Monday, July 18, 2011

Coming out of my shell again...

I can't believe I did it again... not blogging for months... and now I feel like there is so much to catch up with... In the past, I would just skip the past and focus on the present but I have to go back in time to share our month of May which was full of fun, travels and family memories as my parents were here for 4 weeks...

So here is a preview of our adventures!

On our first weekend with my parents here, we took them to National Harbor (Mark had never been there either) and had a great time strolling around, watching the boats and enjoying a beautiful weather. We finished our outing by taking them out to Baja Fresh for our favorite "Dos Manos" (It is probably not real Mexican food but we sure like it, and so did they!!)


After a couple of days of reviewing the boys' schedule and their calendar for the following week, Mark and I took off to the beautiful islands of St Thomas and St John (US Virgin Islands) for a week of rest and romance before our third boy enters our family...
We had, as you can imagine, an amazing time out there, discovering the best beaches of the two islands and snorkeling each time the weather allowed us to do so (it was an unusually rainy month of May but we got some sun every day and took advantage of it as much as we could).
We were able to see hundreds of different kinds of fish and corals and even had the privilege of swimming a few times with our turtle and ray friends... it was magical!!

The first set of pictures shows our resort and views from where we stayed, our sunburned body after our first snorkeling session (we HAD put a generous layer of sunscreen on but I guess 2 hours of exposure right at the surface of the clear water was a little too long to ask for the sunscreen to protect our backs in the end...), some of our friends, one of the many iguanas we met (I find them so unattractive but also fascinating warming up in the sun and staring at us...), and a little crab who decided to stay by us for quite a while! 
We don't have a picture of it unfortunately but one day we were walking on Koki beach and noticed an iguana who was body surfing... it was so cool to watch!


And below, more pictures of the beautiful beaches and scenes we were able to witness... this place is like Paradise!

After a week of bliss, sun and ideal water, it was time to go back to our beautiful Virginia and relieve my parents from their temporary parental roles... The boys had a great time with Babou and Papili and everything went well (it is well known that children keep their worst behavior for their Mom and Dad so my parents did not have to deal with any tantrums or crisis that we often experience!!)

We barely had time to unpack and do laundry that it was time to pack again, but this time to go to Williamsburg as a family.
We spent 4 days there and had a wonderful time showing this historic area to my parents and the boys. The highlight of the trip for Adam and Antoine was our day spent in Jamestown, the first English settlement in the US, where you can visit a Native American village and learn the way they lived their daily lives as well as hopping onto English ships and picturing ourselves sailing to the American continent... I wish I had taken more than 2 pictures of Jamestown but I was actually filming and Mark was absorbed by the wonderful tour that we took... Oh well...
Finally, in Williamsburg, the boys really liked the printing shop, the British flags and the horses pulling carriages.