First Family Vacation - Part 1

We have travelled ALOT as a family, but it's always been to visit family or to move. This was our first family vacation...and it was spectacular!!

As I mentioned before, we went to a place about 2 1/2 hours from here. It is called Caldas Novas and it is known for its natural hot springs. We stayed at a place called Palavra da Vida (Word of Life). It is really, really cool. It's a pretty touristy town so some of the resort areas can be pretty crummy...lots of loud music, drinking, making out, and peeing in the pools (um, yuck). We saw one of these areas and it reminded me of being on the beach on spring break. (FYI...I was always on a mission trip called Beach Reach during spring break...I wasn't the one doing the making out on the beach, just so you know). Anyway, at Palavra da Vida there aren't even any bikinis or speedos allowed. Ahh, my now love-hate relationship with bikinis...but that is for another post. Anyway, it was quiet and nice and very relaxing and we loved every minute of it.

Hopefully you enjoy pictures of other people's family vacations (I know...doesn't sound appealing, but hopefully you will still enjoy) because for each day this week you will have pictures from each day last week while we were on vacation. Today's is a little extra...includes the night before we left, the day we headed out, and the first full day of vacation (last Tuesday).


Before we start the vacation pictures, here are a couple pictures of the cuties all ready for church the night before we left for vacation. Grady and Hadley...Grady showing off his favorite birthday present (he takes it everywhere) given to him by our neighbors.
And the little one.
Now...Monday afternoon...on our way to Caldas Novas. These two were soon to be asleep.
Grady was already out. We got to the apartment we were staying in (they have apartments you can rent out), walked around a bit to scope things out, and then headed into town to grab a bite to eat and shop for some essentials to have at the apartment. Then we went back to the apartment to rest up for the next day...our first full day of relaxation. :-)
Our friends, Pastor Jefferson and Carmen just happened to be in Caldas Novas the same week. Carmen had just spent about a month at Joel's parents' house...their oldest daughter is now there in Massachusetts in college. Since she was there over Christmas, Joel's parents just waited and sent Christmas presents with Carmen. Monday night they brought all the packages by our apartment there. So, Tuesday morning the kids were chomping at the bits to tear into them. Grady's magnetic farm...very cool.
Hadley's getting her set of pots and pans...they were excited to be able to cook for us on vacation.
Eissa's reaction to presents...she enjoys it, but doesn't quite get it just yet. Funny.
Nice.
Can you tell Grady likes presents? This is his facial expression every time...even before he knows what it is. :-) This happened to be a big box of stickers with a book to put them in...hours of entertainment for our meticulous little boy. If we don't know where Grady is these days, he's probably alone somewhere working on his stickers.

After breakfast it was off to the pools. So excited about the pool. The pool behind them was the kiddie pool...it was also the coolest of the 3. There was another pool that you will see later right next to this one...it was the warmest. Then up above this kiddie pool there is the 3rd pool. We never actually even got in it, except to wade in it our first afternoon there...spent all our time down below.
Family pic.
The other member of the family (who was taking the picture in that last one) with Eissa.
Testing it out.




It was so cute and funny. They were playing this game where Grady was "rescuing" and helping Hadley for a while.
Eissa wasn't really into the pool at first. She became a fish, but at that point...just not thrilled with the thought. So, this was us for a couple of hours that first morning. :-)
One of the presents from Grandma and Grandpa...a set of parachuting Winnie the Poohs. :-) It was perfect that we got the gifts while we were on vacation...and had a loft to release them from.
Our friend Kristin told us about a great fish restaurant there...yummy!! So, after our first full day there, off we went to try it out. The food really was very good.