Turks and Caicos (yes, again)

I am not sure what I was thinking when I booked a vacation with a 2.5 year old and a 4 month old.  At some point, I must have thought, "this is crazy!" but those kind of thoughts rarely get in my way of doing what I want to do.  Over the years Gene has gotten used to my madness and now just goes along with my wacky ideas and sometimes even encourages them.  Now, don't get me wrong, the vacation was fun and still definitely beat staying home in cold weather.  I am just not sure if it's deserving of the name "vacation".  Here's one definition I found.

va·ca·tion (noun) - A period of time devote to pleasure, rest, or relaxation, especially one with pay granted to an employee.

Ok, let's break it down.  Pleasure.  Do quickies count?  Rest.  Negative.  Relaxation.  Not so much. Pay granted to an employee. OK, we got one out of four.

Truthfully though, if you don't count the times that Ivy would scream endlessly when trying to fall asleep, the vacation was actually fantastic.  Here is what a typical day was like:

5:00am-5:30am:  When the sun began to rise in Turks, so did Violet. She would get out of bed, run into our room screaming and of course wake up Ivy.  It took us a good two hours (at least) to get ready for breakfast. Most of that time was spent lounging around in bed and watching cartoons.

8:00am - Breakfast.  It was right around this time that Ivy would start screaming on top of her lungs because she was tired and unable to self soothe.  If she's sleepy, she screams, and screams, and screams.  Either Gene or I would leave the restaurant mid breakfast and walk around the resort until she would finally fall asleep thanks to the movement of the stroller.

8:40am - Ivy wakes up from her short nap and we spend the next 40 minutes slathering the kids in sunblock.

9:20am - We finally make our way down to the beach.  Violet plays with the dozens of beach toys provided by the hotel; this keeps her busy for hours.

9:40am - Ivy is tired. Yes, more screaming.  Once again, Gene or I walk around the resort grounds (with a screaming baby in the stroller) praying Ivy falls sleep.  Usually this took about 10-20 minutes. Her second nap was typically about 2 hours so this gave us tons of time to swim, tan, kayak and build sand castles with Violet.  This was also probably the most relaxing time of our day.

noon - We go back to our room and I cook Violet lunch and get her ready for nap time.

1:00pm - Violet is asleep, so of course this means that Ivy will be awake.  At almost no point during this vacation were we lucky enough to have both kids sleeping at the same time.  With Violet asleep, Gene or I would walk down to one of the restaurants and bring back some lunch, which we ate on our patio while sipping Rose. (we so fancy!)

2:30pm- Ivy falls asleep.

2:31pm - Violet wakes up.

3:30pm- Usually both girls are awake and we spend an hour or so by the pool.

4:30ish-  It gets dark and chilly pretty early so we go back to our room to shower, watch some TV and get ready for dinner.

6:00pm- We pick restaurants that are 15-30 minutes away (walking) so that Ivy can fall asleep in her stroller.

6:30pm - Dinner is scarfed down quickly and I spend most of it praying Ivy doesn't wake up and start her usual scream fest.  By this time, Violet is usually tired and cranky so the crayons and tablet come in pretty handy.

8:00pm - We're back at the hotel and both kids are ready for bed time.

8:30pm - They are asleep!!! Hallelujah!!! Party Time!!!

8:31pm - zZZzzzZZ...

Here are some highlights from the trip.

Fashionista in Training

 I seriously can't stand the cuteness

 Ivy's carrier came in handy when dinner was a little bit of a hike

(this now also justifies me buying a second carrier)

Oops we left one kid in pajamas

 Gene and Violet kayaked several times because Violet wanted to try out all the different color boats

  The return of the red hat

 The obligatory self taken photo