Aruba, Jamaica ooo I wanna take ya.

Right after Christmas, we met Jake's family in ARUBA. Oh hello paradise. We ate almost every dinner on the beach at sunset. Doesn't get much better than that!

We learned the best way to eat out is with your bare feet in the sand!

Aruba is a pretty small island so we were able to go to beaches in several different parts of the island. We also enjoyed snorkeling in the pretty coral reefs. On one of the beaches we went to there was hardly anyone else snorkeling so it felt like we had the ocean to ourselves. In lakes I am super paranoid about fish but in the ocean I love snorkeling and seeing all the different creatures. Jake and I had a little school of fish following us for a while. While that was pretty cool it also kind of made me feel like a one of those big whales that have fish following it. lol

One day we went deep sea fishing. Let's just say it was an adventure. lol We didn't catch anything and a few of us were feeling a little sick, but we still got a nice boat ride. 

adios marina

There was a lot of sunset photography going on. Especially from my husband! Like always, he got some pretty cool pictures, but I'm especially excited to see the Aruba vacation video he's making! 

On New Year's Eve day, we went shopping in town. I always love the bright colors that fill the shops in the Caribbean islands. 

One of Jake's biggest goals in Aruba was to drink lots of (virgin) pina coladas. So we took care of that of course...

One of the biggest mysteries of the trip was the loud explosions that were going on all over the island the entire week we were there... day and night. We all had theories about what it could be.. construction, loud cars, guns. But when we went into town on New Years Eve Day, the mystery was solved. Arubans are alllll about the firecrackers. People will stop traffic on busy streets throw down a huge line of firecrackers and everyone stops to watch as it explodes. One line of firecrackers on a very busy street literally went off for probably 30 or 40 minutes! Later walking to our car another huge line of firecrackers went off so close to parked cars that a bunch of alarms were going off. Cracked me up. That night we learned that the entire island means serious business about their fireworks too!

We had such a nice time soaking up the Aruban sun and relaxing with family. How did we get so darn lucky to have 2 great families to spend the holidays with?