The last week has been our Spring Break and it has been a well deserved rest. Well, a rest from work. Aberly still keeps us working and up. I think all parents can say how unbelievable it is at times how much energy their children have. It seems never ending sometimes. Knowing this energy laden and busy child would go bonkers at home, and in turn making us go bonkers, we decided to take two little family trips. The first was camping at Fins beach and the second was to a local resort for two nights.
Camping was pretty good. Aberly decided going to sleep that night was something to fight tooth and nail, but besides that, it was good. Our friends Darcy and Ammar joined us with their son Sammie (who I might add has the same personality as Aberly so they drove each other nuts at times) and we had a great evening letting the kids play, having dinner around a charcoal campfire (for BBQing dinner meat) and then a fun morning playing in the ocean. It ended up being a wildlife adventure as well as we were visited by a donkey, camel, and a couple of Egyptian vultures which are about the size of a hawk and actually kinda pretty. The weather was beautiful. Sunny but with a nice ocean breeze so it never felt too hot. The ocean was calm and the sand filled with shells for me to find. Yes, another collection to go with my rock collection, of course. We feared not being able to leave as Darcy and Ammar's battery was dead, but luckily we got them jumped and we all headed out around 10:00. When you are up at 5:50 (Aberly sees the sun is shining so that must mean it's time to get up), that is long enough to stay in the morning.
After a day to get cleaned up and re-packed, we headed to a new resort called Millenium about an hour away up the coast. It was a pretty swanky full service resort. We ended up there only because they had a buy 1 get 1 free coupon for two nights in the Entertainer (yes, they have those here which is awesome) along with buy 1 get 1 free for their restaurants. We suddenly could afford this trip! We stayed in a one bedroom apartment with full living room, kitchen, and two bathrooms. I also will add that this hotel room was nicer than our current home in decor and design. It overlooked the ocean and had two private patios. We spent our days playing on the beach (also loaded with shells for me to find) and swimming in the infinity pools. Aberly had a blast since she now understands what her water wings do for her. She swam across the pool like a champ, although it took her a 1/2 hour. She demanded we did not help or push her, so that impacted her speed just a bit. But we were pretty darn proud of our big girl being a big swimmer. The pools also had these "table shelves" off the sides of the pools that came to about a few inches below the water level which made for a perfect play space when she wanted to sit and splash around. The restaurant buffet dinners were fabulous (Indian and then Southeast Asian nights) and the food quality deserved a higher label than "buffet". The waitresses were the sweetest and loved Aberly. They made her straw flowers.
And of course, to continue the "getting free things cause I'm cute" streak, Aberly scored a stuffed teddy bear from the gift shop before we left. Sigh. What was the funniest about this one is that it was the lady working for the hotel gift shop. It wasn't even her shop! Usually it's a gift from the person who owns the shop. Apparently giving away something free to a cute child is okay with the hotel or else she wouldn't have done so. Aberly is doing to be darn disappointed when she can't walk about of the store with something for free! LOL Actually, this only happens once every few months so I don't think she really thinks it will happen all of the time. We always try to say no but you know you can't win with the people here, so after a few "oh no's" and "you shouldn't", you secede and say your thank you's and "you're too kind's". I actually think it would be offensive if we didn't take the gifts.
Today has been a low-key day. I shopped to re-stock our near empty fridge while Colin and Aberly went to the park. Aberly and Colin are now both taking naps while I blog and catch up on emails. Tonight I do get my last Spring Break hurrah by going to the ballet at the Opera House with a bunch of gals from work. It is "Cinderella" and I'm pretty jazzed for a fancy night out with the girls.
After that, we have two more days to relax before school is back in session and we have the long haul till the end of the school year and heading back for the summer. We know it will fly by. Oh, before that, we do get to celebrate Easter as a family in the morning and then I have helped organize a small Easter get together in the late afternoon for families to share some appetizers and let the little kids have an egg hunt. It feels weird to have Easter fall during the work week here (Sunday is like a Tuesday in the states) but at least the school is giving us the day off and there is a special church service that morning at 8:30. We will do our best to give Aberly a joyful holiday!
Happy Spring Break to you all!
Camping was pretty good. Aberly decided going to sleep that night was something to fight tooth and nail, but besides that, it was good. Our friends Darcy and Ammar joined us with their son Sammie (who I might add has the same personality as Aberly so they drove each other nuts at times) and we had a great evening letting the kids play, having dinner around a charcoal campfire (for BBQing dinner meat) and then a fun morning playing in the ocean. It ended up being a wildlife adventure as well as we were visited by a donkey, camel, and a couple of Egyptian vultures which are about the size of a hawk and actually kinda pretty. The weather was beautiful. Sunny but with a nice ocean breeze so it never felt too hot. The ocean was calm and the sand filled with shells for me to find. Yes, another collection to go with my rock collection, of course. We feared not being able to leave as Darcy and Ammar's battery was dead, but luckily we got them jumped and we all headed out around 10:00. When you are up at 5:50 (Aberly sees the sun is shining so that must mean it's time to get up), that is long enough to stay in the morning.
After a day to get cleaned up and re-packed, we headed to a new resort called Millenium about an hour away up the coast. It was a pretty swanky full service resort. We ended up there only because they had a buy 1 get 1 free coupon for two nights in the Entertainer (yes, they have those here which is awesome) along with buy 1 get 1 free for their restaurants. We suddenly could afford this trip! We stayed in a one bedroom apartment with full living room, kitchen, and two bathrooms. I also will add that this hotel room was nicer than our current home in decor and design. It overlooked the ocean and had two private patios. We spent our days playing on the beach (also loaded with shells for me to find) and swimming in the infinity pools. Aberly had a blast since she now understands what her water wings do for her. She swam across the pool like a champ, although it took her a 1/2 hour. She demanded we did not help or push her, so that impacted her speed just a bit. But we were pretty darn proud of our big girl being a big swimmer. The pools also had these "table shelves" off the sides of the pools that came to about a few inches below the water level which made for a perfect play space when she wanted to sit and splash around. The restaurant buffet dinners were fabulous (Indian and then Southeast Asian nights) and the food quality deserved a higher label than "buffet". The waitresses were the sweetest and loved Aberly. They made her straw flowers.
And of course, to continue the "getting free things cause I'm cute" streak, Aberly scored a stuffed teddy bear from the gift shop before we left. Sigh. What was the funniest about this one is that it was the lady working for the hotel gift shop. It wasn't even her shop! Usually it's a gift from the person who owns the shop. Apparently giving away something free to a cute child is okay with the hotel or else she wouldn't have done so. Aberly is doing to be darn disappointed when she can't walk about of the store with something for free! LOL Actually, this only happens once every few months so I don't think she really thinks it will happen all of the time. We always try to say no but you know you can't win with the people here, so after a few "oh no's" and "you shouldn't", you secede and say your thank you's and "you're too kind's". I actually think it would be offensive if we didn't take the gifts.
Today has been a low-key day. I shopped to re-stock our near empty fridge while Colin and Aberly went to the park. Aberly and Colin are now both taking naps while I blog and catch up on emails. Tonight I do get my last Spring Break hurrah by going to the ballet at the Opera House with a bunch of gals from work. It is "Cinderella" and I'm pretty jazzed for a fancy night out with the girls.
After that, we have two more days to relax before school is back in session and we have the long haul till the end of the school year and heading back for the summer. We know it will fly by. Oh, before that, we do get to celebrate Easter as a family in the morning and then I have helped organize a small Easter get together in the late afternoon for families to share some appetizers and let the little kids have an egg hunt. It feels weird to have Easter fall during the work week here (Sunday is like a Tuesday in the states) but at least the school is giving us the day off and there is a special church service that morning at 8:30. We will do our best to give Aberly a joyful holiday!
Happy Spring Break to you all!
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