Our Bahamas vacation that turned into a trip to DC and NYC

Last Wednesday, Derek and I headed out on our highly anticipated tenth anniversary trip to the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas! Sun, sand, snorkeling and swimming with dolphins were all on the agenda along with plenty of lounging and reading the new Harry Potter book for five days. 

Here we are ready for a relaxing week! 

Well, after this pic was taken, our plans were completely turned around! Our plane was boarding to Atlanta when I get the notification that the CDC issued a new warning merely hours before, which advised pregnant women not to travel there due to cases of the zika virus being spread in the country. (I suppose this is where I get to make the announcement-- we're pregnant with baby #4!). I am sure you can imagine the flow of tears that poured out as I boarded a plane knowing that we would likely never make it to our planned destination. With our free wifi on the plane (thanks T-mobile!) we researched a bit about the cases that were documented and found out that they all occurred on the island we were expected to go. At that point, we just knew there was too much on the line and made the decision not continue to the Bahamas once we landed in Atlanta. More tears, obviously. 

Before we could actually make plans, we had to figure out how much money we might actually get back from our non-refundable tickets and resort reservations. We found a Delta customer service booth in Atlanta and were treated so kindly (perhaps the sobbing pregnant lady played a part?). In a matter of minutes, they refunded our flights. I was in touch with the resort and they offered a partial refund until I could submit a letter from my doctor confirming pregnancy and was advised not to travel to the Bahamas at which they would provide a full refund. This was such a blessing and more than either company was really obligated to do! 

So, having most of our trip in pending refunds and being at the nation's busiest airport, we found ourselves with so many options! I had texted a few friends who have traveled and/or live along the east coast in flight. And the very kind man sitting next to me on the plane (who was probably wondering what he had done wrong in life to have to sit next to a sobbing pregnant woman for two hours) was from Florida and wrote out every beach he's enjoyed along with dinner ideas and hotels. It was actually a bit overwhelming. We tossed around ideas. We browsed the departure boards. We looked up flights and schedules on our phones. We stopped to eat lunch and collect our thoughts. Ultimately, we opted to travel to Washington DC and then travel up to New York city for an exciting, albeit completely opposite than what we were expecting, adventure!

An adventure that would land us in Baltimore to take a train to DC, on a boat to Virginia, on subways and uber cars around the nation's capitol, on a bus traveling back through Maryland into Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey leading us into NYC where we'd take more subways, buses and boats before flying home. Oh, and an average of 7-8 miles of walking each day and a 6 mile bike ride through Central Park.

Here we are (smiling again!) for our 10th anniversary trip 2.0

Our trip can best be summarized by visiting and doing every possibly touristy thing in a very short time frame - two and a half days in each city.

Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial

Inside of the Lincoln Memorial-- if you look close, you can see Four making a presence. This is 17 weeks! 

White House!

Sunset boat ride on our way back from Alexandria, VA

International Spy Museum

Air and Space Museum 

Arlington Cemetery

Boarding our bus to NY!

New York pizza is the BEST (sorry, not sorry Chicago). Especially after sitting on a bus for six hours in DC/NY Friday evening traffic. 

Short cruise to check out the Statue of Liberty (the Brooklyn Bridge behind us!) 

Derek and Lady Liberty

We walked and ate lunch on the High Line

Half-price tickets-- plus, we didn't even have to stand in line because the usher was concerned about the heat and my pregnancy. :)

This show was SOOOOOO good. 

Did I mention we only packed for a week of lounging at the beach? Day 3 called for the purchase of tennis shoes after my feet couldn't handle so many miles in flip flops. Of course, these came at a Times Square premium, but aren't they super cute!?

Outside the 9/11 museum with the Freedom Tower behind us. I thought I had managed to cry all my tears at the airport on day one, but man I couldn't stop them the entire two hours we were inside the museum!

South view of Top of the Rock

 North view!

It wasn't intentional to be sporting our Royals gear around disappointed fans out east (remember, we packed for the Bahamas!), but we our Royals gear was quite the conversation starter in both DC and NY!

Night tour around Manhattan and Brooklyn

We ended the trip with what I thought would be a leisurely bike ride through Central Park. Ha! It was still a great way to explore the park, but there were a few walks of shame up some hills. 

The view from the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir

We ended the trip with a quick visit with a friend of my favorite New Yorker, souvenir shopping for the kiddos, and a trek to Laguardia airport. Derek and I are still working on recovering from our super crazy, exhausting trip, but it did not disappoint! We've pushed our tropical beach vacation back a year or two -- when the grandparents have recovered from watching the kids AND are up for adding a FOURTH into the mix! :) :) :) 

The summer of swimming

We've been up to a lot for sure this summer, but the one thing is for sure-- we've been making sure to get the most out of our pool pass! It's been a lot of fun and it's actually been the easiest summer to manage the kids at the pool. Jackson is can swim and is tall enough to go out on his own, Isabelle knows her limits and will play around, and Caroline is so timid she will barely leave my side. We typically spend a "two adult swims" at the pool when we go and it's the perfect amount of time to get outside in this dreadful heat!

The first day-- they're ready to dive in!

The kids often find friends to play with or we'll plan times for our friends to come play with us!

 There's still fun to be had when it's just us though!

Like sending silly face texts to Aunt Laura saying "Wish you were here!" 

Aunt Laura and Uncle Sebastian did take the kiddos to the pool one day. The kids thought it was the coolest day at the pool ever.

Each kiddo has made a big achievement in water confidence and skills over the summer-- including trying new water slides!

Jackson tried this slide on our 2nd or 3rd visit. He spent two hours that day climbing up the stairs, sliding down, swimming to get out, and then back up the stairs to start the cycle over again.

Isabelle tried out the tube slide. She's so funny-- she won't sit on the tube to go down! She would rather just go on her bottom with the tube to just catch her when she reaches the bottom.

Most days Caroline won't leave my side, but there have been a handful of times that she has decided to play on the little kid playground. Whenever she does play, she'll do it over and over for an hour. But if she's not interested, she won't even glance that way. 

Her favorite is when either big brother or big sister are there to play with her!

The cousins joined us at the pool this weekend and we still have two more weeks to cram in swimming time before school starts!

It's been a pretty great way to spend the summer! 

Family Date Night

This past weekend was a much anticipated pretty chill weekend. Our weekends have been full lately and so it was nice to be home without much to do. Well, Derek made quite an ambitious list of things to complete around the house so it's not like there was NOTHING to do. We put in some good yard and house work and decided it'd be perfect to take the kids out to dinner and a movie!

Some big news from back in February-- I won a year's supply of pizza from Pie 5 from a radio station. It's a cool pizza place around town that makes individual pizzas in 5 minutes. I can get 4 pizzas a month and it works out perfectly to take the family once a month or to stop by a few times on a lunch break. I haven't used my July pizzas so we headed out! The kids love crafting their own pizzas. Jackson's favorite is pan crust, BBQ sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. Belle likes a thin crust and lots of cheese.

Caroline just loves the freedom to sprinkle parmesan cheese on any pizza.

Jackson ate his WHOLE pizza.

We headed to the movie theater after dinner. I'm not a fan of paying for movie tickets for kids movies because we often just go to the summer daytime kid movies for $2 and opt for the new movies from Redbox or something. But as it so happens, when we came to daytime kid movie two weeks ago there was some sort of glitch in the system that delayed ticketing and so they delayed the start of the movie. The delay of the movie start time somehow caused some sort of problem with the system that they couldn't get it to start AT ALL. The theater was so gracious and we ended up with free popcorn and they comped us tickets to come back to see any movie-- so we planned to see The Secret Life of Pets! 

Belle asked to bring her pet Malcolm to the movie and was so excited that we agreed. She was going on and on about how excited Malcolm was because "he's never been to the movies before! He's going to love it!" He did accompany her in the girls restroom and informed the other patrons that he was a boy, but it was okay because he was just a dog. 

Family pic!

We had super comfy, reclining seats! 

See those little tables-- that's for ordering food and servers will bring it to you during the movie. We didn't order any food, but the gal next to me did get some french fries. Caroline reached over and snagged one before I even knew she was reaching! The lady was so sweet-- I was mortified! 

The kids loved the movie, lots of laughing. Caroline pointed out the "doggie" 9 trillion times and was pleased with herself each time she did.  It was a fun evening to spend together doing something we haven't really done much before.  only we could do it for $13 every time!

My sister's getting married!

I can't believe I left this out of my blogging recap just a few weeks ago! My sister, Laura, got engaged in March to a great guy who is willing to join our crazy family! The wedding is THIS WEEKEND! Woo hooo!!!! I can't believe my little sister is old enough to get married-- but let's be honest, I can't believe I'm old enough to have three kiddos and a mortgage!

Sebastian proposed on a date up here in KC so we were able to celebrate with Laura the very evening he proposed!

Laura made special invitations for the Isabelle and Caroline to be her "flower princesses." And I get to be one of her matrons of honors! 

Caroline loved trying on flower girl dresses-- but we're still working on proper dress etiquette. 

Laura had a lovely shower down in Springfield.

We got to shower her with love!

And Isabelle and Aunt Laura had fun making silly faces. 

Derek and I managed a fun double date at the yummiest pizza place downtown!

And Laura had another lovely shower up here in KC!

Mom gifted Laura the "You are special today" plate like she did for me! It's a tradition to use the plate for birthdays and miscellaneous celebrations.

I put together a collection of recipes for her of all our family favorite recipes. I kinda wanted to keep it for myself, but instead I just took photos of the recipes that I didn't have for myself!

Tonight we are going out for her bachelorette party and then tomorrow is the rehearsal and then the wedding is Sunday. It's going to be so much fun celebrating her and Sebastian!