Old San Juan

You cannot go to Puerto Rico and NOT visit Old San Juan. It's beautiful.

Our first stop was Parque de las Palomas, or Pigeon Park. 

This place my brother & my favorite place! We LOVED it. I remember feeding the pigeons and wanting so badly for them to come closer or land on my arm. 

Now, this was as a kid. Now I know how absolutely disgusting pigeons are. My feelings have changed quite a bit, but I still had to stop for Jaxon. These pigeons were CRAZY! I have never seen them in such a frenzy to get food. I mean they attacked us!! It was terrifying and gross. I couldn't even go in. My aunt was much braver and took Jaxon in and bought some food for the pigeons. And promptly got attacked by by what seemed like hundreds of pigeons.

Did that not give you the shivers? I wanted to bathe Jaxon in Clorox (or Basic G, right Nicole?)

Now onto the cobbled streets of San Juan. 

I wish I would have gotten a picture of Brian pushing the double stroller up the hilly streets. Poor guy. It was a pretty good workout. 

La Fortaleza. The Governor's mansion

We were making out way to El Morro, which is a fort that protected North America during a war or something. Clearly I'm no history buff.  El Morro is super cool because there are little rooms with cannons and if overlooks the ocean, but alas, the government was still shut down. Grrr!! So it was closed. We seriously could not have planned a vacation better. Ha! 

Another cool thing about El Morro is that it's always windy. The good thing about that is the kite flying on the luscious lawn. I remember flying kites there as a kid and knew Jaxon would love to do it too. We had talked about it for months. Usually there are people selling kites on the streets so of course we did not purchase one before hand. So guess what? Yep. No kite sellers. Why? The government shut down. No tourists, no reason to sell kites. Bummer!!!

The ice cream sellers were out in full force though.
A little coconut ice cream for the fam!

She did not let any bit go to waste!
She ate half of mine, half of Jaxon's & a quarter of Brian's! 

That teeny tiny yellow speck is Abu.

The blue speck is Jax

Trying for a family picture.

Reese was in the middle of a full on tantrum because there was no more ice cream. 

I guess 1 and a quarter cups was not enough.

Guess none of these will make the Christmas card.

Before we left San Juan, I HAD to stop at Starbucks! I hadn't had one in days and it would be days until I had one again. 

It's far and few between that anyone spells my name right.
And when they do, I'm a happy girl! 

After playing tourist we headed to my grandparent's house for a feast. My grandfather literally cooked all day for us. There was enough food to feed an army. I wish I could have saved some to bring home. 

No pictures of an of it though. Just a couple of pictures of their house. 

I say smile and she closes her eyes! 

Her facial expressions kill me! 

He's sleeping across two twin beds. 

Next post... lots of beach pictures! That means more of Reese in a bikini. 

Family Time

Day 3 on The Island of Enchantment would be a sort of 'lazy day'. The kids and I headed to the beach at the end of the street for a little bit. Unfortunately, this beach was not as swimmable as we would have liked it to be. If the kids were older it would have been great, but it was a bit too rough, plus there wasn't a huge sandy area to play and lounge. 

How beautiful is this??

See that mountain in the distance? Jax & Brian hiked it a few times. Well. not exactly to the tippy top, but about a quarter of the way up. They caught a lizard, a sea snail and some barnacles while on their adventures. All of those ocean terms were courtesy of Mr. Jaxon Pearson. 

Trying for a selfie. She was having none of it.

And neither was her. Or maybe he was trying "duck face"?

On our way back to the house my grandparents and aunt pulled up to spend the morning with us. 

The kids showed off their swimming skills and love of water to their great-grandparents and great-aunt.

They hammed it up, especially that Reese! Boy was she on fire. Jumping off the edge, going under, clapping for herself. The girl is an attention seeker. 

And Jaxon? Well, he's become quite the swimmer and was so happy to have a new audience to show off his newly acquired skills. 

Trying to take a picture of the two of them.
Jaxon would go under water. 

Hamming it up

He had to come up for air some time!

After a little swimming we all headed up to a local seafood restaurant. 

Getting a close look at a nurse shark

My meal of carne frita & mofongo. Fried meat and smashed plaintains.
Delish!

My grandfathers red snapper.
Jax was in awe.
I was disgusted by the eye & teeth facing me.

Seriously, look at those teeth!

My grandfather enjoyed every last morsel of his fish. He hardly talked to anyone once his fish arrived. He was so happy! Although it was yucky to look at, it was rather tasty. Even Jaxon liked it! But honestly, I think he only liked it because Abuelo was eating it. Anything he said or did was gospel to to Jaxon. 

The restaurant was right on the ocean so the kids spent a lot of time looking at it.

After lunch, Abuelo took us to a little hidden beach. 

This absolutely melted my heart. He took Jax by the hand and they walked ahead to find a good place to play in the water. 

At this point, he told Jaxon to take off his shoes before going in the water, but he kept his one. This meant that his got soaking wet. I don't think he would have had it any other way.

So happy!

A huge wave came and drenched him. Jaxon was quick enough to run away.
I guess when you're 86 you lose a bit of your swiftness.

A little more pool time after the beach.

Family Selfies are quickly becoming my favorite.
And yes, Reese is naked. :) 

Did you think our day was over? Oh no. After the family swim we headed over to my parent's friend's vacation house about 10 minutes down the road. 

They wanted to take the kids to the duck pond. They said it was a short walk. Um. Yeah. They lied. It seriously felt like 10 miles in between holding Reese and letting her walk. 

And poor girl biffed it and scraped her knew pretty badly. 

But, we made it to the duck pond and it was super cute. 

And now our day is done.