Some fun adventures in paradise

While in Aruba this time around we decided to check out The Butterfly Farm. I thought Lucas would enjoy seeing the pretty butterflies and was hoping to get some cool pictures while I was at it! Plus, I guess the Biology major(AKA-science nerd) in me came out with the educational portion of our trip. They spent about 20 minutes explaining the life cycle of butterflies and the various species they had- most were not native to Aruba- but instead were shipped in and they have to keep a special tent contained environment to support them, really cool!

This is a monarch butterfly caterpillar: This guy has toxic spines-BEWARE! They won't make you really sick, just really itchy and sore. That is his mode of protection from predators (again science geek):Just some cool pictures of various butterflies, moths, and tropical flowers:Butterflies at happy hour :) Seriously, they are drinking the nectar from rotten fruit=WINE! Me showing Lucas the cocoon for the HUGE mothAll of the pupa's and cocoons formed by the caterpillars:Newborn butterflies!:

Followed by a little more fun at the beach....

" Hey mom!, look at that big truck up there!"

Yep, we even are mesmerized by these things in foreign countries! They were working on the new sidewalk around the resort.

We had grand plans to check out the Donkey Sanctuary and the Ostrich Farm as well-thinking Lucas would enjoy seeing more animals :) But, after talking to the resort concierge we decided against those outings due to the rocky road conditions. He suggested only going there via Jeep, rugged SUV, or 4-wheeler. What, the Toyota Yaris couldn't hang? Ha! If only I would have taken a picture of that thing. Hey, at least it did have four doors though!

We did venture out to see the Water Fireworks show at the new mall one evening. They do it every night so we thought it would be fun. They had fountains and water works that were in sync with lighting and music, pretty cool!

Wednesday was Todd's 32nd Birthday- so he got to pick our activities for the day :) We spent the day at the beach and pool (are you noticing a trend here?). Later that evening we went to his favorite steak place down there- El Gaucho's Argentine Grill. I am not a huge fan of steak but I have to admit it is the best I have had! Everything was yummy and even Lucas thoroughly enjoyed it! He actually polished off his french fries, about 1/3 of my steak, and almost a whole small ear of corn on the cob! He did not want me to cut it off, he wanted to eat it like us off of the cob.

We spent Thursday at Baby Beach after breakfast with the kitty at Dunkin Donuts :) Really, they are drawn to us I tell you! Baby Beach is the calmest, shallowest beach area in Aruba. So pretty! And perfect for little ones or others who are looking for some good snorkeling. There are literally NO waves because it is an inlet so the water gradually drops off to about maybe chest level for an adult if you really venture out there. Lucas pretty much RAN in and loved it. I had to hold his hand to get him stopped. We have gone here before on our other trips to Aruba for a couple of hours but it was nice to spend the better part of the day there and enjoy it!
At Baby Beach:

Why do vacations have to end so fast? We were bummed by Friday because we knew it was our last day to enjoy Aruba. But of course we made the most of it! We soaked up the last few rays of sunshine, ate a yummy dinner downtown at Iguana Joe's, and got ready for our trip home. Lucas was bummed too!

I love the little footprints :)

Goodbye beautiful Divi, thank you for a FANTASTIC week in paradise :) We will be back someday..... SIGH

The flight home was great, smooth sailing for the most part. Due to bad weather there were LOTS of delays along the east coast so we ended up at JFK for a longer layover. Which was a little scary since we were already scheduled to be there until 10:30 pm. I thought Lucas would have never made it, boy was I wrong! He was a one man show for everyone patiently waiting for their flights- running around saying "Hi!" with a wave to EVERYONE, begging for drinks from the water fountain, eating, drinking, and RUNNING some more. Not to mention climbing and declaring where he, mommy, and daddy needed to sit. "Momma's seat, my seat, daddy's seat..." :) Thank goodness everyone ate him up!!! Remember- this is about 10pm! Check out our little acrobat:

So as the pilot said at 12:05 am when we landed in Richmond- " BACK TO REALITY FOLKS!" :) So sad, but oh, so true....

Ahhh...this really is the life!

Yes, I am back after a serious hiatus apparently. June is now gone (well, except these final 2days) and we have done lots with our apparently LOST TIME-so much in fact, that I haven't had the opportunity to update this, sorry. Well we will just skip over the end of May and beginning of June for times sake and focus on our WONDERFUL, RELAXING, vacation to ARUBA!!! :) That is what everyone wants anyways right? Pretty water pictures, funny stories, and a telepathic transport to the most wonderful place in the world (Ahhem....guess I just inserted my opinion there :)- Although I must say if you really could pick your own heaven when you get there, this is SO what I am headed for one day-Fine by ME!

We were psyched to go but must admit, a little nervous as to how Lucas would do on the trip. We flew from Richmond at 6am (we were at the airport at 4:30am) to JFK- that was about an hour. NO problems here- he fell asleep when we were taxiing out to the runway and woke up just before we touched down! We had a 3.5 hour layover there and he played hard, made lots of friends with strangers, and toured the terminal, all the while completely infatuated with the airplanes! He loved talking about them and how they went UP in the SKY :) SO on the next leg of the flight (4.5 hours) he was super excited to be in the plane and did rather well! We did have about 15 min. of grumpiness due to lack of personal space, I totally understood - I think we all feel that during long flights, and he got it together pretty quickly...;)

So when we got there we were wisked to our rental car (Daddy's SWEET RIDE as we taught Lucas to say) and headed off to the Divi Phoenix Resort not knowing what to expect, this was our first time staying there. Well lets just say we LOVED it at first sight! This place was just renovated and expanded. We were in a brand new building overlooking the awesome pools and the beach was in the background-what more could you ask for? You name it they had it!

A beautiful view on top of the always super friendly Divi staff. We are slightly partial since we bought our timeshare there but seriously these people are great and will do anything to make you happy. Well Arubans in general are some of the nicest, happiest people I have ever met, but really, wouldn't we all be if you lived there? We quickly grabbed dinner from Tomato Charlie's and apparently the pizza was a hit, according to Lucas. We ate outside every chance we got since it was absolutely beautiful down there. We even got to see the KuKu Kanuku Bus picking up guests from their hotels heading out for a fun night or dancing and partying! Ahh, yes we have been there twice- not this time around though and that was OK by us :) If you go- you gotta do it, so much fun!

We spent the better part of our week relaxing, playing at the beach and pool, going for walks, eating at some yummy restaurants, and just having a fantastic time getting some great QUALITY family time in. No rushing around, phone calls, work worries, traffic, etc. Ahh, just time with each other, the waves, and the sun. As I said before- PARADISE! I did seem to get a bad sunburn on day 1 so I suffered a little for a few days and hung out with Lucas lots in the shade to heal some. So "chocolate" Heather did not appear this trip. I think it was Shannon who gave me that title after our trip in 06' :) We lathered Lucas up in SPF 60 so he barely even left there with a hint of color- that is my pasty little white boy ;) Better for us all to enjoy the sun that way anyhow,right?

The pool was 3 "layers" The first was a huge kiddie pool at 1ft. deep complete with fountains, this was where all of the munckins lived. This kept Lucas entertained for quite a while. He wanted us to stop the water from coming up with our hands and feet. After a while he gave it a try, he really turned it into a game. The second level of the pool was the normal 4-5 feet, and the 3rd was complete with a swim up bar! Which sad, but true- we never tried out. After getting two drinks from the bar one day and hearing $14.00, we decided our blender in the room was just fine...Guess we are a tad spoiled from our previous all-inclusive trips out here! We could have added days of it but wanted more freedom this time around.

Mornings were often spent at the beach, playing in the sand and water. Lucas loved sifting through the sand looking for little treasures or sea shell pieces. With little to no waves he really had no fear of the waves so the water was great! We also took lots of long walks on the walkway along the ocean that lines all of the high-rise hotels and even found some great play areas along the way for Lucas to enjoy. Man, a playhouse with one hell-of-a-view! ;) After he would get warn out and we all ate lunch, Lucas would go down for a nap and Todd and I took turns heading back to the beach to enjoy some extra sunshine :) It worked out great!

As always, being the animal lovers that we are, we even found 4 legged friends in Aruba! :) A flat coated retreiver at the Butterfly Farm named Oscar, a very fat cat that was apparently VERY loved by the tourists, and of course all of the little lizards and iguanas....

I'll be back with part two, hopefully tomorrow! There is way too much for one post :) Stay tuned......