Hola! We did it!! I finished my 11th year of teaching and we immediately flew to the Caribbean for Cody's 1st birthday bash. Wow, I love the immediate start of summer vaca and decompressing island style. This year has flown by, yet looking back over the blog we've managed to do a lot and have tons of fun. So Cody took yet another cross country flight first to Miami, then onto PR. We landed amidst a HUGE thunder and lightening storm. Yikes! But although the forecast called for a chance of stormy weather everyday, that first day was our only storm (there were a couple of rainy downpours but it was fun to run through the streets of Old San Juan in the rain.) Barb and John arrived shortly after us and we proceeded to have a ball exploring Old San Juan, El Yunque Rainforest, the BioLuminescence in Mosquito Bay on the island of Vieques (it's the strongest in the world, you get in and totally glow with sparkles and a bright blue aura of light,)and the ocean and pool right outside our condo at Farjardo. Cody loved playing in both the ocean and the pool and spending time with Grammie and Pops. It was quite hot and humid so he definitely preferred the time in the water and the AC condo to the heat of the street. We ate great food and enough plantains to last a lifetime (not quite a lifetime, I love them, and am making them tonight.) Their typical dish was the mofongo which consists of muddled plaintain and usually some type of meat. There were some celebratory rum punches and pina coladas. Barb and John did a horseback ride on a nearby island and a nature preserve tour. Greg and I did 6 dives and saw sea turtles, 4 HUGE stingrays, and lots of fish and coral. Cody ate Baskin Robbins ice cream cake on his birthday and we went out later for an excellent final dinner at Calizo near our place. Cody did great on the flights back and we still had the weekend to hang out with dada before he went back to work today. Cody and I went running (gotta prep for the Boilermaker Race in two weeks!) and then he got a clean bill of health (YAY, he kicked his double ear infections and got another tooth) at his 1 year doc appt. The rest of this week is chill time with friends here and then onto Denver where he'll meet his future bride, Mavis Meagher and hang with his CO buddies both young and old. Yay Summer Time!!!!
