Finally, the time for our long awaited trip to St. John arrived!!! We were all so excited despite the rocky start. There was a mega meltdown as we tried to leave the house by someone who will remain nameless but who was extremely unhappy that he had to sit in the middle seat on the drive down to DC as well as that we were having Chick-Fil-A for dinner. "I don't want to go to the stupid VI" and "Leave me at home" were exclaimed quite loudly and forcefully but, within 20 minutes, all happiness had been restored and our vacation had begun.
Due to an early flight time Saturday morning we felt it would be best to spend the night down in DC, close to the airport. Using some of those awesome points that frequent travelers pick up, David was able to get us a room at the super nice Hyatt in DC. David sent Savannah, me, and Noah to our room while he and Xander did the valet parking. The highlight of the hotel for the kids had to be the trip up to our room in the glass elevator! Unfortunately my room key did not work and the three of us ended up hanging in the hallway for about 15 minutes, trying to keep ourselves entertained until David got there. We probably should have gone back to the elevator and ridden it up and down a few more times. To fight the boredom we took a few selfies, which often do the trick...
and watched Noah. He had to use the bathroom and was doing a lot of dancing while we waited.
Once in the room the kids decided to stay away from the window; we were pretty high up which made all of them, especially Noah, a bit nervous.
We all settled in for a good night's sleep...
However, that good night's sleep didn't come; it's definitely not easy to sleep in a hotel room with 5 people! By 3:35 we were up and getting ready and left for the airport at 4:15. Pre-check is an amazing thing and before we knew it, we were on our flight to JFK and then our next flight to St. Thomas!
Love that view!
Feel that Caribbean air!
We had about an hour and a half wait at the airport until the rest of the family arrived. Thank goodness for these birds which kept the kids entertained for a bit.
A little love bite!
Some people really struggled with the airport wait, snapping at the rest of us and letting loose with the grumpiness. Some of us didn't let their frowns keep us down and we soaked in the whole experience, extremely grateful that we were in the Virgin Islands.
What fun it was to see the rest of the family enter the baggage claim area! After a reunion filled with hugs and smiles, we all quickly gathered our suitcases and headed out to catch a taxi van to Red Hook, the next step on our journey to St. John.
We had a large crew so two vans were needed. Families with kids crammed into one van and got to listen to the kids chatter away non-stop until we reached the ferry. They were all just so excited to see each other!
After a quick ferry ride, we finally reached St. John!
Departing the ferry...
and getting our feet right into that beautiful Caribbean water!
The journey there is long - flights, a taxi ride, a ferry ride, and then the wait for rental cars - but it is all worth it! By mid-afternoon we finally pulled up to our home for the week - the beautiful Tennis Villa!
The gorgeous view!
We unloaded and figured out where everyone was going to sleep - Savannah, McKenna, and Ash got the house out by the pool;
David and my room, which was in the main house along with rooms for Mom and Dad, and Heidi and Ryan;
the path down to the second house;
Bryan stayed in the top floor while Xander had his own room on the bottom level;
and Kellan and Noah had their own little house with an outdoor shower. Yay!!
While David and Ryan headed out to grab groceries and pick up dinner ($20 pizzas, yikes!!), the kids hit the pool...
and then the tennis court!
Even Aunt Heidi got in on the action!
Uh, I think you missed the ball, Noah!
Uh, oh, a little injury. But Noah was there to help take Kellan upstairs to his doctor dad.
The end of the day brought lessons on pool and a fairly early bedtime...we were all exhausted!
