So....Josh and I never go anywhere together these days. It's sad to say, but I think it's probably fairly normal for couples with young children to stay relatively close to home. So, when he called to tell me he'd managed to snag a trip to Aruba, it didn't take much convincing to get me on board. We only had about 2 weeks to get everything in order before we flew out, but fortunately between my Mom, Josh's sister, and our dog trainer, we got all of our affairs in order and took off last Wednesday.

Contrary to what the resorts would have you believe, Aruba is actually quite arid! I saw more cactus there than I've ever seen anywhere...and that's saying a lot considering I did a long stretch of field work in south Texas.

I only took a handful of resort photos, and I think I'll refrain from posting them on here since 99% of the island is not artificially tropical. After looking high and low I did manage to find a few small cactus beds at the Hyatt, so I guess they referenced the native landscape, but it wasn't the right cactus.

Aside from the cactus...which I think was saguaro, I'd say this was the tree you'd see the most of. The wind constantly blows so much from the south that all of these trees tend to grow in a northerly fashion.

And depending on which coast you are visiting, you either have tranquil seas with sandy beaches....

...or powerful crashing waves with rocks. Yep...that's me attempting to pose and look cool. :) I know...I'm just exuding coolness.

I found myself much more inspired to take pictures on this coast. :)

How many pictures of pretty, blue water can one person take? Hundreds, apparently...

Having the Caribbean as a constant backdrop made me realize just how much I tend to lean when I take pictures... "/ I think I only got 2 that didn't need straightening out.

Josh is typically looking caught off-guard in my pics (because I catch him off-guard) or he just isn't looking at the camera because he doesn't know I'm taking pics of him. He hates taking pictures. So, I finally get him to sit for a picture, and what do I do?...manage to screw up the focus. It's close enough though. A good pic of Josh looking at the camera and smiling! Hallelujah!

There are caves on Aruba too! I got to test out all sorts of new places to take pictures.

We initially thought Aruba had some weird rock stacking cult following thing going on....

Turns out the tourists have a strange habit of stacking rocks while they're on vacation there, and the natives have no idea why...but they've embraced it.

We did a whole lot of this...

And we went down in this submarine. It got us down to about 140' below!

It's not easy taking pictures through a porthole. But I got a keeper! :)

And lastly...we paid a visit to the elusive donkey sanctuary. Took forever for us to find it on this tiny island.

Donkeys are funny...

So, I know I said I wouldn't put any resort pics on here, but I found it comical how hard it is to actually escape America! :)

And that's it. We missed the kids so much we picked them up from my Mom's at 10:30 once our flight landed Sunday night. Woke Meredith from a deep sleep and really upset her, but it was worth it. :)