My Family: vacation

Krystal and I went to the Bahamas a couple of weekends ago for Sharrah and Kevin's wedding. The trip there was very long! It was basically an all day event. Krystal had Liberty (6 months) so that was an extra adventure. Liberty was very good the whole trip! She is such a sweet little girl. We got into Nassau late Thursday evening. Sharrah came to pick me up at the airport (Krystal's flight had come in earlier than mine), and on the drive to her family's house we got to chat for a little bit (that was really the only time I got to talk to her for the next 3 days!). Her family was having a party at their house and all their family and friends were there. I was so exhausted and starving (thankfully, there was food)! I'm not sure how long we were there. Sharrah arranged through one of her friends to taxi us back and forth from events to our hotel. Anyway, that night I slept very good! The next morning was relaxing. Here is a picture from our private terrace...You can't see it in the picture, but we could see little bits of the ocean through the trees - very beautiful!

Here is Liberty being sweet and adorable!

On Friday, Krystal and I walked to a restaurant and had lunch at a place Kevin's family had recommended. They had the best virgin strawberry daquiris! Yum!

After we ate lunch, we took a ferry over to the Straw Market. We spent the next few hours there buying gifts for our families back home. The market was very interesting. It had rows and rows of booths, and the rows were so close together that only one person could walk through at a time. The owners of the booths would say pretty much anything to get you to stop and look at their items. It was very overwhelming at first! They would say things like, "Hey, pretty lady, why don't you stop and look at my booth? What would you like today? We are having a sale! Do you need this? Do you need that?" It was really something! And then if you did show any interest in anything, they would almost stuff it into your bag to get you to buy it! It was fun. Anyway, I got some jewelry, some t-shirts, and some toys for gifts. Oh, and some coffee for Phillip which he has yet to try! We spent much longer there than we intended. We were supposed to get back by like 4pm so we could get ready for the rehearsal dinner which started at 5pm. However, we didn't get back until 5pm! So we had to rush to get ready for the rehearsal. Here is a picture of us on the ferry.

A view from the ferry.

After the rehearsal, we were taken to the dinner which was at one of Sharrah's relatives' house. It was more like a mansion! It was so beautiful! The dinner was outside on their back patios. They had 3 swimming pools, one or two of which were lap pools! The outside was decorated so beautifully...the pictures just don't do it justice! Anyway, they had lots of yummy hor d'oeuvres, and they even had a man there making drinks for everyone. That meant more virgin daquiris for us MBBC ladies!

The next day was Saturday - wedding day! The whole day was super busy and crazy as wedding days usually are. Here is a cute picture of Sharrah getting her hair done at our hotel. Her hair dresser and the lady who did our makeup came to our hotel, which was really nice!

The wedding was at 3:30pm on the beach right down from our hotel! It was very windy!!! I don't know what I was expecting, but beach weddings are very laid back. There were of course tons of people on the beach right by and behind the wedding site in their bathing suits! It was very different than any wedding I have ever attended! But very normal for a beach wedding. The beach, by the way, was absolutely gorgeous. The water was so blue - like turquoise blue - and in some spots very blue-green. And the sand was white. It was just beautiful! The only beach (and I don't think it really counts) I've ever been to is the Galvaston, TX beach - ugly!! Anyway, the wedding was lovely. I will put pics of the wedding up later. The following pics were actually taken at the reception afterwards. The reception site was also amazing! It was in what must have been a mansion, which is now used for events. I'm not sure how old it was, but everything was beautiful! The reception was in a huge room that had doors along one side that opened up onto a balcony. The wedding party and the bride/groom's families were seated at tables inside the room while the guests were at tables on the balcony. Sharrah and Kevin were at their own table in between all of us. A wonderful four-course meal was served in increments while a live band played classic love songs. There was a MC who just happened to be a comedian - another friend of Sharrah's I think. She was really funny and kept us all entertained. I have to admit though, that I was very tired and very hungry the entire time!! I guess it didn't help to be pregnant! :)

After the reception, we were taken back to our hotel. Krystal, Pam and I all went down to the beach at night. Then we went swimming in one of the hotel pools. It was nice cause we were the only ones at the pool. We got special permission to swim after hours since we had been so busy that we hadn't had a chance to enjoy the pool yet! They also had a place where several hammocks were tied between palm trees, and we went and "hung" out there for a while too. It was so nice! The next morning was Sunday, our last day. Our driver was coming to pick us up to take us to the airport at 1pm I think. So we had a few hours in the morning to quickly pack and then go do one more fun thing! I had to take some pics of the hotel and its surroundings though!

Once were were packed, we met up with Caroline (Kevin's younger sister) and walked over to Atlantis - the major resort on the island! It's actually where Chuck and Debbie got to stay, so that's how we got in free (we used their room key to get arm bands). Normally, it would've cost us each $110 to get those arm bands if we weren't staying at the resort!! Here is a pic of us on our walk to Atlantis.

Here's Liberty being cute again!!

When we got to Atlantis (which is HUGE by the way), we found Chuck and Debbie's room and then took some pictures on the patio right outside their room. It was so pretty!!

There was this shallow waterway running along the rooms and it had sharks in it! I think they were Nurse sharks so they were pretty small, but still...SHARKS! Need I say more?

You can see in this picture how close we were to the sharks!

Then we got into our bathing suits and walked down to the swimming/water rides section of the resort. While Caroline and I swam with Liberty in one of their many pools, Krystal went down some pretty big (and steep) water slides! Then Caroline and I went on the Lazy River ride (my kind of ride!). I sat on a big intertube and was carried along a water course which lasted about 20 minutes! It had rapids at parts, big waves at other parts, and gentle currents on yet others. It was a lot of fun and not too scary, which was good for me! :)

Then we had to rush back to the hotel, and when we got there our driver was already there to pick us up! We quickly loaded our stuff in the van, said our goodbyes to Kevin's family, and left for the airport. We got back around 9pm Sunday night, which was a much shorter trip than on the way there. I was so happy to see Phillip and especially Daniel, that I just started crying and couldn't stop! This was my first trip to be away from Daniel and I was gone a total of 4 days! Phillip said he was really good while I was gone and didn't seem upset that I wasn't there until Sunday. He didn't do well in toddlers at church and was pretty fussy. Of course, the whole next week, he was pretty bad for me! I think he was taking out his frustrations at me being gone for 4 days. Anyway, overall, I'd say the trip was good - exhausting - but good. I was glad I got to be there for Sharrah on such an important day. And I was the matron of honor so that was really special! I wish we could have had even one more day to enjoy the sights, but I was also glad to be home. I still can't believe that I can say I've been to the Bahamas! :)

As part of Phillip's vacation last week, we went to a bed and breakfast in Seymour, Missouri called Amish Country Inn. The b&b was in a barn that had been renovated and it was very nice. The owners were very nice too and the wife (they have 7 boys and 1 girl) even took Daniel back to the kitchen with her the night we got there so we could eat our meal in peace. Daniel did very good and slept well that night (no crying!) which was a blessing! I was worried that he might keep everyone up (there were honeymooners there) which would have been awful, but he didn't! The next day we took some pictures around the place and then we went to an authentic Amish store. It was on an actual Amish family's farm and they ran it. There are about 2400 old order Amish around the area and we saw lots of horse-drawn wagons and buggies as we were driving around. It was very neat! The Amish store was interesting too. When we walked in the ladies were talking in Pennsylvania Dutch (German?) and of course they were dressed in Amish clothes. One of the girls was younger (I couldn't tell how old she was; she could have been in her late teens or early 20's) and I couldn't help but stare discreetly - she was so different than me! She was very pretty though and I find myself wishing I could talk to her about her life. But we know that they don't like people staring and prying so I didn't of course. The store had lots of things, including Amish material and boots and hats. In addition, it had baking pans and supplies, toys and books for children, and some food. Just a side note, if you would like to read some books on the Amish, look up Beverly Lewis. She writes Christian historical fiction on the Amish and I love her books! Anyway, from there we drove on to Branson and did some shopping there and then it was home. My mom got to go with us which was also a lot of fun!!