This is the 5 bedroom villa that we were in, the view and the room we stayed in.
Nothing to do but kayak every day. Talk about living!
These two scary creatures swam right up into our private beach. It was incredible!
LOVE these boys. They had such a blast. And their most difficult decision everyday was wether to go to the beach or the pool. Hard life. Really hard.
Despite 50SPF sunblock, Jacob still managed to get tan through the holes in his Crocks. It was darling!
Turks and Caicos was amazing. I have to thank Kristy and Joel for their memories of the trip (most of my blog is verbatim what Kristy wrote . . . because I am actually blogging 8 months later!) and Joel took some amazing pictures of our little cove.
For those wanting a little more detail than the summary above the pictures, read on. We were joined by Rich, Rethsey, and their 5 month old girl Nayeli, along with Joel and Kristy and their son, Thomas. Kristy, of course, found our lodging on the internet; the pictures looked decent, but we didn't have a good sense of what the area would be like or how the house would look in real life. When we arrived at the house, located on the south side of the island (opposite from all the resorts) on Sapodilla Bay, we were very pleasantly surprised. The house was much nicer than expected and the set up was perfect...we had our own little private beach and were walking distance to a bigger beach (~50 yards). We had 4 sea kayaks at our disposal and plenty of lounging chairs and umbrellas (contrary to what the rental agreement suggested). Also, we had rented out the main house, which has 3 bedrooms, but were able to use the guest house as well. A pretty perfect set up!
Saturday afternoon and evening was spent enjoying the beach and ocean and the gorgeous views. Joel and Rich did make a trip to the grocery store and were shocked SHOCKED at the prices. They spent ~$170 on food, including 3 boxes of CocoRageous (think chocolate flavored rice crispies). CocoRageous quickly became the signature dish of the trip. I won't name names, but many people ate it for breakfast, mid-day snack, dessert, and even snuck in another bowl before bed. We bought at least 4 more boxes before the end of the trip. Sunday was a low key day, with more relaxing, followed by our own little church service in the evening (the island doesn't have formal LDS services). On Monday we were greeted by some heavy winds, so we decided to drive up to Grace Bay - the resort area- and check things out. The beach/ocean was pretty, but very different from Sapodilla Bay. There were actual waves! Where we stayed, the ocean was shallow (knee-deep) for at least 50 yards, with no real waves to speak of (perfect for little kids!). Perhaps because of the wind, the beach was largely deserted despite the long line of large resorts along the beach. We walked around a bit, scheduled scuba trips for those who were planning to go for later that week, and had a less than stellar meal at one of the local restaurants. After our Grace Bay trip, we decided on a few things: we were okay to eat at home the rest of the time, and we were happy to be far from the resort side of town.
Tuesday was a stay-at-home kind of day, filled with time at the beach, in the ocean, in the pool, and on the kayaks. On Wednesday Rich and Rethsey went scuba diving. And Thursday Kristy and Joel took their turn. Both couples loved it and said the scuba was fantastic. Michael and I are not certified, and didn't have a huge desire togo this time around. It was so incredible to have absolutely nothing to do . . . no agenda . . . nothing but family time. So relaxing! So relaxing. Friday was another stay-at-home day, and on Saturday we said goodbye while the others headed to the airport and then relaxed until our flight went out the next day.
It is always nice to head back home, but we absolutely needed a break from the cruel winter and from the constant grind that is our lives. We love being busy, but having a week with nothing to do but spend time together was truly wonderful.
