Saturday

Happy 10-year anniversary to Mommy and Daddy!

Mommy and Daddy woke up again to the sounds of waves crashing outside of their veranda doors...and agreed we could definitely get used to this. Knowing all of the kids were happy and apparently not missing us much, we seriously contemplated staying a few days- or weeks- more! Breakfast came a little later this morning, so while we were waiting Mommy updated the blog so that we could remember everything from the trip, as we're realizing there is a lot we can't remember from our visit 10 years ago.

Miri and Opa called in the morning to wish Mommy and Daddy a Happy Anniversary and give us an update on all of the kids since Ari and Alex had gone with Nana and Poppy to visit them (and Kira) for Shabbat dinner. Typically on Shabbat evenings, the first thing Alex and Ari do when they get to Miri and Opa's house is make bee line for the "booty" (Pirate's Booty that Miri and Opa put out for a pre-dinner snack). We were touched to hear that instead of heading to the booty last night, Alex and Ari made a beeline for Kira instead, making sure she was OK and giving her lots of hugs. It was so nice to hear that everyone was doing well and happy.

After the standard breakfast on the veranda, Mommy went for her morning run before picking Daddy up for a trip to the fitness center. After our workouts, we showered and headed out for a little shopping and lunch at a place that we had eaten every single lunch at during our honeymoon ten years ago. But ten years ago, Gee Wee's was in a little shack outside of our resort. Now it is in a more modern strip shopping complex and even boasts sit-down dinner, reservations only! Despite the slight rise in prices from the last time we were here, we still enjoyed a good lunch for $10.

Full from lunch, we headed down to the beach for some relaxation and to await the 3:30 sorbet on the beach. We got a little nervous that we had missed it again when it was 3:45 and still no sorbet, but finally one of the servers brought it by our beach chairs. Yum! We both relaxed in the sun for a bit and Mommy decided to cool off with a dip in the ocean.

Once the sun was a little lower and it wasn't so hot, we decided to take out canoes from the water sport center. We didn't know that they close at 5:00 so we only got in 15 minutes or so, but it was enough to paddle out and back before swimming back to the beach in front of our villa.

We ended the day with dinner at what is arguably Anguilla's most famous restaurant, Blanchard's. We were greeted with champagne to celebrate our anniversary, which was a very thoughtful touch. Mommy had gazpacho followed by cioppino and Daddy had corn chowder followed by beef tenderloin. Dessert was lemon pound cake with berries and a trio of chocolate desserts (yum!) It was a very good meal, but Mommy and Daddy agreed that their meals started out with the best (Pimm's), then the second night was the second best (Koal Keel), then Blanchard's followed a close third.

Back at home it seems that Ari and Alex had an early morning, with Alex waking up at 6:15 after having some trouble going to sleep when everyone got home from Miri and Opa's. Nana guessed he was over tired, hence the reason he had trouble falling asleep, but said that after she and Poppy took turns sitting with him, he fell asleep after about an hour. Ari, on the other hand, went right to bed and slept through until 7:00 this morning. Nana and Poppy took them to the playground near their house and then to a special concert in the same place that we attended all of our summer outdoor concerts. We hear Aunt Lori joined them at the concert with Uncle Sam and Uncle Sam's brother Jon's family.

Mommy and Daddy are starting to look forward to getting home and seeing Alex, Ari and Kira but we're not quite sure that they even want us to come home at this point!