The BAHAMAS!

BEWARE of picture overload!!

We had really been wanting to get away this winter with just the two of us, so it worked perfect when Joe won a trip to the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas! He works hard and definitely puts in his time, so it was really nice to see him be rewarded for that...and even better that it benefited me as well:). Stanley Security Solutions (like Stanley tools, but their security division) has around 13,500 employees or something like that and there were probably around 150-200 employees there that won the award (plus upper mgmt and those that planned it and such). The president kept saying that this group was in the top 2% of employees, but that doesn't really add up, so I don't know what piece of that info is wrong. But either way, I'm proud of the work he does:). It seemed like about half of the people there were in sales and most assumed that Joe was too for some reason. Stanley calls this group of employees "The President's Club". I guess this was the first time they've had The President's Club in 3 years, so since Joe has worked there, they haven't had it--they discontinued it for that time due to the economy. Many people in sales had been on the trip before since for the sales reps it's based on their sales, but people not in sales, where you can't really measure their success, I would think most likely don't ever go more than once. So unfortunately for us, this might be the only trip:(. It was an amazing trip though and they definitely went above and beyond to ensure we had a fantastic time.

Landing in the BAHAMAS!

We could see the Atlantis from the plane...(it's to the back right). They picked us up from the airport and took us right there...definitely better than having to ride a bus that makes other stops along the way! All the transportation service was amazing and very quick!

This was when we first got to our room. We had arrived around noon on Sunday and couldn't get our room until 3 which was kind of a bummer to have to wear jeans for a bit (since we didn't have our luggage--they had it since they picked us up so they could bring it to our room). Although a couple we met didn't get their luggage until late Sunday night--it didn't make it on their flight--so it could have been worse:). The rooms were pretty nice, I'm not sure I've stayed in a hotel before where there are 2 flat screen tvs and soft music playing is part of the turndown service:).

This was the view from our room...

The bathroom obviously, and don't mind the girl in the mirror. I quick took pics of the room when we got our room and then never took anymore...so just look at the bathroom, don't mind me:).

Joe enjoying the view...

Apparently I didn't notice when I took this that Joe's eyes are closed:). Our tower, The Cove, is behind him. The Cove is all suites and the nicest tower there, so that was nice. Our suite was the smallest available. We didn't get a whole lot of time to just relax, it was a fun trip, but somewhat tiring since we fit a lot in in the few days we were there!

The Cove behind me. We've been watchin Top Chef since we've been back and the final episodes have all been filmed at the Atlantis (they stayed at the Cove too), so it definitely makes us miss it!

They took our pic coming in the first night for dinner. The banquets halls were all on the other side of the resort so you could walk or they always had buses waiting to take us there. Like I said earlier, their transportation was great--always waiting for you and they always recognized you were with the Stanley group by our wristbands or name badges.

This is just the banquet room we had dinner in the first night. My probably only complaint about the trip would be how loud it was during dinners at the hotel. Sunday and Tuesday night we had dinners with everyone at the hotel and the band was SO loud it was hard to hear the person next to you. It drove me a little nuts:).

A pic they took of us...

And again...

The marching band going around after dinner...I was glad they were on their way out:)...

Monday night they bussed everyone to dinner at a local Italian restaurant, Lucianos of Chicago, it was nice to go some place different, although with the Atlantis having over 20 restuarants you could easily stay on site and not get sick of the food!

We could choose what excursion/activity we wanted to do each day, so Monday we swam with the dolphins. We waited a bit for our turn and then right when we stepped in the water they had us get out because I guess lightening wasn't too far away. Thankfully we only had to wait about 15 minutes for the lightening to get far enough away from us (we could just see dark clouds in the distance, it never rained or anything) and then we could get back in the water. Neither of us had ever swam with dolphins before, so it was really fun. They also have a deep water encounter which would have been really fun too--maybe someday:).

Standing on our balcany Monday morning (this is a little bit out of order)...

We could see the cruise ships from our room. When we were on a cruise maybe 5 years ago or so we had stopped at Nassau and taken an island tour and stopped at the Atlantis. It's ridiculously expensive, so we didn't think we'd ever get a chance to stay there so it worked out great to win the trip! Everything on our trip was covered for us excect we paid for one meal when we got there and for 2 simple sandwiches with chips, water and one drink it was $75, a little overpriced if you ask me! And that was not at one of the expensive restaurants either.

Monday morning was brunch and the awards ceremony. So that means they had to go through EVERY employee that had won the trip. It seemed to take forever, but it was nice that they acknowledged all those that had won the trip.

We walked back to our room after the brunch instead of taking the buses so that's why Joe is carrying his award in the pic:).

Plenty of nice boats in the marina!

This is in the little outdoor shopping area in the resort. There is also a higher end indoor shopping area. Seriously, the resort has about everything you could ever want:). There's also a casino, lots of bars, a spa, a theatre, a huge water park and lots of other activities. I definitely could have stayed longer and not have been bored!

View of the Royal Towers part of the resort...probably what most people picture when thinking of the Atlantis (or at least I did)...

Picture of the where some of the waterslides are. They have lots of fun and some really fast water slides and we didn't get a chance to go on any!! I had really wanted to too:(. We went on part of the lazy river, but that was it. They do have an option where you can just "play for the day" so maybe someday we can do that:).

Again, this is out of order, but Tuesday night was cocktail attire at dinner.

Joe with the President and CEO of Stanley Black and Decker, John Lundgren, the EVP and COO of Stanley Black and Decker, James Loree, and Sr VP and Group Executive of Stanley Convergent Security Solutions, Brett Bontrager (yes, I had to ask Joe for their titles:D)...

Before we left we didn't know what kinds of people would be there as we didn't know anyone going, but we met some nice people there which was fun.

Tuesday we did a whole day excursion. They took us by boat to a couple of different islands for a few different activities. We figured we might as well do as much there as we could:).

One of the guides on our boat...

Passing by some island where apparently lots of celebs have homes. Quite a few celebs also own islands in the Exuma Island and someone said Johnny Depp owned some close to where we were. Oh, and speaking of celebs, when we were on the beach at our hotel we saw Rob Lowe playing with his sons. Well, that's only partially true. Joe saw him. I didn't realize it was him, but I'm sure I saw him, just didn't realize it was someone famous:).

Enjoying the ride...it took about an hour to get out there.

View from the first island we stopped at...

Feeding grapes to the iguanas...

I thought they would creep me out a little bit, but they really didn't. They only came by you really if you had food to give them and they didn't leap at you or anything:).

Our boat...

Joe taking a stroll...

Cute little guys:)...

On the next island...

I miss this view!

There wasn't much on this island besides a kitchen to make us lunch, a bathroom and a bar. What more could you need? :) We could have gone for an island tour, but chose to just relax. We also snorkeled while on that island too which was pretty good snorkeling compared to what we've done in different parts of Mexico before.

We fed stingrays on that island which was fun! And a little creepy:).

They gave us the little flip video cams like you can see someone holding in this pic, but we didn't really take anything interesting enough to post:)...

LOTS of sharks!

We thankfully did not participate in feeding the sharks...not sure how those guys dare do that! Watching from a few feet away was close enough! :)

They were feeding them with a fish that was attached to a rope...

The Cove pool area...

Another nice view from a different pool area...

Joe on the beach obviously:)...it was nice that they had multiple beaches so it never felt that busy.

Our plane didn't take off until around 5:30pm on Wednesday, so we had some time Wednesday before we left the hotel which was nice, however, we had to be out of our room by 11 so we just decided it'd be easier to wear our "going home" clothes most of the day which was hot!!

I have a picture of my mom and me on these stairs from when we were here before which I would post but can't find:(...this is in the main entrance...

By their indoor aquarium, also by the main entrance...

Out of order, but I don't feel like moving it...just a couple pics of one of the lazy rivers...

Waiting to leave for the airport:(...

Every trip we go on there's always something with "Joe" in the title. We didn't see this until we were in the airport.

Our original flight out of Nassau to Atlanta was a little delayed. We were a little nervous that we would then miss our flight out of Atlanta, but once we landed in ATL learned that all flights out of ATL were delayed too. I am finally finishing this blog weeks after I started it, so I have a hard time remembering details now, but I know we took off finally quite a bit later. We were then supposed to fly from ATL to GR, however, when we were close to landing, they announced that we'd be landing in Detroit instead of GR due to fog. It was like 1am maybe by this time. They then made us wait forever before they told us when they could get us on a flight out. We tried calling car rentals right away just to see if that'd be an option, but there were no cars available. There was another flight that was supposed to have landed in GR as well so everyone was trying to get cars. They then finally told us that they'd get us on a flight out at 6am. They offered to bring us to a hotel to sleep, but that time it was maybe 2am so it never would have been worth going to hotel to sleep for maybe an hour. So we made ourselves comfy on the airport floor and finally got home the next morning. It was a slightly annoying ending to an amazing trip, but I am thankful that happened on that trip and hopefully that means our flights to Disney with the kids will be perfect:).

Really excited to be standing in line at 1am...

Super comfy on the floor:)...

And here are a couple of the kids from when we got home. We are so thankful for family that took care of them while we were gone!! We obviously couldn't have done it without them! Gibs stayed with Grampy and Gigi from Saturday night through Thursday morning and Layla got passed around a bit more. She stayed with Auntie Em and Uncle Mike from Saturday night until Monday morning, then went to Gigi's until Tuesday night, back to Em's until Wed night and then back to Gigi's until we picked them up Thursday morning. We had a great trip and were thankful to know the kids were in good hands while we were gone! It would have been nice if our trip could have been longer (for a really reasonable price we could have added on to our trip up to 3 days prior or up to 3 days after), but with kids, that's just not as easy to do! We still really enjoyed the time away (even though it went quickly) and are so thankful for those that helped with the kids!

Layla with her seahorse we bought her...don't mind her "comfy" pants she is wearing:)...of course Gibs is trying to get in the fridge--we definitely know when he wants his milk:)...

Layla was watching My Little Ponies and was matching up her McDonald's MLPs to the tv so Gibs thought he had to copy:)...