The Trip (finally.)

I have to be honest here.
I have been having a hard time adjusting to the kids being home for the summer.
I am losing my marbles.

I know we just got home from vacation.
But, I feel like I already need another break!

My house is a pit. Constantly.
And it has been raining, so all the kids are cooped up here in the house.
With me.

Today I finally locked myself in the studio, and edited photos.

Wish I were still here:

Sigh.

I know we will get into some sort of a routine...hopefully soon.
Anyway...
The vacation.
We got back from Puerto Rico this past Sunday.
We love it there.
Here is the view from our hotel room:

Sam swung us a screaming deal to stay at a fancy pants hotel.
It had many, many pools.
Pool stunts were abundant:



Then, we discovered that our hotel had IT'S OWN PRIVATE ISLAND.
What the heck?!
Why, oh why did we waste time in a pool?
We jumped on the ferry:

And landed ourselves HERE:


The water around the island was just as warm as the air.
The kids spend all day long snorkeling.
They were tan on their backs, and their chests were as white as the sand.
It was pretty shallow, they could wade out for about a quarter mile and it was waist deep.

There were fish everywhere, and at one point there was a three foot sand shark.
As soon as we uttered the word "shark" Mikayla was done with the water.
Lucky for her, the island was infested with these bunny rabbits.
Or rabid bunnies.
<---see what I did there?
And it is probably true.

The stray bunnies looked a little rough.

I had some time to center on my inner zen and do some yoga:

Just kidding.
Don't look too close at my thighs.
The camera adds ten pounds, you know.

I sat on my duff and read a shallow cheesy romance novel.

We took a family photo.

Awww, cute.

So that was the island.
We went to the rain forest.
And this time the rain forest was very serious about being a RAIN forest.
It started out with a light mist.

It felt nice.
And then the heavens split open, and dumped buckets on us.
This is what I learned:
Don't wear a white tee-shirt in the rain forest.
Here is our family.

Blurry.
The camera lens was dripping wet.
Gah.
The kids still went swimming in the waterfall pool.
They were already wet after all...

And the rain forest is still a breathtakingly beautiful place.


What did we eat, you ask?
Well, we had to have some "parcha." (a Passion fruit)


Delish.
We tried "Pulpo"(octopus) and "Mofongo." (Mofongo is the signature dish of Puerto Rico, a mashed mound of plantains into which a combination of seafood, meat, or vegetables is added)

And of course, "pinchos"(marinated meat grilled with plantains):


Now that you are hungry for a snack, we will move on...
Y'all know how I love me some good cemeteries...
Here is one of my favorites in Puerto Rico. It is right next to El Morro, the fort.
It is very old.

They are renovating it right now.
The catacombs were actually covered over with black plastic.
We went in anyway.

Tourists...ugh.
My kids have the same morbid fascination as I do.
Poor things.
Oh...wow, what do we have here?
An open catacomb.

Looks like they are cleaning some of them out!
Look!

Some hair!

And bones!
Awesome.
You know, as always, you can click on the photos and make them BIGGER! (You know you want to...)

Then we all went over and toured the forts:
I didn't take a whole lot of photos here, because:
(a) I was also video-recording the trip and
(b) I already took a butt load of photos there when we went last time.
Here is the fam:

And some spoiled rotten (but kinda cute) world-travelin' kids:

We also went up to the Arecibo observatory.
The world's most powerful radar-radio telescope.
Pictures don't really do justice to how honking huge this thing was.
It made me dizzy to look down at it.

It was a little rainy.
It made pretty misty clouds.
I sang "Rocky Mountain High."
It needed to be sung.

Somewhere John, I mean Juan Denver smiled.
Also, I smiled at this:

In their museum.
It is a meteorite.
Found in Texas, and in a museum in Puerto Rico.
Whatevs.

But it's name is "Dimmitt."
Dude.
That is soooo finding its way into my everyday vocabulary.
"DIMMITT! Who used the last of the toilet paper!!?"
And everyone will know that I am merely speaking of a bronzite space stone.
Right?

So anyway, good times had by all, and all that.

We even made all of our flights on stand-by, which is a miracle in itself.
As is the fact that I have now blogged the trip.
Amen.