Adults Only Vacay!

Recently my family had a wonderful opportunity to do an "adults only" vacation to the Turks and Caicos.  It was an AMAZING 4 nights and 5 days.  When my dad first brought up the idea of going away with just us adults a few years ago it seemed wonderful but almost laughable.  How would we ever coordinate all of our schedules?  Would their ever be a time where someone was not pregnant, nursing, etc and who on earth would watch all the kids?  Last October Vivi turned one, we booked our plane tickets and May seemed forever away but it finally was here!   

I don't know why but all four kids fell apart when we left that morning! Like all of them were sobbing. What a way to start the vacation!  

My poor in laws!  My sweet mother in law texted me 10 mins later to let me know that everyone was fine as soon as we left which definitely helped my mental state because I was feeling some major mom guilt.  

How he falls asleep so quickly and anywhere we are I will never know...

Ryan and I had a VERY tight connection to make the only flight to the island from Charlotte.  Then we got delayed in New Bern... my parents were texting us to hurry that they would not hold the plane for us.  We finally made it to Charlotte and SPRINTED to the plane, one of the last ones aboard!  This was our "we made it" picture!  I'm pretty sure Greer and I talked the entire second flight much to the misery of our husbands.  

We are here! 

Let the vacay begin!

Four mornings to sleep late.  I still cannot believe it! 

Ready for dinner at the hotel 

Those were some impressive shrimp 

Every morning we got to sleep in, drink unlimited coffee, and linger over brunch.  Then we hit the beach!

Ryan and I decided to get extra relaxed on this beach bed.  My absolute favorite part of this trip besides spending time with my family was reading! Non stop reading!!! I love to read and rarely ever get to read for pleasure anymore so I spent hours each day on the beach or on our balcony with some new books.  

Love my crazy dad!  As this picture shows the weather was not great while we were there but we didn't even care. It was just another excuse to be lazy and do nothing.  

I snapped this picture on our first full day and I love what it showed- long uninterrupted conversations together.  

Meanwhile back home my sweet village was great about sending me pictures of my kiddos.  This was from Andrew and Kate's teacher of their class with their snow cones.  I saw it and thought "where is Kate"  It turns out she started throwing up an hour after we left!  I felt so bad for my in-laws but they took the best care of her and honestly I think she enjoyed the extra attention. :) 

Another mom sent me a picture of H and his buddy from field day 

Starting to feel a little better 

Donuts with Dad- thankfully Pop was willing to fill in for Ryan 

James's class's field day 

Helping Pop with the grill 

Another night another dinner!

This restaurant was amazing 

Face time with the kids 

Cheers! 

Back to the hotel to relax 

More fun in the sun 

Dinner at a local food truck

Dance party on the beach! Hopefully we burned the videos from that night bc I don't know if anyone needs to see my dancing lol. 

Loved this time with him 

There were so many great parts of this trip but I especially loved getting to have this time with Greer.  When she and David started dating we lived very far away and when they got married I already had two young kids; most of our time now is spent with 6 kids who we love dearly but definitely keep us busy! It was so nice to just chat uninterrupted and for us both to really relax together.  

Our dinner view the last night- right on the beach. 

All week my mom wanted a picture of us in this pool under the water so David decided to hop in after dinner our last night with his shorts on for her to get the perfect shot.  Needless to say he is her favorite kid! 

Packed and ready to go home 

So long Turks and Caicos! 

I don't like to call this trip a once in a life time opportunity because I hope there will be other opportunities one day.  However it was definitely an incredibly special trip for all of us, an incredible gift to have that kind of time to spend together.  Special thanks to my parents and to my in-laws; we could never have done it without all of them!