Are you happy Papa?

Our family vacation started at 4am Thursday morning. We both slept close to midnight doing last minute things and were completed exhausted.  Not a good start…starting at 0 energy for our vacation. But doesn’t that always happen?

We woke up the kids, and they were great despite the darkness. Olivia was amazed that is was still so dark. William, well, we literally got him up 5 minutes before we left. We got the airport in no time, thanks to Papa’s anxiousness.  We checked in and went through customs with no difficulty. We were able to run around and eat a “proper” (Tim’s croissant and muffins) breakfast before we boarded. Our flight to Charlottle took off at 7:30 and about 8:00am everyone had passed out for the flight. We manage a good flight with no tantrums, minimal crying, and no iPad. It was great!

We got to Charlotte happy and somewhat rested, but starving again. The airport was lovely, and it had a Starbucks every 50 feet.  Unfortunately, our stop over wasn’t long enough to enjoy this treat. We had lunch , then family bathroom time, and then we boarded our 3 hours flight to TURKS AND CAICOS.

We manage another nap. A longer one for Miss O thankfully, but William just couldn’t get comfy.  Needless to say, we gave lots of snacks, some walking time up and down the aisle, and some iPad time.  Finally we landed, with screaming toddler and wanted to jump out of the plane.  It was an interesting landing, the waters surrounding the island were beautiful.  When we got out of our plane, we were surprised that we had to walk down the plane and onto the tarmac.  Olivia was amazed by how big the plane was. Martin and I were amazed by the gust of humid Caribeean air that struck our faces.  YAY!!!!!

We got our luggage and found our shuttle. We headed towards our hotel in the brief rain shower. Who cares!  We were at Turks and Caicos!  We arrived to our hotel and we were greeted by a man who gaves us wet towels to refresh ourselves. Dozens of greetings and welcomes, and yummy fruit RUM punch.  At this point, Olivia and William were over excited and want to run!  Run they did - in the front lobby and devoured all the snacks available to them, while we were checking in. Oh forgot to mention, the lovely yummy punch spilled all over beautiful Parisian style chairs. What a day!!!! We needed to get to our rooms and out in the fresh air.

We got to our lovely room.  A large king size bed, then a trundle bed for Olivia and in the corner we fit a crib for William.   It was tight, but we had the best location and a first floor walk out.  It was perfect. When we got there, we managed to change into lighter clothing and unpack. But the kids were getting ancy and needed to move.  We loaded up the stroller again and went to explore our grounds.  Maman and Papa headed first to Café Paris for a well deserved latte.  We were dying!  It was sooo good that as we were walking and drank it so fast that I spilled some on my white shirt. Ugh.  Anyways…we got our caffeine (even though mine was decaf) and ventured out.  We saw the pools, we saw Camp Sesame, and then we got to the beach. Halleluja!  We were in heaven.

Olivia right away wanted to go down and play in the water.  So we took off our sandals and dipped our feet in the ocean. Yay!  Actually everyone except Sir William.  As soon as his toe touched the water, he turned back and headed straight to the BEACH LOUNGER!  It was hilarious! Here we are splashing around in the water, and William managed to climb up on the lounger and just sat there watching.  Sure enough, all this playing around someone was going to get really wet. The tide was pretty strong that time of night, and pulled Miss O back. She lost her balanced and in she went into the water. Face and all. Sigh.  Now what.  We didn't bring anything with us to the beach.  So Papa had to take off his shirt and give it to Olivia because our room was about a 5 minute walk from the beach, and she would have been frozen.  So we took off her wet clothes and slipped on the shirt.  She actually thought this was hilarious. People were laughing too!  It was a priceless moment. This will be interesting!

We left the beach and walk around the Italian village and picked up a couple of pizzas and headed towards our village – the French quarters. Man, we love this all-inclusive stuff.  We hadn’t done "all inclusive" ever, so this picking up food and leaving was new to us. We got to our village and had our dinner.  We were done.  But…the night was not over.

After dinner, we went back to the room to give the kids a quick bath. Then we headed back out to the main stage which was around the corner from our room to watch The Sesame Street Concert. We got there, Olivia started off excited, but then out of no where, she panicked and want to go.  I think it was a mixture of over tiredness and the new place.  We calmed her down and show started.  As soon as the characters stepped on that stage she had forgotten why she was so nervous. She was waving and screaming as all the characters came on stage to sing. She and William were clapping their hands and she just wanted to dance. It was so much fun to see. We had built this trip up so much with Olivia and William about Elmo and the other characters. We were relieved to see that Olivia was excited about that too.  Tomorrow would be less difficult when we leave them at camp.

After the concert, they were done and so were we.  We were up since 4am!  We got back to our room and slowly the kids passed out. As soon as the kids passed out, Papa went out to get ourselves some sweet treats.  Then finally we both passed out.  What a day, but we made it.  And it’s heaven here. Till tomorrow.