Buy One Get Two Free!: February 2015

We are back from a gorgeous 2 weeks in St. Maarten. Miguel and I need another vacation to relax from our vacation. Chasing around 3 curious and excited toddlers for 336 hours was exhausting, but also very rewarding. Seeing them learn about the waves and the sand, explore new areas, play in the pool, and enjoy long walks was really astonishing. They are at a really fun age where they are fascinated by all the new things they can do, which leads to lots of giggles and happy faces.

Here is our only family shot from the whole trip.

The plane ride over went better than I expected. It is a 4 hour flight and they slept just shy of 2 hours. We had moments like these...

and we had some moments like this one :)

We arrived in St. Maarten at 5:30 pm and were into our room by 7.

we don't travel light!

eating our first meal before the high chairs arrived

our room on the first week by the beach

All the babies went down to sleep by 8:30 and I was feeling great about our travel day. And then Elsie woke up. And she woke Danny up. And at 4:30 am Miguel and I were still up with the two of them, walking them in strollers around the pool area. Yep, no sleep for day 1. Luckily, as the week progressed they became more comfortable with their surroundings and started falling back into a predictable sleeping schedule. And by week 2 when we were in the 2nd room that was in a quieter building, they were sleeping great.

We wasted no time hitting the beach. The weather was great, in the 80s, sunny and a nice breeze. We tried to play in the shade as much as we could, and got our toes wet often in the waves. Here are some beach pics.

By the middle of the first week we had fallen into mornings at the beaches and afternoons by the pool. We learned some new skills like climbing on the beach chairs and using shovels and buckets.

He is so smiley.

beautiful views

The ocean here is pretty alive. The waves are big and a little unpredictable, and about 10 feet into the water there is a huge drop off, it's like one step and you go from knee deep to deep deep. You watch people all day having a hard time getting from the deep to the knee deep it's that steep. The first day I went into the drop off with Elsie and was up to my chest. 2 days later I went into the drop off with Sammy and couldn't touch the bottom. Here are some nice shots playing in the waves.

Like I said. Unpredictable. Sammy loved it. Every time he got hit with a big wave he laughed and licked the salt on his lips. The other 2 didn't like it so much.

This was my husband's face most days about having to clean up the babies after playing in the sand.

Hello. Sun. Shine.

We could not keep Sammy off the waves. He would have stayed on the beach from dawn till dusk. The others got bored after about 2 hours, but this kid loved the waves and playing with the sand.

Sam and Judy are friends of the family. Like Miguel's parents, they have also been vacationing at St. Maarten for years. They were wonderful to us and the babies during our stay.

We went on lots of walks. With no gates and lots to get into in the room, we needed to be out and about a lot, but St. Maarten doesn't have a lot of play areas for kids, so we did a lot of walking. We took 3 cheap strollers because the walkways are very narrow and our triple wide would not fit anywhere. We probably walked 3 hours a day all around the resort. It was a good 'settle' time before naps and bed.

Post swim walk

one of my faves from the trip

there wasn't much sleeping in the strollers, but here is a cute one

love this shirt.

Thing 1. Thing 2. Thing 3.

dressed in our Patriots gear to celebrate the big win!

The view from our second room. We had to climb a mountainess hill several times a day to get to it, but it was quiet and beautiful up there.

We went shopping in Phillipsburg a few times, and the babies liked all the people.

Her Jackie O hat

They had probably half a dozen pools at the resort, the one outside our room was huge, but there was a nice one by the beach that had a kiddie section that was a little over a foot deep. The kids loved being able to walk in the water, except for when they tipped over and went under.

The pool outside our room the second week

The babies also had their first Carousel ride! And some gelato too while we were there!

Last but not least we did lots of playing in our rooms. We practiced walking and playing music, worked on our peek-a-boo skills and played with the curtains while we took breaks from the sun!

The resort gave us 3 high chairs which was great. A huge necessity.

This is his I just got busted face

If I smile at her maybe she'll let me stay here. I did.

Daddy had to tape all the draws shut so they wouldn't open everything.

Looking forward to our next visit!

We had a miserable return flight. The plane was so hot that Sammy and Elsie didn't sleep long, and Elsie wanted no one but Mommy to hold her and rock her while standing of course (try to sit and I will scream!) for 3 of the 4 hour flight. I was able to keep her happy, but Miguel and I were spent by the time we landed.

Overall the trip went really well. Lots of work to go anywhere with 1 year old triplets, but worth seeing them playing on the beach and in the pool and loving their new surroundings.

Perfect for the one year anniversary of the babies coming home!

Here are a bunch of videos. I mixed a few together since we had a lot of 30 second clips. Enjoy!

Elsie's first steps!