Puerto Rico!

We had the opportunity to go to Puerto Rico with Dave's family over Spring Break. I've never been to Puerto Rico (or even outside the continental U.S.) and wondered if we were all crazy for taking a big trip with young kids. The 4-5 hour flight felt long... and as it turns out, I'm pretty sure my max for keeping 2 kids entertained on an airplane happens to be 4-5 hours. But we made it! And I loved seeing all the islands along our flight path! Beautiful. 

Fun fact: Hurricane Maria took all the street signs around the airport, so there's really no way to know if you're going in the right direction as you leave the airport. Nana, the kids, and myself were in the car headed to the resort first, and we unknowingly turned the wrong way. We did a lot of accidental sight-seeing--again, no directional signs along the interstate--and finally found some English speakers who could help us. They were so, so nice and told us that we should be using Google Maps, not the Apple map, on our phones because Google Maps was more accurate after the hurricane. They also reminded us that, since we were from Texas, our 54 mile journey back to the resort would be no big deal!

Puerto Rico is beautiful. BEAUTIFUL. It felt like we were the only people at the resort. I seriously counted about 10 other people that we saw there the entire time. We were told that the week before had been really busy, so I guess our timing was good!

This lasted all of about 10 seconds. Ryan HATED the sand touching his feet or getting into his sandals.

He also hated the water.

There were two beautiful pools at the resort, and he didn't want anything to do with either of them. 

Proof that we actually got him on the sand... so long as he had a beach towel to sit on. Even then, he was so uncomfortable when sand got on the towel.

Luckily, there was grassy area near the pool and that's where he wanted to be.

Ryan may hate sand and water, but he could spend all day going "vroom vroom" in a golf cart. 

Katelyn and I found so many shells. Her favorite were the "unicorn horns."

These two cousins were born just months apart and are polar opposites: one is cautious and calculated and the other is fearless and adventurous. But they get along so well and seem to have their own little language!

We played a LOT of UNO after the boys went to bed.

These beautiful iguanas were everywhere! This one was at least the size of my leg, hip to ankle.

The weather and scenery were absolutely perfect. We had SUCH a wonderful time!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Ryan!

Ryan is two. Two!! He is SO much fun right now. I love this age because he’s so eager to talk, enthusiastic about everything, and uninhibited. It’s all on the table. He hasn't quite hit terrible twos yet, so I'm soaking up the sweetness now.

There are a few things that stand out in this phase that I do not want to forget.

First, his beloved tractor. It was originally at Nana's house and he went nuts over it every time we visited, so Nana decided it made more sense for the tractor to live with us. This is the toy that's going to be with us forEVER, that we keep for his own child someday. When he wakes up in the morning, he says, "Where's Dada? Where's Katelyn? Where's tractor?" It's so special to him. 

This was the look on his face when he realized the tractor was in OUR living room instead of at Nana's

Next, Ryan's love for drawing. I mean he really, really LOVES to draw, especially with pen. Plain paper, big sister’s artwork, bills, the decision clipboard he discovered on the pew at church—everything within his reach is fair game, apparently. I don't think a day goes by when he doesn't draw for an extended period of time. My mom gave him a pen with a removable cap and he is fascinated by it. It’s going to be a sad day when he uses up all the ink in that pen-- which will no doubt happen. 

I turned my head for 2 seconds and Ryan made lots of decisions for Christ

And as he’s drawing, he pretends to draw/write the names of specific people… he doesn’t know how to spell or write words/shapes, of course, but he calls out random letters and shapes as he’s drawing and proudly tells me what he’s done. My favorite is when he cracks himself up when he draws something he thinks is funny. There is so much I love about all of this.

And last, his relationship with Katelyn. I think one reason I'm loving this stage is because I get to watch Katelyn's response to Ryan growing. They're such good friends. She’s quite the little mama and loves teaching him new things, and Ryan soaks up the attention. Katelyn is religious about dressing her dolls into their pajamas and tucking them into their bed each night. Well, one evening when Katelyn wasn’t home, Ryan went up to her room and had me help him dress one of her dolls in pajamas and tuck it into bed. When finished, he promptly said "all done" and went to ride his tractor. SO SWEET. 

Hard to believe he is already two but I'm so excited for what this next year will bring!