Our best family trip yet!!

Ever since the boys have been born we constantly been traveling.  We took Max on a ski trip when he was just 9 weeks old and there have been many more since then.  Usually the trip isn't much of a break and its a lot of work, especially just getting othere, but this trip was perfect!

Sleeping on the plane

Max is at the golden age where he is just excited about everything and he rarely throws a fit anymore.  We only had a total of 3 fits while we were on vacation...and I wanted to throw a fit 2 of the times also, so I really couldn't blame him (airport security really is a pain in the butt!).    He was excited about the airplane ride and the hum of the motor just but him right to sleep for a little bit of the flight.  He was extremely excited to see the blue water and the beach and even more excited when I told him we would be swimming everyday!  We did have one problem for the first 3 days...Max is VERY picky about his food.  He will usually only eat if I have cooked it or McDonalds...neither one of these things would be happening in Turks and Caicos.  So for the first 3 days he lived of frosted flakes and a few cookies.  Just as I was about to break down and find a grocery store and figure out a way to cook something he miraculously started eating everything!  Soon breakfast became one of his favorite things about the trip!  Every morning there was an amazing breakfast buffet and Max loved to go and get a stack of pancakes, bowl of fruit loops, and some ice cream juice (a fresh banana smoothie).  We were also able to take him on a parasail ride.  I was pretty skeptical at first, I thought we would get up there and he would freak, but he kept saying the whole trip that he wanted to fly, so the last day we were able to take him.  The crazy kid loved it!!  He didn't get a bit scared and I have to admit I was pretty scared at first because I felt completely out of control.  We were 60 feet up in the air and Max was screaming for them to go faster and he just loved when the boat driver would let us fall really fast and dip our feet in the water and bring us right back up.  It is a memory I will never ever forget.  My little 3 year old dare devil.  Needless to say he did not want to "go back to the home," and neither did I.

Jerry was a little more of a challenge than Max because he is still extremely schedule oriented.  He hates being late for his nap and punishes everyone around if he is late.  So keeping him up for the plane ride was a huge, cranky challenge.  But on the way there he slept at least half of the way.  The way back was a plane ride straight from hell, luckily the hell only lasted 3.5 hours.  Jerry gets excited about everything Max is excited about, even if he doesn't really even know what is going on.  They are so cute to watch play together and see their excitement build.  We were able to take Jerry on a banana boat ride and it was a sight I will never forget.  Jerry is still soooo tiny he is still wearing an infant life vest, so he was adorable to see on this huge banana boat float.  I sat behind him and tried to not be terrified that something bad might happen, while the boat driver went an incredibly slow 3-5 mph as per my request.  Jerry was sitting on his butt with his knees curled up to him and his tiny little feet poking out from underneath his life jacket and the whole time he would scream "weee."  He just loved it.  However, for the rest of the trip anytime he saw a banana boat drive by he would scream," My boat, get it get it!"  I guess he thought since he rode it that it was now his.

My two sisters and Reed also became officially scuba certified on this trip!!!  I am so excited about this because scuba diving is possibly one of my most favorite activities and now I have some people to enjoy it with.  They passed all their tests with flying colors.  We were able to go diving 3 times.  The water was beautiful.  The first two dives I went with mom and dad because Reed, Autumn, and Alex were still taking classes.  But mom and I were able to get super close to a sea turtle, see a ton of lion fish, stingrays, and way too many sharks for our liking.  Dad just loves to see sharks...not sure why.  Mom, unfortunately wasn't able to go on the big group dive because on her second dive she got a reverse block in her ear, which I am told is an incredibly painful experience.  She was sooo upset that she couldn't go, but that just gives us an excuse to go on another diving trip.  Autumn is terrified of sharks, so of course on her first official dive as being scuba certified we saw 6 or 7 sharks (not sure if there was 6 or 7 because I felt like I saw the same shark twice), but she took it like a champ.  Alex is also pretty scared of sharks and you really don't want to be around her when she sees one because she will push whoever she is with in front of her so the shark doesn't see her...she is defiantly not my dive partner!  Reed did an amazing job, but he tends to use ALOT of air!  He is always giving the half tank signal while the rest of us have tons of air left.  I told him we just need to dive more and he will learn how not to use so much, needless to say he is hooked!  I think it is one of his favorite hobbies now too.

The trip was absolutely amazing and I hope to post pictures soon, Reed has the camera at work now and I suspect he will be working a whole lot, so I won't be seeing him much this week.  I only wish we didn't have to wait another year before next spring break.  Thanks so much mom and dad for taking us with you!!  It was defiantly the best trip ever, filled with memories we will never, ever forget!