Puerto Rico!

We had an AMAZING trip to Puerto Rico, and it's taken me a few days to adjust back to real life.  There's so much to say about the trip, but I will try to give the highlights in my blog post.  I've mentioned before that this is my personal record, and I don't expect anyone else to care about my vacation details!

Monday, March 5th - I was quite anxious all day.  Although excited for the fun vacation with Ryan, there is SO much that goes into leaving on a trip.  Roy and Bonnie were happy to help with my preparations, but most of my stress came from making sure the kid's schedules were organized.  I typed 5 pages of notes for Roy and Bonnie, complete with each day's activities, addresses they would need, friends willing to help, daily chores for the kids, favorite foods of each kid, doctor information, etc.  I also had about a million errands to run before the day was over.  When I dropped off Brynlie at dance class, I rushed to the dollar store and picked up 7 small gifts for each of the kids - one for each day we would be gone.  The only kid I was really concerned about leaving was Brynlie.  She is very attached to me, and had been giving me extra kisses for weeks in preparation for the time I would be gone.  She held my hand the entire ride home from dance, and asked me to sit in the car with her for a few minutes after we pulled in the garage.  She began crying after we went in the house and hardly slept at all the whole night.  She wrote cute notes to me and Ryan, and literally cried for hours.  That sweet girl has such a tender heart and doesn't like change of any kind.  The other kids were completely fine with us leaving!  I wrote a note to the kids and put lipstick kisses all over the paper, so Brynlie would have a way to give me a kiss every morning and night.

Tuesday, March 6th - We were awake super early, and off to the airport by 5:00 am.  Our first plane took us to Chicago, then we were off to Miami before our final destination in San Juan.  It was a  long day of traveling, but I found a way to keep occupied (reading!).  As we were flying into San Juan, we couldn't believe how green and densely populated the city is.  We found a shuttle bus to take us to our rental car, but had forgotten that we'd decided on Hertz instead of Budget.  After standing in the Budget lot while the clerks tried to find out reservation, we realized we had made a mistake.  We grabbed our suitcases and walked down the street to the Hertz car lot.  By now it was getting late and I was excited to see the island before it was too dark.  It didn't work out since we sat in the Hertz lot for over an hour while they "prepared our car."  We couldn't figure out why they didn't have the car prepared already, since we were 2 hours past the time we told them we'd arrive.  After finally getting in a car, we tried to exit the lot and were told they gave us the wrong car.  I started grumbling but we switched cars and got on the road.  We stopped at a nice restaurant named Metropol for some authentic Cuban food.  I ordered a combination platter so I could taste the flavors and decide what items I wanted to eat more of during the week.  Food is a HUGE part of our vacations!  We then drove to Rio Grande, where our resort was located.  It took about an hour to drive to the resort, and I loved seeing the sights of the island.  We checked into the Rio Mar Beach Resort late at night, and were excited to crash on our bed.  Make that bed(s) - we accidentally got a room with 2 queen beds instead of 1 king.  We both acted a bit annoyed to the check-in clerk, but then admitted to each other later that having our own bed sounded heavenly!  Haha, how pathetic are we?  That's what 15 years of marriage and 4 kids can do to two tired parents.  We planned to fall asleep immediately, but started watching the Super Tuesday Republican events and didn't get to sleep until pretty late. 

Wednesday, March 7th - After sleeping in until 9:45 (wow), we got ready and walked around the resort for a while.  It's beautiful, and has 2 golf courses that seem to stretch on forever along the beach area.  Then we drove around before stopping at a local restaurant on the side of the road.  After pointing at a picture of the main dish I wanted, I asked for a roll on the side.  The man didn't understand what I meant, so I pointed to an item in a glass case that looked like a roll.  When I bit into it, I realized it was FAR from being a roll.  It was some kind of local potato that is mushy and stuffed with spicy ground beef.  Ick.  When I want bread, I want bread.  Ryan was nice enough to find a cute bakery nearby where I could order an entire loaf of fresh bread!

Sitting outside the resort.  The beach was right behind Ryan, who was taking this picture.

I was ready to move to Puerto Rico when I saw their gas prices!!  After filling up with gas, however, we realized that they advertise the rates in liters instead of gallons.  Darn!

We wandered through some neighborhoods so I could see the island off the beaten path.  I love to explore the way locals really live, and there's no better way to experience the actual culture than to go where the locals actually go.  We stopped at a grocery store for some simple food items to keep in our hotel.  I found some Frosted Flakes (called Zukaritas in Spanish) and looked around for milk.  After being unable to find any in the fridge section, I located it on a SHELF.  They buy their milk in these boxes and drink it warm.  I still have no idea how it doesn't go rotten if it isn't refrigerated, but I was glad to find cold milk at another store later.

We were excited to find a Redbox at a local store!  We had noticed that the movies to rent in our room were $18 each and we just couldn't bring ourselves to pay that much!  Yay for Redbox saving us A LOT of money, since we watched a movie almost every night of the entire trip.  While leaving the store, I saw this adorable little girl, who was pretending to fall out of this ride.  She would yell (in English) "Help me!" and then switch to Spanish and take the Lord's name in vain over and over.  It was cracking me up, and I have such an obsession with Latin kids, so I had to snap a picture.  What a doll!

This is the awesome bakery we found while driving around the different neighborhoods. 

This is one of the creatures that greeted us every day.  There are enormous iguanas everywhere, and we were lucky to have a whole family of them right outside our window. 

This is the turtle family that also liked to hang out around our hotel window.  The baby turtles were so cute when they followed their mommy all over the land and water.

The view from our balcony.

While driving back to our hotel, Ryan ran over his first animal . . .an iguana.  Ew!  We had a great laugh watching all the iguanas try to play "Frogger" on the roads everyday!  We noticed pretty quickly that PR drivers are horrible.  They must all have death sentences because we couldn't believe the way they operate their cars.  Also, nothing is marker with good signs!  We literally would have been completely lost the whole time if we didn't have a GPS.  For dinner we ate pastries, cookies and donuts we had purchased at the bakery earlier in the day.  Gotta love vacation when all diet restrictions fall away!  We watched the movie "In Time" on this night before falling asleep.

Thursday, March 8th - After a very American breakfast at Denny's, we drove to "Old San Juan," the small stretch of land that has historical sites that date back to the 1500's. We wanted to tour the castle that served as a fortress for the Spaniards for hundreds of years before the US overtook it in the Spanish-American war, and continued to use it during WW1 and WW2.  I had left my nice camera in the hotel this day, because there was so much walking involved in the tour and we only had a small backpack that was mostly full of water.  We took some pictures from Ryan's cell phone, but I found the following picture online that shows El Morro, the 6-leveled fort we toured.  There is so much I could say about this tour, but for sake of time and space on this blog, just know that is was incredible.

Bad picture, but it shows the very expensive backpack we purchased for this vacation - a Camelbak that has a large bladder to fill with water.  The long spout comes forward so I could drink the water while it was still attached to my back.  I'm excited to use it while hiking, biking or running too!

Ryan, reading the sign that explains how to fire a cannon.

All the necessary supplies to fire the cannon pictured on the right side of the picture.

I was trying to get a picture of the two of us, but Ryan had forgotten his sunglasses and couldn't stand to look into the sunlight for very long!

Excuse the cleavage shot, because we wore our swimsuits all day so we could play in the ocean while there.  In this picture I'm sitting on one of the top levels of the fortress, and you can see part of Old San Juan in the background.

I had to include this picture, because it cracks me up.  It was quite windy on top of the fortress, and it looks like I'm either 300 pounds or pregnant with triplets!  That is NOT a good look for me.

I wish I could adequately put into words the beauty of the ocean surrounding this historical structure.
 

After leaving the fort, we walked all through Old San Juan, which is one of the coolest places I've ever been.  I kept thinking how much my parents would enjoy walking with me along these cobblestone streets in this quaint, old town.

The next stop in Old San Juan was this Catholic cathedral that was built in the 1500's, and where Ponce de Leon is entombed.  The first picture was supposed to show statues of the Virgin Mary holding the Christ child, but the picture turned out completely bright where the statues are situated.  I guess that means that Mary and Jesus are just too perfect and brilliant to be photographed!

I love walking through Catholic cathedrals, and hope to tour as many as possible in my travels throughout my life.  There are some things I don't understand as I tour the cathedrals though, such as the statue that was encased in this coffin.  I was glad my kids weren't with me or they would have experienced nightmares for some time!

After walking back to our car, we were pretty worn out. If we'd had a bit more time, I would have liked to walk through this cemetery in town that looks over the cliffs.  I could spend a whole day in there with my camera!

We were pretty sunburned and exhausted by the time we made it back to our hotel this day.  Right after walking into our room, I got a text from Bonnie saying that Logan had spent the night before throwing up non-stop and was still burning up with a fever.  I felt SO awful.  I quickly called and got the update.  She said she purposely didn't call earlier in the day because she knew how worried I would be.  My poor baby boy was so sick, but was starting to feel better by that point.  My biggest fear was that he would spread the flu to the rest of the family, including Roy and Bonnie, and they would have a horrible week while we were partying it up in the Caribbean.  Luckily, no one else ever got sick and I was relieved to find out Logan was almost back to his normal self by the next day.  I finished my first of several books this night, while Ryan occupied himself with an action movie.

Friday, March 9th - After a terrible night of sleep because I was so worried about my family back home, we got into our swimsuits and ate a very expensive breakfast in the resort restaurant (we usually tried to eat in town, where the rates were much cheaper).  Ryan walked into the casino and threw down $2 before joining me for breakfast.  We aren't ones to try our luck at gambling because losing even that $2 was pretty painful for us!  Then we drove to Fajardo, where the rainforest is located.  Talk about a BEAUTIFUL area.  Oh my goodness, words won't do it any justice.  We hiked one of the trails, which led to a gorgeous waterfall where we could swim.  The hike was fairly easy, but it still felt good to get some exercise after all our indulgence of the previous days!

We climbed this tower to get a 360 degree view of the rainforest.

I was impressed with this guy, who really tried hard to leave work behind and devote his time and attention to me during the vacation.  Every once in a while he got important messages and had to clear up some issues.  At least there's no better place to work than a rainforest!

Ryan doing his best Tarzan impersonation!

All the roots of the trees grow this way.  How cool is that? 

We finally made it to the waterfall!

The area surrounding the waterfall.

My turn!

What a horrible picture of us, but I couldn't stand to erase it.

After our hike back, we ate lunch at an incredible restaurant name La Parilla.  My tastebuds were extremely happy.  It became our new spot to grab something delicious.  Ryan took this picture after we'd finished off our appetizers.  Now you can see why we gained a few pounds during the week!

Then it was back to the resort to spend some time in the sun!  This is my personal HEAVEN - sunshine, the smells and sounds of the beach, lying next to my Honey with sand between our toes and a good book in my hands.  Throw in a pina colada, and I may have never come back home.

Ryan is one of those people way out there in the waves.  He's so good for me, because I tend to be the type to sit on the beach and take pictures while other people are adventurous.  He convinced me to play in the waves and kept getting me to go further and further out, and what do you know . . .I had a blast!

Another view of the resort from the beach area.

After another movie and a little more book time, we fell asleep in our separate beds!  Haha!

Saturday, March 10th - More sleeping in, more time in the sun, more relaxing.  Then it was off to El Conquistador, the resort where we had originally planned on staying.  By the time we got around to booking our hotel, there was no space available in the resort.  We were very disappointed, but were happy with our decision on Rio Mar.  A few days after paying for our hotel, we found out that Ryan's good college friend, Matt, had just moved to Puerto Rico and was now the Director of Revenue at El Conquistador.  So we could have actually gotten a great deal, too!  Oh well.  We decided to head over to Matt's place at El Conquistador to have lunch with him and reminisce about old times.

Gosh, I look horrible.  The humidity did not do great things to my hair, and we were pretty much burned to a crisp by this point.  The weather was perfect the entire time we were in PR, though - between 75 and 85 degrees and lots of sunshine.

Bad picture of Matt - I should have taken another one!

That evening we decided to try a "Bioluminescent Kayak Tour."  I think it was my favorite activity of the whole trip!  We couldn't take cameras on the kayaks (since they would have obviously gotten wet), so I stole this picture off the company's website.  A quick explanation of the tour is this:  two people share a canoe and sail out into the ocean with a guide, who takes you to a canal where mango trees surround you.  I kept singing "Kiss the Girl" from the Little Mermaid, because I felt like I was reliving that scene.  It was beyond beautiful.  By the time you reach an open area of water, the light is gone and there is so much bioluminescence in the water that if you put your hand in it, the area surrounding your hand glows.  When you pull your hand back up, your arm starts to sparkle and you light up!  I felt like Katniss the Girl on Fire from the Hunger Games!  Haha!  When it was time to kayak back, there was no light left and the stars were brighter than I've ever seen.  Venus looked like a spaceship ready to land on the ocean.  Since there's no light on the way back, all the kayaks hit into each other and you have to maneuver your way through the canal while bouncing off  the banks and mango trees.  I giggled like a kid.

After finishing off the evening with some ice cream, we were back to the hotel.

Sunday, March 11th - We asked our concierge for directions to the nearest Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Ryan's Spanish came in very handy at that time, because they had no idea what we were talking about.  After figuring out the word "Mormon," they printed off some directions and we were off to church.  They were the worst directions every printed, and only got us lost.  We stopped and asked a guy to explain the directions to us, and his whole family joined in to help us find our way.  The nice Latin man got in his car and had us follow him for about 15 minutes before telling us we were there.  He wouldn't accept any money, so we thanked him over and over in Spanish.  While walking up to the church he took us to, we heard chanting and clapping before reading a sign that said "Adventist Church" in Spanish.  I was so deflated.  I had been so excited to see and hear the Sacrament meeting in a different language.  We had a feeling to keep driving down a certain road, and came upon another man who was on a walk with his daughter.  Ryan asked him if he'd ever heard of the Mormon church, and the man smiled and told us right where to go.  I was ecstatic when we saw a sign that said, "La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias."  We ran inside, just in time to have the water passed to us.  The one and only boy who was passing the Sacrament brought us the bread after being instructed by his leader.  There were about 25 people present in the meeting, and Spanish was spoken the entire time.  I understood about 5 words during the entire hour, but felt the Spirit stronger than I have in a very long time.  It was so awesome to be reminded that the gospel is the same, no matter where you go in the world.  They listen to the same Prophet, the songs are the same (although sung in Spanish, so I just hummed), the prayers are just as meaningful, and the families just as righteous.  I was bursting with joy at the thought of serving a Latin mission with Ryan someday.  I just know that my love for all things Latin means that I will get to teach them the gospel someday. 

There were 3 Primary-aged girls, the one teenage boy, and 2 super cute baby boys.  I kept wanting to hold the crying babies during Sacrament, but thought the moms might find it a bit strange to have a weird white lady approach them and want to take their baby.  After the service was over, I had Ryan speak to the family in Spanish and explain my love for the kids.  I was granted permission to hold the small tyke, and played with him while I tried to converse with his sisters.  The family only spoke Spanish, so I would ask Ryan things such as, "How do I say: how old are you?" and he would help me converse.  Oh, it was just so much fun.  The elders in the background were excited to see us, since they are both gringos from the states who just happen to look Latin!  The building was so tiny, and the Sacrament room was just the combination of two other rooms - about half the size of our Primary room.  There was no air conditioning, so the windows were open with ceiling fans blowing on us the whole time.

After church, we drove back to the yummy bakery for lunch.  Upon walking in, we saw a very gringo-looking couple who were all dressed up, and 5 well dressed kids.  Ryan and I smiled at each other, because we just knew they must be Mormons. I walked up to the lady and asked where she was from.  She answered, "it's a town right outside of Kansas City."  I started laughing and asked which one.  They were from Overland Park.  I then said, "Your family looks so nice, all dressed up.  Did you just attend a church service?"  She answered, "We did.  It's called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints."  She couldn't even get through half the sentence, before I said, "I knew it!"  They explained that they had gone to a small branch in the town of Luquillo, and then had happened upon this bakery while driving around.  The mom's name is Carrie McDonald, and we talked all about our kids, our husband's missions (her husband served in Argentina, so also knows Spanish), the upcoming temple activities, etc.  Their kids were almost the exact same ages of ours - the oldest was 13, and they had one more kid than we did, so their youngest just turned 3.  I felt like we were old friends and we enjoyed our time chatting with them in the little bakery.  What are the odds?

We went back to the hotel, and Ryan took a long Sunday nap while I finished another book.  The McDonald family had given us a suggestion for dinner, and Ryan decided he wanted to try to find the restaurant.  We drove and drove and drove while Ryan tried to remember the random directions.  I kept telling Ryan that we should just go somewhere else because he was getting us lost.  After about an hour, what do you know . . . Ryan found it!  He was so excited, and I had to swear I will never doubt his navigation skills again!  We walked into Sazon de Sylvia and were told they were closing in 5 minutes.  Darn.  But at least Ryan found it!  We drove over to our favorite spot of restaurants - a strip of little dives called "kioskos," where we had some of the best food we've ever tasted.  Papaya, asparagus and stuffed mushrooms.  The kioskos are restaurants without 2 walls, so when it started pouring rain we were able to sit under the protection of the restaurant while still feeling like we were in the middle of the rainstorm.  Very romantic.  :)

Monday, March 12th - We woke up early (about 5:30, which is VERY early for a vacation!) so we could drive to Fajardo and catch the first ferry to a neighboring island.  After buying tickets, we ate breakfast at a little cafe right on the water edge, since we had a couple hours to kill.  The ferry ride lasted about an hour before we landed on paradise - Culebra island.  We quickly rented snorkeling gear (and bought a couple bracelets for Ryan) before catching the public bus to Flamenco beach, a.k.a. the most beautiful beach in the world.  My friend, Aimee, had told me about this amazing beach, but she didn't begin to explain how incredible it is.

We heard about a short hike that took us to the best place for snorkeling, along a different coast of the island.  We've snorkeled in many different places, but thought this might be the best we've ever seen.  Ryan dove down about 20 feet to grab this conch shell.  We kept it for the rest of the day before deciding the living creatures inside were not willing to die and the shell would begin to stink very soon. 

We LOVE snorkeling, especially in water this clear!  We snorkeled for a couple hours, right on top of a coral reef.

Then we hiked back to Flamenco beach.  The hike wasn't easy, and we decided a nap in the palm tree shade should come before hitting the water again.  That's Ryan, asleep under the palm tree in this picture.

How I wish I could describe the color of the ocean here.  This picture doesn't come close to showing it's true colors.  I kept thinking that I had never seen such  gorgeous colors in nature!  The white sand didn't get hot, either.  I'm telling you, it was paradise.  Farther on down the beach, there are still WW2 tanks that were abandoned.

We wore A LOT of sunscreen this day, but I still ended up with a huge blister on the end of my nose.  It was not attractive, and I will not be posting any pictures of the monstrosity!  After Ryan played in these waves for a while, we got lunch at a shack on the shore.  Ryan ate shark and fresh crab.  Although tempting, I was a bit nervous about eating such fresh fish and settled on a good sandwich.  We also ordered some delicious papaya and coconut drinks.  The day ended with another ferry ride back to Puerto Rico, where we ate pizza and donuts in our hotel room.  I was asleep by 9:30.

I have to mention one more interesting note about this day.  I won't be able to adequately explain all the emotions I felt, but I had some good therapy with myself while waiting in Culebra to board the ferry.  We had seen several babies throughout the day, but one 2-month-old baby bundled in his mom's arms got my attention.  Ryan and I watched the mom carefully change the baby's diaper, rock him, dress him, and nurse him under a shawl.  I'm not lying when I say my uterus was aching.  Ryan and I couldn't take our eyes off the little guy, and kept saying "awww" to each other when the baby would stretch by raising it's arms way above it's head while pulling it's legs into the fetal position.  Even the cries brought tears to our eyes, and we giggled when he showed the newborn reflex of opening his arms when he got scared.  After about an hour of trying not to scare the young mom by staring too much, I began therapy with myself.  Why do I ache so badly when I see a tiny baby?  Am I really wanting to have another one?  Ryan would have another baby in a heartbeat if I agreed.  After many emotions and even some silent prayers, I once again felt certain that we are done having babies.  That is so reassuring and painful all at the same time.  I know our baby years are over for several reasons, and I'm equally glad and sad.  I long for those days of nursing and being the protector of my brand-new-from-God baby.  Is that crazy?  Maybe so, but it was actually much-needed therapy that I had with myself that day, because I have moments when I feel a physical ache inside at the thought of never holding my own baby in my arms again.

Tuesday, March 13th - We were up by 7, so we could pack and get ready before leaving for the airport about 9:00.  We returned our rental car and raced to the gate for our departure.  We quickly learned there was no need to hurry because the plane was delayed an hour.  After finally flying from San Juan to Miami, we had missed the flight to Tampa, even though we got off the plane and RAN through the airport to try to make our connection.  We were re-routed to Chicago, where we would then be taken to KC.  After getting on the runway in Chicago, we sat.  And sat.  And sat.  Until finally the pilot told us there were mechanical problems that should be fixed soon.  As soon as they were fixed, we had different mechanical problems.  When we finally took off, we were all concerned about the safety of the plane,  plus very annoyed that we would once again miss our connecting flights.  By this point, I was missing the kids so terribly and just wanted to get home to my babies.  I *may* have said some choice words to the American Airlines clerk at the gate in Chicago when she told us we would have to wait until the next day to go home.  I burst into tears and Ryan made me sit and relax while he handled the situation.  I called home, and Brynlie was pretty hysterical at the news that we wouldn't be home that night.  A hotel was acquired for us, and we were told to wait for the shuttle outside.  After three shuttles came and went because angry displaced passengers crowded the shuttles and screamed at each other, we had had it.  Ryan hailed a taxi and we spent $24 to get ourselves a couple miles away to a crappy hotel for a few hours of sleep.  We were so grateful that Bonnie wasn't too stressed about our plane's delay, since she wasn't scheduled to fly home until the next day.  Needless to say, I was rather unpleasant this evening.

Wednesday, March 14th - After groaning about the horrible "night" of sleep, we were up insanely early and headed back to the airport.  We were able to catch a flight to Kansas City that got us here about 9:00 am.  Bonnie and Logan met us at the airport, and we all went to breakfast at Ihop before taking Bonnie back to the airport a couple hours later.  I couldn't stop giving my little guy hugs and kisses, and spent the next several days doing nothing by spending time with my kiddos.

That was quite the update, and now I need to go spend time with my kids while they are home for Spring Break this week!  There's so much more that has happened, but that will all need to wait until another time.