Christmas Vacation 2016 in Puerto Rico

After a fabulous Christmas Eve and Christmas day with family, we flew off to Puerto Rico early the day after Christmas. We arrived around 2pm and headed to our hotel. We were greeted by Steve, who was always available to book a reservation or get us anything we needed. He showed us to our room letting the kids ride in his golf cart after we parked the car. Our room is almost like a little villa. There is a balcony overlooking the ocean, a living room, kitchen, and bedroom.
After unpacking, we explored the hotel area. We found a place with pool tables, an arcade, restaurants, and a Starbucks. After the longest game of pool ever (made a rule that Carley had to hit the 8 ball in because Chris was making all their shots and Caleb and I aren't pool sharks), we headed back to our room with pizza for dinner.

Tuesday, we woke up and had breakfast where we ended up eating each morning because we had 2 free buffets for each day (thanks to Chris having Hilton status). The breakfast area we chose was right near our room. The kids ordered chocolate chip pancakes most days except for each venturing out and trying the French toast which they both enjoyed one day. We had a visitor two days during breakfast...a lizard. The waitress told us he liked fruit, so we threw some to him and enjoyed watching him eat. After breakfast on Tuesday, we headed to the main pool. The water was very cold, but we all braved it and got in to cool off, it took me (Cindy) the longest to get in...as usual! We had perfect weather for most of the trip! Tuesday night we ate at a place similar to Shogun...the food was delicious, great service, and fun night.

Wednesday, we headed to a private island. The hotel took you there by a boat ride that took about 15 minutes. The ocean wasn't too choppy that day. We rode horses up the island and around it. It was about an hour ride. Carley loved it. That girl loves all types of animals. After riding, Chris and Carley played putt putt, we had lunch, and then fell asleep by the ocean. Perfect day. While we were eating lunch a rain storm hit without warning. Caleb ran and got our bag so our stuff wasn't soaked. It's funny how it's sunny then all of a sudden, pouring down rain. That actually only happened two or three times while we were here.
Wednesday night, we ate at a fancy steak place called Chops. Carley ordered steak and mashed potatoes and loved it. Caleb and Chris ordered fish and said it was great. I had steak, too.
We had a brownie in a skillet pan and Pina Colada cobbler. Carley wasn't happy with the amount of brownie I put on her plate, but ended up being full. Funny how moms know these things. ;)

Thursday, I had a massage first thing (thanks Carmen for a great Christmas gift!) and met the kids and Chris at the infinity pool. Carley loved the view from there.  We then headed to the main pool which was pretty crowded that day. We found some chairs and ordered lunch. Carley met a girl in the pool from Germantown (yes, TN!) and we met her parents. Small world! They played most of the afternoon. Thursday night we ordered pizza and ate in the room. We watched football and movies. It was funny...I told Caleb to charge his phone for the night and he said, "You do realize it's 9 o'clock...y'all are old." Ha! Whoops!

Friday after breakfast, Chris went golfing and both kids wanted to go with him. He said yes and honestly I was nervous they may argue and ruin his golf day, but he said they were great. They both drove the golf cart and saw several iguanas...one even growled at Carley. Guess she scared him. Ha! While they were golfing, I laid out by the pool enjoying the sunshine...my favorite! We left the hotel and ate at a place someone recommended, Kasavista. It was good, local food.
Saturday, we hit the pool after breakfast. It was partly cloudy, but while playing volleyball, it started to sprinkle, then stopped. We saw dark clouds moving in, but stayed in the pool until it suddenly started to POUR down rain. We gathered our stuff and went to our room to pack and relax and watch football (or Netflix for Carley).

Saturday, we woke up and headed to the pool after breakfast. We braved the cold water and played volleyball in the pool. It was good for lots of laughs! It started to sprinkle, but we stayed in the pool. Then, it quit raining for about 10 minutes...and then it POURED! We got out, gathered our stuff, and went back to our room to pack and relax.
We left the hotel for a New Year's Eve dinner at a restaurant called Pacion (Passion). It was delicious! Chris had steak and lobster, Caleb had grouper, Carley had steak, and I had chicken breast with garlic sauce. For dessert, Caleb and Carley had the chocolate lava cake. That was the entire reason Carley wanted to go to that specific restaurant. It was great! We returned to our hotel after dinner and our hotel shot off fireworks at midnight. They were right in front of our balcony, so we had a great view!

This was a great getaway. It's so nice to have warm sunshine in December. I was a little nervous before we left because the weather app showed rain for every day. We found out when we arrived that most weather predictions show rain because we were so close to the rainforest. We only had cloudy/rainy weather one day! I'm so thankful for Chris working for Hilton and earning frequent flyer miles! We made some great memories on our trip to Puerto Rico!

Spring Break 2016

This year for Spring Break we went on a Disney cruise to the Western Caribbean on the Disney Fantasy. We had a great trip. We set sail Saturday, March 5th from Port Canaveral. Caleb knew several friends that were on the ship last year with us, so he immediately found them and we didn't see him much other than dinner time. Carley, Chris and I enjoyed the Sail Away party with lots of characters making an appearance. 

Our first dinner was in the Enchanted Garden restaurant where we met our servers for the week, Nery and Suzy. They were wonderful!

On a Disney cruise, you rotate between three restaurants but have the same servers. 

Day two was a day at sea. We hit the pool, found some characters, and did some activities onboard. 

Day three was in Cozumel. We didn't do a planned excursion but went off the ship to check out the port and shops and ended up taking a carriage ride around town. We made a few stops to check out a few local places. 

After we returned to the boat, we watched Zootopia in 3D. 

That evening for dinner was Pirate Night. Carley and I found Jack Sparrow for a photo shoot. 

There was also a pirate show on the ship. 

Day four was in Grand Cayman. We did an excursion called Snooba. We walked on the bottom of the ocean with a helmet on that had air pumped into it. It was great. We saw lots of fish and coral and even a barracuda. 

We returned to the ship and hung out after a little shopping. To get on and off the ship to shore, you had to take a smaller boat. 

Day five was a day at sea and was Star Wars day. People went all out dressing up as characters and Disney had characters around all day for pictures. 

All week they showed Star Wars movies and the new one. There were also several Star Wars shows that day. We had tickets to meet CP30 and R2D2. So neat!

We also had tickets to meet Chewbacca. Very cool!

The next day was another day at sea. We enjoyed great weather (just windy) and hung out at the pool and did other activities onboard. Chris and I had an adult lunch at the restaurant Palo. It was delicious. 

Our last day was at Disney's private island, Castaway Cay. It was a beautiful sunny day. The water was COLD though!

We played in the ocean, rode bikes, had lunch, played ping pong, saw hermit crab races, and more. It was a fun day.

 

Carley had a bee land on her hand while riding the bike and jumped off the moving bike and scraped her toe pretty badly. We were with another family we made friends with during the week and thankfully they had band aids.

That evening, Carley and her friend rode the Aqua Duck and had the Mickey pool to themselves for a while. 

She also got stuck on the Aqua Duck and they had to go get her from near the start of the water slide. Quite an eventful day!

We ended our dining at Animator's Palette and all drew a character they made come to life on the big screen. 

We had a fabulous time!

Forgot to include that our ship rescued 10 men from a boat that had been at sea for four days near Cuba. It was quite exciting! They kept them onboard and the Coast Guard picked them up from Castaway Cay.