Puerto Rico 2012

We were invited to attend a business trip to Puerto Rico with Scott's boss and his wife in August.  At first I wasn't sure if I could leave Kinley for 5 days but Scott booked the tickets so I didn't have much of a choice!  I'm glad he did because we had an amazing time!

 

We arrived Sunday afternoon, rented our matchbox car, and got checked in.  There was a welcome event planned that evening and it was amazing!

They held a meeting and then we got to see all the new Yamaha (watercraft) products for 2013.  They had amazing food stations and free drinks, what more could we ask for! There were 2 parrots that lived in the lobby and one night they got to come out and play!

The next morning Scott & Bob attended their seminars and Lanae and I went to the gym...yes, I went to the gym on vacation because I never have time at home!

 

Here's the zen garden where we could meditate and do yoga.  I didn't do any of that, but it's gorgeous! :)

 

Here are the views from our room:

Par.a.dise.

 

We hit the pool that afternoon but it rained...a lot.  We didn't let a little storm ruin our afternoon though, we just sat at the bar!

 

One thing Yamaha knows how to do (besides make awesome boats) is how to throw a party.  They spared no expense.  One night was they held a "white party" - yes, like P. Diddy.  ;)

They had a comedian during dinner and some crazy entertainment around the pool for the after party.

(hard to see, but there's a dancer in the floating ball)

We hit the casino every night after each party was wrapping up but I obviously couldn't take any pictures inside the casino.

 

We could be found at the pool most days from the hours of 10-4.

 

Wednesday we went to the resort's private island for demos of the new boats and waverunners.  Boarding the ferry:

We stayed in the part of the resort that was up on the hill.  This is down at the marina village looking up at the resort on the cliff.

 Another full resort picture from the island.

 

Welcome to Palamino Island

Scott did his best David Hasselhoff impression for me, I wasn't impressed.

The island was beautiful and we found out that they filmed one of the Pirate's of the Caribbean movies on the small island right behind Scott.

 

We explored the island a little...

We waded out in this clear water while it rained.  Then Scott got attacked by some angel fish...kind of.

 

Scott & Lanae out on one of our test drives.  And FYI - test driving a supercharged boat on the ocean is scary!

A group testing out the waverunners behind us.

Scott & I took out a waverunner but I didn't have anyone take pics.  He almost threw me off but I had already decided that I was NOT falling in the ocean and getting eaten by sharks!

 

 

Here we are back at the resort looking out to the marina and another resort.

Beautiful but there always seemed to be rain clouds somewhere.  Thank goodness they mostly missed us.

 We didn't venture off the resort so we only got to see the "real" Puerto Rico when we were driving to and from the airport.  We had an awesome time enjoying the island paradise but I was more than ready to get home and see my Kinley!

Sanibel 2012 (Day 9)

Like always, Saturday came way too quickly and it was time to leave our little piece of paradise.  I was up early to get Cora & Beth to the airport by 5:30am and then finished packing up the condo.

This is definitely the most depressing part of vacation.

We continued our tradition of taking pictures on the beach before we leave.

I'm planning to take this picture every year to see how our family changes and grows!  (Growing as in the future, not now, haha!)

I know, I know, killer outfit choices.  I asked Scott if we could wear an outfit for pictures and then go change into our driving clothes and he shot me a look that answered my question...driving clothes it was!

My lovies

Sweet little smiles

Boardwalk leaving the beach...

Sign posted on the side of the boardwalk - we never saw any!

Shell washing station by the pool

After we said goodbye to the beach we loaded up the car, hit the Sanibel Bean for our last coffee run, and headed home.

View of the lighthouse from the Causeway

In the "sad lane" heading to Fort Myers.  I read somewhere that people call the other lane the "happy lane," obviously because it leads to Sanibel.

There was an air show in Punta Gorda so we enjoyed that as we headed North.

It's hard to see but I promise there are planes in these pictures...

I've heard people say they were ready to go home after vacations (and I'm sure I've even said it before) but I can truly say that I'm never ready to go home after Sanibel.  I know our families would agree that it really is our home away from home.  Can't wait for next year!

Sanibel 2012 (Day 8)

Friday morning we got up and went to the Island Cow for breakfast.  Cora & my dad had gone a few times when we were down there for my wedding so she highly recommended it!

She looks like such a big girl on the chair!

After lunch we stopped at Periwinkle Place to do some shopping.  Half way through we turned a corner and came across a woman holding a raccoon.  Seriously!  I was nervous having Kinley right there but the woman said that they had rescued the raccoon after a drunk golfer had beat it when it was a baby, how sad!!  It was now blind & deaf so they cared for it like a baby - notice the pack-n-play in the background?!    

Crazy...only on Sanibel.

We lived it up on our last day and soaked up every last bit of sun!

Fisherwoman with Ft. Myers/Naples in the background.

The kiddos boogy-boarding

Waiting to catch their huge waves! hehe

The waves were pretty big for Sanibel!

Brayden, Kylie, Jacob, & Cora

Kylie cracks me up in this one!

Looks like Brayden might have caught that one!

A few fishies washed up on the shore.

Laney doing her best Baywatch impession.

Headed out for more!

Our little fishy

Zach & Brayden showing off their goggles

Peekaboo!

Now that I'm almost done with my Sanibel recap, I just realized that we walked down to Casa Ybel for drinks and lunch a few times that week.  Apparently I didn't get any pictures but it's always on our must do list every year!

Enjoying some beverages and trying to figure out how we can stay forever!

We decided to stay in and order pizza that night since Beth and Cora had to catch the early flight in the morning.

Kinley had to do some last minute work on the laptop before bed.