Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Bahamas 2013

Every year when it's time for Christmas, we spend a lot of time and text messages going back and forth with my parents, Jon and Nicole trying to figure out what everyone wants for Christmas. Finally, last year, my parents came up with the best idea ever:

Why keep buying each other things we don't need for Christmas? Instead, they wanted to give us all the gift that keeps on giving; the gift of family memories. So, on 12/18, it was off to the Bahamas for all of us!

We went to Atlantis to enjoy four fun filled days in the sun. It was Catherine and Hannah's first time to fly. Emma has flown once when she was less than 2 years old, so it might as well have been her first time too. They loved it on the first flight. While we were pulling out on to the runway, Catherine kept asking "When are we going to blast off!?"

The girls were pretty good on the plane and before we knew it, we were in the Bahamas! We stayed at Atlantis, which is basically a huge water park on the beach. It was beautiful inside and out.










We has so much fun. We laughed and spent our nights making funny faces for Hannah, our photographer.












We spent our days riding water slides and soaking up the sun. One water slide went through the aquarium, which was full of sharks! It was awesome! Travis, my dad and I went down a straight drop slide. We spent LOTS of time in the "current", which is a lazy river ride. Catherine renamed it the "Crazy River" because it was a huge rapid ride and definitely not a "lazy" river. We ventured out to the beach a couple of times, but the water was pretty rough while we were there.





























More than anything, we enjoyed our time together. No phones. No Internet. No distractions.









On our way home, Catherine got to go to the cockpit and visit with the pilots. She even got to sit in a seat and pretend to drive. I guess the pilot told her he had a sister like her named Hannah. At one point, she looked at him and said "My sister's name is Hannah like yours...Can I push this button?" HA!




We had the best time. I love this new tradition we have!