I'm feelin' irie mon!

Every year Rob's company sends their top producers on a trip. Since being with the company Rob's earned one every year but this year. That's why we went on our cruise last month with the kids. Well two weeks ago (a week before the trip) someone dropped out and the boss offered us their spot!! An all-inclusive trip to Jamaica, I couldn't believe it!!!! I have never won anything in my life, but when Rob called me with the news I wanted to run around my house as if I was on the Price is Right! It was pretty crazy trying to get ready to go in a week, but we did it, and we were off!

We left Wednesday night and arrived in Jamaica early the next morning. Then we had to take a 1 1/2 hour bus ride to our resort. We were so tired that we planned on sleeping when we got to our room, but when we got there and and took a look out of our balcony we got a second wind and couldn't wait to check the place out.

The resort was amazing! It had it's own private white sand beaches, at least 5 pools, and a water slide. You could also go kayaking, snorkeling, sailing, and paddle boating. The food was included so you could eat at the buffet, the grill, or make reservations for one of their specialty restaurants. I think the only downside to Jamaica is that it is so humid there, it makes it impossible to have a good hair day! We decided to try snorkeling in the bay. I was surprised how much we saw so close to the beach. We didn't go very far and we saw a huge lobster, sea urchins, and a ton of fish. We even saw a puffer fish that Rob of course had to poke at to try to get him to puff up!

After snorkeling the sleep deprivation caught up to us and we decided we better take a nap. That alone was a treat; to take naps and sleep in! Rob was feeling pretty "irie" (good) and wanted to feel like a local...

We had dinner at the Ginger Lily, a Chinese restaurant. The food was great!

After dinner they had a "pirates and wenches" show on the beach.

Friday we decided to leave the resort and walk into the city to the market. We had a lot of people warn us that the Jamaicans were pretty aggressive selling stuff as soon as you walk out the gate. Most of the people we talked to didn't get too far before just turning back. We decided to go with a group of people from the company, and it wasn't too bad. The market was pretty crazy. Each vendor had a small space divided by plywood and covered with tarps. We managed to get out with only a couple souvenirs, and decided we needed some ice cream! We found a Baskin Robbins around the corner, and it was a life saver in that heat!

When we got back to the resort we hopped in the pool. Somehow we ended up in the pool with all the kids that were in the resort's kids club. They were a bunch of Jamaican kids that were so cute. We were quickly friends and hung out with them for some time. We went down the water slide with them, and attempted to race them in the pool only to find out that they couldn't swim! How funny is that?! They wanted me to teach them how to float, they just couldn't get it, and kept sinking as soon as I let go of them. I wish I would have had my camera with me, they were so adorable, and it was probably a highlight of the trip to spend time with these local kids.

That night we had dinner with the whole group from the company at La Diva, great Italian food. I had an incredible chocolate mousse for dessert...

After dinner we took a walk and noticed a storm in the distance. We sat and watched it for a while, it was cool to watch the lightning over the water.

We woke the next morning to a very loud crack of thunder. For a few seconds I forgot where I was and thought it was an earthquake coming! Luckily that was the last of the storm and it was a beautiful day. We booked a catamaran to take us to Dunn River Falls.

Half way there they stopped and let us snorkel. The water was so warm and so clear.

When we got to the falls our guides instructed us to hold hands and form a chain. (This place is no joke, and something that you definitely wouldn't see done in the states! ) So you hold hands and climb up 950 ft. to the top! There are 3 groups going at a time so it's pretty crowded.

In a few places on the way up the water forms little pools that you can sit in, but very cold!

This was quite the adventure and I would say it's something you have to do if you go, so cool! We didn't think to bring any food with us, so when we got back we headed strait for the grill, and then hung out until our dinner at the South Beach Grill. We were both excited to see steak on the menu, and it did not disappoint.

The next day was Sunday, and we were lucky enough to spot this as we were taking the bus to the resort...

We weren't sure if it was a church office or an actual meeting place because it was upstairs in a strip mall. We tried calling a few days before but didn't get through to anyone. We tried talking to the locals to see if they knew, and it seemed as though no one had even heard of the church. Someone told us that all the churches start at 10am so we planned on going then. They were right, the whole town was practically shut down. The streets were almost empty, quite the change from our previous experience. I was glad though since we were by ourselves this time. We didn't have to go to far, it was actually in the same building as the Baskin Robbins. I have never been to church in a foreign country, it was very eye opening. We got there a few minutes early and we were the only ones there besides the missionaries. They told us that they always start late, the Jamaicans are a little too laid back :) They told us that the church has only been in Jamaica for about 30 years, so there aren't too many members yet. When things got started there were probably about 20 people there, half of which were children. I stayed in the same room for all 3 hours. There was a man there that had taken in 11 kids to care for with his own 2. Truly amazing people!! Again the kids were so quick to be friends with you, we couldn't get these 2 little boys to go to primary, they just wanted to sit by us and talk. Rob said that it reminded him of his mission in Uruguay. It was something that I'll never forget. After church we spent most of our day reading our books by the pool. It started to rain so we found a nice covered area so we could enjoy it.

Monday we slept in and missed breakfast. We headed down for an early lunch and decided to try out the hobi. They had someone that took us out and he got it up on one side. We were so close to tipping over, I'm not sure how he got it back on the water. It was pretty fun.

We did a little more snorkeling and Rob found a conch shell. I was so excited to bring it home. I wrapped it in my towel while we hung out at the beach. We went to show it to some friends only to find out there was something living in it! There were some creepy skinny black tentacles moving around inside. I was really glad we noticed before I packed it in my suitcase! While I was hunting for some shells I could take home, Rob was hunting for hermit crabs with a little boy that was with our group. I went over to check out their findings, and they found a ton of them! Then I looked at my handful of shells and realized their were legs hanging out of one of the shells! So I did what any tough chick would do and screamed like a little girl and dropped all my shells in the water. Rob got quite a good laugh out of this, but was nice enough to help me find most of the shells I dropped.

That night we hung out in the jacuzzi, and met a really nice British couple. We had a lot of good laughs comparing countries and "accents". It seemed like half of the people there were European, I definitely saw more speedos than I ever care to see. Luckily our friend in the hot tub was not one of them.

We spent Tuesday morning reading by the pool and got ourselves a bit sunburned. I was actually surprised that we hadn't until then. We had another excursion booked that afternoon to go tubing down White River. We were picked up in one of these...

It was a 45 min ride to get to the river. It was nice to see more of the city on the way. This was a fruit stand on the side of the road.


Then we saw this man walking with this bucket on his head.

The kids would all wave as we drove by...

Once we got through the city we drove on a one lane, very bumpy road surrounded by dense vegetation. It was so beautiful. When we got there our river guide got us geared up and ready to go.

The tubing was pretty mellow most of the time, with 3 spots that had some rapids to go through. I almost tipped over on the last one, but somehow recovered. We didn't have a camera while on the river, we didn't want to spend another 25 bucks at the gift shop for a waterproof! So you'll have to use your imagination!

At the end of the ride they had a great place to hang out and take pictures.

Wednesday came too soon, and it was time to go. We were missing our boys though and couldn't wait to see them. They had a great time with their grandparents and uncle Trevor. Here they are giving Grandma last hugs before we took them home. I'm not sure what's up with their silly zoolander faces!

Thanks for taking such good care of our boys!