Adventures in Puerto Rico: The Rainforest Part II

Our Puerto Rico Adventure ends here. You may be blowing a big sigh of relief, tired of hearing about Puerto Rico (remember, I'm not necissarily writing this for you and you don't have to read it. It's your choice) but for me it's sad because it means that Puerto Rico (something I've been dreaming about and talking about for the last six months) is gone and done, a chapter closed. I'll just have to come up with something else to look forward to during the frozen months ahead.

The morning after the wedding of all weddings, we loaded up early and made the two hour drive back across Puerto Rico to drop Alec off at the airport with my parents. They were flying home that day, taking Alec with them! Woohoo! I hear he did pretty well on all the flights and enjoyed being passed back and forth from one family member to the next. We got to stay for an extra day to do whatever our hearts desired. We decided that though we loved the beach, the Rainforest was our magical place, so we spent most of the day there! Erin and Ryan came along, taking lots of pictures for us. The happily married couple...

Look at that beautiful waterfall! We climbed up on the slick rocks so we were able to get really close. The water flow was much heavier this time since it had been raining all morning.
We were mesmerized.... until Lyssa kicked Nick in the groin. Poor guy! Lyssa is just the right length now that Nick can't really use the Baby Bjorn anymore. Sigh...
We climbed up this big look out tower and saw some of the many beauties that the Rainforest has to offer. It looked like something out of a movie, and so did Erin and Ryan!

As much as we love our little Alec, we were also kind of excited to only be toting around one child for the day. She was excited to be held and treated like an only child all day. :-)

Beautiful soul-fulfilling views...

With our Jeep we really felt like we were doing the Rainforest bit. Too bad it got dented in a hit and run (note the front bumper) and now we're dealing with insurance claims... blahhhh.

We decided to do the long hike to the really big waterfall (where Ryan fell and sliced up his face), and took time to enjoy all the amazing things growing everywhere...

Ryan wanted to be Tarzan...

Look at those roots shooting out of the tree! They constantly shoot out trying to anchor themselves for the storms that undoubtedly will come.

I'm sure I could get really metaphorical here, but I'll spare you... this time.

And here is the big beautiful waterfall! The rocks were really slick, making it a little scary climbing down while carrying Lyssa, but it was worth it.

This is one of the little offshoot waterfalls we passed on our way to the big waterfall.

It's it beautiful?

Erin was a dear and held Lyssa for us so we could get a cute couple shot.

Looking around it felt like paradise.

We left Erin and Ryan at this point, wanting to hike further on.

It started raining on us as it was a rainforest an all.

Lyssa really enjoyed all the different beautiful leaves, grasses and flowers, not to mention the one on one attention.

When Lyssa got bored she would play peek a boo with other hikers.

Funny, charming little girl.

I love this picture for many reasons. I love it because you can see some of Lyssa's fabulous humidity curls. I love it because I'm wearing my mom's awesome dollar store sunglasses since the babies broke my favorite Target pair the first day we were there. I love it because my mom has a similar picture to this of me when I was younger. I don't love my big knee caps, but that's an entirely different post in and of itself.

At a certain point we realized that with Erin and Ryan gone we no longer had the GPS to tell us where to go on the crazy streets of San Juan so we wanted to get to our hotel in daylight. Then we stopped at an outlet mall and got caught up at the Gap Outlet: Great Deals, Bad on Time. We did not make it to our hotel in daylight, and therefore never saw it in daylight. What we did see of the Coral Princess Inn was BEAUTIFUL though! We went out searching for authentic beans and rice for dinner, and stumbled upon this Christmas tree and said "That looks out of place. Oh yeah. It is Christmas, isn't it?" Had to take a picture.

We went to a shady looking corner convenience store for dinner, based off our hotel managers recommendations. We felt brave buying the food, but not brave enough to eat it inside, so we took out food to go and headed back to the hotel.

Lyssa was totally pumped for dinner, and happy to be free from the Baby Bjorn and the carseat. I also thought the original artwork hanging up around the hotel was cool. Sadly, moments after this picture was taken Lyssa made a mad crawling dash off the bed, landing smack face first on the marble tiled floor. Ouch! Nick got a nasty bruise on his need in his efforts to catch her. Needless to say, she screamed hard for about twenty minutes, ate beans and rice with us and passed out in her bed.

The next morning Lyssa woke us up around 5:30 and we were very grateful. The alarm clock didn't go off! We rushed out the door, rushed to the rental car return, rushed to airport, rush rush rushed everywhere. In reality we should have missed our flight, but we kept running into one kind Puerto Rican after another. Everyone was so helpful and hospitable. We appreciated making our flight, but did not appreciate the five hour layover in Miami. Yuck. Lyssa enjoyed listening to Nick's Ipod while I took a nap. :-)

From Miami we flew to Dallas, and then from Dallas to Salt Lake City. It was quite the climate change. When we left San Juan at 5:30 AM it was already a steamy 80 degrees outside. When we arrived in Salt Lake it was a balmy 15 degrees. I was freezing in my flip flops and light cotton t-shirt. As soon as we got our luggage from baggage claim I busted that bag open and put on a couple shirts and sweaters, dirty sock and my running shoes. We had been traveling for something like 15 or 16 hours on very little sleep. We crashed on my parents bed and slept soundly until Alec woke up the next morning, so happy to have his family back again, ready for Christmas!

Adventures in Puerto Rico: The Family Photo Shoot

Since we had the lovely Brienne there to take wedding photos we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and have her do some family photos for us. She was in a hurry taking these photos and didn't take very many shots, different from my constant click click click style of photography. I tried to do a little bit of touching up, but we were dealing with some pretty bright sun and some interesting shadows from the trees. I think there are some cute ones in here thought. Enjoy!

The Starks Family

(I'm not a huge fan of this photo, but there weren't many group shots to choose from...)

The ParentsThe SistersThe BrothersThe GirlsThe BoysThe CouplesErin and RyanNick and ChrissyA quick candid shot... funny but the more natural candid shots vs. posed shots are always my favorite...

Robert's expression tells you exactly how Alec felt about taking pictures...Giggling babies are the best...

And last but not least, my little family.

Someday we'll get a good picture of the four of us all smiling, having fun. For now this will work. Babies look cute even when their not smiling!

Adventures in Puerto Rico: The After Party

To continue our story... we lunched, we played, we napped, and then it was time to get cracking on the non-wedding reception reception. For the purposes of this post we shall call it The After Party. Decorating wasn't hard since everything was pretty already. The food was our task. My mom was the lady in charge while Tiffany (my cousin's wife) and I were put in charge of setting up and making things look pretty. Erin and Ryan decided to do cupcakes instead of a wedding cake. I thought they looked fabulous, though I had no desire to eat them. Crisco frosting heavily mixed with food coloring doesn't mix well in my tummy. Still, a pretty picture, don't you think? (On a side note, I think that is the dress that Erin actually got married in back in July in Florida. She found it at the mall thirty minutes before the wedding... fabulous story eh?)

I meant to get a picture once all the food was out, but that didn't happen. People started eating before I even finished pulling everything out of the oven. I guess I don't blame them though since we were an hour late. This picture is pretty though and will have to do...
The after party included lots of yummy food, loud fun music, and lots of people. Elyssa was pretty beat...

Alec and Gwen had fun running around together and dancing their little hearts out.

Erin served Popsicles at her after party. Robert and my cousin, Scott, seemed to enjoy them!

Mike spent lots of time playing with my babies, kicking back, relaxing.

Robert played with Alec and did his bidding. They had so much fun dancing!

The Daddy daughter dance...

Robert and Michael also performed for us! That was probably one of my favorite moments. I love that I have such talented brother. Mike played while Robert sang "Let my love open the door." You may know it from one of our family favorite films "Dan in Real Life".

Erin and Ryan grabbed and baby and danced while Robert performed.

After the toasts, and the dancing, sparklers and fireworks came out...

Nick held on to our babies tight while the fire was out and about. Tired curious babies and fire don't mix well.

Somewhere in cyber space (or on someones camera) there are some great pictures of us dancing together and with our cute kiddos. Maybe someday I'll find one and add it to this post... Anyway, we bowed out from the party a little early to go pack up our stuff, as this was our last night in the Villas. The next day we would be up well before dawn to head back across the island to San Juan. The parents and the brothers would be flying back to Salt Lake, taking Alec with them. Lyssa would enjoy the fruits of being an only child while Nick and I stayed in Puerto Rico for an extra day. More on The Last Chapter of our Puerto Rican Adventure to come...

Adventures in Puerto Rico: The Wedding

And now on to...

All was a buzz for me the morning of the wedding. I got my kids ready, got myself ready, and then zipped away to help Erin get ready. Before we knew it 10:30 had rolled around and it was time to start! My sweet cousin, Caitlin, was Erin's maid of honor. I'm not sure if Caitlin was ever officially given the title, but she was there every step of the way, doing all the scary stuff like walk down the isle alone and give the toast at the after party. Isn't she a total babe? Who would guess that this cute girl is only 16!

I felt a great sigh of relief to know that I would have the pleasure of escorting the flower girl, sweet little Gwen, down the stairs instead of walking alone. Unfortunately she decided to pick up all the flowers already on the floor instead of throw them out... It was funny.

Michael escorted my mom down the stairs like a true gentleman.

My dad got to walk Erin down the stairs. It was beautiful.

After the ceremony, one of Ryan's best men had to escort me off the wedding floor. I think he was a little disappointed to have to walk with me (Erin's married feminist sister) instead of the lovely Caitlin. :-)The parents hug, happy to have their children married, welcoming each other into their families. The standard parents with the bride and groom shot...The not so standard but fabulous brothers holding the bride shot... (I love this photo)The grooms family...The brides family...The happy cheering wedding party and guests...The groom and his brothers, tempted to throw Erin in the ocean... The wedding party on the beach...Me as the bridesmaid, Erin as the Bride, Brienne as the photographer/friend/coordinator, and Caitlin as the maid of honor.The wedding party on the beach next to a pizza stand...We decided to take the wedding party over to the park to play...and play we did!This is probably one of my favorite photos. So much fun and Ryan's grooms men were hilarious! And of course the happy couple, fabulously in love, trashing the dress... (Don't you worry. It washed and dried out nicely for the after party)

Congratulations Erin and Ryan!