Fall Break Getaway: Fun on 30A

In early October, we packed up and headed south!  We hadn't told the kids we were going, so it was fun to pick them up from school early and tell them where we were headed that very day! 

Since we didn't leave until mid-afternoon, it also meant a late arrival to the house we rented!  Once we got everything unpacked and the kids down, I finally sat down and enjoyed some quiet before heading to bed!

Everyone woke up eager and ready to go the first day down there!  The house we rented was amazing - it was the first time we didn't stay right on the beach, but it was so nice!

We enjoyed the wraparound porch at the house!  It was perfect!

After getting bathing suits and sunscreen on, we headed to the beach!  It was gorgeous!  30-A is most definitely my favorite place...I can just feel the stress roll right off when I get a glimpse of the beaches!

This may be one of my favorite pictures from the trip...Katie loved wave jumping!  The spot where we set up each day had a big sand bar so we could walk our pretty far and it was only a few inches deep!

And a picture of us together!  Love this one!

And some other kids came to dig and play - of course my fourth child (Brad) was in the middle of it all playing too.  Love that!

And a family picture!  Love this!  Goodness...amazingly beautiful water!

The crazies had a big time digging holes and wave jumping!

Where do you think they learned how to wave jump? :)

After some quiet time (and nap for Rhino), we surprised the kids and showed them that the house came with a GOLF CART!  They couldn't wait to hop on and take a ride!

I'd say they liked it!  Here we are close to two months since the trip and Ryan still talks about the golf cart almost daily!  That night we went to Bruno's Pizza (one of our favorites) for dinner!

We were able to catch the end of the sunset too!

After everyone got cleaned up, we found some puzzles at the house.  Katie and Brad really got into the puzzles!  We ended up doing two different puzzles on the trip - and actually Jack got into it too!

The following morning, these three finished the first puzzle after breakfast!

Then it was time to hit the beach again!

I got my picture of the three kiddos facing the ocean! 

It was at this point in the trip that it got intense.  After taking the picture of the three gazing out at the ocean, we couldn't find Jack.  It was the scariest bit of time (felt like an eternity, but in reality it was at most a minute or two).  I went one way yelling his name and Brad went the other way (I was carrying Ryan and Katie stayed at our towel set up area).  Finally we saw him walking toward us from down the beach.  Good grief.  I was so relieved to see him and waited until bedtime to ask him what he was doing.  He definitely is our wild man, but he stays close at the beach.  He said he looked up and saw a man in a orange shirt (like Brad) and a bunch of toys that were red, yellow, blue, and green (just like ours), so he went down that way thinking it was our stuff.  He also said a mom asked him where his parents are (thanks to that lady!), so I think that made him realize he wasn't finding us and encouraged him to turn around.  Thankful was quickly alright!  He was back to wave jumping in no time!

Ryan was happy for a little while.  After that he was just crying and miserable.  Brad ended up taking him back to the house to give him Tylenol (he had a canine tooth come in) and he fell asleep in his arms.  So Brad watched the Auburn game and was keeping me in the loop on football scores while I was at the beach with the big two.

It is unusual to see a lot of seaweed, but there was a fair amount this day.  It certainly didn't stop the kiddos from playing though!

Me and the big two crazies! I love this picture!

Brad and Ryan came to get us and we hung out at the house for a while - hello, Tennessee football - before heading out to find somewhere for some dinner.  We ended up at Whiskey Bravo on the rooftop to eat and kept watching the UT game.  I am not sure we will go back there for a while - it seems like it would be more enjoyable without kids!  Or at least with older kids.  But the rooftop was great!

And we caught another sunset!  We actually made it down to the beach to see this one!

Here is the kiddo crew heading down to splash for a minute!

And we got a family picture in front of the ocean too!

And a girl picture!

And it was time for another puzzle to begin!

And then it was time to head to the beach on the last day.  I think we developed a pretty basic routine down there!  Breakfast, puzzle, beach, lunch, quiet time, play, dinner, sunset, puzzle, shower, bed. Ha!

And as long as Ryan had snacks he was good.  He was happy some of the time and then started hurting again!

Brad checked on him and thought it was sun in his eyes or that he was hot or something...

And then he fell asleep in Brad's lap again.  Dumb teething.  Sweet Daddy though!

And day three of wave jumping!  Love that they were wanting to do it together!

When Ryan woke up, we were digging a big ditch and made a waterfall.  Ryan loved it when Katie and Jack poured water in there and splashed us.

I just need to document this.  Sweet brothers.  Cute buns.  And good GRIEF Jack was tan!  We called him our little Oreo!

That afternoon I went to visit sweet friends from college!  They were down for the weekend and I'm so glad I got to visit with them (even though it wasn't nearly long enough)!

I raced back so we could head to dinner...we went to my favorite spot, The Great Southern!  We got there and had a wait, but the kids had so much fun playing in the amphitheater!

Katie took a pretty good picture of me and Brad!

And once again...my four kids running around :)

Then we walked around and had to stop for a picture of the kids with the big duck in Seaside!

Goodness.  It doesn't get much better than this.  Grits A Yaya and Coconut Mojito.  This meal is one of my favorites EVER!

Monday morning we got up, packed up, and took the golf cart for one more ride to see the ocean before we loaded up to head home!

Had to get one more beautiful ocean picture :)

And I love this cute pic of the kids sitting on the front porch of the house we rented!

And the house!  We would definitely stay there again.  It was three bedroom with one of them having a bunk bed...the big kids loved having that!

Yay for slowly catching up!  That trip was great...I could've stayed for a couple extra days, but alas...we do not get a full week for fall break around here.  I will take any bit of beach time I can get though!

Jamaica, Mon: Celebrating Ten Years

I'm finally posting about our amazing trip to Jamaica.  We left on a Tuesday (less than a month ago! I'm pretty proud of posting within a month - ha!) and came back on Sunday.  What an absolutely fantastic time we had.  We did go to NYC for a long weekend when Jack was 6 months old, but this was the first time we left for a decent amount of time with no kids.  And can I just say...I'm already researching part-time, work from home gigs that are flexible and pay decently so I can help ensure we can do this every summer (or every year - I'm not picky about timing - ha!).

Our flight left SUPER EARLY on that Tuesday, so our alarm was set for 2:45 with a goal of leaving the house by 3:15.  And we left at that time on the dot!  We got there early because we didn't want to get stuck in a TSA line, but thankfully it was a breeze and we had time to spare!  Here we are after boarding!

Since we left so early, and we connected in Orlando, we got to Montego Bay around lunch time. Once we got through customs, we found the lounge for our resort.

Red Stripe on tap? Don't mind if I do.  I had never had Red Stripe before...I liked it!

We took the shuttle to our resort (we were offered a 15 minute plane ride and the landing strip was across the street from the resort, but no thank you very much.  Small planes and I don't go together very well...) and got to our room.  First thing we did was walk around and find some food!  We were starving!  Then we went back to the room and took naps - because we could! And since we were up super early.  Once we got up, we got ready and went to find some more food.  Since it was an all inclusive, we could eat whenever we wanted to!  We didn't go overboard TOO much, but it was certainly nice!  Actually, we went and got a drink and decided to eat at the restaurant just next to that particular bar.  They had quite the extensive drink list, but the first I tried was called Purple Rain.  Yum!

And here we were after dinner!  We walked around a little but to try to figure out where some things were and then watched some of the entertainment that night and ended the night at the Piano Bar (which became our evening ritual).  We learned some Jamaican dance moves and had a blast!

I didn't get a picture of our room before we made ourselves at home, but here it is the first morning we were there!  We were really only in the room to shower and get ready and to sleep - we stayed out and about all day and then in the evenings!

And the water was so smooth and gorgeous!  I needed a picture with the beautiful scenery as we were walking to breakfast.  You can imagine how thrilled Brad was to stop and take my picture.  At least I didn't ask him to be in it :)

And this was the watersport area - kayaks (so fun!), stand up paddle boards (even more fun!), hobycats, and other things!

After breakfast, we went up to the concierge area and scheduled the things we wanted to do!  Then we found a spot poolside.

I found another drink that was delicious -- Electric Lemonade.  It had vodka, sprite, and blue curacao in it...so good!  Sunshine, poolside, and yumminess...yes please!

That afternoon we had a couple's massage in a treehouse on the beach!  It was great!  Then we went to get ready for dinner.  Here is the picture we got that evening!  After dinner, we saw that night's show and headed to the Piano Bar!  And by the way, I did have shorts on with that dress :)

Just look at this!  I was just blown away by the beauty every morning!  Walking to eat breakfast with this view could never get old!

The Thursday of the trip was our "Boat Day"!  That morning we went out on a glass bottom boat - it was neat to see all the coral and different fish in the water!  This is what the boat looked like...

And this was what we were looking through to see the ocean floor!

And we took a selfie!  It was a gorgeous morning to be out on the water.

Once we were back, we headed to find lunch (more food! ha!)...but first I had to get in this swing on the beach.  Aren't they cool?!  They were hanging from some palm trees and had great views of the ocean!

That afternoon, we headed out on a Catamaran Cruise around to the west side of the island.  We stopped by Rick's Café and saw some folks cliff diving (no thank you!) and then headed to a spot and could go swimming in the ocean and check out caves.  Well after about 10 minutes in the water, a storm came!  So we all scurried back onto the boat and all crammed under the cover.  After a few minutes, the storm passed and we all went back to the areas up front to sit.  And there was a rainbow!

Here we were on the catamaran cruise!

Here is the boat we went out on with the gorgeous sunset...the sunsets after a storm were the best!  And I may have to frame this picture :)

Then we headed to take showers and get ready and....eat! Ha! Here we were that night :)  Then the entertainment and then a dance party (like every night) in the piano bar!

The next day was great!  We actually played some beach volleyball and did stand up paddleboards!  Yay for exercise!  We didn't just lay there the whole time!  This may be my favorite picture of us from the trip.  We just look so relaxed and that beach and ocean behind us.  Ahhhh....serenity.

Brad was a good sport and we had pictures taken! Imagine that...me!  Wanting pictures taken! :)  They had photographers snapping pictures by the watersport area and piano bar and volleyball and pool bar trivia and basically everywhere, but I wanted a couple of us in nice clothes too!  Here are a couple of the ones that they took

I'm not a fan of my arm in this one, but I like the sun and clouds behind us :)

After we got done with pictures, a couple asked me to take a picture of them, and then they took one of us with my camera.  Pretty cute!

And then I took this picture of the sunset.  Again...it had rained, so there was a pretty sunset!

Another night, another dinner, evening show, and adventure in the piano bar.  That night, it was karaoke - but we just watched and sang along from our seat :)  Nobody needed to hear any of that!

Our final day.  So, so sad.  We had a great day, but in the back of our minds we knew we would be homeward bound the next day.  We kayaked, played volleyball, hung out poolside, played pool volleyball, did pool bar trivia, and then headed inside to get cleaned up!  Here I am -- not sure where Brad was then.  Likely avoiding being in a picture.

And this was before we headed out in the kayak!  It was hard work, but it was so pretty!  We went all the way out to a cave at the edge of the bay and then came back.

And I played in the first volleyball game, but then decided to just sit and relax - and I took a picture of Brad serving :)

That evening, we had a private, beachside dinner!  We had picked our food and had a personal server that served us at our own table.  It was so great!  This was the view...a table set just feet away from water lapping up on shore and surrounded by 4 tiki torches.

We got a picture together...another of my favorites!

After we finished, we headed to the entertainment and ended our final night in the piano bar.  They were playing some pretty awesome music and we kept saying, "After this song we will head back since we have to pack!"  Well, we ended up staying late and then headed back and quickly packed our stuff and went to bed since we had to set an alarm and be up and ready by 7am the following morning!  After getting up and ready and final touches on our luggage, we went to have some breakfast.  I tried coconut water (that is what it is called, right?) and was not impressed.  I did enjoy my standard breakfast of scrambled eggs, crispy bacon (was so good!), and French toast with banana syrup!  So good.  Oh, and Jamaican coffee.

Then we waited on our ride to the airport.  Our buddy we made came to see us off!  Well, he didn't come just for that, but he made sure to say bye to us as he was arriving to work!  Deen was great!  He was one of the entertainment crew and we hung out with him some!  We played volleyball with him (when he was at work) and he went stand up paddleboarding with us (for his first time)!  He had some good stories and was full of information about the resort...pretty cool!

Then we were headed home!  Disappointed to be leaving Jamaica, but excited to see our crazy crew!

And this was our welcoming committee!  They had a blast and I don't think they asked for us once!  We are so thankful for family that stayed with them and made sure they had fun and survived without us!  I know it was good for us to get away, and I have to think it was good for the kids to have time with grandparents and enjoy time with other people!

Couples Negril was absolutely fantastic.  It was the perfect combination of relaxation and activity.  There were plenty of things to do if you wanted to...or you could just float around in the pool or ocean!  We had fun with the volleyball and trivia and watersports for sure!  When Brad and I were talking about our trip and if we would do anything differently next time, we both agreed that we would stay a full week :) There were a couple of excursions we may be interested in doing, and it was just a perfect trip...we could have used another day or two of our "normal schedule"...wake up, get bathing suits on, eat breakfast, lounge by the pool, beach volleyball at 11, lunch, lounge/poolside bar, pool volleyball at 2, swim up bar trivia at 3, beach volleyball at 4, shower, dinner, entertainment, piano bar.  Not too shabby. :)  We had a great time just the two of us, but it would also be a fun trip to go on with some friends too!  A childfree, all-inclusive resort was definitely the way to go!  Until next time, Couples Negril.  Hopefully we will see you again soon!