Our Piece of Paradise

Day 156 - June 5

I like this picture for a few reasons. 1) It shows Ava play-acting something out in her imaginary land (I know, not obvious to know that from the picture but I promise you, this is what she was doing!); 2) It shows Rosie hiding out in the cool bushes to escape the heat yet watching over Ava at the same time; 3) It documents (by the bright sunshine and Rosie buried in the bushes) the beginning of the 2nd, if not the number 1 most hottest (is that a word?) summer on record. A few days before we got back from Turks, the temps shot up to 100 degrees and basically, have only come down for a few days the ENTIRE summer!!! I'm not kidding. The entire summer. In a few days from this post, we will most likely top the record of 69 days of summer that were at or above 100 degrees. Seriously, we love Texas but this heat and drought have really made us question how much do we really love Texas ;-)

Day 157 - June 6

I found this little guy up by the barn. Ava loved him and quickly named him "Turk" in honor of us just returning from our trip. She made a temporary home for him in her bug barn...

Day 158 - June 7

We had our pastures fertilized and the man who came out to do the fertilizing mentioned that he saw a baby deer out in the pasture, a very young deer! So, the girls and I set out to look for this deer in the area he pointed out. It was VERY difficult to spot him/her nestled in the brush. I mean I looked for a good 10 minutes and he was sitting there in front of me the whole time! In fact, this was the best picture I could get of him, he was camouflaged so well in the brush and undergrowth. Beautiful little guy though - his enormous white ears are what finally gave him away!

Day 159 - June 8

A girl and her dog, enjoying an ice cream cone together.

Day 160 - June 9

It is that time of year again and Ava had her ballet recital. This year they did "Cinderella" which Ava was very excited about. She was a snowflake and had the most beautiful costume this year!

Day 161 - June 10

My parents flew in to spend some time here and see Ava's recital. It wasn't long before they had talked my Mom into reading them some books before bedtime!

Day 162 - June 11

Ava discovered this bird nest in her favorite climbing tree and was watching it daily to see when the eggs hatched! I climbed up to take these pictures but sadly, I don't think the little guy (or his nest-mates) were long for this life. I believe one of my cats had noticed all the attention we were paying this tree, noticed Momma bird, and took care of her :-( Still, what was amazing to note about this nest is that probably 75% of it is made up of Rosie's dog fur!! I think that would make a nice, cozy nest too!

This is going to be a photo-heavy post. Hopefully it won't take forever to load...just wanting to preserve some family memories of our trip...

Day 1

It was our first evening on the island and we hit the ocean right away (that's Ava emerging from the water). As I mentioned in the previous post, it was cloudy most of the time we were there but in the end, I really liked it that way. Perfect temperature, really...

Ava's favorite part of this vacation was snorkeling to look at the fish and to find seashells. She came home with a baggie full of shells. Made for a nice souvenir.

This little sandy girl was not as enthused about the ocean as her sister. She quickly named it the "crazy ocean" and was not keen on going down there to spend time. We were surprised at her reaction because she does love the water. After observing for awhile, we realized she didn't like the "crazy ocean" because the waves would wash in and knock her off balance or destroy whatever sand creation she was building. After I showed her how to sit beyond the reach of the waves, she was better about spending time at the ocean, but still not entirely happy about it. Funny girl!

We were surprised to find our room had an awesome ocean view! We weren't expecting that but really enjoyed it (of course). We were in the older section of rooms but because of that, we got this great view and the room was HUGE! Bigger than our first apartment by a long shot. We also had two rooms, two big balconies and a kitchenette. This was our first night there and was probably one of the best sunsets as well...

Day 2

This began our second day on the island. I am frequently amazed at the genuine love between these two. I am so thankful for the friendship they are developing...

Dinner at Mario's that night had Ava in fits of laughter over something she had done. Both she and Amelia have wonderful, infectious laughter.

After dinner we strolled back to the ocean and we hit the shore at the right time because the sun reflecting off the water was just gorgeous! Such beautiful oranges, pinks and yellows. Really one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen...here are a few more pictures from that evening...

This is just a cute one I shot of the girls at bedtime. As you can see, they had a trundle bed and Ava slept on the upper part...most of the time ;-)

Day 3

Our third day in Turks and Ava and Amelia finally got to play with this large chess set the resort had sitting out. Even though they don't know how to play, they had fun pretending to know how and moving all the pieces around.

Jason smartly chose a good seat to watch their chess antics from...

Day 4

They had a wonderful water park at this resort as well. Amelia's favorite thing to do is play in shallow water and the toddler section here had plenty of places for her to play. What a cute girl!

This was such a funny shot - Amelia had found a thin blue piece of plastic and she was bent over like this for at least 5 minutes at a time, trying to tie it on like an ankle bracelet.

Another shot of Jason and Ava snorkeling...

This resort has the Sesame Street characters there and usually one to two of them stopped in at the children's camp each day. Amelia just really fell in love with Zoe so when we saw her walking around the resort, Amelia asked if she could have her picture with Zoe!

Today marked Amelia's second anniversary of her Gotcha Day! We celebrated by going to a fun "Benihana" style restaurant at the resort. I was able to order a yummy chocolate cake for her as well and everyone at our table sang to her and shared in our cake. It was fun evening!

Ava and Amelia were the only kids at the table and our chef was quite happy to have Ava help him cook the meal ;-)

Amelia's yummy chocolate mousse cake! The chefs were very confused about what a Gotcha Day was, but they spelled it right on her cake! ;-)

Day 5

We started off our fifth day by going on an excursion! We took a huge catamaran out into the ocean to do some snorkeling, then some swimming, exploration of an uninhabited island, conch shell collecting, lunch, playing on the water slide on the boat that emptied in to the ocean, etc. It was a great morning!! Here are some pictures...

Back at the resort, I was able to snap a shot of Ava utilizing the swim up bar in the kids' pool to order one of her favorite fruity, sugary drinks.

There was also ice cream and cotton candy to be had for free at anytime of the day or night. It felt it little like Pleasure Island on Pinocchino - anything you wanted at anytime.

As expected, the landscaping was gorgeous. Ava was a little sleepy for this picture, so I did my best to wake her up

Day 6

Just another day in paradise....

You know it's going to be a good day when your feet start off looking like this...

Little hard to see, but right in front of that woman's hand, in the water, you will see the outline of a shark. Yes, a dark-colored shark, about 5 feet long, came swimming by this morning. And yes, that is the shoreline in the bottom left hand corner. He just paralleled the shore line by about 10 feet and swam the length of the beach then headed back out to deeper waters. Little freaky!

We made a quick stop in the Martha Stewart craft studio so Ava and Amelia could glue some glitter on some shells and wooden skateboards. It was fun for them and made a great memory and souvenir for them to take home.

Even Ava likes to stop and pose with the celebrities there...

Amelia finally found a slide she liked (translation = a slide that didn't have sprays of water hitting you in the face as you went down it). After she found this slide, she went down it over and over and over and over again for about 1 1/2 hours!

More fun at Elmo's birthday party!

Our last evening on the island and we decided to eat at Mario's one last time. There was a wait so we relaxed on some comfy chairs nearby. If I remember right, a rain shower had just passed through and it was so nice to sit and listen to the rain...

I think our girls had one of these fruity drinks in their hands at all times while we were there. It was an all inclusive so they were constantly ordering these yummy treats!

Our last morning there and we had some professional shots taken on the beach...here are a few more...

I think I shared how Amelia finally began to enjoy the ocean waves just hours before we left. Well Jason was standing up on the boardwalk area and caught these cute photos of Amelia running away from the waves, having fun! So cute!

Well that was our trip in a nutshell...we loved it so much and hope to go again soon! Thanks for hanging in and letting me share our photos with you...