Puerto RICO!!

**WARNING- HUGE POST! 91 Photos! It's my blog...so I can...***

Michael's sister and her family lived in Puerto Rico, and were getting ready to relocate back to the states. So the kids and I were offered the opportunity to fly over to Puerto Rico to watch her 5 kids while they came to the states to hunt for their home. We were there for 3 weeks, and had a FANTASTIC time! 

Getting ready for our red-eye flight from Vegas to JFK

Our flight from JFK to Puerto Rico. 

We made it!

Ms. Bug instantly felt excited to be around so many girls! Of their 5 kids, they have 4 girls, so she was covered in the estrogen department, LOL. There were always plenty of crowns, babies, barbies, and pink to go around. 

LOOK! REAL LIFE COCONUT TREE! This was just a random tree on their street- 

 We also had the opportunity to see a lot of the island. One of my favorite parts by far was Old San Juan. It's just so cultural feeling! I loved the cobblestone streets, and the tiny roads and the fun little shops everywhere. 

I just happened to catch this photo of a beggar in a "drive-by" shot. About broke my heart...

That big blue mansion at the end of the road is the Governor's Mansion-
Look at all that COLOR! I LOOOVE IT!

Getting ready to see one of the old military fots the Castillo San Cristobal. 

At the top(ish) of the Castillo-

He was channeling his inner karate kid...

So do you have a Puerto Rico quarter yet? This would be the coastal window that you see on the quarter, and on all the license plates, etc. The story is that it's haunted. They used to have guard duty every night in there and guards would just disappear and never be seen again. The windows in the thing are far too tiny for even a child to squeeze through- 

 So just as we were getting ready to go into the Castillo itself, and getting ready to go into the dungeon (after hearing the story about it being haunted) Mr. G was a bit freaked out. And as we were walking in Mr. G says, "I don't like the feelings in here. I want to get out..."

This is his "I'm freaked out and really scared I'm gonna see a ghost" face-

Inside the dungeon there are drawings of ships on the walls, drawn by a Spanish captain who was being retained there. 

I know...I'm a terrible parent. I made him take a picture inside of the dungeon with the door closed.  He was whispering to me, "I want to get out now...I don't like this..."

Our in the courtyard of the Castillo- He's much happier to be OUT of the dungeon, LOL.

ALL the kiddos. I love this pic- They all look good, but it's a great candid. 

My baby chickies posing on the canon balls. 

Mr. G showing the pathways to the lookout towers. 

So that little living area you see sandwiched between the two different forts is the ghetto. Not even the POLICE will go in there alone. Lots of people go in and don't come out. Lots of bad drugs, gangs, etc. Just this tiny little area, with some PRIME real estate! 

 We also got to go to the beach a few times-

Isn't it beautiful?!

G's first steps into the Caribbean ocean-

  While we were there we had the chance to celebrate Halloween- It was very cool to experience the holiday in a different place.

A few of the kids- We had an astronaut (Mr. G), the Little Mermaid bride, Rapunzel, my little watermelon, and Batman in the back.

Best. Costume. EVER. He was a honey-bear. His make-up was AMAZING!
His wife was a bee, and his little girl was a flower. It was SO cute. 

My watermelon checking out her loot. 

So...about this picture- I couldn't resist. No, he isn't fully naked. He couldn't locate the restroom in the unfamiliar church (where they were trunk-or-treating) and ended up wetting his pants. So he ended up just having to walk around in his underpants since I had to take it all off him and rinse it all out in the bathroom. He never even MENTIONED the need to "go"- So...Let's just say he learned a very valuable lesson on communicating one's needs that night. 

Apparently she was left unattended with the candy buckets...

For a fun Saturday activity we went and had a fun "Pirates of the Caribbean" photo-shoot with their kids. I mean, c'mon! You HAVE to do it- You really ARE in the Caribbean!

This was my all time favorite shot-

Making some cinnamon rolls waiting for the big kids to come home from school. 

 My kids finally got to experience a real down pour in warm rain. They had a BLAST!!

I'm  pretty sure she was pretending to be a chicken- She was saying 'bok-bok'. Silly monkey. I mean, er...chicken. 

She may have been teasing her Dad (who served his mission in Samoa) that she was experiencing a tropical rainstorm without him. 

THEN! Miraculously Michael ended up having the last 5 days of our time there off from his rotation! So let's just say some calls were made, some VERY generous donations made, and he was on his way to Puerto Rico to join us and bring us home- SOOO nice to have him there! Especially after being away for over 2 weeks and Mr. G ended up getting SUPER sick on the flight home- So I was BEYOND grateful he was there to assist me with that. 

His flight landed really early in the morning, so I went to get him before the kids woke up and he came and went back to sleep for a little while. The kids didn't know he'd already come and were SOO surprised he was there! He came downstairs and they RAN to him and Bug was so excited that she cried- LOL. I think she missed her daddy-

We took Michael back to Old San Juan so he could see it while the big kids were in school and this is the little plaza in front of a catholic church-

 EL YUNQUE! 

(the rainforest) -

This was also another big favorite. I wish we would have had more time to really explore it more, but for the amount of time and with the number of people we had, it was FANTASTIC!

Yes....that's my kid with the retarded pose...Trust me, you don't want to know what the OTHER poses looked like :-S

Best bridge EVER.

Posing on the bridge-

Playing in the water behind the bridge- Good times!

The bridge was a really cool dam/reservoir area.

I know- I'm a nerd...But you have to at least pretend to drink coconut milk while on a tropical island, right?

All the boys plus E decided to hike up to the bottom of the waterfall. 

The next day we went here- To the Camuy Caves. This is one of those underground caves. Think stalactites, stalagmites, etc.  

Just outside the entrance to the park was this monster sized Coqui frog statue. I was showing Bug how to kiss the frog to see if it would turn into a handsome prince. I totally unintentionally toppled forward and really did kiss it. That sucker was HOT!! It totally burned my lips! That's what I get for being such a retard....

So, to get down into the cave you ride this little tram- We were all sporting our audio tour headsets, I'm pretty sure Mr. G was NEVER on the right track for the right part of the tour. Oh well- He had fun playing with the buttons still...

Getting ready to hike down into the cave-

A tree growing upside down!

Looking up and out from inside the cave- GORGEOUS!

The other end of the cave.

At the end of the cave, before getting ready to make the loop back to the entrance. That walkway was SLICK!!

Ok- Best shadow, EVER! Do you see Washington on his laptop?!

I'm pretty proud of this shot that I got once we got back to the entrance and finished our tour. 

 We then went up to Lares in the mountain area- They took us to this cool ice cream shop that had THE craziest flavors of ice cream. Garlic, carrot, soup, rice and beans, sweet potato, etc. They did also have the usual chocolate, pistachio, vanilla, etc.

We slowly made our way back towards San Juan through the "scenic route" in the mountains. The country side was beautiful-

Aren't those some cool colors for bushes!

 I think it's safe to say we wore him out! 

(Yes, he had his seat belt on...He just contorted himself such that you wouldn't know it.)

On our way back we stopped at another "hidden" cave that not a lot of people know about that our Brother-in-law had heard about. 

In case you were wondering, it's not generally a good idea to carry your kids this way in a highly forest dense area...Because then you might get...

 This...

 She was ok, just a little wack on the top of her head. Poor girl-Michael felt SO bad. 

A side view of the cave- You can get in through there, but we knew it wasn't the smartest way to go-

The main entrance- It was definitely an adventure doing this with so many young kids!

 We finally made it to the end of the cave! We were lucky enough to run into another couple who had visited the cave a few times before, so he had an extra light. Which we were SO grateful for because it was PITCH DARK in there! It was a little nerve wracking going through there with so little light- and it wasn't in any way paved or anything. 

It was a strange hike to get to the end, but the view made it all worth it!!

And then there were the sounds of the cave...then we get a light onto the ceiling and find these...Which wasn't that hard to imagine since we were walking in...well, let's just say it was "mud" (with a heavy emphasis on the quotations around the word :-S).  We knew they wouldn't hurt or bite, but just knowing they were just hanging out over your head was nerve wracking!

Heading out of the cave before it got too dark-

Mmmm..."mud"....

Mr. G and Michael had a boys day out and went to see the Arecibo Observatory. Michael has always wanted to see it since he saw it on an episode of reading rainbow as a kid. 

Rough first rotation, hu?

She spent most of the beach time on my shoulder like this- She wasn't feeling good. 

Getting in some good sand and sun before heading back to Nevada the next day. 

These are a bit out of order- But they're from Michael's iPhone: 

Mr. G taking his dad into the infamous haunted dungeons. Can you tell he's so excited to have his dad there?

Close-ups of the ship sketches on the dungeon walls
(woah!! totally apologize for the crazy typo! Good catch, Heather! Glad it gave you a chuckle!)

A look-out point in the castillo-

 We all started to venture out from the Castillo into Old San Juan when it started to POOR! It stopped for a second and Michael snapped this shot with his girl-

ALL SOAKED!!

SUCCESS!!! One of Michael's MUST DO's in Puerto Rico was to find a breadfruit- He FINALLY found some at a roadside stand and cooked it up the next morning before taking off to the airport. He was SOO excited. 

Michael's sister was gracious enough to take care of our kids while he and I went out on a "hot date" to the Bioluminescent Bay- SO AMAZING! You go at night, and as you move your ores in the water, the little bioluminescent micro-organisms glow when agitated. It was soooo trippy! It was almost like when you break a glow stick all over, but they would wiggle all over in the water. So hard to describe- But definitely an adventure to ad to any good bucket list-

Puerto Rico was an AMAZING adventure. But it was great to come home, too. We were gone for a long time- So it was like walking into our home all over again. It took some time to re-adjust, but it was well worth the time for the memories and once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Thank you to all who made it happen!