Bahamas ...with Boys / Our Last Day

Gray started the last day of our special vacation off riding on a golf cart, taking pictures of himself. "They're selfies, Mom."

Then he figured out to edit them in photo editor...

This is where the golf cart brought us one last time - our favorite beach at Crossings Bay!

Drive through the jungle-y tunnel to this.

Time for sunscreen again.

 We found our little island in the sea one last time, even though it was no longer low tide.

Do you think this is it?

Yay!

Just sitting in the sea, soaking it up.

On the way home, we found a sign that Grammie should come with us next time. Literally! 

The person whose driveway this is in came home while we were taking pictures. She had been to the store for a case of Sprite (that probably only cost $234 million) and kindly acted like what we were doing was completely normal.  Everyone was equally extremely friend the entire week.

 When we got back to the cottage to pack up, we discovered a new friend on Jack's swim shirt that had been left out to dry!

Mom thought this was so cool.

We offered him a photo shoot before tucking him safely in between some ocean rocks. 

Not a very chatty crab.

It was time to leave the beautiful Bahamas. 

But before the day would be over, we'd watch Air Force One take off on the runway in Atlanta, and get to climb all over our flight's cockpit. 

Yes, let's push all of these buttons.

And see what this lever does.

"Can we just ride up here?"

 Back in our seats, we celebrated an amazing week.  

This was before our plane got blocked in by two others.

Grayson's fingers confused him for a second.

Mom tried not to worry about the germs on the safety cards.

Safety experts reading up on what to do in event of crash.

Good thing those are mostly pictures. And Mom's back up plan.

We decided to fork up an extra $200 in Atlanta in exchange for an earlier flight home that saved us from a 6 hour layover. Mom suspects she would have spent at least half that much buying food and activities in the airport to keep everyone occupied so this was a steal.

In the end, our Bahamas ...with Boys trip was the best adventure our family has ever shared!

Checking bags is for braver/weaker people!

Bahamas ...with Boys / The Dreaming Tree & Going Under

On our final full day in the Bahamas, we fit in as much as possible.

First, some early morning watching the boats in the bay with dad on the dock.

Batman feels the breeze.

And sun.

Then it was time to knock out the scavenger hunt our Papa had given us clues for from his time visiting the same house the month before. We had to email back home for some extra clues, though and suspect the cleaning crew may have moved some things around...

Someone found the tiny bible though.

It was an extra windy day so we thought we'd head to the bay side again, as opposed to the beach.  Later we realized because of the wind direction, the ocean side would have been calmer.  But now we all know how that works. 

While Mom was trying to sunsceen people up, Grayson got hold of the camera.

Thumb, dad, mom's backside.

Mom sees he has her phone and makes a beeline.

But first Gray begs for a parental pic.

Jack cries to be in the picture, but will not look up.

Then the photographer captures himself, of course.

Jack is distracted. Daddy is wearing a lot of clothes. #sunburn

"Take a picture of me, Mom?"

"Me, too!?"

"Now both of us!"

Someone or other is always falling. At least sand is forgiving.

And one more.

After hours of swimming, selfies, and sandcastles it was time to head home for what everyone over the age of 6 hoped would include a nap. As Daddy put the cart in reverse, Mom say something move on the ground! Can you see what it was?

After naps for some, Daddy ran the length of the island while the rest of us went to pay a visit to Grandpa Mike and BB at their cottage.  Grayson had been hoping all week to see the inside of a coconut and Grandpa was ready to oblige. He even had a machete!

Explaining the coconut basics.

Next we worked on our special project.

While Grandpa obtained one more island fruit to try.

Sour oranges!

It was time to go hang our floats on the dreaming tree.  There was already one there that had Gray's name on it!

And so many more.

Meow.

BB and Daddy found the perfect spot, with Grayson helping direct.

This is a great spot.

Jack experimented with different expressions while we tried to get a decent family picture in front of our dreaming tree contribution.

Part of the Dreaming Tree instructions include making a wish. Grayson asked Jack to wish that we could come back someday.  This freed of Gray to wish for something else, which he never revealed.

We celebrated our last night and Dreaming Tree contributions with dinner at Nippers on the beach.

Grayson got the camera again.

A nice one of his grandparents.

Mom messed up his selfie.

Luckily he thought this was good stuff.

If you have dinner on the beach, you have to go check out the beach!

Grayson led Jack in attacking the waves.

All of a sudden, there were four feet in the air! This was a first for Jack who had been apprehensive of the water the whole week.  After he popped up, the grown-ups held their breath and prepared for tears, but Jack just said, "DID YOU SEE THAT? I have never did that before."

Refusing to come out as the sun sets.

Ready for the cart ride home.

Jack gave Mom a flower for her hair!

We stopped to watch the last little bit of the sunset at Grabber's on the way home. 

Jack was full of sweetness after getting so salty.