Atlantis Family Trip 2010

In the ocean together on the Catamaran day

walking to the pool

Playing in the pool

on the boat

Best buddies and I love watching them play together - they could disappear together on the beach and be happy as clams!

Parker LOVES himself some Elisabeth

Attempt at a family picture

Mark and I on family "fun" day - right after Melissa and I crushed in the water bikes

the amazing aquariums

Parker and Mark after swimming with dolphins

Some highlights from our trip to Atlantis this year. We had even more fun this year than last. I think the biggest difference was the boys were a year older making everything easier - airplane travel, sleeping arrangements, ect. They were also able to enjoy so many more things and look forward to the things that they remembered from last year.

The beach is always the highlight for me. I LOVE the catamaran day. It is my absolute favorite and it was made even better this year because of this amazing, private beach where they docked. All three boys love the ocean and have become great swimmers so it is so much fun for me to be in the ocean with them. Clear, beautiful water, soft sand, no crowds, riding out on a sail boat, cool fish and coral, boys enjoying God's creation and their cousins = it does not get any better to me!! Matt and I swam down the beach and raced back on the sand . . . I lost . . badly :( I also loved that we could throw on suits and go down to the pools whenever we had a block of time.

Parker said his favorite thing about the trip were the dolphins and sea lions "giving them kisses and hugs and fishies" (kind of surprised) he didn't seem that into when we were out there. He also said his favorite was playing with Logan and sleeping (?? again). I will inject that he really loved Elisabeth and Kendra and still talks about them everyday. He also loved the kids pool and swimming anywhere I would take him - including the ocean - head down swimming - he loves it!

Davis said his favorite was swimming in the pools, getting to go on the big water slide (one of the guys let him go down one time even though he didn't meet the height requirement - yikes - but excited for him), being on the boat (catamaran), the beach and playing with his cousins. I think that about covers the whole trip!

Grayson also had a great time. He didn't love the sand (guess the progress from last summer wore off in the winter - have to work on that) but he LOVES the water - pool or ocean. He is becoming quite the little fish. He also was sick on and off on this trip - but trooped along everywhere and still slept great at night - Hooray! He was pretty smitten with Miss Kendra also :)

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess what my husband liked . . . he loves himself a good meal at a restaurant and that gets even better for him if we can go out and enjoy that without the chaos of eating with the boys. We ate some great meals this week, and thanks to Kendra, Elisabeth and Miranda, we were able to spend several nights "on a date". Sadly, he doesn't love the beach. The Caribbean ocean is completely lost on him - SO SAD! But he does like the water slides. They have some pretty fun slides at this resort. I think he also likes the lazy river. It is a super fun thing to do with the boys.

This trip is such a blessing. Beside getting to enjoy some of God's most amazing creation (nothing like doing your Bible study starring at the ocean), I get to watch my family build great relationships with each other and this is priceless to me. Nicci was able to come with us this year and it wouldn't have been the same without her. Our family is a precious gift of God to me and being somewhere where we can enjoy so many things together is amazing. I laughed with my siblings and cousins harder on this trip than I can remember in a long time! Good, good times.