Thanksgiving on Turks & Caicos

 This Thanksgiving we have had planned for nearly two years. In celebration of both the Thanksgiving holiday and Thom and Lornie's FIFTIETH wedding anniversary, the entire Gill family spent the better part of a week in Turks & Caicos at a Beaches all inclusive resort. With this size crew and 5 self-sufficient kids, we were able to spread out and take advantage of many of the resort offerings. 

First and foremost, unlimited frozen yogurt, pina coladas and/or strawberry daiquiris. Countless. First it was a novelty, then it became a challenge from Aunt Kyra to go a WHOLE DAY without drinking a sugary beverage. That took a lot of willpower, but a few of the kids went one or even two days without. 

Gran and Poppa were thoroughly generous and indulged the grandkids every request. Sparkle tattoo? Yes. Fancy braids? Yes. Build-A-Bear? Yes. There could be no complaining that anyone needed something to do. 

My personal favorite "yes" was clear bottom kayaking with sea turtles. Alex, Graham, Kyra and I paired off for an excursion with our guide, Byron. It was very low impact kayaking, he towed the whole group, tethered together in a long snake, out to a mangrove "island" and once we were safely shielded from the ocean current, we paddled around dozens of beautiful sea turtles. The water was beautiful and clear, when the turtles surfaced to breathe they sounded like little whales! I adored it!

We had additional adventures riding horses on the beach, going parasailing and tubing on a huge water couch! The beach was soft and clean, and the oversized hot tub was an evening favorite with the kids. We had a really great week with beautiful weather and great company, and lots of experiences to remember for years to come!

Just to top off the week, we had one final adventure, this one was no less exciting, but a lot less fun. We had the terrible luck to fly to Chicago for a connection to Houston and we arrived along with a full-fledged snow storm. We ended up staying the night, more accurately, we stayed the morning - checking into our hotel at 1:15am and leaving for the next days plane adventures at 8:30am. We were thoroughly unprepared, with the boys wearing shorts and crocs, Graham and I wearing shorts and not a jacket to be seen. Chicago ended up getting 10 inches of snow that day/night and while it was at first exciting and magical (none of the kids had seen that much snow before), it became frigid, exhausting and uncomfortable very quickly when we had to be outside. We made it through, got home late the next day via Ft. Meyers, FL and after 35 hours of travel we were very excited to sleep in our own beds. 

It all comes with traveling, the highs and the lows, we were safe and together and we all made it home in one piece. Happy Thanksgiving and thank you to the Gill Family for a wonderful island vacation.