Aruba Recap

It. Was. Awesome.

And I just had to take a few minutes to jot everything down before all was lost in my mind! And let me preface this post by saying that I did NOT take my good cameras and only used my iphone to snap pictures. This was a device and social media free trip for us to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary (back in June) and I was going to soak up every kidless minute possible!

(click for a larger size)

We flew Southwest from Baltimore to Aruba direct and arrived in the early afternoon to the beach. It was perfectly sunny and we enjoyed our first afternoon doing nothing and watching a beautiful sunset. Derek set us up Hyatt credit cards last year and stayed at their hotels when he traveled to earn us Diamond Status for this trip. That meant breakfast, snacks and dinner were all free as well as bottled water, pops and coffees 24 hours a day as well as 4pm check out and the best views in the hotel! It was AMAZEBALLS.

90% of the trip was spent relaxing either in the shade or in the sun on the pristine white beaches. We did a sunset booze cruise and a snorkel pirate ship excursion but that was about it.

Except for on night 2, Derek had planned for a SUPER romantic 7-course diner in a private cabana by the ocean to watch the sunset. It was the most romantic dinner I've ever had and the food was absolutely amazing.

We spent each evening in the hot tubs, ventured to a couple souvenir shops near the Hyatt but that's about it. We walked the beaches every day and even laid on a dock one night to watch the stars. It was perfect.

The 2nd to last day we took a booze cruise on an old pirate ship to snorkel in 2 spots and jump off their rope swing. I was super hesitant due to my fear of sharks but knowing there hasn't been a single shark attack on Aruba ever, I felt fine. We saw a ship at one point about 60 feet down and tons of beautiful fish in the super blue waters.

Here are a couple videos of us doing the rope swing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ46K2oqQLk&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJmP8G-Q6NI&feature=youtu.be

And then, to end the trip right, we flew first class back to DC. This was my first class experience and it's going to be hard to every NOT fly that again. The leg room for my 5'10" self , the food, endless drinks, movies, warm wet towels and warm cookies were to die for. I felt like a queen already on this trip but this was the icing on the cake! So yes, I did what any normal blogger would do and snapped a picture of my dinner!

We did facetime the kiddos 2 times and sent them a couple quick videos, but other than that, there was no email or social media or game score checking while we were there. Just fruity drinks, sand and sun.

And it was heaven.

A HUUUUUGE thank you to Derek's parents for watching our kiddos while