Turks and Caicos 10 year Anniversary Trip Part 1

On December 21st, Taber and I will have been married for 10 years! We decided to celebrate a little early though since we didn't want to leave the kids during the holiday season, so a few weeks ago we said goodbye to our responsibilities and flew off to the lovely island of Turks and Caicos.

When we were planning our Anniversary trip we thought of a lot different options, a cruise, New York, Europe since it's so close. Then last year our friends went to Turks and Caicos (an island in the Caribbean I had never even heard of before) and when they came back and showed us the pictures I was like, "Duuuude...That's where I wanna go!"

We had a direct flight from Boston so everyone on board was leaving the cold and heading for blue skies. As a result they were all very excited and chatty. When the island finally came into view we looked out the window and were greeted with a rainbow spanning across the turquoise water. (You can kind of see the rainbow in the picture.) When the captain said we had arrived at Turks and Caicos everyone started cheering. It was awesome.

 We flew through customs, took a cab to our hotel, swapped our winter clothes for swimsuits and less than an hour after landing we were sitting on the beach and pinching ourselves to see if this was really real!

The island turned out to be just what I was hoping for, warm turquoise water and white sandy beaches, + hot guy to share it with ; )

We spent the week just enjoying each others undivided attention. It was so nice to actually have full conversations without being interrupted by "the fruits of our romance" : )

 We spent a lot of low key time reading on the beach. I finished 2 books, probably the first 2 books I've read since becoming a mother of 3. : )

When we weren't on the beach we would check out bikes from our hotel and cruise around the island. 

 One day they didn't have the beach cruisers so we had to take the tandem. Tandem biking is harder than it looks! I'm glad we tried this after we'd been married for 10 years and not on our honeymoon. Definitely requires lots of patience and communication!

We also did lots of snorkeling since there was a reef directly in front of our hotel. Taber was smart and bought some snorkel masks and flippers before we left so we didn't have to pay ridiculous fees to rent them. There were lots of awesome fish and one day we even saw a pretty big barracuda.

 The beach is such a difference experience without the kiddos.  Don't get me wrong, I love taking our kids to the beach, but it was just a nice change to be able to play too : )

In fact, the kidless beach freedom made us a little hyper : )

Woopee!

I guess we took a lot of jump pictures. 

We were excited ; )

 Usually we'd wrap up our beach time when the sun started setting.

Then we'd shower and get all dolled up to go out to dinner. 

This is another thing that's really exciting about a vacation without kids. You can go to fancy restaurants, at any hour of the night and take as long as you want to eat your amazing food : )

 It's usually such a huge deal for us to get a babysitter and go out to dinner alone. In fact, I think we've only done it once since having Cam! So yeah, going out to eat every night was the coolest!

This collage is an ode to all the yummy food we ate on our vacation. 

Just thinking about it brings a tear of happiness to my eye. :)  

(p.s. all the cool people take pictures of their food, trust me. )

 And speaking of food, everything was ridiculously expensive on the island so we hit up the local grocery store to get stuff for lunches so we wouldn't spend our entire life savings on meals.  Even the grocery store was crazy expensive though! Can you guess how much the few items in our cart cost? I will seriously send a goodie care package to whoever guesses the closest! 

Okay, well this post is already getting ridiculously long so I will pause here and save the rest for another day: )

New York City!!

We're back from New York and the weekend was so much fun! New York is a crazy crazy place, not sure if I could ever live there but it sure was fun to visit!

We got into Queens (where the race was) around 4 pm on Friday and after checking into our hotel we hurried to find a cab to take us into the city. We knew we only had a few hours before the kids expired and we wanted to take advantage of it.

We headed straight to Central Park and WOW! What a cool place! It's the perfect little oasis in the middle of the crazy city. There were still tons of people there but it just felt much calmer than the fast paced hustle and bustle of the streets.

The girls collected rocks, chased squirrels, ran around and got some energy out of their systems after the 5 hour drive down from NH. The weather was perfect and we really enjoyed being outside together as a family.

There's an ice rink in the middle of the park and Brinley got a kick out of watching the zamboni smooth out the ice.

The girls got hungry so we grabbed some hot dogs and popcorn. Teya begged us to let her eat her hot dog with the popcorn on top. She was so set on doing it that way and finally I just thought, "well, it all goes to the same place in the end." Guess she started a new trend: Pop-dogs!
After we fed the kids we walked down to Times Square. Teya's eyes were bugging out over all the tall buildings. I just couldn't believe how many people were on the streets! We went into a big Toy R Us store and got some things for the girls, then we went back out to take in the sights and sounds of Times Square.

The whole fam in the center of all the insanity!

Around 8 o'clock the girls were fading fast so we caught a cab and took one of the scariest rides of my life back to the hotel! Seriously, I think cab drivers have their own rules on what is or isn't legal to do while driving. I'm just glad we made it back safely!

Teya conked out in the cab and was so passed out that I got her to go potty, change into her pajamas, and drink some milk without ever opening her eyes or fully gaining consciousness. I love this picture because she looks like a rockstar who partied a little too hard and then passed out on the hotel bed : )

Obviously we didn't even scratch the surface as far as all the things you can do in New York, but I was so glad that we got to see the city and experience some of those sights with the kids.

Beautiful, Historical, Delectable, Boston.

When Taber and I were setting up our Boston agenda
there was one major priority on my list: Food.
As a true foodie, I judge the awesomeness of a vacation by how good the food is.
With that in mind, I will say, Boston was A-MAZE-ING!
(aka: delicious ; )

Before we left I asked some of my friends who had been to Boston
where the best places were to eat.
Several people mentioned the Italian restaurants in the North end.
Two specifically mentioned Giacomo's. So of course, we had to go.
I will now add my recommendation to that of others,
if you go to Boston, eat at Giacomo's.
It's worth the long wait in the street.
And the butternut squash ravioli is divine.

After we hit Giacomo's we were told by pretty much everyone that we HAD to get dessert at Mike's Pastry, which was just down the street. That place also had a huge line but Holy Cannoli!! It was WORTH it!!

Here is my prize from the pastry shop. A chocolate chip cannoli. Light flaky pastry shell filled with sweet ricotta cheese and sprinkled with chocolate chips. Mmmmmm......

Okay, I'll take a break from the food for a minute to talk about some other trip highlights. While we were there Taber got us tickets to see Topol, the original actor who played Tevia in the Fiddler on the Roof at the Boston Opera House. He was reprising his role in a farewell tour traveling across the country. It was so amazing watching this legend on stage. Even in his 70's the guy hasn't lost any of his magic. His comic timing and incredible voice were unbelievable. It was such a great performance and so worth the hour we spent driving around lost and confused in the maddening streets of Boston to find the Opera house. (we actually ended up just parking somewhere and hailing a cab to take us there, that's how lost we were)

Some cool pics of the Opera house at the top of this collage. On the bottom, me with one of the actors during the intermission and me in front of the Marquee sign.

And now, back to the food. So the one thing I REALLY wanted to eat on this trip was a Boston cream pie, IN BOSTON! My friend Joanne had this picture of a Boston cream pie on her blog from when she went there, and ever since I saw it I knew I wouldn't be the same until I had that pie. I emailed her and she told me where to get it. I had my hopes set high, but our schedule got crazy and by the time we were able to go, the restaurant was closed. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but I'm a glass is half full kind of girl, so we found another restaurant that only serves dessert and is open super late and there I ordered a fancy little version of their Boston Cream pie. It wasn't the traditional kind, but it still danced on my taste buds and I left feeling full and happy.

Another highlight was driving out to Salem, MA where the witch trials were held. It was a cool city with lots of history and it was nice to be able to walk along the beautiful harbor. The first two days we were there it rained a lot but we finally got some nice weather and were able to spend some time outside.

We found a little light house and got kind of camera happy. Here are just a few of the pics we took. Then we went to a cute little restaurant by the dock and ate clam chowder and fish and chips. It felt very New England-y : )

The whole weekend was a lot of fun. Taber had business for part of it but we were also able to do some fun things, see some great sights, and of course, eat some amazing food : )

And I also have to give a shout out to my wonderful mother who came out on such short notice to watch the girls. Not only did she keep them fed, clothed, and thoroughly entertained, she also went the extra mile and took them to church, (25 minute drive) wrestled them both through sacrament meeting by herself, and then chased Brinley through the halls for the last 2 hours so Teya could enjoy nursery. There really aren't words for how much I love that woman. I'm so glad the girls got to be with her while we were gone.

Chicago get away!

When my sister moved to Chicago 5 months ago I was so excited to have family within driving distance. It took us awhile but we finally got a road trip organized and headed out there over the Memorial Day weekend. Naomi and Kevin showed us a great time and really packed in the fun. Here are some pictures from the day we went on a tour of downtown Chicago.

We took the train from the suburbs where they live into the city. It popped us out right in front of the enormous Sears tower. It was quite the sight to see coming out of the train station.



I really wanted to check out the Navy Pier area so we hopped on a water Taxi and headed towards the pier.
Teya couldn't believe she got to ride on a train and then a boat! Brooklyn and Brinley loved it too and all three of them spent the majority of the ride hanging onto the side of the boat and staring out at the busy city.


When we got to the Navy Pier there so much to do it was hard to know where to start. Teya really wanted to ride the "steering wheel" (aka Ferris wheel) so we decided to start with that. When we got closer though she decided it was too scary we opted for a carousel ride instead.



While we were there we also grabbed some Chicago hot dogs (which was the one priority I had going to Chicago)And we stopped for some ice cream because calories don't count when you're on vacation, right?

With all the traveling and excitement our little girls got pretty tuckered out. Brooklyn took a nice nap on Kevin's shoulder and later on Brinley passed out in Taber's arms and slept there for quite awhile.

After the Pier we had about 2 hours to get back to the train station so we started walking since that's about how long it takes with a pokey 3 year old and two little girls. It was cool walking through the city and taking in all the big buildings. We stopped at Millenium Park to check out "The Bean". It was even cooler in person than in the pictures.


The girls did great on our long adventure in the city. Teya and Brooklyn fell asleep on the train ride home and never woke up again till the morning. Brinley on the other hand got such a great power nap in Taber's arms that she was in hyper mode until about 11 o'clock when we finally got her to sleep.

It's definitely awesome having family that lives near such a cool city. I'm sure we'll be back again to explore some more!

A Swell Hotel

Since our kids are lightweight travelers when it comes to road trips, we actually split up our drive to Chicago and stopped at a hotel half way there. We found a real gem of a place in Madison WI that had kids suites ( a room with a separate wall and bunk beds for the kids) and an awesome pool with a shallow play area for little kids and a water slide that was just the perfect size for Teya. As soon as we got to the hotel Teya wanted her swimsuit on and we could barely contain her she was so excited to get swimming. She swam for almost two hours and then woke up the next morning and the first thing she asked for was to put on her swimsuit again.



This was Teya's first time going on a "big kid" waterslide. She did great, even the time when mommy was supposed to catch her and ended up frantically fishing her out of the water instead. (didn't realize she'd be coming down so fast!)

Daddy was much better at the catching thing.

Brinley had a lot of fun too. She crawled around in the super shallow part till her poor little knees were red. I finally had to take her back early to go to bed and she wasn't happy about leaving.