6.22.2010

Ya Mon!

Back in January Jake and I went to a travel show one Saturday afternoon. We had a 2 for 1 pass and at the last minute decided it might be fun to go and daydream for a little while about all of the fun places there are to visit in the world. Little did we know that the $5 we spent on getting into the show would end up buying us an all expense payed trip to Jamaica. I won the grand prize drawing that day. They paid for our airfare, hotel, food, and some of the water sports. It was a much needed vacation and not having to pay for anything besides our excursions made it that much more relaxing.
So here his the low down on our trip. (Caution- there are a lot of pictures!)


This is a view of the pools and beach from the balcony of our room.
Another view from our balcony of the beautiful sunset.

We took this picture on our first night while we were relaxing on the beach. Our flight left at 1:00am on Monday morning and we didn't get into our hotel room until 3:30 that afternoon. We spent most of that first day catching up on our sleep and relaxing on the beach.

I was never hungry the entire time we were there. They took such great care of us. We could eat whatever we wanted whenever we wanted.

The meals were just the right size and so pretty that I almost felt bad messing up the chef's art work to eat it.
We could order drinks any time of day. They even had a couple of swim-up bars.
The resort had entertainment every night. Most of it was pretty good. This guy was balancing a chair on his forehead with his daughter sitting on it. Crazy!
My first taste of sushi.
It rained every day we were there, so we did a lot of relaxing in the lobby.
Enjoying a drink on our way into Ocho Rios to do some shopping.
A woman in Ocho Rios braided my hair. I only left the braids in for a day because they hurt so bad.

We spent a day at a waterfall called Dunn's River Falls. We were able to hike up the 600 foot falls. It was so much fun and so beautiful. This was my favorite day. (Jake is the guy in the black shorts in the pictures.)


Jake is standing behind me in this picture. Our guide tricked me and positioned Jake so that the water went right over his head and right onto me.



 
More relaxing and eating.

Windsurfing!
 
Reading our books on the beach.

We spent another day at a place called Dolphin Cove. We were able to see and hold a lot of different animals.



We were able to swim with the dolphins. Now I can check it off of my list of 100 things to do before I die. It was such a neat experience. We loved it!
Jake got to drive a little speed boat out on the ocean for a while. The place where the waterfall is in the background used to be McJagger's.


 
Showering in a natural spring.

The best part of our trip was being able to spend some quality time with my amazing husband.

We missed this little girl a ton and are so grateful for such wonderful family who took such great care of her while we were gone. According to them she did amazingly well.  

6.14.2010

Hannah's First Camping Trip

At the end of April we decided to go on a mountain biking/camping trip with the members of my family who still live in Utah. Originally the plan was to go to Moab, but thanks to unpredictable weather Moab ended up being way too cold for camping that weekend. So we decided at the last minute to head down to St. George where the weather was supposed to be more reasonable. The last minute change in plans made the beginning of our trip a little rough. Jake and I found a campground that still had spots available, but we got there just after they had locked the gates for the night. After driving around St. George for an hour trying to find a hotel room (the Iron Man race was that same weekend and all the rooms were full) we finally found a place to stay. We were able to get into the campground the next morning, and the rest of the trip was a lot of fun.

We spent a day mountain bikinig. Two of my sisters are pregnant, so they and my mom stayed back and watched the kids. I ended up being the only girl. Luckily the trail we chose had different skill level options, so  the boys were able to do their crazy tricks, and I happily stayed on the easy trail.

Here are all the boys. I was really impressed with how fearless my dad was and how well he kept up with the others.

Here we all are after our ride.

This was Hannah's first camping trip. She loved being outside and exploring everything.
We spent part of another day hiking to some lava caves. Hannah loved being in her carrier.  
Here is the whole group minus my mom who was taking the picture.


This is a picture of my sister Heather inside the cave with the opening behind her.

I think we sufficiently wore Hannah out. I felt bad she looked so uncomfortable. Her cousin Weston decided to copy her and pretend to be asleep. It was pretty funny.

The boys were desperate to watch the Jazz playoff game one night, so we all jammed into a hotel room for the evening and crowded around the TV. We went swimming and stayed long enough to watch the game and then headed back to camp that night to sleep. 


Here is Hannah in her "bed" in the tent. She had a rough time falling asleep the first night, but did really well taking her naps and sleeping through the night during the rest of the trip.