Puerto Rico

Instead of taking our annual trip to the Outer Banks (which ended up being a good decision as there were higher than normal shark attacks in water that was only waist deep), we opted for a trip to Puerto Rico. We did a lot of research deciding on where to stay on the island and opted for the North Eastern side and in the Bahia Beach Resort. We stayed in DC at the Westin the night before and enjoyed a good night sleep in the heavenly beds before catching our 8am flight that would take us directly to PR in less than 4 hours! 

 While waiting for the shuttle to pick us up we discovered an apricot tree right outside the hotel. I grew up with and apricot tree in our back yard and nothing compares to fruit right from the tree! And these beauties were no exception. We were devastated to find when we returned 8 days later the tree had been picked clean...not because the fruit was prime, but because it can be messy, so I'm sure the Westin wasn't interesting in having their guests see this upon arrival. A shame really, as they were the best apricots I had the entire summer!

Flying in teams of three!

Our first stop was to this BBQ spot, Bebo's, that was highly rated in Yelp (love that app) and it certainly didn't disappoint! The line was so long and it was very hot, but wow was it worth the wait. It may have ended up being my favorite food of the trip.

Once we got to our rental house Caleb was geared up to be our chauffeur for the week. Believe me he took every opportunity to drive this cart around the resort. In hind sight the resort ended up being the highlight of the trip. We made several attempts to follow the suggestions of the guide books to explore different parts of the island, but our expectations were never met, so by the 4th day, we decided the best use of our time was spent on this beautiful little piece of PR. There was a two mile stretch of beach that was breath taking. The pools which I have no photos of unfortunately, were super fun and we even broke some of the rules and swam in the adults only section one evening when we were the only ones there. I'll never forget sitting on the ledge that fed water from the adult pool into the family pool and all 6 of us jumping off together. Love these boys!

This section of beach was roped off to protect the sea turtle nest. We were not there when they hatched which greatly disappointed Jonah!

Not a great photo, but this was the inside of our rental house for our first breakfast.

Evening on the beach. The sun set at 7:00, so evening was like 5:30.

The Boat House included this huge climbing structure that we played on every single day! Jared and I quickly found out that keeping up with the boys brought on sore muscles!

Playing King of the Mountain!

Fishing was also available at the boat house and Caleb even caught one!

This was the view from the resort of El Yunque. Yes it was golf resort although we never golfed.

Our first day of PR experiences took us snorkeling to some reefs. We were all excited to use our new gear and spend some time seeing beautiful bright fish and coral. We made it to our first stop where we practiced using our gear and saw a few fun fish and coral, but were then trapped on the boat when a viscous and intense storm came upon us very quickly. We stayed anchored at this first little island while the rain and wind beat down on us for about 45 minutes. At one point I felt if the wind were just a touch stronger it could potentially flip the entire boat. It was a little nerve racking! We were called back to port and thus ended our one and only attempt to snorkel. The weather kept the seas unsafe for snorkeling the rest of the week, so unfortunately we were never allowed to venture out again. But, Jonah got to steer us into port thanks to the fun captain who did his best to give us a memorable experience.

There were coconut trees all over the resort, so Caleb knocked one down and was super excited to cut into it to get it's milk which was not as pleasant as he'd hoped! Obviously not all coconut milk is equal. But the adventure was definitely worth it.

We ventured out one day to hike in El Yunque:

Gavin must have brushed against something. It took the remainder of the day for this to finally go away. A stinging nettle of some sort.

I think we spent the most time at the tennis courts at night. With the sun setting so early, and with two lighted courts we took advantage of the relative coolness. This was the only morning photo when the boys wanted to play.

A view from our back patio.....it was so quiet and peaceful!

Exploring our part of the resort's beach called sand dollar beach, for obvious reasons:

I've never collected this many sand dollars, let alone come across some that were still alive! These are all dead but you see the difference in size and color!

Beach time:

About five miles outside of the resort was this little horse betting game that we passed every day. It was closed during the week, but the weekend it grew some pretty decent crowds, so we decided to try our luck. There was one woman there who was born in New Jersey, who explained the rules, otherwise we were the only English speakers there. We all cycled through wins and losses until our $20 was doubled, then tripled, then lost.

Our last morning we made one last attempt to play on the water structure before our flight. We drove up only to find about 25 preteen girls scaling every inch of the place. We opted instead for one last drive around the resort and by the time we came back the girls were gone so of course we grabbed our life jackets and played one last time as a family. These were amazing days and now amazing memories that I will forever treasure!

Spring Events

There was a lot of wrapping up of events this Spring. We had the last of the music performances, Gavin's graduation, and a 5th grade burnathon.

The final Youth Orchestra concert was at Old Cabell Hall at the University of Virginia. The boys all played very well and put up with the photo shoot afterwards. 

Gavin graduated from elementary school! I never grew up with graduations other than from high school and college, but things have changed. Not only did Gavin graduate from elementary school he previously graduated from preschool.

His first award was a music recognition award for his participation in the county wide Honors Choir. They have tryouts and the students selected practice for several weeks before joining all the other elementary students for a full day of bringing their voices together and a culminating concert for parents. Gavin was then awarded an outstanding music award for his work on the drums for all the 5th grade performances.

 Some of his artwork on display during graduation.

Our all-time favorite gym teacher who loved Gavin and kept pushing him on everything from the pacer test, push-up test, pull-up test, and sit-up test to set some records as well keeping his status as fasted kid in his class for all 6 years. As all his coaches have said, including this man...Gavin is a pleasure to work with!

Gavin loves Mrs. Parmalee! We were happy she moved out of the gifted resources program to come back to the classroom. She is a woman who never slows down, always has a great sense of humor and is always thinking of ways to get her students to look at the world in new and inventive ways. So also LOVED Ruby and would come out to the pick-up spot just to see her on the days I remembered to bring her. Gavin would get frustrated with me on the days I forgot her....

Love these friends!

After graduation we took Gavin to the Boar's Head for a fun lunch....of note, this was the first graduation that Jared was home for, so it was fun to have him along as well!

That night we hosted the 5th grade Virginia Studies Burnathon. The kids (and many parents) were less than enthused about their VA studies teacher so we followed a tradition of burning homework at the end of the year that was started with Caleb's 5th grade friends (they had the same teacher too). We made homemade individual pizzas and set to torching the homework. It was a night to remember for these boys!