vieques, puerto rico!

hello!  josh and i took a little trip to vieques, puerto rico last week! it was one of those trips we debated for the past couple of months… do we try and get away before we have a third baby just the two of us? do we take the kids? do we leave the kids? who would we leave the kids with?!  are we (well, me) strong enough to really truly spend a few days away from them?! we went back and forth for a long time, especially since we’ve only spent a single night away from eleanor and samson at a nearby hotel for josh’s birthday last year. but last month, we decided to just do it.

josh and i have both been working long hours around the clock on several different projects and entrepreneurial endeavors, along side taking care of our kiddos each day. full disclosure, while incredibly exciting and liberating to be one’s own boss, work feels to never actually sleep when you’re working for yourself, so naturally, we’re never sleeping either. (advice from fellow self employed or freelance readers willingly accepted in the comments below, please!)

anyway, while i might have a been a bit of a mess the night before we left at the thought of leaving E and S, my sisters flew into the city to spend the next few days with them and having our little ones in trusted family hands left me at ease. also, it appears that both the kiddos did really well without us! sometimes they didn’t even really care to FaceTime, they just wanted to get back to whatever they were doing with their aunties! we really couldn’t have asked for a better arrangement as we took off, and having time to just fully unplug from everything work related (i also unplugged from all things blog and social media related, too) and spend time together away from the kids before baby arrives – was wonderful.

we stayed at the W retreat and spa on vieques island.  a few months back, SPG Resorts kindly offered to host a little babymoon for us, so we took them up on the opportunity and had a wonderful time at their W resort in vieques. we flew into san juan and then took a teeny tiny plane (you can see it in the video i made below!) to a smaller island, vieques! i’d never been on such a small plane and that was both thrilling and terrifying at the same time!  the small island of vieques was absolutely beautiful, with wild horses literally everywhere. (they have more wild horses than people on the island!)

here’s a little video i made and a few photos of our time in vieques below…

and a few photos…

^^^if i could camp out on that reclining chair in the water looking out over the ocean for the rest of my life, i would.^^^

^^^me and my 29 week baby bump!^^^

^^^all the little crawlers and fish and lizards and snails and crabs…. it was one of those bittersweet moments each time we saw one where we were like, oh E and S would be dying right now! so we took lots of pictures and video whenever we passed some to share with the kiddos once we got home. (they’ve especially been loving the video of the crab running around the beach!)^^^

^^^the “living room” at the W is just spectacular!^^^

^^^breakfast in our room at 8 in the morning. it’s a hard thing going from a home with two early-rising toddlers 7 days a week to a chance to sleep in a couple mornings in a row. our bodies weren’t ready for it. on the plus side, no one is really on the beach or at the pool that early, so we got to have them to ourselves. ^^^

^^^the resort offers an early morning strala yoga class each day on the deck looking out at the ocean.  josh, myself and my baby bump went one morning. first, let me just say i was kind of blown away by my man here handling himself just fine with each pose and transition and even stretching (i was like, wait. how are you doing that?!) but also what a beautiful experience for my body and mind to share outside of a yoga studio in busy manhattan and in front of a calming view of the ocean.  it was one of the highlights for me, most definitely. ^^^

^^^we enjoyed a tasting of the new menu coming out next month at sorcé, the main restaurant at the W. our favorite part was the new arugula salad with these spicy candied almonds, manchego cheese and a guava vinaigrette.  the arugula is grown close to the resort (the chef told us it can be difficult to bring in all the food to this little island, so a lot of it is grown or raised locally nearby), which made it just perfectly fresh and crisp.^^^

^^^i don’t even know what this is, exactly, but it was so good. a sort of popsicle i guess….a piece of green melon slightly frozen and glazed with some sort of delicious orange syrup and zest. we enjoyed them at the pool and i need to find a way to replicate them here. ^^^

^^^and this lobster frittata at sorcé for breakfast one morning, also heaven.^^^

vieques is home to the best preserved bioluminescent bay in the world, which we were able to kayak through late one night under a dark new moon. UNREAL. sadly i don’t have any photos or video of the bay to show you, but you can get a bit of a feel for it through these photos i found online.  you put your hand in the water and as you bring it up you feel like you’re covered in magic fairy dust as the glowing little organisms trickle down your hand and arm! i’m still not sure i understand how it works entirely, but the luminescent water lights up as it’s “triggered by dinoflagellates, oceanic plankton which are able to generate an emerald green and ultramarine illumination when water is physically disturbed.”  it was incredible! i hope to go back and experience it again someday with the kids! kayaking through that bay is most definitely in my top ten most amazing life experiences.

this trip felt like a dream. i’ve been avoiding the real world a bit since returning back to new york city… trying my best to bring that calm back with me into my everyday.  and goodness as a pregnant mama with two toddlers can that be hard sometimes! i’m working on it! this trip was so good. it felt extra special to have josh all to myself for a few days, before we welcome our third little one, too.

thank you again to SPG Resorts and the W retreat and spa in vieques for hosting us!  and a million thank you’s to my sisters, for being the best aunties around and spending a few days in new york with our babies!