Summer recap

It's October, does that mean it's too late to recap our summer vacation?  Yes? Ok too bad, you get what you pay for on this blog which is mediocre content a month and a half late. 

This was the summer of travel for our family and we have rounded out the fun with a trip to the Bahamas.  It was the best kind of trip, which is the kind of trip which we jump on the backs of Carolina Basketball.  My husband would disagree, because he actually has to work, but you can’t beat the price.  We stayed at the Atlantis, the same hotel we stayed at four years ago on my kid-free trip with the team.  As much as I like a kid-free trip, I knew how much my kids would like it, so it was nice to be able to experience it with them.  The Atlantis has some great water slides, which you have to be 48 inches to ride.  We measured Brady a few months ago when we were getting our passports, and he wasn’t quite there.  By the time we got to the Bahamas, he was exactly there, and the Atlantis doesn’t wave you through if you’re 47 ½.  At the top of one slide, the worker had to call his manager up to re-measure.  Brady was fearless, going down the Leap of Faith and the Abyss, the scariest of them all.  Jackson and Avery were content in the kid pool, which had some pretty neat slides, too.  Avery’s favorite was the “blue slide” which she mustered up the courage to go on the 2nd day.  By the last day, she was going head first down it.

 Eric’s parents came down to celebrate his dad’s retirement from serving as pastor at the same church for over 30 years.  The Atlantis was massive and itineraries different among my kids, so it was nice to have some extra helping hands and attentive eyes.  

 

On Sunday, we went out on a three hour catamaran boat tour with the team.  The ocean water is so beautiful and clear, and pictures certainly don’t do it justice.  

 We drove by lots of multi-million dollar mansions, including Oprah, the founder of Starbucks, Jay-Z & and Beyonce’s, and Tiger’s former residence….now his ex-wife’s current residence. We passed by Gilligan’s Island, which is literally just an island with some palm trees.  We anchored down for some snorkeling and all my kids jumped in and braved the open waters. 

 A six-hour flight delay on Monday put a kink in my plans for an on-time bedtime in Chapel Hill, but being stranded at the airport with friends made the extra time bearable, at least for the kids.  My husband, on the other hand, had to do lots of behind-the-scenes work with some less than helpful people which was not doing his blood pressure any favors.   My kids were troopers, we made it home just after midnight and they almost slept in the next day. 

Summer of '18 was a memorable one but it's nice to have the routine and structure that the Fall brings (and the kid-free time for me)! More updates coming before Thanskgiving!