The Bahamas

First let me say we have the best parents ever!  Our 10 year wedding anniversary trip could not have happened without them.  Rick's parents have some awesome time shares and they let us use one of their weeks at the most amazing resort.  My parents flew out for the week to watch our kids, one of whom was very recently adjusting to life with two broken arms.  So thank you, thank you, I really cannot say enough how much we appreciate it.

We got away for 6 days to the Atlantis resort in The Bahamas.  It was awesome!  The resort had multiple hotels, beaches, pools, and water parks that are all within walking distance or they have shuttles running all the time too since it is takes a long time to walk the whole thing.  

We arrived Sunday night and explored as much as we could.

 Along most of the paths there where aquariums and pools filled with sea life to look at along the way.  He we are in predator cave.

 The Atlantis Beach

 The Lagoon

 More of the Lagoon.  This is definitely where the best snorkeling was.

 We don't have pictures of the water attractions for obvious reason, but they were so neat.  There were drop slide where you went through shark tanks or you could go on a slower tube slide through tunnels in the tanks, being surrounding by the sharks!  The best part by far was the current, I would say we spent most of our time there.  It was a huge lazy river (over a mile long), but it wasn't really that lazy.  There where wave machines along the way and rapids as well.  The current had conveyor belts that would take you up to the water slides in your tube so you never had to exit the river.  It was nice weather through late Wednesday afternoon.  Then hurricane Sandy hit.

It was so windy, I was surprised at first that there was not even more rain.  Luckily this place was so huge and we had not had a chance to really explore anything inside.  This is the biggest aquarium tank ever.  They will actually let you snorkel in it, Rick is determined to do it next time, I will pass.  They also had a free movie theatre so we were able to catch a couple shows during the storm.

 This guy was so big, the picture doesn't do him justice, he was at least 10 ft. wide.

 Friday after the storm we were scheduled to fly out at 3:15 pm and the airport was not even going to reopen from the hurricane until 3:00 pm so there was a little bit of a question if we would be able to make it out on time.

 It was still really windy after the hurricane passed.  We got to the airport and our flight was delayed.  Once we finally boarded the plane they actually closed the airport again because the wind gust were too high.  It was a little scary being in the plane on the runway, we were definitely moving around a lot, imagine bad turbulence on the ground.  They had us wait for about 45 minutes for the wind to die down and the airport to reopen and then we were one of the first planes to take off.  We were so lucky, so many flight had been cancelled for days if we had not gotten off, who knows how long we would have been stuck there, but I guess there are worse place you could be stuck.

 The other side of the vacation was my parents with the kids.  They came in Saturday night and we re-celebrated Clara's birthday.

 That day we had actually brought home a new car.  The passat finally died to the point that Rick and a mechanic could not revive it for its smog.  My Dad went for a test drive with the boys Saturday night.

 These pictures are from my Dad's camera of what they were up to while we were away.

 When we got home Friday night, all the kids had decorated our bed with cards and balloons, perhaps with the help of Grandma and Grandpa.  Wyatt even stayed up until 11:45 to see us when we got in, it was really sweet to be greeted by him.

The highlight for the boys was probably Grandpa's ipad.  We were very impressed with their skills when we got back.

(I have no idea how this got flipped around and I am much to lazy to try to change it so turn your head I guess.)

The only downside of the trip was that my parents had to leave early and really suddenly.  Hurricane Sandy was on its' way up the coast to hit us for a second time.  On Sunday afternoon we decided to check their Monday morning flight to see that it had been cancelled.  My Dad called Delta and they were able to get on a flight out that night leaving in just over an hour, so they basically threw there stuff in a suitcase and had to run to the airport.  They made it Atlanta that night, but could not make the connecting flight home so they had to stay the night in Atlanta and fly home the following morning, arriving home just a few hours before their scheduled flight. 
We were a little worried about the storm, having been through it already in The Bahamas, and the Nor'Easter that hit us hard last October.  Wyatt was really scared.  The only real worry we had for our immediate safety was our two big trees in the backyard that if they blew over onto the house would land on the kids rooms so we all had a slumber party in the basement that night. Fortunately we never even lost power.