Who would have thought we could have so successfully pulled of a family trip amongst 12 of our friends!  I was worried about trying to find that perfect balance between having “family time” and “friend time” and my expectations around spending time with just the 4 of us (well, 5 if you count the little one in my belly) were a bit threw the roof.  But, in the end, we were upgraded to a HOUSE on the hill – about 10 minutes away from anyone else – just enough space so that people to allow us to be alone when we wanted but join the chaos when it felt easy and right as well.  The house itself was amazing – slept 12 and we had it all to ourselves.  The only freaky thing was that it had its own pool – on the same level as the kids’ room.  They could have literally walked out their sliding glass door and jumped right in.  So, we had the maintenance folks duck tape the doors shut which eased our minds.

The trip was a dream.  Everything we needed to relax and rejuvinate.  The kids spent every day in the pool, either at our house or down at the resort.  We went into town on a couple occasions to get some good food (shrimp tacos at The Office) and to spend some time at the beach.  We all got too much sun but that was inevitable.  Highlights of the trip were

#1: Liam jumping off the Sky Pool ledge – about an 8 foot drop into the pool below and coming up out of the water and yelling “AWESOME!”  The people in the pool could not believe it and I didn’t think there was a chance he would actually do it!  We were so proud but, as Leif put it, “that was awesome – now never do that again!”

#2: Skyler passing the “swim test.”  Ok, she is not exactly swim safe but she had a major break through swimming with her daddy in our pool at the house.  She worked hard and by the end could swim all the way across, grab the ledge and pull herself up.  She spent the rest of the day chanting, “Skyler passed the swim test, Skyler passed the swim test.”

#3: Leif being the supportive and humble husband that he is and letting me practice my barre classes with him on our patio.  I had just taken the training and did not want to forget, so he agreed to be my guinea pig and let me teach him!  So sweet.

#4: Shrimp tacos at The Office.  The kids got to play in the sand with their sand toys while we relaxed and ate such a good meal.

#5: Loren’s birthday dinner.  I forget the name of the restaurant but we had fresh shrimp and lobster.  I have to admit, it would have been a little more fun for me had I been able to drink a margarita or 4, but it was a great celebration nonetheless!