Adventures with the Austins: August 2010

Charming...that is the word I would use to describe Madison, MS! Parker and I flew there last Thursday to spend a long weekend with our best friends Heidi and her son Jack, and Brie and her daughter Blair. Heidi grew up there and our husbands were on a law firm retreat, so we couldn't think of a better time to go the South!

We had a ball!! Heidi's sweet parents were gracious enough to babysit and let us have some "girl time"! We shopped, ate out, got coffee and even pedicures without babies!

I have always wanted to visit the deep south and it was everything I thought it would be! My favorite were the houses...big porches, white columns and of course, rocking chairs!

Thank you so much Heidi for showing us true southern hospitality in your home town! :)

Saying bye to daddy at the airport.

Reading Dr. Suess before we took off!

Brie and Blair on their very own row!

We actually all had a row to ourselves going, it was a perfect set up! On every flight we were sure to head straight for the very back of the plane...three babies could equal three melt downs!

Peek-a-boo!

Best buddies

This pic has a story. This is late Thursday night after a long day of travel. We went out for wine after the kids were asleep. This large group of really cute, maybe college age, girls all got in front of this fountain to take a pic. They were all dressed in heels and dresses. Then the three of us get up there with milk stains, smashed banana stains and goldfish crumbs on our clothes. We felt and looked like tired mommies. Hey, at least we were out! :)

Friday afternoon we packed a picnic lunch and took the kids swimming, we all had so much fun!

It's close to impossible to get three toddlers to look at a camera at the same time! They sure are cute though!

Three hot mammas ready to hit the town! :)

Precious girls!

Oh yes we did! That is a plate of pure Southern bliss...chicken and waffles. I had never had this combo before but Heidi quickly informed us that we'd be missing out on something divine if we didn't try it! :) Every single bite was eaten!

We couldn't leave MS without a pic in front of our stylish minivan that Heidi drove us around in. We fit three car seats and three adults in it, perfect! Never want to own one though. (No offense to those out there that have one)!! :)

I have the most incredible husband in the whole world! James has been planning a surprise trip for just the two of us for the past 8 months and we got to go last week. He kept it a surprise until the day we got to the airport! He revealed our destination by having me look up at the monitor and the gate we were leaving from said "San Juan, Puerto Rico". He then proceeded to tell me we'd be going on a southern Carribbean cruise that went to the islands of Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Maarten and St. Criox!!!

Since I turn 30 next Tuesday and we just celebrated 8 years of marriage, James thought it would be a good time to get away and leave Parker with my parents for his own little vacation! :) I had never been away from him for more than 24 hours, it was time!

We had a ball!! It was AMAZING...we had a whole week to ourselves and I got to turn "mommy mode" off! We did some great stuff and one of my favorites was just lying on the beach with a good book and the sound of waves crashing in the distance, ahhh! Every night was date night on the boat!

When we returned Sunday night, mom, dad and Parker picked us up at DFW and guess who came WALKING up to us?? That's right! Parker decided to start walking while we were gone. I'm so glad my parents got to see it and he was very well documented while we were gone! Here are some pics out of the hundreds we took and of course, pics don't do the beauty justice!

Thank you honey for the most wonderful vacation, I loved every minute of it!! :) THANK YOU mom and dad for keeping Parker and taking such good care of him, we really appreciate it!!

Mom and dad dropped us off at DFW on Saturday, I still had no idea where I was going at this point!

Saying bye to Parker for 10 days was HARD! Many tears followed!

After a five hour plane ride to Puerto Rico, we were all smiles!

Hanging with the locals that night, this was a pina colada stand!

The next morning we ate breakfast at this hotel called "El Convento". It was a convent several hundred years ago and they turned it into a hotel. We ate breakfast in the courtyard!

After breakfast on Sunday we went to this old fort that used to protect San Juan's harbor. It's been around for 500 years, pretty cool!

We got on the boat at 2 but it wasn't leaving until 8, so we had fun just exploring and looking around! You could take a day just to see the whole boat.

Playing putt putt.

Our first night on the boat.

Leaving San Juan and looking at the Carnival cruise ship still in port.

Our first day was a day at sea, then on Tuesday we arrived at Barbados.

On Barbados we took a catamaran and went snorkeling with sea turtles. James did such a great job, he found a boat that only had 12 people on it that day, otherwise you're on there with like 40 people, not fun! Snorkeling was great, we even saw some sting rays and a sunken boat!

Love how they play the steel drums as you leave and enter the boat, very tropical!

Our boat

Monday night was our first formal night.

Arriving in St. Lucia. This is by far the most lush and beautiful of all the islands in the Carribbean, it looks like it belongs in the South Pacific with Tahiti. This is where we came on our honeymoon so it was fun to come back and do something different!

We hired our own driver to take us through the island. He stopped along the way at a banana plantation and several fruit stands.

The best bananas I've ever had! Lying on top is a cashew in it's shell from a cashew tree we found!

Tropical fruit stand

The two peaks in the background are called the Pitons. St. Lucia is a volcanic island, part of it still steams today!

Our driver was taking us to the middle of the Pitons. In between the peaks is a secluded beach and resort called the Jalousie.

Looking at one of the Pitons on the left side of the beach.

One of my favorite beaches ever because of how unique it is, nestled in between those peaks

The entrance to the Jalousie hotel.

As we were pulling away from St. Lucia, James spotted the Sandals resort we stayed at 8 years ago!

Looking down at the middle of our boat. It was 13 stories high, had a two story dining room, two restaurants, several cafes, a rock climbing wall and a putt putt golf course. It was a FUN boat!

I loved how every evening we came back to the room to find a different towel animal on the bed! :)

It was so much fun to dress up for dinner every night!

This is what we saw the morning we docked on Antigua!

On Antigua, we just had a relaxing beach day. We went to Runaway beach; there are hundreds of beaches too choose from so we asked the locals which one they recommended, hopped in a cab and took off!

My favorite spot to be! :)

Leaving Antigua and about to board our boat!

On Friday we were in St. Maarten, this was our favorite island!

This island is half French, half Dutch, so it was fun to experience both sides! We started off on Orient beach (French), spent several hours, took a cab to a town called Marigot and had an amazing French lunch, then headed off to Maho beach on the Dutch side! Busy day!

The little Dutch shopping town was fabulous!

Here's my hot hubby on Orient beach, this is the first one we went to that day. It was gorgeous! We walked the whole beach and came upon the "European side" of it...not a swimsuit was to be found and some people desperately needed one! :)

OK Let me explain Maho beach... it is RIGHT in front of the runway of their airport. The only thing that separates the beach and the runway is a little road. So the planes approaching the runway look like they are seriously going to hit you head on while you're lying on the beach, it's the wildest thing ever!! Look up Maho beach on YouTube and you'll see what I mean!

Maho beach

This picture does NOT do it justice, the plane was so low and about to touch down!

Everyone just squealed when one would come over because it was so thrilling!!

About to take off, the blast from the engines could knock you over if you weren't holding on!

Our last formal night

A towel monkey! :)

This is Carambola beach on St. Croix. Very secluded and undeveloped, we loved it!

This is the resort we ate lunch at, so beautiful!

Small world! At our very first dinner on the boat, this girl leans over to me and asks if I was a Tridelt at Baylor, I looked at her and was like, oh my gosh! She was Natalie Todd when I knew her at Baylor, she and her husband, Clinton, were on our boat vacationing as well! We had a lot of great conversations reminiscing about good ol BU!