Seth and I had a fabulous trip to Aruba over the weekend. We had been planning it for months and were so excited! We had a few hiccups in the airport when we got kicked out of a restaurant (Crepes and Waffles) because Seth insisted on bringing in McDonald’s to eat while I ate there. That was against policy! We made our way to immigration and security and learned that Colombia has adopted the liquid rules and almost lost about $100 worth of toilitries and makeup. (The day before I realized I was out of contact solution…here in Bogota it was $20 USD!) I could not lose that! Anyhow, they saw our diplomatic passports and quickly returned everything to the bag that they had spread out on the counter. Phew.  We also got dip privileges of getting to wait in the VIP lounge which they pronounce (VEEP).

We made it to our hotel and had a great weekend! We ate lots of yummy meals complete with full conversations uninterrupted by an enthusiastic boy, soaked up the sun by the pool and went on a snorkeling excursion. We ate in outdoor cafes which we can’t do here and walked freely around without worrying about security! It was very relaxing and much needed after a few huge life events over the past few years that have been less than easy…the main things being Jackson’s cancer diagnosis and 2 moves! Our only complaint was that our hotel room was so noisy because of the room above ours.  Sounded like they were moving furniture and doing construction all the time. Seth called down to the desk and they lied and said it was a vacant room. After 2 nights of 24 hour noise Seth went upstairs to find a kitchen. Hardly vacant. The floor above us had a 24 hour buffet for elite customers so they never stopped chopping, blending, etc! They knocked off the cost of one of our nights when they realized the tiny white lie about a vacant room hadn’t been true enough to trick us! In addition they had added new fire alarms and we had a few false alarms, one at 2 am!

We missed Jackson but he had a blast at home with his Mia. He was very excited to have us back and closely watches when we leave the room to ensure we don’t try to sneak away again anytime soon!

On our way to the airport we went to Taco Bell. We had both been looking forward to it since we can’t get it in Bogota. When we walked in we both looked at each other like “this isn’t exactly the cleanest place…”, we proceeded to say over our food “gosh, I sure hope we don’t get sick.” We ate, rushed to the airport and I got hit with the worst food poisoning ever at about 8 pm. I am just now starting to feel a little bit better. If you ever have those gut feelings (pun intended) about a restaurant do not eat it!!!! I won’t be eating Taco Bell again for quite some time!

Despite the few hiccups we had a great time together! Here are a few pictures!

Texas de Brazil! We highly recommend it but maybe not before wearing a bikini!  You really want to get the most out of the “all you can eat.”

the beachfront

Crystal clear water

One of the iguanas we met running freely

Guns up the day Texas Tech beat OSU!

watching our last Aruban sunset

Look at that white beard…we pretend we are still young! 30 is creeping up on this guy!

Overall a fabulous trip! A nice break from bleak Bogota!