At the Nursery

Beaches has a great nursery for the little guys and a Kids Club for the older kids filled with crafts and activities.  As we were there in the off season, the ratio of nannies to babies was ridiculous...one baby to 3 nannies!  Wherever we went around the resort, people knew Colin's name because the nannies would take him on walks...he was quite the celebrity!

Colin playing with PollyAnna

I picked Colin up and then handed him back to take this picture...he wants his daddy and nobody else will do!  Not even all of his new friends!

Notice that Colin's name was the only one on the sign in/out log?  He had a pretty sweet gig!

Cliff Jumping at Rick's Cafe

Right before our trip, we saw a special on the Travel Channel about the top 10 Caribbean hot spots and one of them happened to be in Negril, Jamaica!  Rick's Cafe is a bar/restaurant sitting on top of a jagged cliff with the most amazing blue water beneath.  

You just can't help but want to jump!

Well, locals do fancy/crazy/stupid cliff dives for tips (they are quite annoyingly relentless in the collection).   These Jamaicans are crazy, I tell you!  Anyway, everyone is welcome to jump so while Kevin was jumping, I took the pictures!

This is pre-jump...he's only a little bit nervous!

Kevin jumped first from a 10 ft drop and explored the cave with his "personal lifeguard" (anyway for these guys to get a tip!)

Jumping at 25 ft

And at 35 ft

Notice the ledge 80 ft in the air?  The "Bird Man" waits until he collects $20 in tips and then he flies!

  

Like I said - CRAZY!

 

The view was just amazing and we enjoyed watching the sun go down.

 

I couldn't resist!

This is the view from the 35ft jump spot...gorgeous and scary!

All Rugged

There are few things more fun (or FUNNER!!) than riding ATVs.  If I had all the money in the world, I would definitely buy them (and jet skis, and a boat, and a lot of other things too!)

Anyway...

When Kevin and I were in Aruba two years ago, we went on an ATV tour and loved it and decided that the amazingly tropical Jamaica would be a fun place to ride.  

Jamaica did not disappoint!

Part way through the ride it started to pour...as it does this everyday, the roads are a little muddy which only made the ride all that more AWESOME!

This is at the top of the mountain we rode up...notice the grass and mud on my face, shirt, etc

Yeah, to say we got messy is an understatement!

Okay, Kevin had to take a picture of this:

 Notice the girl?  Oh, I guess I should explain.  That person in the red basketball shorts is a GIRL!  As we were on the bus picking up people from their respective resorts, we stopped at this really posh resort and I expected some clean, happy, wealthy looking people to get on.  Instead, four loud scary looking thug lesbian tatted and pierced girls got on that freaked everyone on the bus out.  The above was the meanest.  And she almost rode herself off a cliff.  No joke.

Overlooking the jungle  

We are covered in mud!

As we were driving back, I kept noticing signs warning people of stealing electricity.  I just wanted to get a picture of one of the power lines with tons of cords coming out.

We Be Jammin'

To celebrate the end of Kevin's billable year, we spent 9 days in Jamaica soaking up the sun, laying on the beach, and discovering the reefs.  It was a great trip!  

We spent 7 days at the Beaches Negril resort in the town of Negril on the west coast of Jamaica.  Boasting a seven mile white sand beach, Negril offers year round sun and constant offers to sell you weed, I mean, to take you to the "farmer."  

Beaches is the family all inclusive resort of the Sandals Resort company and we went there for two reasons: scuba diving included...and nanny services too!  Like I said, it was a great trip :) 

 The resort has an affiliation with Sesame Street so there were Breakfasts with Elmo, Sesame Street Parades, etc.  Kevin with his buddy Oscar the Grouch

 

Our room was the second from the right on the second story

Kevin getting off the boat after one of his dives

 

The view from our room

Our room (right after clearing away all of our junk before checking out)

Next to the kiddie pool and the fun water slides

The splash pad 

The lazy river (which Colin LOVED!)

 A giraffe?  Not sure why it was there, but it was photo-worthy!

With Bob Marley...if I never hear another Bob Marley song for the rest of my life, I will die a happy girl!  

Especially on the never-want-to-hear list: Buffalo Soldier and One Love

The adult pool

Beautiful beach

29 + 1

That's right, people.  We are breaking in to our THIRTIES!  (well, at least Kevin is!)

Kevin turned 30 a few weeks ago and I wanted to make sure he had a very special birthday.  

First, I let him sleep in.

Second, I sent him out of the house to pick up donuts.  Now, normally I would be the one the make breakfast or pick something up, but I really wanted Kevin out of the house so I sent him instead.  And what did I do while he was gone?  

Only finalize the greatest in-house scavenger hunt known to man!  Kevin already knew that he was getting cash from me and our collective parents to buy tools, but I didn't want him to get off that easily.  So, I took 30 envelopes filled with a clue and different denominations of cash and then gave him the first clue.

Here are just a few of the clues: 

 -  “Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. Blood, whips and guns--or dollars. Take your choice--there is no other.”

 - I am not really sure if I am an animal or a dessert

 - Six times a week paper and junk gets shoved in my mouth

  How did you do?  Did you guess any of them?  Well, the first is a quote from the book Atlas Shrugged and the clue was just tucked in the book.  The second refers to Kevin's childhood Teddy bear, Brownie, who sits on a shelf in Colin's room, and the third is, of course, the mailbox.

We relaxed for the rest of the day and then I took Kevin on our mystery date:

WHIRLYBALL!  

I had a bunch of our friends meet up with us for a Whirlyball party complete with pizza and cake!

If you've never played or heard of Whirlyball, consider yourself deprived because it is one of the funnest games on Earth!

Basically, it a cross between basketball, bumper cars, and lacrosse and it is hilarious!

These are pictures from the website to give you an idea of how it is done:

You have two teams trying to throw the ball at their basketball backboard to score points, all while trying to figure out how to throw and pass with a lacrosse scoop, and not get hit by your opponents (and teammates)!  

So much fun! 

And here's the cake from Nothing Bundt Bakery...delish!

 Happy Birthday, Kevin!  I hope you had fun :)

Surprise! Happy Bday Artis!

What do you do when you unexpectantly have some time off?  You buy last minute flights and surprise your family...or just your mom :)

We flew to California for a few days, went to Disneyland and the beach, played golf with my dad and hung out with my family, and then drove up to Cedar City.  We wanted to surprise Artis for her bday, so we put Colin in a wrapped birthday box and set him on her office desk at work and then hid around the corner.  When she heard she had a "special birthday delivery," she came back to her office, saw Colin and screamed, thereby scaring Colin and making him burst into tears.  It was totally worth it!  

Happy Birthday, Artis!  Thanks for letting us surprise you :)

Colin and his Grandma (do you see the huge smile on his face?  He LOVES his grandparents...all of them!)   

While in Cedar, we went to Park Discovery (why didn't they just name it Discovery Park? Drives me nuts!), golfing, played games, stayed up super late every night, and even played tennis doubles with Brian and Leslie. 

But the best part?  We went to the Cedar High vs Canyon View high school football game.  Oh yeah! Go Redmen!!  

[No, you read that right.  Their mascot is the politically incorrect REDMEN...still left unchallenged by the PC Police!!] 

Kevin asked me if I wanted to wear his letterman's jacket to the game.  

I told him no.

Because I couldn't imagine anything more embarrassing than wearing my 30 year old husband's high school letterman's jacket, which is way too big, to a high school's football game that I neither attended, nor care about (beyond the fact that Kevin went there, I guess)...so I wore a light sweater and froze to death instead.

And do I think I made the right decision?

Do you notice how Kevin's not wearing his jacket either?

Yeah, neither of us wanted to be "that guy."

You know the one.  The person who is still living the glory days of high school.  Because that's what wearing your letterman's jacket (or your husband's, for that matter) after high school means.

But it was still a fun game.  All 15 minutes that we watched of it!    

Disneyland...sans the baby!

Kevin and I were in California for a few days last week and decided to take advantage of Nana's free babysitting service and go to Disneyland without Colin.  We had so much fun!  I love Disneyland.  With it practically in my backyard growing up, I just can't help getting nostalgic every time we go.  Plus, we went there over our honeymoon so it holds extra significance :)

The day started out a little rough, though.

We waited in line for Space Mountain for 45 minutes and then it broke down...so we jumped out of line.

We headed over to Indiana Jones with our fastpasses and then it too broke down and we were told to leave the line.

We then waited in line for Haunted Mansion...and then it broke down.  We decided that we were going down with the ship, though, and it finally started back up a while later.  It took about 3 hours to finally get on a ride!

We love the Jungle Cruise (mostly for the thinly veiled sarcasm of the tour guides!)

I love Storybook Land...the miniatures are amazing!

The iconic Matterhorn

So we were waiting in line for the Finding Nemo ride and Kevin was like "Hey, do you know who that is?" (in an excited whisper) and I of course didn't know to whom or what he was referring.  Well, turns out that one of the guys from Jack@**, David English, was in line with his family near us and so we had to take a picture (that's the back of his head).  I haven't seen the show/movies and I guess I should be ashamed to admit my husband has, but what do you do?  We did not say "hi" to him, if you were wondering.

  

Later in the day, Stacie and Mitch met up with us and we went on the Haunted Mansion again

Don't worry, Kevin was trying to look creepy here!

We had an awesome day!  Thank you Nana for watching Colin!

PS - We had the most amazing lunch at the Cafe Orleans!  We had wanted to eat at the Blue Bayou, but it was closed (along with Pirates of the Caribbean) for renovations, so this was the next best thing.  It was AWESOME!  We had the Monte Cristo sandwich for lunch and then came back later and had beignets for an evening snack.  Both were great and I would highly recommend them :)