Family Vacation to Curacao (Paradise!)

This past week, we had the opportunity to travel to the Netherland Antilles to an island called Curacao! It is 14 miles from Venezuela, so we were basically in South America. We were pretty far and pretty close to the equator. And you know what that means! Sun, sun, and more sun with warmer temperatures! We had a great getaway from the frozen tundra here where we live. We had just had an ice storm the day before we left for Curacao. It was so nice to lay in warm weather for a change! It was a beautiful place, beautiful resort with anything and everything you could imagine there. Restaurants, smoothie bars, massages (and I had one on the last day and it was heavenly), fitness rooms, hot tubs, stores, and much more! Even the beach towels were given to you at the pool and you just left them there when you were done with them! No laundry and lugging heavy towels around! Very nice! We had a great week together! This was Jesse's first time seeing anything Tropical in the Carribean ocean. It is an amazing sight. We can't wait to hopefully go back to Curacao one day!



Carter and Papaw on the last night at dinner


Enjoying our last night in Curacao! We ate at this restaurant outide oceanside. The restaurant used to be a prison long ago!

Our last night

eating dinner by the ocean on our last night. Carter insisted on wearing his hoodie because "it was windy" ha!

The whole gang! Mom and Dad's friends from dad's work, we love them!

Eating lunch by the ocean after a long day of swimming

The beach and ocean were breath-taking! There is nothing like the Carribean ocean!

Carter and Papaw after playing in the ocean

Playing in the ocean with Papaw

Bikini girl collecting her shells

I really enjoyed my time off with my family! I love you Jesse!

My little girl, my little buddy!

My little family in paradise, nothing better than that!

The ocean was more like a swimming pool, so clear and aqua blue water

Can't decide what's prettier, Addy's eyes or that water behind her! They are both crystal blue!! :)

Carter showing off his new Curacao t-shirt! The Iguana changes color in the sunlight! It turns hot pink and red and all different colors! Weird! Thanks Papaw!

Grandma Martha, they loved her! We've known her and Ron forever and visit them when we go to florida because they live in the same city we vacation, Naples, Florida. Ron works for my dad and we, especially the twins, love them!

Good morning Mamaw and Papaw!

Our dinner table got sang to by this Mariache band! They put these silly Mexican hats on everyone at our table! Dad wasn't amused because he said he didn't want to tip them for this! Ha!

daily bath after pool before naptime

At lunch all week, Carter discovered his love for Nachos! He went crazy (obviously by the look of that picture) with the Nachos and really chowed down like crazy! I was so proud of my boy!

Could this little thing get any cuter?

Hanging out with Mommy and the girls while Daddy and Papaw golfed!

Carter walked up to me and told me to take his picture and that he would smile for me real big! I was like, okay! He was so happy!

Carter fell asleep at dinner one evening! Poor guy swam his little heart out earlier that day! This was even with a 3 hour nap before dinner!

The city! All of their buildings were so colorful! Every different bright color you could imagine! It was very pretty!

Daddy's baby girl, or shall I say, "girls" gotta include baby Ella! :)

my boys waiting on our taxi for dinner!

Love that sunset

In front of the waterfall in our hotel

Rotten

Dinner at El Gaucho! This restaurant was literally outside on the top of a mountain! It was a nice view of the city. I thought it was hysterical though that the owner of the restaurant called himself "El Gaucho" and would drive this huge van and come pick you up at the hotel to drive you to his restaurant on top of a mountain??? You would think he would be wasting a lot of gas money (gas was outrageous there) because he would pick everyone up! He would drop people off, and literally go back out again to pick more people up, and repeat this cycle into the wee hours of the night. I thought this was hilarious for some reason??! lol

Getting ready to get a taxi and go to dinner!

Waiting for our taxi, of course Ella had to come with our family! :)

Cutie

Enjoying some good lunch! Probably Nachos and Caesar Salads! Ha!

enjoying some lunch at the restaurant on the water, our daily routine! :)

The cutest little butt and legs I've ever seen!

I miss that view already! :( I could look at this all day long!

At halftime of the Superbowl, we brought the art supplies and paint! :) They had had enough football and wanted to paint! :)

The twins watching the Superbowl

Watching the Superbowl and the hotel restaurant, we had a big movie screen and great food! Go Packers!

What a stud! :) He loved his sunglasses and was so proud of himself for swimming all alone! I can't wait for summer now!!!!!! Independent swimmers! Yay!

Genuine smiles! She was so proud of her big self for swimming without Mommy's help!

They swam all alone for the first time EVER on this trip! They saw around the entire huge pool and had a blast! It was SOOOOO nice just laying in the chair catching some sun and watching them swim! I love the fact that they have each other to play with too! Twins is the best thing ever, a constant playmate wherever you go! I love it!

Look Mommy, I found a crab!! Eww!

day 1 of the beach and pool! they look so old and big! wow!

The was the dinner reception set up right beside the ocean for all of the companies my dad does business with, it was soooooo nice!

first night there, getting ready to eat dinner at the reception held out by the ocean

first night there, no sun yet obviously as I was white as a ghost!

The view of the back of the hotel from the pool/ocean area

tons of cruise ships coming in and out

Their first walk on the beach! We had just gotten there! Love the waves crashes on the big rocks! So pretty!

The city! We were in a taxi and the driver pulled over to let us take pictures of the views

Our first day at Curacao! We had just gotten there and were exploring the place!

The twins loved the fountain (and their sunglasses)!

The lobby coming in from the ocean/pool area. It had a big beautiful water fountain, so pretty!

Our part of the hotel, there were tons and tons of little "pods" like this one, it was a huge resort!

Beautiful

The pool was very neat for the kids! It had steps and ledges all the way around it, and it had these smaller cove areas where they liked to hang out. Lots of pool space, not crowded at all! The best part about the pool was the waitresses that would come to your lawnchair and take your food and drink orders! We lived on Fruit smoothies all week! Ha!

This is the view from the hotel lobby

This was our first day here and my dad had a big seminar meeting with all of his work people! Carter and Addison were invited to the meeting and were introduced as "the miracle babies you all prayed for!" Crazy that that many people, people I didn't even know, people across the country, were praying for my little ones.

Of course Ella came on our trip! She's part of the family and goes everywhere with Addy!

Mommy's little flying buddy! We all 4 slept on every (4) flight!

On the plane on the way down! Daddy's little flying buddy!