Flashback Friday

Since it is vacation time for most families, I decided that for this flashback Friday, I would tell everyone about our trip to Puerto Rico.  We went this past February.  Amelia was 14 months old.  It was her first time to see the ocean, and first time to ride a plane.  Drew had to go to Puerto Rico for work, so his company was nice enough to allow us to tag along.  Going to a tropical island isn't the same with a 1 year old. 

I was very nervous about the airplane ride.  And, I don't know what I was thinking booking our flight at 6 AM.  Amelia actually did really well though.  She slept from Memphis to Atlanta.  But, Atlanta to Puerto Rico was 4 hours!  She did great though!  All the people on the plane complemented her.  I was so proud!

Our daily routine was usually beach, pool, lunch, nap, then back to the beach for a little while.  Daddy tried to do all his work during Amelia's nap time.  There was 1 day he had to work all day, but we did get a lot of family time in. 

The beach of Puerto Rico is not like the white sandy beaches of the gulf.  It is a very short distance to the water (which was nice for strolling to the beach), and the sand is a coarse brown.  Amelia didn't mind one bit.  She loved it!  She didn't quite know what to think of the water.  She wouldn't get much more than her toes wet.  But, even though it was about 85 degrees outside, the water was still cold and the wind was cool. 

This was about the most daring she got with getting in the water.

I love this picture of the 2 of them looking out at the ocean.

Yes, mommy is very pale!  It is February, and I don't tan well anyway!

It almost seemed like we had the entire beach to ourselves. 

It's hard to keep your balance in the sand!

One day, daddy didn't have to work at all, so we took a trip to the rainforest.  Puerto Rico is such a strange island.  It really isn't very big, but the part where we stayed was in its dry season and the northern part of the island was in its rainy season.  So weird!  But, it does rain year round in the rainforest. 

The week we went, I was about 9-10 weeks pregnant.  So, not feeling so great to begin with, but on top of that Amelia had the stomach bug the first night we were there (which let me say, after 5 hours of throwing up, she was a trooper and ready to go that morning when she woke up), and I got it 2 nights after she did.  I took a little longer to recover than she did.  So, hiking through the rainforest was doable, but mommy sure wasn't trying to race to get anywhere!



We got a little lost trying to find the state park, but this was a stop we made as we were trying to find our way.  There was a really pretty water/rock fall on the other side of the bridge.  Drew climbed down and got some photos.  I couldn't find them though.  But, he slipped and I just about had a heart attack thinking he was going to die in the middle of nowhere, Puerto Rico.  Luckily he recovered well!

This is a roadside waterfall that we had walked to.

This was looking out over the island from where a tower was built that we had hiked to.

This was a good view of the island.  You can see the sunny south side of the island.

Amelia was such a big girl and wanted to walk everywhere.  We did put her in the stroller though for the trails.

This was the waterfall we hiked to.  It was about 1.5 miles there I think.  You could get in the water and swim around or climb up to the top of the falls.  We weren't that adventurous.  Poor Drew had the job of pushing the stroller, and it wasn't that easy of a trek.

This is just another picture of the roadside waterfall.

Our hiking ended with the last trip to the waterfall.  Mommy was worn out and Amelia had fallen asleep.  So, we took our tired stinky selves back into town and ate at Chili's.  I'm sure the locals would have rather we had kept on going till we could clean ourselves up, but we love Chili's and we were ready to eat!  We enjoyed our little adventure though!

By the time Friday came, we were good and ready to head back to Mississippi.  It was a nice week, but there is something about being at home.  I don't know if I would want to go back to Puerto Rico.  But, I am thankful for the opportunity we had to go.  Our next family beach trip will be to the white sandy beaches of Florida or Alabama!