One more made four!: Turks and Caicos October 2015

Early October Adam and I headed out of Tennessee to soak up some Caribbean sun ALONE! Our first vacation just the two of us since we went to Aruba when I was 17 weeks pregnant with Adalyn. All other trips we have went on has been with friends or family so we were so looking forward to being in paradise with nothing to do but eat, lay on the beach, swim, sleep, and did I mention eat? ha. This time last year we decided we would take a vacation just the two of us during Fall Break but we couldn't decide where we wanted to go. Turks and Caicos, for whatever reason, has always been on our bucket list. We booked the trip in April and I started counting down the days right after. We were set to leave on Saturday, October 3 and on Wednesday, September 30 (I believe), Hurricane Joaquin started in the Bahamas, which caused the islands of Turks and Caicos to get pounded with rain. T&C is south of the Bahamas and the eye of the storm would be working its way north. Even though it was due to head North, I was still a nervous wreck. I watched the news more within those few days than I have in years.

Our flight left at 6:20 AM and Jerry was at our house at 4:15 to leave. It had rained every single day that week and was still nasty and cold the morning we left. I could not wait to see sunshine. Adam and I got up at 3:15 to get ourselves ready then made our way to Nashville!

We took the kids over to my parents the night before and we ate pizza for dinner and hung out. I admit I was sad to leave them but my excitement about the trip outweighed the sadness. hahaha

We were so excited! This was right before we boarded the plane for Miami. It was still yucky outside and I was still a little nervous as to how the weather would be for us.

As we were in the sky leaving Nashville, we had to go through pretty nasty, rainy clouds but once we were high enough, this was our view

This was the first sight of sunlight we had seen all week thanks to all the rain we had.

Once in Miami, we had a short layover and then boarded our plane to Turks and Caicos. It was a full flight! I was glad our seats were towards the front of the plane. I have always loved airports for the simple fact that I love to people watch. On this flight, I was sitting in between Adam and an older lady. We strike up a conversation and I learn she lives in Turks and Caicos on the island of Salt Cay. (pronounced KEY). We also learned Turks and Caicos is made up of 40 islands and only 8 are inhabited. She went on to say she was returning back to her home from being gone for 2 months traveling to Costa Rica, Grand Caymen Island and Belize learning about whales.

I was floored. See, you just never know the story of the person beside you! She owns a dive shop in Salt Cay and it's known as the best diving in Turks and Caicos.

It was an hour and a half flight from Miami and it was beautiful, clear skies the entire flight. Flying over Caribbean islands is just breathtaking!

This was amazing to me. The line was so distinct! The dark blue is very deep, deep waters and the lighter, aqua color is starting to get more shallow.

Look at this water!!! The water is SO clear. Look closely and you can see the ripple of the sand at the bottom. It's the prettiest water I have ever seen.

As we were getting close to landing, they always tell you the current weather before you reach your destination. The captain told us it was sunny, high 80's, and windy. No big deal, right? RIGHT before he lands, you know the feeling when you are waiting on that first big bump from the when the wheels hit the tarmac? we were all ready for that when all of a sudden I swear our heads hit our seat quicker than anything. Next thing I knew, we were headed straight back up to the sky. He came over the intercom and said the wind gusts were a little stronger than they anticipated and that they had enough gas to try to land again and if he couldn't, we would go to plan B.

Plan B? So it took him about 15 minutes to get back high enough in the air to completely turn back around to get back on track to land. I was praying that he would just land the plane. I didn't care how bumpy or if we skidded off the runway, I wanted to hurry up and get on the beach. Thankfully, we landed, but it was the hardest landing I had ever experienced. I now fully get why they want you to wear your seat-belt during landing. I came off of my seat. It was rough! Everyone clapped once we realized we had made it safely.

Remember Plan B? You deboard on the runway and I heard the person in front of me ask the captain what plan B was going to be. He laughed and said, " To land in the Dominican Republic."

haha I was so glad to be walking on the island of Turks and Caicos!

We went to pick up our luggage only to learn our suitcase was still in Miami. We had a carry-on, but it only had some of my shorts and tank tops. We basically took it so our main suitcase wouldn't be near the 50 lb mark.

No luggage meant no bathing suits, sunscreen, flip flops(we wore tennis shoes on the flight),underwear, bathroom stuff, etc. We had absolutely nothing. I was trying so hard not to be aggravated. Beaches picked us up and took us to the resort. It was a short 10 minute drive which was so nice. After traveling, the last thing I want to do is sit in a van for 2 hours on curvy roads to get to the resort.

On our way I noticed their gas prices were insane! $5.95 per gallon! Yes, per gallon. So expensive!

We arrived and were greeted with a cool rag and rum punch, or just punch if that's what you prefer. We were in an open air lobby that was beautiful! We checked in and a worker took us to our room. He explained a little about the resort and told us we were in the Key West Village. I immediately told him we had booked the Caribbean Village but he explained they upgraded us due to a transformer blowing in the Caribbean village. Score!!

It was around 1:00 and the weather was beautiful. I was not going to sit around in the room due to not having bathing suits so we walked to one of the many gift shops and bought two bathing suits and 1 spray can of sunscreen. Want to know our total?

$138.00

$117.00 for bathing suits and $22.00 for sunscreen.

AHH!

I wanted to get in the ocean so bad I didn't care how much we spent. Thankfully, after returning home, I researched and learned American Airlines will pay you back for situations like that.

So, we were in some ugly bathing suits but ready to enjoy our first day in paradise!

I have sooo many pictures so here we go!

We stayed in this building

The Italian Village Pool

There is my $90.00 bathing suit that I didn't even like! I would never spend that kind of money on a bathing suit. ever. If I liked it, I wouldn't have cared too much but sheesh.

See that little spot of red on Adam? Those are his solid red swim trunks that cost an arm and a leg, too.

I only took pictures with my cell phone on our first day after we arrived, I didn't have a beach bag to tote my camera in at the time so we made it work. We ate dinner at Barefoot by the Sea in shorts, shirt (tank for me) and no shoes. (we only had tennis shoes) Dinner was delicious though! Even though we were dressed "down", and I had makeup on from 3:15 that morning, we were so relaxed and so thrilled to be alone on a vacation.

Sunday we woke up bright and early to still no luggage :( We put our bathing suits on and headed to breakfast. There are 22 restaurants in the resort so we had a lot of options! The whole time we were there our food was simply out of this world. I loved every single meal.

We checked in with our lobby about our luggage and look who we ran into!

Beaches is a family resort which means kids are allowed. Their theme for the kids is Sesame Street. Our kids would have loved this place!

I had to take a picture of our straws. They had these in every restaurant and were the best straws ever. They were extrraaa long and extrraaa bendy and so much fun! We had fun messing with them all week.

That afternoon, a full 24 hours later, we received our luggage! I was sooo grateful and relieved. After we ate lunch, we decided to walk allll the way back to the Key West lobby (the resort is huge and you do a lot of walking) to check the status of it. At first, the lady said they have not received it and even called the airline to see if it had been sent. Whoever she spoke with told her they had not received anything and no more flights from Miami were coming in that day. I started crying. Silly, I know, but all I wanted to do was shave my legs, put lotttsss of conditioner in my hair, (curly hair and ocean water do not mix), take my very old, smeary, make up off, and put on my flip flops. Just a few seconds later, another lady walked up with a big smile on her face and said she had our luggage. Thank you Lord! I then cried tears of joy. Seriously. This taught us a valuable lesson. When traveling to somewhere tropical, always pack a bathing suit, underwear, flip flips, and travel size portions of your bathroom stuff. Oh, and a travel sized can of sunscreen so you won't have to spend $22.00 on one in the gift shop. Always. Even if you think everything will be ok, just pack it.

We changed into our bathing suits, put flip flops on (ahhhh), and went back to the beach. We swam, layed out, talked, walked around, and did everything we wanted to do. We missed our babies terribly but it was so nice to unwind for a few days and have zero responsibilities!

Do you see the red flags? Their definition of needing a red flag and Florida's definition of needing a red flag are totally different. lol The "waves" we had were just ripples!

Each village is HUGE, so I took some pictures of what we saw as we walked back to our room

The grounds are stunning. Someone was always cleaning. Every where we walked, a worker was cleaning and would always, always, stop and smile and say hello.

entrance into the water park area

We had dinner reservations at Kimono's that night. It's hibachi and the only restaurant on the resort you have to have reservations for. While we waited, we walked to the French Village to check out the pool and the surrounding area. They actually had this village closed down since capacity of the resort was low, they used that time to clean the pool and do other things. I hate it was closed- the pool is gorgeous!

It was finally time to eat! We met two wonderful families who sat with us at our dinner. A couple from the North and another family from Canada. One owned a huge construction company and the other was a lawyer and a CPA. It was so neat to meet them and learn about their homes.

After dinner, we were completely, 100% STUFFED. However; we stopped at Bobby Dee's for some ice cream. Why? Because that's what you do when you are at an all-inclusive resort and everything is free and right in front of you.

;)

Adam always chose a vanilla milkshake. Not 1, but 2. Why? Because why not?

lol

I stuck with my favorite.

Chocolate ice cream

We stopped and played some ping pong before walking back to our room to call it a night.

The Italian Pool at night.

Everyday on the beach Adam and I would always make the comment that we could NOT believe it was so empty. Ya'll, the water was out of this world. Seriously amazing and beautiful. I bet maybe 20 people were in the area of the beach we stayed at. Most everyone else stayed at the pools.

We had already eaten lunch and had been swimming/laying out when we decided we wanted a pizza. haha. We were not hungry at all, but a brick oven pizza just sounded delicious. So why not, right?!

We each got one and shared with each other.

So so good.

We did this just about every day.

Just one of the many pools

Scuba diving pool to get certified

Barefoot by the Sea restaurant- you sit down to eat and your feet are in the sand. Perfection.

another afternoon. another brick oven pizza.

The Italian Pool- we spent the majority of our time here when we were not at the beach

We went snorkeling one morning and I ended up getting sea sick. haha The waves were a little choppy out where we were and the motion of it just made me sick! Once everyone got back on the boat to head back, I quickly sat on the edge and was waiting to throw up. The guide told me it would help if I looked out in the distance and to find a landmark to stare at. He also gave me ocean water to drink and said it would help. Surprisingly, it did. As soon as we got back and I got off the boat, I was back to normal.

Snorkeling, scuba diving, kayaking, paddle boarding, etc, are all included in your stay. You can do them as much as you would like! I'm telling you, this place was amazing!

Our vacation was truly so relaxed. We were so thankful for gorgeous weather and for a few days of alone time with each other. It's hard for us to get in a conversation with the kids around since they are always needing us or needing something at all timeS. We really soaked in having nothing to do and no one to answer to. It was the best vacation ever! We loved it so much we already talked about returning in the future. We think the kids would love it so maybe when they are older we will go back.

We played on some slides from the water park (which is huge) and enjoyed the lazy river. We ate all the time, explored the resort, and relaxed. It was wonderful!

You can't tell since it is so dark but we were eating dinner and right over the glass barrier that we were sitting beside was the ocean.

Our view was so beautiful!

Our flight left early the next morning and we had a pretty long lay over once in Miami. We grabbed pizza and slept before our next flight. We arrived in Nashville around 4:30 and were greeted by Jerry, Nancy and our babies! We were thrilled to have them in our arms. It was good to get away, but it's even better to get back home.

We celebrate our 10 year Anniversary in two years... I'm already daydreaming of where we will go next!

Thanks Turks and Caicos for an awesome vacation!!

A few random from my phone

I posted this picture on Instagram and Facebook and said that I was pretty sure Windex is bottled in Turks and Caicos. Seriously. The water was out of this world!