Turks and Caicos

Russ and I just returned from a week of absolute paradise. We celebrated our 10th anniversary at a small island in the British West Indies called Turks and Caicos. We haven't been on a trip by ourselves in years, so we decided that it was about time! We left our kids with Russ' parents for a few days and then my parents for a few days. They took wondeful care of them so Russ and I didn't have to worry about a thing. Of course we did miss our them, but we had a fabulous time of relaxing by the beach and pool, swimming in a gorgeous ocean, eating delicious food and just spending quality time together.

We stayed at an ocean resort called Oceans Club West. It was a small resort with lots of different condos all around the beach and pool. Here is a picture of it from a boat.

Our condo was very nice and it had a beautiful view of the pool gardens and beach off the screened in porch.

We spent most days reading out on the beach. Picture beautiful weather, clear blue water and soft white sand. It didn't rain a drop the entire time we were there. It was hot, but most of the time a breeze was blowing which made it very comfortable.

The first day we were there, we met a very nice couple from New Jersey named Josh and Dayna. We ended hanging out with them some and we enjoyed getting to know them.

On Sunday afternoon, we took a paddle boarding trip through the mangroves. It was a lot of work, but it was so much fun. We saw some small fish and other ocean life. Even some lemon sharks were swimming below us! Josh and Dayna joined us which made it even more fun. Below is a picture of the mangroves we went through.

On Tuesday afternoon, we took a boat out to snorkel at the coral reef. Turks and Caicos has the 3rd largest reef in the world, so we saw a ton of beautiful fish. We have snorkled in a few other places and have been scuba diving on previous trips, but this was by far the best. We swam over a school of fish in the thousands, with big barracouda swimming below them. It was scarry, but so neat!

After scuba diving, the boat took us to a spot to dive for conch's. We dove around 15-20 feet below to find conch shells. Russ and I both found big ones, be we were only allowed to leave with one live one. Here is Russ with the one we ended up keeping as well as a small one that had no mussel in it.

After finding the conch shells the boat took us to a private beach. There they showed us how to cut the mussell out of the shell and then they cut up all the conchs and made a fresh conch salad. We all ate it and it was actually pretty tasty!

Russ also rented a mask to swim around the beach in front of the condo. There were lots of different fish out there just minding their own business while we swam. A couple of times, big sting rays would swim right beside us. Russ enjoyed it, but on the last day when he came face to face with a huge barracouda, he was done! Here he is diving down to see what was below:

It is hard to believe our trip is over now, but after 6 days of relaxation, we were ready to come home and get back to normal. Thanks to Nana & Papa and Mimi & Grampy for taking such great care of the kids so that we could have such a memorable 10 year anniversary!