Saturday morning we headed back to Luquillo since we loved it so much. It is really a "locals" beach but stays quite quiet, even though I had heard it sometimes gets very busy. It wasn't even too crowded on the weekend.
This is actually looking over towards where our condo was
chasing Dada around
He loves being buried in the sand
My boys in the beautiful ocean
I couldn't get enough of the views
We ate more fun local food at the kiosks that day. Grady even tried some different stuff. But he wanted a good old fashioned Drumstick for dessert!
That night Nana and Papa went out to dinner early while we gave G dinner at the condo and got him in bed. Then when they got back Mama and Dada got a rare dinner out alone.
Grady ate peanut butter on the roofdeck at sunset - not bad!
views...
happy boy
We actually went back to Richie's, the place up the street from our condo that we went to the first night - it is an awesome place!
Here I am before dinner
The next morning we headed out to our beach bright and early to look for shells
checking out a hairy coconut
playing
they built a big sand fort - I added the "Grady Nation" flag
warming up after a long swim
That evening we went to the El Conquistador resort nearby for dinner and just to check it out. We loved the place, and would love to stay there sometime!
Here were are with some of the incredible views - it sits way up high
The Fam
Looking towards Palomino Island
the marina
We ate at a restaurant outside with great views. We got ice cream at the ice cream parlor later.
The next morning we took one last nice walk down the beach before packing up and heading to the airport
Last week we headed to Puerto Rico for some beachy fun and a break from this extra chilly winter we have had. We left on Wednesday morning, bright and early. Our travels went very smoothly and we were off without a hitch!
Here is Grady playing happily on the plane:
It was only a 2:45 hour flight, so no big deal. We arrived early in San Juan and couldn't find my Nana (who was supposed to be there first) but then realized she was delayed about 1/2 hour due to "de-icing" in Boston. We found her, got the rental car, and met up with our family friend "Miss Ana" who lives in San Juan. She followed us back to our condo and hung out with us that evening. Grady slept on the drive to the condo (about 45 minutes) and we enjoyed the amazing views.
Once we got settled in we let G take a dip in the pool. Here he is in the baby pool
Then we checked out our beach, and it was gorgeous! It was steps from our condo and we were the ONLY ones on it except for one day when there were 2-3 other families. The water doesn't look as bright here because it was late in the day, but it was an amazing blue-green, as you can see in later pics.
Grady loved gathering tiny coconuts
Looking up towards the condo
Looking down the beach the other way - the waves were big that day, but Grady loved them. He wanted to go in and "surf" no matter what. They were quieter on some days though.
Papa and Daddy taking him in for his first ocean swim of the trip
That evening we went out to a great Puerto Rican restaurant for dinner - Richie's. It also had an incredible view! Here is the view from the parking lot:
And from our table
We gazed at the million stars once the sun set and just enjoyed our dinner. Grady was very good despite the slower service (typical Caribbean service) and even ate Mahi Mahi nuggets (he loves tilapia but mahi is quite different).
Here he is checking out their fish tank which had about every character from "Finding Nemo" as he pointed out
We put Grady to bed, said goodbye to Ana, and then Eric and I went back to the restaurant to have a drink and dessert (well I just had dessert) and relax. It was a great day and not even too stressful with all that travel!
Thursday was the first full day of our trip and we headed to Luquillo Beach, which was about a 10 minute drive from our condo. Though we were in a beachfront condo, we wanted to check out this beach since it always gets on the lists of best beaches and stuff. It is one of the most photographed beaches in the world, for good reason!
First, that morning, I took a few pictures from our balconies - we had 5, including a HUGE rooftop deck that was all ours!
Looking towards the condo complex and the mountains beyond
Ocean view from the master balcony
rainforest and mountain views from the roofdeck
I told Grady you could drink right out of a coconut and he loved the idea, so we got him one at the cool little food stands that were at the beach.
He actually didn't love it. I didn't think he would because I have had them before and they are a little salty.
Luquillo Beach in all its glory!
Here is my 23 week belly shot :)
playing with Nana and Papa
my personal heaven
We got some really yummy Puerto Rican food at the little food stands for lunch
Grady had a Pina Colada for dessert
After naptime that afternoon Grady wanted a snack. We had gotten some locally grown tiny bananas (I forget the name), and he downed three!
That evening we went to a Cuban/Puerto Rican restaurant.
The next morning we headed for El Yunque first thing. The rainforest was only about 15 minutes from our condo.
At the welcome center - it was cool to learn about it before heading out into the wilderness
Um, these don't smell!
The center was open-air and built right into the jungle, so there were cool things to see all over
There was an orchid growing out of the wall
another view
Heading to our first stop - a waterfall
We climbed this tower for a better view
The views were truly amazing
looking down on the jungle canopy
through a window in the tower
view from the top
setting off on our 2 mile hike in the jungle - it was hard work because there were tons of steep hills
Grady found some giant leaf
The sounds were incredible - Coqui frogs (who make the sound "coqui" constantly), tropical birds, and rushing water.
We all wore our water shoes so we could just wade into the waterfalls and streams
coming upon a really large waterfall
We didn't see too many people on our hike, but there were some other people at this waterfall
The whole group
Good shot of the falls
We ate a picnic lunch in the rainforest and then headed back for a nap. That afternoon we hit our beach again, and it was just a beautiful time on the beach. Because of the time of day, the water looked so bright
See - no one in sight
Grady's favorite game while in Puerto Rico was building a "bayou" on the beach - we would find little bits of seaweed and shells and dig a big hole for his animals that we brought
So excited, as always
We all swam a lot - look how far out they are!
That night we actually got pizza from a local little bakery that was quite good! We just figured we would take a break one night from eating out. Another thing we discovered that night was that if you go up on the roofdeck after dark you can see about a million stars. Grady was so excited by this!
I am sorry for the delay in getting this post up. Somehow I totally forgot to actually finish my Christmas recap!
Grady was in a great mood all day on Christmas and even took a great nap - go figure! He also slept in later than anyone else in the house that morning - until a bit after 8. We were so excited that we ran right in to get him.
Here he is coming downstairs - all business
He immediately saw the new piano from Nana. He LOVES to play piano and has been asking to take lessons. He put on several "concerts" for us that day. It is actually a really nice instrument and has been getting much use lately too!
Opening THE gift - a big excavator with all the moving parts. He had been talking about it non-stop and even asked Santa for it when he sat on his lap. So it was from Santa. The gift did NOT disappoint. He was SO excited to open it and has been playing with it non-stop since then.
He got 2 Hess race cars from Gaga and Grandpa. They also got him a lifesize (well for Grady) gas station, which all of the kids in the neighborhood love. We have been using it outside so he can fill up his ride-ons with gas and stuff. There is a gas pump, an air pump, and tools for fixing cars. It also has a credit card and a credit card machine that really works. And they got him a stop light to use outside with his ride-ons. It is motion-sensored so it knows when you are going and then will say "red light means stop" - pretty cool. His Fisher Price digital camera is another big hit from Gaga and Grandpa!
Opening his stocking from Santa - it had a little bit of candy, stickers, a Little People grandma, matchbox cars, Elmo socks, flavored kids chapstick, etc.
He got an electric guitar from Nana and Papa - it is a little kid one, of course, but it's really cool! He puts on concerts with it ALL the time now!
Rocking out on the guitar - it plays several songs that you can play along to and one of them is "Rock Star", which is G's favorite - how perfect.
opening this cute photo board that Gaga and Grandpa got Grady to go along with his digital camera. So we can print out his favorites and hangs them. It's got little magnetic frames, so it's really easy to change the pictures.
Gaga is showing him the gas station I was talking about:
Playing with his new Leapfrog game from Mama and Dada - it's so funny because he love to receive and send "text messages" on it :)
I had my "big" ultrasound this morning, and everything went well! It is so nice to have such an uneventful pregnancy. I have basically been having no symptoms (other than a round belly and lots of kicking!) lately. We got to see lots of baby, of course, and every single thing was perfect. The u/s tech was so nice - she just kept saying how "beautiful" every little thing was. His head is so low down, and he was pretty chill in there - not moving a ton. What a difference from Grady who was bouncing around in there for all 3 ultrasounds! This guy has been just relaxing or sleeping in all 3. Maybe he will be a more mellow kid ;) So because of the way he was positioned and because he wasn't moving a lot, she couldn't see all of the parts of the brain that she needed to check. So they made me go drink a Coke and come back in to the u/s room, in hopes that would get the little guy moving. Well he did turn, they saw what they needed, and I got some better face shots.
Oh, and he weighed 13 ounces - 10 ounces is average, so he's doing great!
Big Bro Grady came along and was so very excited. He was yelling "Baby! Baby!" and jumping up and down. Grady's name for the baby is "Baby Bean", so that is basically how we have been referring to him as well.
I am buying the nursery furniture this week and the bedding has been ordered and is on its way! Now if we could just figure out a name...
