Birthday Adventure 2011 Recap

Surprise! John whisked me away to our honeymoon spot in Turks & Caicos for nearly a whole week. For real. Honeymoon picture on left, B-day Adventure picture on right. (yes I made John wear that shirt when I wore my dress after I saw that he had packed it)


The Summary? Turks + Caicos = Happy, HAPPY Trapps

The very best part was of course having a week of John and Chrissy time. My favorite parts?

Top 5....

5. Pilates with John
Yes, I said WITH John. My husband did a Pilates class with me. And it just so happened that we happened to be the only two in the class that morning. It was hilarious and sweet...wish you could have been a fly on the wall for that one, but john did a GREAT job.






4. Pina Coladas...they are the best!

And we even got two free ones because apparently they were confused about the nature of our vacation:


3. Parasailing
This was the "adventure" part of our birthday adventure. It certainly a highlight! Even though at one point I freaked out on John after he told me (WHILE WE WERE 700 FEET UP IN THE AIR) that we would die if we fell.




2.Spa Treatment
Massage and manicure in a dreamy paradise. Yes. please.



1. Poolside Parties

Please note the ridiculous pool cushions. Most of our week was filled with lounging in the beach cabanas or on the poolside cushions reading and playing Scrabble. Best read of the week? Unbroken. I started it the afternoon before we left and finished it on the plane the next day. SO good.


On the way to the airport, John declared that his low light of the week was that they didn't have good ice cream in Turks & Caicos. It was a good thing that the Pina Coladas under the sun were pretty perfect. Another thing that was pretty perfect was the weather. The only dark cloud for me was my passport fiasco. Ughhh here we go... (I am cringing as I type...)

Our route to Providenciales? Houston->Miami->Turks & Caicos.
Once we got to Turks & Caicos, were in the customs line showing our passports when I was asked by the woman why my passport had two holes punched in it. "Ahh I don't know! (enter despair and confusion) I still don't know!!!!" Yes, two holes punched means a cancelled or expired passport, yet I was confident that my passport did not expire until 2014 (which is what it says).

So we were told to go wait in this holding area while they took my passport back into their secret passport laboratory (at least that is what I envisioned...) and John was helping me rack my brain to try and figure out what the deal was. We finally realized that I must have brought my passport with my maiden name on it. Ok...I have a lot of things to say about this...

1) I had NO idea they even give you your old-name passport back to keep so I had just pulled out the 2 passports that were in our file at home and didn't think twice about it.
2) How on EARTH did I get out of the country without anyone in Houston or Miami noticing that a. my name on my passport and on my ticket did not match and b. I had two very lethal holes punched in my passport????
3)Upon realization of my mistake, I was mortified. (aka freaking out that I ruined our trip. aka vacillating between trusting that God was going to provide what we needed and spazzing out. aka unappreciative and overly sensitive about John's "I'm glad it wasn't me" comments)

As we were contemplating what to do and what we needed to tell them, the guy came back out with my passport and a thumbs up, clearing me to enter the country: God's grace to me.

Let's review: I exited our country and entered another country essentially without a valid passport. Frightening, huh? For me, however, it was a relief and a gift.

Next on the list of things to do before I had an anxiety attack: call Mama Trapp and ask her to dig through the depths of our Houston home to locate my correct passport so that I could get back into our country problem-free. Thankfully, the passport that had fallen to the bottom of our filing folders was located and shipped the next morning (Tuesday) due to arrive in Providenciales on Thursday.

Fast forward to Thursday. FedEx online tracking had confirmed that the package had landed in Providenciales and was on the delivery truck to be delivered that afternoon. At 6 pm I checked again and the tracking listed a message that said. "Could not be delivered. Insufficient Address. Estimated Delivery Date October 27th". Wouldn't that be special if my passport and I flip-flopped countries and never saw each other in the process?

Considering FedEx does not deliver on the weekends and I had approximately 23 hours to figure out how to get my passport, I had some calls to make. Four calls and 20 hours later, I still had no passport, although I was assured it was on the truck and going to be delivered.

I decided to make one more call to the local FedEx store. Through some crazy phone static and some thick island accent decoding, I deciphered that they do not deliver passports and I need to go pick it up.

After two taxi rides and with only two hours to spare, I finally was reunited with my long-lost passport. Sigh of relief. I get SO embarrassed when I make mistakes... so the fact that it took all week to rectify it was a major lesson in humility, trusting the Lord and finding the humor in my shortcomings.

Also, I do feel like the stress of that circumstance helped me keep my mind off of the fact that I was apart from my baby all week. We were able to Skype with Owen several times and I actually was pleasantly surprised at my ability to seize the moment and relax to recharge my mommy battery. Mission accomplished!



I was expecting a dramatic reunion with Owen until I realized that he doesn't really have a great concept of time. Needless to say, seeing Owen was the sweetest birthday present. Baby,
Mommy and Daddy were all delighted about our return home.I do miss the nightly chocolate goodnight wishes on our Providenciales pillows, but nothing is sweeter than the nightly goodnight wishes I sing to my baby each night on Glourie Drive.