Jamaican Me Crazy

Oh, Jamaica. How good you were to us!!

Mike and I were so blessed to be able to get away for five days to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. We went to a Sandals all-inclusive resort in Ocho Rios, Jamaica - our first experience with all-inclusive and let me tell you, it's the WAY to go. Free food, drinks, water activities. We didn't get our wallets out once the entire vacation until the last day, when I wanted to get a Christmas ornament from the resort gift shop (it's our tradition to collect an ornament from each vacation we take!)......it just provided a time for us to relax and not think about money or anything else besides US! What a treat! So, without further ado, here is Jamaica '08 :)

One of many beautiful sunsets. I loved being just steps away from the ocean. The sounds, the smell of it, the wind. Love it!

The pier near our building. We had a great view from our room, and a balcony that we opened up at night to hear the ocean.


The A-Team enjoying some "foofy" drinks as Mike calls them. I didn't hear him complaining though :)

On the beach our last night there - oh, the sadness!

Mike loving the sea kayaking!! Notice I stayed onshore for this part :)

This is Mike and Jeff kayaking together. We met this great couple in the Denver airport, also traveling to Jamaica, also staying at our resort! Small world. They were on their honeymoon, and we spent a fair amount of time hanging out with them - and coined ourselves "the honeymoon crashers" :) We had a great time with them, though, really blessed to meet friends on vacation that it might actually be practical to stay in touch with afterwards! Jeff and Kelly live about 30 minutes south of us! We are totally looking forward to getting together with them again.

Mike booked us a surprise candlelight dinner on the pier for one night of our stay. We loved it!! We had our own waiter, personalized menus (we picked out our food the night before), and just quiet time right on the water to enjoy each other and the atmosphere. It was definitely a highlight of the trip for me. Thanks babe!

A better view of our little dinner hut. Look at all the candles around us!!

Mike reading under a straw umbrella one morning. We loved getting up and heading down to the beach while it was still quiet out, and reading and relaxing. We both finished books on our vacation, which is my idea of total down time!

Kelly and me on the sailboat cruise we took one afternoon. We went to Dunn's River falls with a group and climbed it - super fun. No cameras allowed as it's a waterfall to climb, but it was great. Look it up online! Anyway, afterwards we just cruised around (okay, okay - everyone called it a "booze cruise" b/c of the rum punch flowing freely, but it was a great time!) and hung out on deck. Very fun!

Mike sitting on the no-sitting ledge. Rule-breaker!

Jeff, Kelly and Mike. Can I get an amen for Jeff looking like Brian Marshall? :)

The ultimate in relaxation - a floatie in the pool, double fisting it. Actually I was bringing Mike his drink, but you know.

Here, Mike is teaching me how to golf! Um, actually we were on this little chip-n-putt course, not a real one, but I got some good swings in and had fun learning from him.

And now he's in his element! We left the resort for a little golf action one day, Sandals has an off-site 18 hole course that Mike played on. It was beautiful! And I personally loved being on the course with him, my first time watching him really play. And I loved driving the golf cart of course :) And Noa - Mike reenacted for me your slick move on the Princeville course where you locked up the wheels. Awesome.

Nice back swing, babe. (is that the right term?)

It was cool because caddies were mandatory at this course, and Mike had never played with one before and had a great time getting pointers and tips during the game. The guy was super nice and really knew his game.

Team Apostle after golf.

Random shot of one of the pools - please note the swim up bar. Such a fun resort!

Mike caught several pick-up sand volleyball games while we were there. He loves it! I enjoyed laying out more, but it looked like fun from my beach chair :)

One thing Mike and I loved doing together while we were here was sailing around the harbor on a little catamaran (hobie cat) - I'll admit, I was skeptical at first, but Mike did a great job (thanks Kamp for teaching him!) and we had a blast out there. My favorite position while sailing was flat on my back in the sunbeam. "I'm on vacation!" right, Mom? :) Anyway, this is the view of our resort from the water.

Self-portrait while on the hobie cat. Safety first with the lovely, sweaty life jackets!

My love working the sail.

At dinner our first full day there. We were sitting on the porch of this restaurant, literally two stairsteps away from the ocean. It was awesome!!

Another view of the pier, where we had dinner.

Under a palm tree, next to the ocean. This is the life.

So. That's Jamaica, folks. Hopefully you're still following along after a million pictures - but how to choose just a few?!

It was our best trip together, we were just were really blessed by each other the whole vacation. The alone time, away from cell phones and laptops and blogs and television (we didn't turn ours on once!) was so refreshing. We needed it, after a busy summer of travel and deployments. And it was so great for us to have some time to reflect on our first five years of marriage.

And my favorite line from the Jamaican people, "there are no problems (mon), just situations." Love it.