly.


We left early on Friday morning (2/16/18). SUPER early. Nick had to book his flight on his company's website and I had to book mine separately. So we weren't sure if we'd be able to sit together. On the first flight, I ended up being in first class. I wasn't expecting much--the first class seats on the planes we flew in to New York looked just look the economy class. BUT....it ended up being SUPER nice. I was the first seat in the plane and had TONS of leg room...

 Luckily, we got to sit together for the rest of our flights. We had a connecting flight in DFW and then again in Miami. I was still feeling a little unwell and to make our connecting flight in Miami, I swear we had to walk 900 miles. Maybe it was just one mile, but my body felt so weak and I honestly think I was still fighting a bit of a fever. I literally felt like I was going to pass out. But we kept on trucking and FINALLY made it to our gate. Our flight from Miami to Nassau was super short and BEAUTIFUL. We landed and made our way to our resort. They greeted us with Bahama Mamas! Best greeting ever!

 Our room and our view was beautiful! We had a wonderful view of the pools and the ocean!

 We took a nap for awhile and then headed outside and spent some time at the beach......

 We ate dinner at Estavida (a tapas bar). It was pretty good! We had hamburgers and fries and met a nice couple

 After dinner, we went out to Bahamian night on the patio. They had some vendors selling "Bahamian" merchandise and they were playing a lot of island music. It was a lot of fun to relax and listen!

 Then we ordered some room service (just because we could!). I got cheesecake and Nick got chicken wings. We both fell asleep happy!

The next day, we ate breakfast at the market place (a buffet they set up every morning). Then we spent most of the morning on the beach.

 

We ate lunch at O'Grille and this was our view.....yes, please!

After we ate lunch, we decided to take the Jitney #10 to downtown Nassau. The Jitney was a fun experience! It's a bus that goes from one part of the island to another and it only costs $1.25 per person. Just when you think it's full and you can't possibly fit another human on it, they pick up another person and fold down a seat that was hidden somewhere!


We went to the straw market downtown. I was really excited.....until we got there. It was just TOO MUCH. Women were following me asking to braid my hair. I couldn't shop for anything without two or three people surrounding us and trying to force things on us. I'm sure some people love that environment, but I was over it as soon as we started. I bought a few things I needed for souvenirs and then we were out of there! We found a little bench to sit on and people watch for a bit.

Nick made a new friend...

It was definitely an interesting environment. We got offered marijuana, Cuban cigars, purses, perfume....all kinds of stuff. We said no to all of it, just to clarify--ha! I did end up buying a bottle of Clinique perfume from a legitimate Clinique store because I had forgotten to bring perfume with me. I also thought it would be fun to buy a new scent and that way, whenever I wear it, I'll think of our trip!

After a few hours in downtown Nassau, we headed back to our resort: Melia. It's such a beautiful place!

We grabbed a snack (mango cheesecake) and then spent some more time on the beach...

We ate dinner at the market place. Nick bought this shirt while we were downtown. I was so proud of him! It's completely outside his comfort zone, but he looks SO handsome! How lucky am I?!

We were totally lame and fell asleep around 8:30pm. It was wonderful!

Life Lately

We've had a lot going on lately. This is just a random mash up of pics I wanted to load to the blog with no real story behind them! So skip this post unless you want to see a big photo dump!


These are some of my favorites from our Christmas Break together! Nick and I both had off work for quite awhile after Christmas, so before I headed to New York City, we got some quality time with the kids. They spent a lot of time having sleep overs on our floor...

 We spent a LOT of time snuggling....

The kids had so much fun playing with everything they got for Christmas! Tessa loved her EZ Bake Oven....I hated it. We ended up taking it back because her cake got stuck in there--ha!

Nick, Tommy and Tessa had Nerf gun fights almost every.single.night. As much as I LOVED how much fun they were all having, I ended up locking myself in my room whenever they started a war. I somehow always ended up getting pelted with those dang bullets and I was SO over it by the 4th or 5th night in a row! But they had so much fun and I love that Nick loved playing with them so much!

Both kiddos started basketball in January. It's Tommy's second year and Tessa's first. They've bot had a lot of fun playing this year!

I was so sad because I was in NYC during Tessa's very first ever basketball practice. Luckily, Nick sent me lots of pictures!

Other than basketball and just hanging out, we've been dealing with the PLAGUE! I'm not exaggerating when I say that. At the end of January, the kids both got sick. It started with Tommy throwing up. Then Tessa. Then they both got respiratory stuff. After that went on for a few days, I took them to the doctor. He swabbed them both and they both tested positive for influenza A. Wonderful.

This is how we all felt about the kids having the flu....

 Nick ended up getting it for a couple of days. He had an extremely high fever and couldn't function hardly at all. It was horrible. He was finally able to kick it and started to slowly feel normal again. Aunt Brookie braved the germs and came to spend a day with us.

 Overall, we dealt with the flu off and on for THREE WEEKS. Literally. Over 21 days. They would be horrible, seem to recover, be normal for a day and then the next day wake up with 103 degree fevers. It was insane and I truly felt like it would never end. There were times I got SO worried about them. I mean, look at Tessa's little face in this next picture. She would get SO pale and have dark circles under her eyes.....

It was the saddest thing ever and I felt so helpless. I wanted to take it away, but there wasn't much I could do. We did lots of cool baths, ibuprofen, wet rags and LOTS of rest. We were all getting a little loopy by the end of it....

The worst part of it all was towards the end. Nick and I had a trip planned to Nassau, Bahamas. We'd been planning it for several months--we had already bought tickets and paid for the resort. I was praying SO hard that the kids would be 100% by the time we had to leave or I wasn't sure I would be able to go! How does one choose between wasting hundreds of dollars or leaving your kids while they're sick?!?

Praise God, the day before we were to leave, Tommy woke up fever free and stayed that way. Tessa still had a low grade fever, but seemed to be spunkier. Then when it was time for us to go Friday morning, Tessa was fever free! It was seriously such a blessing and allowed us to leave without feeling horribly guilty.

Unfortunately, I had gotten sick a few days before. I was running a fever and had body chills and weakness. We were also praying hard that I would be feeling better soon too! I was feeling mostly back to normal by the time we left, but had some lingering muscle weakness and chills. That was mostly resolved by the 2nd day of our vacation.

So here's to life lately and praying our household stays illness free for the rest of the year!