Trinidad Vacation

Saturday/ Sunday

We arrived in Trinidad Saturday night after our 6 hour flight and Ellie did as well as can be expected for a 2 year old ;) . On Sunday we went to church with my parents and started to get a sense of the Caribbean culture I guess you could say. Everyone was very friendly and happy to come ask us questions as it was quite plain we were visitors (I'm pretty sure we were the only Caucasians in the congregation). Sunday afternoon was a little rainy but we drove over to a Hindu temple on the sea and a giant monkey statue.

Monday

 We started the day with a hike to Maracas Falls. Everything you would expect from the jungle was there, extreme humidity, mangoes & other unfamiliar fruit strewn about the ground, flowers, and all the sounds of the rain forest. I little less expected, we learned there are crabs that live on tropical mountains.

After the hike we drove straight to what I call 'the hummingbird house'. The man who owns the house, gives a sort of lecture on hummingbirds and allows you to walk through the gardens and property to observe. There were hundreds of hummingbirds there of all different species.

Monday evening Brett, my dad, & myself went on a boat tour of the Caroni Swamp. I liked seeing the four eyed fish, and the mangroves crawling with small crabs.

Tuesday/ Wednesday

Brett & I left Ellie with Grandma & Grandpa and took the 25 minute flight to Tobago. We got off the plane with just our backpacks and started walking. First, we walked to Pigeon Point Beach and spent a couple hours there relaxing and had some Kofta for lunch. After lunch we went on a glass bottom boat tour. This was one of my favorite things from this vacation. We were taken in the boat over Bucco Reef and allows to look at everything through the bottom of the boat, and then we got out of the boat and snorkeled for 20 minutes. I've never done anything like this and LOVED it! After snorkeling, the boat took us over to the Nylon Pool. They also call it the fountain of youth there. It's in the middle of the reef but only waist deep and the water is truly as clear as a chlorinated pool back home. The bottom of the 'pool' isn't sand, it's actually finely crushed coral so everyone encourages you to 'exfoliate' while you're there.

Pigeon Point Beach

Glass bottom boat over Bucco Reef

The Nylon Pool

After walking about 8 miles to save on cab fairs, and being in the sun all day Brett & I promptly collapsed at our hotel that evening. My birthday present was a 1 night stay at the all inclusive resort on Turtle Beach. We sipped virgin pina coladas, ate at the buffet, read books on the patio, and even got to watch a giant leather back turtle lay her eggs from a few feet away. It was heaven. 

Wednesday was a little bit of a let down. It was pouring rain so all flights to Trinidad were grounded; we sat in the tiny airport pretty much all day but at least we finished our books and got back that night.

Thursday

We got up and went to the Port of Spain zoo and afterwards went to the zip-line. While Brett, my dad & I went on the zip line; Ellie and my mom played together in a tree house & on the beach near the zip line. 

It's a little hard to tell, but she is laughing in these pictures, not crying.

Friday = Beach Day

We had been promising Ellie before we even left Temple that we would take her to the beach and we saved it for our last day in Trinidad. We went to Maracas Beach and had a blast. My only regret from the day is losing my sunglasses and hair tie to a particularly violent wave that sucked me under and made me do a few somersaults under water before I could get up. I think Ellie and the beach were made for each other; she spent all day playing in the waves and sand and we still had to drag her away crying for more.

  

Saturday

We got up early, said some sad goodbyes, and made the 13 hours of traveling back to temple. After a full week jam packed with fun we all feel a little like Ellie did in the airport.

Step Prep

For the month of May, Brett is spending 90% of his time studying for his big Step exam. It's been a sad realization that I will be seeing much less of him during this time than when he was just getting through classwork but we know it's the most important thing right now. I can tell the Brett is really stressed out and nervous and frustrated all at the same time so we're doing our best to make it through and looking forward to our upcoming vacation.

It's hard to know why it happened, but about a month ago Brett and I just decided to book tickets to visit my parents on their mission in Trinidad after STEP. I guess we just figured there probably wouldn't be another opportunity to visit the Caribbean with free room & board and food, we miss my parents, and even though we're a poor medical school family right now, life is meant to be enjoyed in the journey of it. We don't want to wait until we have a salary to do anything fun. We're excited!

On another note, as I've hinted, Ellie and I have had a plethora of time to ourselves lately so I've been getting my crafty on. It's yard sale season with everyone moving in and out for residency so I bought Ellie a craft table and chair. (the chair had SO many layers of paint to take off haha)

BEFORE

AFTER

She's enjoying them for sure ;)

Yard sales are the best!!! It so fun to come home with all your treasures knowing that you only spent a few bucks. I do have to be careful to buy things because they *spark joy and not just because they are cheap. I'm also working on some baby blankets because it seems like everyone is pregnant and some home decor stuff.

*just finished reading Spark Joy by Marie Kondo and it was fabulous just like her first book. I also just read 12 Years A Slave and would recommend it to anyone who likes historical type books like that. 

Oh and I think we could all use a little extra SUPER ELLIE in our lives :)

 

Ellie's 2nd Birthday!

I think Ellie had a great birthday. In the morning we had a couple of her friends come over to play and have cupcakes, and later that evening we had some adult friends swing by to sing and watch her blow out candles. She loves playing with her new dress-ups and especially her Daniel Tiger trolley/ figurines. 

Height: 2 ft 11 in (89%)

Weight: 29 lb 5 oz (81%)

Ellie can count to 8 and can pick out a handful of letters if you show them to her. She loves to color, but she can't really tell you want color something is. Her hair is wild, and everyone comments that she looks like a big kid now. She's done with the pacifier, but she's gotten into a bad habit of taking her clothes & diaper off... and then peeing on the floor or her bed. She is always saying, "I do it" & "ellie's turn" & "mommy help" because she wants to help me. She's good at unloading the dishwasher and pushing clothes into the dryer; she also puts her toys away... sometimes.

Blue Bonnets

We are lucky that the blue bonnets come out right before Ellie's birthday every year. It's hard for me to believe that she's turning 2; she has changed a lot since last year's blue bonnet pictures.

I will admit that I unintentionally laid down on a cactus for these pictures and have been trying to find and pull out the needles all day haha

February

 Well, February has come and gone; it always seems to go so fast.

For Valentine's, Brett and I got away from Ellie for lunch and got ourselves some free Chipotle burritos; then we went over to Sips & Sweets for a Dr. Razz float. It's funny how easily you forget about simple pleasures in life like eating a meal without having to feed a child or make sure the child is quiet or that the child isn't making a mess. You simply order food, and then you eat it as fast or slowly as you wish and you get to focus on talking to your spouse. It was nice.

Brett's birthday was last weekend and he told me he would rather have muffins instead of cake and he wanted to open his gift in the morning; so on Friday morning we put a candle in a muffin and Ellie and I (really just I) sang happy birthday to him. While we aren't normally big spenders, we did get some steaks at Texas Roadhouse, custard at the new Freddy's in Temple, & Brett set up his new orange colored Fit Bit.

Ellie is starting to make church difficult to say the least. I don't get it, our almost 2 year old just doesn't like to sit still on a bench for over an hour... :P . We're trying the new thing called parenting where we make sitting on the bench with books, and activities more fun than being in a dark empty classroom with no toys or people. We'll see how it goes... there will probably be tears.