What a vacation! We flew to the Turks and Caicos on Thursday, February 14 very early - 5:07 a.m.! This was our second trip to the Beaches Resort there, and it did not disappoint. We arrived around 2:30 p.m. after connecting in Miami, and Amanda, Chad, Peyton and Garrison immediately hit the pool. The grandparents decided to sit that one out and unpack/relax before dinner.
Each day we had breakfast in Reflections, a buffet in our village (Caribbean - we stayed in the French village last time). Garrison really enjoyed ordering his eggs cooked exactly like he likes them. Each day the menu varied a little, but it was basic breakfast food with bacon, sausage, made to order eggs or omelets, made to order breakfast burritos and all kinds of pastries, fruits, cereals, etc. We did not go hungry for sure.
We had lunch in various restaurants including Bobby Dee's, The Mac and Cheese Food Truck which was fun, Dino's, Barefoot on the Beach, etc. Everything from burgers and fries to pizza to you name it. Again - we loved every one.
Dinners were delicious and fun. One night, we went to Kimono's Japanese Hibachi restaurant which the kids didn't like so much, but the adults enjoyed. We were at a table with 2 other families, and our chef cooked it all right in front of us, from the fried rice to shrimp, beef, chicken, veggies, etc. We had cheesecakes for dessert. Amanda and Chad had a date night to Skye, a rooftop all adult restaurant, while the kids and grandparents ate at Gieseppi's buffet in the French Village. It was a pasta buffet, each plate made to order - the kids loved it, and so did we. I added shrimp, mushrooms, onions, etc. to mine and asked for a half order and still could not eat it all. They had lots of other things to add to our dinner and a huge buffet of desserts. The other nights, we all ate together, at Mario's, Neptunes, etc. We ate a lot of seafood and enjoyed it all.
We had our pictures professionally on the beach which all turned out beautifully. Amanda hasn't yet loaded those to me, so I will share some of those later.
We spent a day at the beach. Peyton and Chad went parasailing, which she loved. Garrison enjoyed jumping on a water obstacle course, and of course playing in the sand. We ate lunch at Arizona's, a close by buffet that day. Another day we all went out on the Kitty Kat Catamarain. Amanda, Chad and Garrison went snorkeling in the ocean during that excursion (Garrison's first time), they went down a big slide into the ocean, jumped into the ocean, and explored an uninhabited beach and had beach pictures professionally taken.
Ron and Chad played golf at a nearby golf course one day and had a great time. While they did that, the rest of us went to the water park inside the resort and the pool in the French Village. The kids (and us) loved having tropical drinks (their's virgin) at the different pool swim up bars. My favorite this time were frozen strawberry daiquiri's. Amanda liked Miami Vice's (a combination of pina colada and strawberry daiquiri's), the kids liked chocolate monkey's which were a chocolate banana blended frozen drink - all fun.
We had rooms next door to each other, not adjoining this time, and I think the kids liked it better. They slept in our room every night on a day bed/trundle and took turns sleeping on the top one or bottom one. We played a lot of Crazy 8's in the room and had a great time with that. Chad and Garrison and Grandpa and Garrison played the huge outdoor chess games and shuffle board. We swam and swam and spent most of the days in swimsuits. Enjoyed watching the ocean. Beautiful days at 80 degrees and nights around 75 degrees - no jackets!
The kids and grandparents took a golf cart ride to some of the far away destinations for meals, etc. and had fun with that. They kept our refrigerator stocked with sodas, juices, bottled water, wine and beer.
We had a wonderful time and enjoyed each other's company so much - made lots of wonderful family memories. Our plane was delayed for a couple of hours in Charlotte on the way home, so we didn't get to KCI until 1:30 a.m. It was snowing, and it turned out it was good our plane was late because if we had arrived on time, the snow plows would not have been through yet. It was slow getting home on the snow packed and icy roads, but we just went slow and made it fine in 2 1/2 hours. Ron did a great time driving us home, arriving around 4:30 a.m. We slept until 7 a.m., and will be ready for a nap this afternoon.
We feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to spend a week with our favorite people in the world in paradise and hope to do it again sometime. God is good. This same week last year, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and feel blessed to now be cancer free and have survived the chemo and radiation - a tough year. But - we made it, and now we are ready to make some more family memories. Thank you God!
