So we spent 8 days in St. Thomas with the girls for our family vacation & we loved it. I already mentioned that we didn't love the beach, but we really loved the pool, so we spent most of our time there:
This was our first morning there. Apparently not everyone else liked the beach that much either because this is the most crowded we have ever seen the pool. We loved the infinity edge over looking the ocean. We were also spoiled by the pool. They walked around throughout the day passing out popsicles, ice cream, fruit kabobs & cookies every single day:
Above they were having an ice cream toast. I mean seriously, how could we say no when they were walking around passing it out for free?! But that didn't stop us from getting our favorite strawberry daiquiris every afternoon:
The pool attendants were great & hooked the girls up with pool toys & floats all week & they took turns running from the big pool to the kid's splash area:
That night we drove into Red Hook & had dinner at:
It was on the water but the food was ok. Probably the worst customer service we had all week though so I don't know if I would go back or recommend it.
The next morning, I took this picture at breakfast:
We stayed on the club level so we had access to food in the club lounge. Every single morning we had a big breakfast on the patio that overlooked the beach & from a distance it looks nice. We are a big breakfast family so we thoroughly enjoyed this every day! That day, the girls wanted to spend some time on the beach so they did with Bryan while I held down our chairs by the pool. Like I said, the sea weed kind of grossed me out but it didn't phase Sadie at all:
Sophie doesn't like to get dirty so she has never been a fan of the beach, especially when it has sea weed on it. So this picture makes me laugh because I don't even remember her getting in the water!
There were iguanas all over the property & everyday around lunchtime they would feed them & let the kids help. The girls were excited to feed them & were surprised to see that they liked to eat fruit:
As we learned later in the week, they will eat anything, but at that moment, they had left over fruit kabobs. One of the helpers wanted to pick up the iguana so the kids could pet it & when he grabbed his tail, it fell off:
It was the weirdest thing - it kept moving around like a snake! I thought it was disgusting but Sadie was brave enough to hold it. No one else would even go near it!
We spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool. Sadie has been doing handstands & flips for the past 2 summers but every year she gets better:
It's fun having children who are old enough to take picture of us now! We spent a lot of time in the water with them, but now that they are older, we definitely stayed under the umbrella a lot reading while they played:
Since I had so many cancer scares this past year, we have become much more sun diligent. We have always applied sunscreen regularly, but this is the most I have ever worn a hat or sat under an umbrella. And our new rule is that everyone can wear bathing suits in the morning like normal, but after lunch, we all put on rash guards. So you will see pictures of all of us in them:
Remember when I said that we had to ride golf carts everywhere? The girls loved this:
We would call them when we were ready for them to come pick us up & they would come directly to our room. This night we went to dinner at:
and I absolutely loved it! We had friends tell us about this place before we went & then our captain recommended it also. It is on the beach so it would have been a great place for lunch also because they had all sorts of chairs & games in the sand:
They even had a live band with steel drums so the music was great too. The girls did great & we were able to stay up later every night with no problems. They probably didn't go to bed before 10:00 all week which helped them to sleep in every morning. I was usually awake by 5:30 or 6:00 at the latest & would either go for a run or go to the gym while they slept. Then I would go to the club & read or hang out until they woke up, which literally never happened before 9:00 any morning:
They have literally never slept this hard on vacation before! I think we wore them out by skipping naps & staying up late every night but Bryan doesn't like to get up early either so he liked sleeping in with them :) This was the first vacation where all 4 of us were in the same room with double beds. Usually we lucked out & had a suite or one of the girls was in a crib but the girls thought it was fun having sleepovers every night:
This particular morning we surprised them & took them to:
This was another place we heard about from friends before we got there. Our concierge also recommended it because they said it was great for small kids. As soon as we got there, we visited the lorikeets:
Bryan fed it first, then he held it & Sadie fed it before eventually convincing Sadie to try & hold it as well:
She was so brave! Sophie on the other hand didn't want to feed or hold it:
We walked around a few trails & saw exhibits with sharks, turtles, sting rays, etc.:
We also visited some indoor aquariums where they got to see so much more, including these eels:
One of our favorite things was the underwater sea observatory:
We literally walked over a bridge to that dome & then inside the dome we walked down all of the stairs which literally took us beneath the water to see a live exhibit from the ocean. We have never seen so many fish before in their natural habitat:
Eventually we made our way to the sea lion show:
Then we went to watch them feed the sting rays & Sadie was brave enough to do that also:
Sweet Sophie just likes to observe :) When we left Coral World, we walked next door to Coki Beach because we heard from several people that was one of the best:
Seriously?! I did not agree. It was way crowded & there was still sea weed. I noticed later that a bunch of people all had Carnival wrist bands on so I imagine a bunch of people were from the cruise boat. Sophie & I chose to skip the beach & walk the boardwalk but Bryan & Sadie rented snorkel equipment:
Isn't she precious?! We had free water activities at our hotel so she had been snorkeling there with Bryan but didn't really care for snorkeling here either. Eventually we found a taxi & this was the girls' first time to experience the open air taxis that we enjoyed over on St. John:
We were starving so we decided to get a late lunch/early dinner while we were out so we thought it was the perfect time to try:
Again, I heard about this before we went & everyone recommended it - our captain, the concierge - it is even on the travel channel. It is the most random bar in a strip mall parking lot across from the beach. It's not even on the water:
It is definitely a bar & can get pretty crazy at night so we thought going earlier in the day was better. We actually had the place to ourselves & it was perfect! I thought the place was so cute with the tiki bar & leopard bar stools. Plus they spoiled us & made us all special drinks, even the girls:
Our food was delicious & they even turned on the smoke machine, disco lights, & crazy music for the girls. This was one of my favorite spots of our trip & I would totally go back there or recommend it to others:
When we got back to the hotel that night, we promised the girls they could swim. We saw a family with older kids that we had talked to several times & they had the brilliant idea that we should build a bridge from one side of the pool to the other using pool floats. Sadie thought this was awesome idea too & somehow they talked her into crossing it first:
Somehow she made it all the way across but the other 3 kids totally bombed! It was hilarious because she was so little & they were so big. We had the pool to ourselves & even the pool attendants were watching & cheering them on.
The pool was beautiful at night & thankfully I caught a picture that evening:
That was almost the half way point of our trip so guess I'll take a break & post the rest tomorrow. We have a lot of pictures left, including our sailing excursion with the girls & going snorkeling with the turtles!
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