Puerto Rico: Days 3 and 4

On day three... Monday we decided to put the girls in Iguana Kid's Club! This is day camp on the resort for the kids. Maddie, Ashlyn and Colton LOVED it. Unfortunately, Brooke wasn't able to go since she wasn't old enough. So, she hung out with us big girls! The kids spent two half days in Iguana Club... Monday and Tuesday mornings. We were only going to put them in one day, but the LOVED it so much they wanted to go back on Tuesday. They spent time at the beach looking for seashells, they went to the tennis courts, got more braids in their hair (well...not Colton), played the Wii, did crafts, got their faces painted, fed the Iguanas... and more and more! I think Maddie and Ashlyn liked getting their faces painted the best!

While the kids were at Iguana Club... us girls decided to get massages. We took turns so that someone was available to watch Brooke and Drake, but all of us enjoyed a relaxing hour at the spa. The boys (or should I say Gary, Shannon and Chris) decided to NOT sleep in and instead get up at 5 am to go golfing! However, despite an early morning...I think they thouroughly enjoyed themselves.

The rest of the afternoon we spent hanging out at the pool...

trying out the waterslide...

and chillin with the Iguanas.

It was amazing how they were so tame. They were everywhere on the resort and would come out during the day and "hang out" with all the people. The girls loved it...well, sorta. They kinda freaked them out at first, but they got used to them and then thought they were pretty cool!

That evening we went on a kayaking trip by ourselves...Chris and I did. The rest of the group went out to dinner and unfortunately it wasn't good dinner. But, our kayaking trip was awesome. It was a bio-luminescent tour...here's an expelanation. Off the Caribbean Coast of Puerto Rico, lies one of the most spectacular bio-luminescent bays in the world. Specifically, this bay is off the island of Vieques, which is about 8 miles east of the Puerto Rican mainland. This “Bio Bay” is considered the largest and brightest in existence. It is also one of the only places where you can see the phenomenon every night of the year, others are seasonal. The luminescence is caused by approximately 720,000 micro-organisms (dinoflagellates) per gallon of water. Whenever the water is disturbed, the organisms light up in a beautiful neon blue-green.

This is not a picture of our tour...we had a hard time getting the picture to show the glowing effects of the bay, but I found this one so you can see what it was like. It was so very cool and it was my first time kayaking. We had a great time.

Tuesday was a special day for us... as our baby turned 3! It was kinda fun to celebrate Brookie's birthday in Puerto Rico. That morning I had to get up and take a cab to Walgreens to get a phone charger as our was not working. So, while I was out, I picked up a birthday present and cake to help us in celebrating her birthday (and Kelsi's too as she celebrated her birthday on the plane trip to Puerto Rico).

Tuesday morning we spent the morning at the beach... minus Colton, Maddie and Ashlyn... who spent the morning at Iguana Kids Club. I decided to get in the water this time, which is not as easy for me since I'm really not an "ocean" person. I like the look of it, the sound of it but I'm not big on getting in it!

Brooke took her baby doll to the beach and had a good time...

well... for the most part.
She has a very dramatic pout! She obviously wasn't getting her way about something.

The big boys (all of them this time) spent the afternoon deep sea fishing. Unfortunately it wasn't all that great of a time. The waters were VERY choppy and some of the guys got seasick... and the fish were NOT biting that day either. Bummer! Us girls (and all the kids) spent the afternoon at the rainforest that was literly right a cross the street from the entrance to our resort! We had a relatively good time...beautiful views! Although, it was a little nauseating when you are going up into the rainforest with lost of curves and over half our group gets carsick! However, we got to see some beautiful and unique flowers and plants... along with georgeous scenery and breathtaking views!

Some tidbits about the pictures above...

1. the yellow flower is the Paradise Bird Flower...you can see that it looks kinda like a bird

2. we saw several types of snails that were crawling on leaves or trees.

3. the tree trunk has spikes that grow on it that is some type of defense mechanism

4. the tiny birds were in a tiny nest on a branch of a tree (we just happened upon them) VERY COOL!

5. the red flower is called a Sleeping Hibiscus because it never opens, but always hangs upside down and closed.

We ended the evening by going out to dinner together... here we are waiting for the rest of the gang.

We even got a good pic of the girls rosy cheeks...guess we shouldv'e applied a little more sunblock to their little faces. It's wierd to think we got a little sunburnt in December.

Well, that's pretty much it for Monday and Tuesday...I will blog about the last two days soon!