Anastasia the Graduate

Anastasia will be graduating from Skyline High School this May of 2016. She will be attending the University of Utah's Honors College in the Fall of 2016.

7-21-09

Today is a bitter-sweet day. We leave tomorrow and that makes it bitter but the sweet part is the fact that we still have one more day to enjoy paradise. We went on the concierge snorkel trip again today. Nicholas wanted no part of the snorkel experience on the boat. Anastasia did decide to join us since she had no fear of the open water experience.

What a cool looking fish. This fish is called a Queen Trigger fish. It is a colorful, but inedible, member of the reef population. He was just hanging by this huge brain coral reef.

Although through kid’s camp they were going to walk to the Coral garden to snorkel over there. Nicholas informed later that since he forgot his ear plugs and since he had swimmer’s ear on the 18th (which cost us $148.00) and technically could not get his ear wet he choose not to go into the water and snorkel. What a responsible little boy. I am proud of him. Here are some pictures of him posing yet not getting into the water in front of the coral garden.

After the snorkel trip we took Anastasia back to kid’s camp since Tony and I were going to get another West Indian massage. It was so wonderful the first time around that we decided to do it again. Before we took her back we did see Abby Caddy in the lobby of the resort so we took a picture with her.

After the massage we passed by the Pirate’s Island Pool. We found the kids having fun in the pool. They were getting flips done by Berson one of the many counselors at kid’s camp. After lunch we went to pick them up.

They took a picture with their two favorite counselors, Berson and Doressa, to remember their happy times in Beaches Turks and Caicos.

After picking up the kids we headed to the Pirate’s Island Pool our usual routine. The kids and Tony did the Body Boarding machine. Nicholas was able to stay on a bit longer than in the past.

Tony and Anastasia wiped out as soon as they hit the water.

When they closed the pool we went to the beach and made some sand castles and took some cute pictures as seen below. You can see how clear the water is in the pictures I took of my foot.

We ate that night at Barefoot by the Sea. You literally ate on the beach so you had to take off your shoes. We went afterwards to Cricketer’s to get some dessert but met up with Ayaz and Mary Jane the couple we met and hit it off at Sapodilla’s. They had their kids with them this time and our kids who already knew them from kid’s camp hit it off too. Here are pictures of our kids with their kids, Zane and Arianna. Ayaz and Mary Jane were so kind that they lent us their scale to make sure our bags would not exceed the pesky 50 lb. limit. Hopefully we will see them again next year since they are planning to go to Walt Disney World like us.

I wanted to show our wonderful turn-down service that we got every night. Another sweet memory that I have was that Tony would wake up early in the morning and pick flowers from the bushes near our room and put them on the bed. When I would wake up the flowers would be there and he would state that they came from the “flower fairy”. How romantic, huh.

7-20-09

Well it is officially a week since we arrived in paradise. It is sad since we know that the vacation is coming to an end. Woke up very early to go to the beach and take some pictures without the crowds or the boats in the background. Nicholas woke up today an absolute joy. He has terrible eczema and because he had used in kid’s camp another child’s SPF lotion and not his own he broke out in his usual rash. Everything was bothering him and he did not want to be there. In some of the pictures you see his happiness just radiating through the photo.
After the pictures we went to the nurse’s office where she gave us some zinc oxide (diaper cream) since calamine was also stinging him. I cannot believe that it worked. His complaining is interesting, with us he whines but then with the nurse he is fine, it is infuriating at times.
We were scheduled to attend the 10:00 concierge boat for snorkeling. Nicholas in Jamaica was so brave with snorkeling and in this trip he was so scared. He had issues with his mask and snorkel. Like I stated earlier he was having a terrible day. We all entered the water together but no sooner had we entered and began swimming a bit that he got scared and wanted back onto the boat. After we returned him back to the boat the three of us enjoyed the rest of the trip in peace.

Here is Nicholas and Mami.

Anastasia and Mami.

Anastasia and Papi.

Just the three of us; Anastasia, Mami, and Papi.
After snorkeling we left the kids at kid’s camp where they were off to the pool. We headed to the pool just as well to enjoy time together. After the pool we went to the Arizona restaurant where we met up with kid’s camp. It was cute to our kids as well as the others’ that attend kid’s camp. It was a learning lesson for Anastasia though, prior to the kids arriving, there was a group of teenage kids and one of the girls had written with pen: property of Jack with a heart around it. I explained to Anastasia when I saw her what she thought about that and she stated that you are no boy’s property you only belong to your parents. So what I say she does remember at times.
The kids headed to the Scratch D.J. Academy to learn how to mix songs. They both enjoyed it thoroughly. Anastasia mixed and scratched Fergalicious by Fergie with Crash by The Primitives. Nicholas did some rock and roll music but does not remember what songs. Figures he has the worst memory.

After the Arizona we went to the Cascades Pool where Tony had a Scorpion and I cruised on a mat. The kids played Dodge Ball on the East Wing Lawn. Here are some pictures of them playing. Anastasia's team won. Which of course made her happy and Nicholas not so happy. His eczema by the end of the day did not sting anymore, the zinc oxide really worked.

That night we got ready and headed to Sapodilla's and adults-only restaurant. The kids went to kid's camp. At Sapodilla's we met up with a lovely family and quickly became friends. Their children had similar ages like our own. They were Disney enthusiast like we were which made it interesting and fun since we found out sound lovely DVC secrets we did not know about. We will definitely keep in touch with them.

7-19-09

Today the kids had tennis lessons. Anastasia did not enjoy the lesson. Nicholas enjoyed it though. But when asked whether he enjoyed Tennis more than Soccer (or Caribbean Football) he preferred soccer always. The instructor stated that Anastasia was good at hitting the ball but not skilled yet with serving the ball. Nicholas was a well rounded player. He stated that he did not get enough time playing though.

While the kids were entertained Tony and I went to the Spa to get a West Indian Massage (that is the signature massage of the resort). Since I was sad the previous day due to being a scuba reject I felt like I needed a pick me-up. The massage combines a full-body massage with island elements such as warm river stones, a sand exfoliation for your feet, and ending with a tropical rain forests mist. It was the best massage that we have ever received. It left us wanting another one.

After the massage we went to pick up the kids on the East Wing Lawn. They were playing in a Slime Relay (which is a soap sponge relay race). The pictures below show the race. The girls won the boys in the race. This made Anastasia very happy. Nicholas really did not care he had fun just getting soaked.

Tony loves to move around so much it drives me crazy (a bit on the ADD side). After we picked up the kids we went to the Italian Village Pool. Tony and I ate at Cricketer’s for a small snack. Cricketer’s is Irish cuisine; we ate there in honor of Natalie.
After Cricketer’s we went to the Riviera Pool in the French Village. The pool is heated and is so much bigger than the Italian Village Pool. We had fun again!
That evening we were scheduled to have our pictures taken at sunset on the beach. Here are some of the pictures of that night.