Beach Trips Part 2

After a 3 day mini break at home (not really much of a break since it was filled with cleaning, laundry and re-packing), we packed up our car early Saturday afternoon to drive to Atlanta! We met Jerod's mom, dad and grandmother at a park in Chatanooga for a picnic to celebrate Mothers Day! Parker had a blast! He rode his first carousel, ran wild in the fields and made some friends with some pretty girls (just so he could play with their ball)! Luckily he wore himself out before we had to get back in the car for the last 2.5 hours of our trip to Ben and Emily's house! He slept the whole way :).

Parker gave his grandma's kisses for Mothers Day! :)

By the time we made it to Atlanta, carried in our luggage, weighed, re-packed, re-weighed and then loaded up our luggage (we ALL had problems with that stinkin 50 pound weight limit), we did not get in bed until 1:30 Sunday morning! The biggest problem was that we had to be up by 4:45 to make our plane to Aruba! It actually worked out for the best... since Parker only got 3 hours of sleep he was super tired on the plane and slept the ENTIRE way! He was an angel!

We had a blast in aruba! We spent our days laying on the beach and floating in the lazy river. It was so relaxing!

This one is just too funny not to post....

And I had to post at least one where my big butt is not showing! It boosts my confidence a little not to see it :)

Unfortunately, I was not the best at keeping track of a camera on this trip (I was on vacation... I didn't want any responsibilities that I didn't have to have)! Luckily, Emily was pretty good about taking pictures so I stole some of hers :) These pictures are in no particular order!

We attempted to get a family picture one night, but Parker decided he didn't want to cooperate, so this was the best that we got...

A few pics of Jerod and me!

Another family picture with Park not cooperating :) In his defense, the sun was in our eyes this time!

Of course he decides to cooperate when we are in our swimsuits and I have no makeup on! Ha... go figure!

Eating dinner downtown!

Another family picture... we were trying to get Parker to laugh! Gotta love Jerod's face :)

View from the beach.. aaahhhh (that is the sound of relaxation by the way)...

The lazy river, where we spent alot of time... pretty much every night to be exact!

Grass umbrellas on the beach... it felt so tropical!

More of the grass huts...

Jerod, Ben and Emily went on a scuba diving excursion on this pirate ship! They had a blast! They went to an actual ship wreck (as in what you see in the movies... a big old wooden ship at the botom of the ocean). Apparently it was fairly deep so all they could really touch was the mast, but they said it was awesome to look at! They also went to a few other places and even jumped off a rope swing into the ocean!

I think that about wraps up our days in paradise! Now its back to reality, but I am kind of thankful to be home and back into our usual routines. The downside to traveling 3 out of 4 weeks? I gained 7 pounds in a month! Ha! Luckily my doctor's exact words were, "thata girl!" Since I had lost several pounds in the begining of my pregnancy, the extra weight gain (I was supposed to gain around 4 pounds that month) helped me to almost catch up to how much weight I should have gained by now!