ARUUUUBA part 2

Here is part 2 of our Aruba vacation! You can read part one here.

Monday morning we woke up and Eddie had a meeting to attend so I had breakfast with the boys.  We quickly met up with our friends and had some races on the deck.  

The beach floats were not put out on the beach yet, so the kids grabbed them and made beds-- the float guy was NOT impressed with their creativity!

We decided it was time to get to the pool, so while Eddie had a meeting, the boys and I went to the room to get ready to go! After the sun we got the day before, swim shirts were needed this day!

We spent some time on the beach...and Andy and Avery totally hit it off.  Avery is about 6 weeks older than Andy and they had a lot to say to each other!

I looooove this picture!!!

These four had so much fun playing in the sand together.   They sat like this just chatting away to each other while playing.  It was lovely to watch!

 Here are the ladies! Obviously with drinks in hand :) Me, Jackie, Tara and Andrea.  We all had SO much fun together! Andrea and I joked we were tag teaming the whole trip- she would watch one of mine while I took the other potty, and I would take one of hers to the pool while she finished up on the beach.  It was a perfect match. 

We knew we wanted to do an adults dinner the next night and put the kids in kids club.  We didn't want to drop them in for the first time that night, so we did a short visit during the day on Monday so they could get a feel for it.  This was us right after we dropped them off.....

 Monday night was the "theme" night and I think it was the best theme night we've ever had on one of these trips!

We were on the beach as the sun was setting....

Everyone was super happy and it was just a beautiful night!

After Andy finished eating dinner, he plopped himself on the sand and was super content to just play-- 

And then the dj started up.  And it was awesome.  He played every catchy/cheesy song you can think of and everyone was dancing and singing like crazy...and it was awesome.  These boys danced SO hard.  They were having the time of their lives!

I couldn't get a picture of them when they were dancing because they were moving so fast.  

All of a sudden these people came out in some craaaazy spandex with HUGE head dresses on.  I grabbed Andy, fully ready for a freak out, and he said "it's okay...I am okay...." and got down and kept on dancing. #miracleshappeninaruba
They even posed in front of the people...

Well soon the dancers left, and our crew over took the "dance floor." These boys worked up a sweat so we stripped their shirts.  Then the real fun began... look at these smiles! They were having so much fun.

The mommas were having quite a fun time too-- we were all dancing right along with them and singing out loud.  

Last picture of the night.... Hunter, Andy, Beckett and Cal-- not ready to go to bed!

We woke up Tuesday and hit the pool after breakfast.  Once again, these guys were swimming fools!

There are lizards and iguanas all over the resort... can you see the one behind Andy? He (the iguana) wouldn't take his eyes off of him.  We swam away and his head followed us the whole way.  Andy was laughing so hard, he was having a hard time swimming (plus trying to swim and watch an iguana who is watching you is not easy!).  

We spent some time on the slide on this day.  We all went down it! Here is Cal...

And Andy got to the top the first time and froze and said he didn't want to do it.  He walked back down really sad (but not pouting!) saying he really wanted to try it, but he was scared.  I said I would walk him up there... we got to the top and he started to say no, well, actually he did say no.  He said NO very loudly.  I sat down on the slide with him tucked under one arm and man handled him down the slide.  It sounds bad, I know... but as soon as we started, he said, "this is so great! I am not scared at all!" The second our feet his the water, he turned and said "I want to go again!!!" When we got back to the top, the worker told us this was our last time riding together because we gained too much speed when we went together.  Andy agreed to go solo the next time,  And he did! Over and over and over and over again! He looooved the slide:

 After a million times on the slide, we headed over to the beach.  It was a seriously gorgeous day.

The four kids all got on a raft together and had so much fun kicking around in the ocean.  You could hear them laughing from up on the beach.

We discovered that it was best to bring iPads to the beach for some shaded rest time.  I totally resisted this-- I am anti-iPad on the beach.  But I knew they needed the shade and they needed a break-- was I begging for a meltdown? Beckett and Avery brought theirs down too, so it made sense all around.   

We had lunch on the beach-- this one drank more 7up than he knew what to do with...#whenonvacay

Andy fussed a few times, which he just hadn't been doing and little things were setting him off left and right.  I carried him up to our chair, wrapped him in a towel and held him tight.  Next thing I knew, he was sound asleep on me.  I had a nug in my arm and a book in my other hand (with a drink close by!) and I was quite content! Eddie took Cal up to the pool for a bit and then up to the room while Andy slept. 

After an hour, I shifted to wake him up and the boys hit the bath....with lollipops, because....why not? 

 The kids went to kids club so we could have our adults dinner out on the beach.  This was our view:

The girls....

We had a pretty large group and they offered to put 6 at one table and 4 at the other.  But who was going to decide how to split us up? We all wanted to be together... so someone (maybe it was me....) suggested we sit girls at one table and guys at the other.... and it was SO MUCH FUN!

A sweet lady having dinner by us commented she wished she had done that more often! hahaha She then took our picture and sat back down still smiling at us.  It wasn't as romantic as it could have been, I guess, but we didn't care!

Here was our whole group:

 Can't wait until the next time we get to travel together!!!!

So that wraps up post 2 from our trip....phew! A lot of pictures, right??? More coming............!