Carter's first stitches

We made it six years--that's gotta count for something, RIGHT? :) For Labor Day weekend, Carter and Addison were camping with Michelle, Jason and the kids. Seth and I were in NJ for a wedding. We got home on Sunday evening and they were planning to come home Monday around lunchtime. At about 8:45 a.m. or so, I see Michelle calling me. 

When I picked up the phone, she said "So, what hospital should we take Carter to?" HA. Turns out, he was balancing on a curb and lost his balance and fell and hit his face. At first, there was some confusion because we thought the bike was involved but Carter says it was not.

Seth and I met Michelle and Carter at the Emergency Room in the town they were camping in. They beat us by quite a bit and Carter was straight-jacketed (SO SAD!) on the table when I walked in. So that he wouldn't cry when he saw me, I stayed back where he couldn't see until they were done. 

Three stitches later, he was good as new. But of course it happened on the day of the Labor Day picnic at my parents, so he couldn't swim, which was a bummer. We're just thankful his first "injury" was something this minor. 

Summer catch up

So, it was a busy summer (hence the barely blogging). Here is a quick catch-up summary! :) 

Addison got a big girl room--new bed, new bedding, still waking up a lot during the night. ;) 

Lots of Hersheypark! 

Field trips for Miss A at preschool

Pedicures with mommy! 

Saturdays at Monkey Joes

Sweaty (no seriously, holy HOT summer) hang outs with friends! 

First day of school x 2

It's hard for me to even believe that this year, Carter is in first grade! I'm pretty sure I just had him yesterday, RIGHT??? Anyway, he wasn't super thrilled with the prospect of going back to school after a whole summer home with daddy. But then he found out some of his best friends were in his class, so he got significantly more excited. Plus, we let him pick out some of his own new shirts, which he thought was pretty cool! Today was also Addison's first day of Pre-K4, so we had to get her pic too, of course! 

Sweet loves at the bus stop....why can't they ALWAYS be this sweet??

Off to the bus he goes--praying he has a great year, is a great friend and learns a ton! 

Jesus in his heart

Last night as we got the kids prepared for bed, Carter popped out into the kitchen and said "Mommy, I want to ask Jesus into my heart now." We've been really talking to him about the gospel lately and he had been asking a lot of questions. He also just returned from a week away at Trail Life camp where he heard the gospel presented clearly.

Seth and I were both there which was awesome, so we were both able to talk with him a little more to make sure he understood and to pray with him. 

Praise the Lord that our sweet boy made that decision--it was a very proud night for us as parents! 

Bahamas // DAY 7

The last day. Booooo. We didn't really have much of a "last day" since our shuttle to the airport was at 8 a.m. To be honest, neither Seth and I were feeling 100% but we felt well enough to fly without being nervous about getting sick.

We had to have our luggage outside by 7 a.m., so once we got ready and put our suitcases outside, we headed to the breakfast buffet which opened at 7:30 a.m. for one last (very quick) breakfast. We ate nice and light and safe. HA! 

We were the only two people on the shuttle back to the airport. We got dropped off right at the American Airlines door and we were checked in super quick. The Nassau airport is nothing like other Caribbean airports we've been too. It felt super nice, had American restaurants (Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Wendy's, etc.), great wifi and superb people watching. 

We were there soooo early though. We walked around, bought a rum cake, and courtesy checked our carry on rolling suitcases so we'd have free hands in Charlotte. Score! 

The rest of the day went smoothly -- early flights and no issues -- and was a good end to our trip.

We had a phenomenal week. All we wanted was a week away to relax, reconnect, and celebrate 10 years. Though life is so often chaotic and stressful, we got just what we wanted. I never forget how amazing my husband is but a week like this gave us a chance to remind each other why we fell in love in the first place. We hope to do a "just us" trip every 5 or so years. A big thanks to our parents for watching the kids. It was super calming to know they were in loving, great hands! 

Here's to one decade (almost) down with many more to go!

Bahamas // DAY 6

Friday was our last full day in the Bahamas...super bittersweet. I was really missing the kids by this point, but was sad that this was our last day in paradise. Of course we decided to spend the day just hanging out on the resort. :) Perfection! We got up, reserved our umbrella seats by the pool (in fact, one of the couples whose butler reserved them amazing seats was leaving this morning to head to the airport and they offered their spots to us. Woo hoo!) and went to breakfast at Spices, the breakfast buffet, like we had done most days. 

Then we walked around the resorts to get some parting photos of the beautiful place. The great thing about resorts like this is that people will offer to take your picture if they see you attempting to take a selfie. HA! So we were able to get this pic in the giant chair. 

My view from in the pool with a Bahama mama in my hand! 

Heaven on Earth. 

My view for basically the whole day!

So....these nachos. I can't believe we didn't discover them until mid-week. They were amazing. There were tons of toppings and you could just walk into the Royal Cafe to get them. We grabbed a bowl and enjoyed them with a view! (Sidenote: I have NO IDEA why Seth's stomach was acting up.) ;) 

This day was a little bit of a bummer in that Seth was really not feeling great after lunch. We had the Italian buffet but he hardly made it through lunch before he wanted to go back to the room to lay down. We both went back to take a nap. I am the nap QUEEN but after 45 minutes of resting, I couldn't bear to be spending the gorgeous day in the room. So I left a sleeping Seth to head back down to the pool and beach. I was down there for another hour and a half or so before he wandered down, still feeling a bit blah.

Look. at. that. water. AHHH. I miss this so much! 

The life....haha :) 

For dinner Friday night, we were going to Crystal Room, the fanciest restaurant at the plate. Seth was feeling a little bit better but it didn't last too long...I got my dessert to go and we headed back to the room for a bit for his stomach to settle. 

When he was feeling a little better, we took a walk to check out the penthouse gym with a view. WOW, I'm glad we did. So peaceful and gorgeous. And right at sunset. 

And then we found this place. I have no idea why we never looked for something like this earlier. Probably because there was good entertainment every night but Friday night's entertainment wasn't that great. We found this giant comfy chairs to sit back and watch the sun set over the ocean. We sat for probably an hour and a half or more. We even Facetimed with the kids!! The weather was picture perfect -- NOT the 95 + humidity we had been experiencing all week, but breezy and cooler. 

Bahamas // DAY 5

On Thursday, we took a Bahamian food and historic tour in downtown Nassau. We had to leave the resort at 10:45 a.m. to be taken by shuttle downtown. So we got up kind of early that day and had breakfast and hit up the pool by 8 a.m. so we could enjoy a couple hours before leaving. 

I headed back to the room around 10 a.m. to get ready, put on some make up and whatnot. In our room, I bent down to move the camera bag and A LIZARD CAME OUT FROM BEHIND IT. I promptly freaked out (because Seth was still down at the pool for awhile) and began sending him SOS texts to his phone. He wasn't responding but he finally came back around 10:30. I had been sitting on the bed watching his every move when Seth returned. I had already contacted the front desk about maybe putting some sort of door blocker at the bottom of our door because the gap was so big lizards could fit. But Seth to the rescue! He used our selfie stick to shoo the little guy out -- RIGHT into the room of the people next door. WHOOPS!!! 

At 10:45, we headed down to the lobby for what we assumed was going to be a busy excursion. To our surprise, we were the only people from the resort on this tour which was super awkward for us. As the shuttle pulled away from Sandals, we thought we were going to be fully alone with the tour guide for the next couple hours. But then things got weirder. Our shuttle driver pulls up in front of a gigantic church--the Christ Church Cathedral--opens the door, and tells us to have a great day! We were like "Ummmmmm...." He told us that the tour starts "near the church" and that someone should be meeting us soon. We waited for 15 minutes and still no one. 

Nassau is not a safe city at all, which is ironic because of all the Caribbean places we or I've been, this one by far felt the most developed and safe. But apparently, Nassau has the highest murder rate in the Caribbean--and that includes the tourist ridden areas as well. It's also rampant with petty crime and armed robberies. So I was not thrilled by the fact that we were standing there alone, looking 100% like tourists.

But then finally, another couple showed up and then a family of 4. Thank God. Our tour guide, Nick, showed up shortly after! 

The tour combined several food stops with historical information and buildings, so it was really fun. Our first stop was to a traditional Bahamian lunch cafe where we were served what's below. From top left, clockwise: mac and cheese, rice and peas, steamed chicken, cole slaw and fried plantains. Everything was really good except the plantains. Weird. We were also served conch fritters at this restaurant. 

The balcony house--the oldest wooden structure in Nassau

I loved all the bright colors of the buildings downtown! 

Other stops along the way included a Cigar Factory where we saw them being rolled, the Graycliff mansion, Chocolate Factory, a gelato place, rum cake factory, etc. We tasted fresh chocolates, banana gelato (amazing!!!), rum cake, various spices and hot sauces, conch chowder, and a Greek salad.

Governor's place

At one of the tops, I was able to get a coconut with a straw which I've always wanted to do. Ew. Ew. Ew. I was expecting cold, refreshing, sweet milk and it was anything but. It was bitter, salty water basically. I seriously could have barfed it was so disgusting!! Needless to say, that was $10 down the drain. (I still shudder thinking about the taste of that. BLECH)

After our last stop at the rum cake factory, the Sandals driver was back to get us and we made our very short drive to the resort which is good because Seth wasn't feel very well at all. He was sick for most of the afternoon and just feeling generally blah. We had a 9 p.m. dinner reservation so we came back and got changed and went to the pool/beach for the afternoon to just relax. We were kind of hoping Seth feeling sick was a fluke, but it wasn't so much. He was off and on sick for the rest of this day (Thursday) and into tomorrow...

We did manage to clean up and go to dinner though. Before that, we headed to the resort gift shop which was really good. We got Carter a stuffed turtle, some Bahamian vanilla for us, Bahamian spices for our parents, and hand carved pencils for the kids. 

Our reservation was for Gordon's on the Pier. It was so pretty out there--a gorgeous, cool, breezy night. We had fillet and shrimp skewers, but were both feeling a bit blah so we headed back to the room after and watched some TV and just headed to bed.

The beautiful view from our dinner table. 

Bahamas // DAY 4

Wednesday was, of course, another gorgeous day (as if I had any doubts!). It was strictly a pool and beach day which was just fine with me. We opted for the "loud" pool because it was just closer to the beach and the weather was picture-perfect so I knew I'd want to spend a lot of time in the ocean. We had breakfast at the buffet again. It was a little disappointing because the items on the buffet really didn't change day-to-day. I mean, you could of course get different things but there wasn't anything "new." 

I played with the waterproof phone case again and took pics like the one above and the ones below. Four days in and I was just still in absolute awe at  how gorgeous the water was! 

For lunch we hit up the Royal Grill. Seth had a wrap and I had some sort of steak sandwich. This is also the day that we discovered the nachos. Holy cow. We've obviously had nachos before but these were ah.maz.ing. We kept our will power though and only had them for lunch on this day and then one other time later in the week. WIN. 

We were so tired after this day for some reason. I think it was just so much time out in the sun that it was draining. We had a 6 p.m. dinner reservation at the French restaurant, Baccarat, and we were actually very tired for it. (In hindsight I can now see that it was perhaps the beginning of Seth getting sick...)

The entertainment on this night was some sort of Reggae band. They were good but we were seriously just so tired and blah. We went outside to watch this man roll Cuban cigars right in front of the crowd. I couldn't believe how quick it was to make one. At this point, Seth was feeling a little "off" so we just hung out by the pier and then headed back to the room to relax and go to bed. We scheduled an off-site excursion for Thursday, too!