Home Life
For the past two weeks, Chris and I have been in Puerto Rico celebrating our 10th anniversary by exploring the islands with our friends! I'll go into detail about it after telling you about the kids here at home, so if you want to hear details, read on, but you can also just look at the pictures. For the first half, Grandma Bell came to take care of the kids and helped them start feeling better because there was a fast-moving virus that went around the school and hit Claire on Monday. I picked up both girls because Shay would have been worried not seeing her sister on the bus, and they ended up both getting the fever and staying home Tuesday and Wednesday! Luckily, Claire could go on her field trip on Thursday, and they recovered quickly, so having Grandma visit was fun. They had a week full of spirit days at school leading up to their Valentine's Day celebration on Friday. When we talked every night, I usually got to see what they wore and hear all about how they were the only ones in their class who remembered the first one, and they matched each other perfectly on twin day!
Celebration
The girls got to go to a Daddy-Daughter dance with their Uncle, and I know Chris feels like he missed out, but Uncle Steven said it was a great time. They had a small Valentine's celebration in each of their classes, but because of the sickness the week before, it was small, and they didn't ask for things from home. Today we had a Valentine's Day dress up for church, and I tried to make hearts in their hair, and we all matched for church, so I did my best to get a picture. It was also Adrian's Birthday! He was very cuddly in the morning because it was the first time seeing us since getting back late in the night, and I'm glad we made the day special for him by being home. We made brownies as his birthday treat and gave him some presents to play with. Mostly, he is happy when we are playing with him, so it was a fun little family party. Now he is a 2-year-old and is practicing his tantruming, which can happen so fast by the silliest things like making sure he couldn't eat his wax candles. He didn't even want his brownie and only wanted to put the candles in their place over and over again!
Wed-Fri: Travel, San Juan, Bio Bay, Iguana Hunt
We had a pretty long day of travel, starting with a short hour-long flight at 6:40am to connect with the almost 7-hour-long flight all the way to Puerto Rico. When we planned our flights, we scheduled them together so neither of us had to wait for the other, and we all got to relax in the Airbnb together and then find a place for dinner. Chris and I worked out on Thursday morning before spending the day exploring the old Spansh Forts in San Juan. There were two big forts that were one price to enter and explore both, and we walked from one to the other and saw the connecting wall as we walked. We were introduced to Puerto Rican food and the intense driving! The streets were tight even without the cars that park on the side of the street, and some drivers are so aggressive and scary. We ate at a seafood place really close to our Kayaking Tour through mangrove trees and into a Biolumencance Bay. It was late at night, so we could see the glow, but we had a very early next morning meeting to hunt Iguanas. Turned out to be a good time and Chris's favorite thing we did, so it was worth it, and we had time to work out later in the day and pack up our stuff for the first of many moves to a new area.
Sat-Mon: Ziplines, Church, Lighthouses, Culebra
Another early morning, so we could drive to the mountains where we did some zip-lining. I was judging the tour guides pretty hard because we had a much better experience last year in Mexico, but it was fun for what it was. We did their longest and fastest Zipline called 'the Monster,' and it had just started to rain, so my face got pelted. The hype was fun too because during our first zip lines, we saw people going on it before ours, and it just seemed like they went forever. We moved on to the far west side of the main island to visit people our friend knew from his mission, and also to go to his old ward on Sunday. The members there were so friendly and welcoming that it was overwhelming, but they had headphones to get the interpretations of the sacrament meeting, and it still felt like a church meeting from here. We also explored some lighthouses, ate at a famous pizza place, and drove along the coast to enjoy the ocean view as we traveled again to another location. That was a short stay just to get us to the first ferry ride to the smaller Island of Culebra so we could get some beach time! The boys went fishing, so it was Brittany and I who saw the beaches and explored the small town. There was some rain during fishing and some crazy hills that made Culebra an interesting memory, but my shell collection increased a lot.
Tues-Wed: Beaches, Rainforest, Temple
The boys went back out fishing while we checked out and explored more beaches, collected more shells, and planned where to eat lunch so we could ferry back to the mainland. After Chris and I worked out together again, we really enjoyed seeing the rainforest on Wednesday and even got rained on right as we saw the big tower. That evening, we went to a session in the Puerto Rico Temple and were shocked at the miniature size. It's the third smallest temple, but only by less than 200 sq/ft, and it only has one of each room to make it fully functional. The temple workers all invited us to a little sit-down they do every Wednesday with ham sandwiches and hot chocolate, which actually helped because we walked out of the session to a downpour of rain! By the time we had eaten and visited with everyone, the rain was gone, and we were safe to drive back for another night in the same location before checking out to the next mini island.
Thur-Fri: Vieques, Bio Bays, Snorkeling, More beaches
Vieques is a bigger island, but it was very calm compared to San Juan, and everyone seems so chill except when dealing with difficult tourists. It started storming when we first arrived, and we went to a brunch spot that had a cool owner/manager guy. The pancakes they made were so amazing that we went back for round two the next day, and we got to see him get stressed with some of the crazies. We got to check into our stay early, so we had refuge from the storm, and I did laundry while Chris went to the gym and our friends explored. On Thursday Night we visited another Bio Bay, but this one was called Mosquito Bay and was very muddy because of the rain, but so much more worth it because it was so bright. I only regret that no pictures could be taken with just a phone to show how amazing it was to kayak in clear boats and see the movement create glowing water, and the fish was even cooler. After our second time at the pancake breakfast place, we went snorkeling with an awesome tour that made it great, even though visibility was pretty low at the time, and we only saw fish and one turtle. Luckily, no sharks, and unluckily, no rays! We got more beach time and more shells on this island, but there was more travel time because it is bigger.
Fri-Sun: Travel, Home
I think we all were feeling really ready to shower after all the salty water of the ocean, so we rode the Ferry back and eagerly checked into our last night's stay. Chris and I did a short workout and stayed close to get food before trying to go for another walk around the city. It was too hard to enjoy compared to our beach walks, so after walking around the block, we were back and ready to settle in. Chris suffered from water that got in his ears, but we got to sleep in because our first flight wasn't until the afternoon. I walked to a waffle place we had passed on our brief walk to get us breakfast when he was sleeping in, and I much prefer morning city life. We successfully packed everything we wanted to take back and checked out to go to the airport early. There were long lines, and it was a very busy airport, but I walked up and down the gates while we waited for our delayed flight. We got overpriced food for lunch and worried about making it in time for our next flight, but the kind people on the plane let people who had to run to make connections leave the plane first, and we made it in time after running to the wrong gate and back in the direction we came. Then we sat on the plane before deboarding and getting on a different plane for safety reasons before making it home, finally right after midnight! Shay woke up when I snuck in to give them kisses and was happy we were back, and in the morning, we got hugs, and both girls separately asked the same first question, "Where is the present you bought me?"
Sourineers and Food
Claire asked for a toy, so we picked out a magnet with a turtle, a parrot, and a frog on it that is also a figit spinner, and we got her a key chain with a pretty turtle too. Shay asked for jewelry, so we got her a colorful bracelet with turtles and a keychain with a dazzling mini pen. Adrian got two little animal key chains that make their sounds, a parrot and the national frog. I came home with an over-the-shoulder small purse I used a lot while there, a towel I bought there for our beach time, a blanket my friend got for free and couldn't fit in their suitcase, some magnets with rainforest pictures, and tons of shells. We had some amazing food while there, and once or twice we were disappointed, but mostly our friends could find really delicious places to eat. It felt like we were spoiling ourselves, especially on the days we didn't do all the hiking, kayaking, and active stuff. I think the thing we liked most was Pinchoes, which I don't have a picture of, but I'm going to try to make here at home. We had a mix of Puerto Rican and American food because they have a variety there, and we even had a Brazilian place that was yummy.
