Jamaica Mon!!!

What better way to celebrate our 10 year anniversary then a whole week away in paradise, right?  We went to the Riu Resort in Montego Bay.  It was great for the two of us to have lots of time together, no kids, no phone calls or emails, no work, no school, basically no responsibilities...just lots of quality time together:)  And very nice hot weather and a beautiful beach:)

Sunset on our first night

I love this banana tree, but wish we could reach the fruit!

Our view in daylight.  

View straight ahead zoomed in to show the sandbar.

Wedding gazebo.

The Riu Montego Bay.  Love the purple!

The resort next to us had their own tiny island with more beaches and a Tai restaurant.  One day  we  went on a paddle boat ride to get a closer look, but we were too tired to make it close!  Riding a paddle boat is hard work!  We tried the kayak a few days later and that was much easier.  We got a real close view.  The water is pretty shallow all around it.  Some people said there was a nudist beach on the island, but we didn't see any signs of that luckily:)

Gazebo where we saw lots of weddings!  I think we saw 4 or 5 on 11-11-11.  

Looking back behind the resort into the mountains.

Our only real cloudy day, but still hot!  The other days we actually wanted a few clouds because it was so  hot:)

There were tons of tiny hermit crabs along the beach.  I found lots of small and medium shells  to bring home and 1 huge shell, but it unfortunately had a resident that I didn't want to disturb!  He got thrown back into the water.

Pool...obviously:)  There were several different pools, swim-up bar, bar seating in the water, and lounge chairs in the water.

We saw a few different groups of musicians during the week at the pool.  It was pretty cool having live music!

I swear all Jamaicans know how to dance!  

This resorts entertainment crew were awesome.  Always getting people to play games like ping pong, water polo, volleyball, silly contests, and of course dancing!

Looking out from the beach side of the bar.  All the non-motorized water sports were included.  We weren't quite brave enough to try sailing a catamaran though.

By mid-day this place was pretty full!  It was definitely a good place to be to stay cool.

We were just a few minutes from the airport and saw lots of airplanes during the week.  Kaleb would've been in heaven! 

My favorite tree!  It's some kind of palm tree, but it spreads out like a fan or deck of cards.

Each night the entertainment crew had a different show.  This was a really good  one here.  They played American music with these drum things, but it sounded more like a xylophone.  And they danced!

It's hard to see, but there's a girl touching her toes on the bottom and a man balancing on top of her with just his one  hand!  

Lobby

Lobby looking towards bar and show area by beach

Here they would have locals set up shop for a couple hours at night.  We found lots of cool things to bring home:)

This is the beginning of our Zip Line excursion.  I would highly recommend this to anyone,!!!  We even had a 78 yr old lady with us and saw some young kids do it!  It was AWESOME!  

They took us high up into the mountains

All ready to go!

This was after the first one...still a little nervous to let go!

Look closely...towards the top you'll see a small square.  That's just  where we came from.  They said it was a repel.  Well, I've never done a repel but was expecting it to be kinda slow.  They had me "sit" off the edge with my knees bent and elbows up then all of a sudden "let me go" and I zoomed straight down super fast!!!  I screamed real loud and I think even shut my eyes.  But...it was amazing and I wanted to do it again!  It was just like a Demon Drop or Power Tower...what a RUSH!!!

This was one of the longest ones.  You can see the start at the bottom right, but then you lose it.  It opened up to a beautiful scene of the jungle below and ocean far beyond.

Same thing zoomed in.

This was a really fast downhill zip line.  I'm glad they caught me each time at the end:)  It's amazing how fast we went.

Showing you how high up we are.  One time we looked up and realized the tops of the trees weren't too far away!

One of the platforms when we were super high.  There's just a tree in the middle of it to hold onto.  By the end you 're not even scared because you know you're hooked in with your safety line.  By the 3rd or 4th zip line you're taking a few steps and jumping right off the platform to zip faster:)

Here's the one I was telling you about where I could see the tops of the trees!

What a fun trip!!!

Our own minibar, restocked every 2 days along with water and soft drinks in the fridge.

The room.

More airplanes for Kaleb.

We met a really cool couple from Pittsburgh...yes, Steelers fans!!!  We really hit it off.  We took a cab down to Margaritaville one afternoon.  Turns out they have a waterslide and trampoline.  We did not do the waterslide after seeing how fast people came shooting out of it!  Our new friends did try it though and loved it:)

Watching crazies do the waterslide.

Doesn't it just look fast?!

Awesome views of planes landing over the water.  Remember mom and sisters how the airport is there?  You start landing over water then when you hit the runway they slam on the brakes?  Same thing.  It's so cool!

American beer!  Yea!

Us with our new friends, Courtnee and Josh.  We sure had fun with them:)

Restaurant across street

This was our bill from another restaurant we went to with Josh and Courtnee.  At first glance you just see that it cost $2,000!  Haha!  Not everything is in American.

Back to our pool

Now this is vacation:)

We have a pic just like this from our honeymoon, TEN years ago in Aruba...I can't believe it's been that long!!!

Me trying to be a photographer:)  Thought dad would like some of these!

Just had to show a wedding...it was so sweet and beautiful!

Another nights show. Popular songs from movies.

We saw quite a few of these tiny little lizards.  We only tried to catch one before we figured out how fast they are!

If you asked, one of the workers would climb a coconut tree and cut it open with his machete .  You could then have your drinks in it for the rest of the day:)  We are not coconut fans so we didn't do it but a great idea!

We saw this guy grab a few small fish.

This ended up being our favorite place to come on the beach  when it was just getting too hot!  We would walk down and see if our buddy was around...a stingray!  We saw him a few times and each time it was amazing:)  Of course every time we saw it we didn't have our camera.  Guess he's camera shy!

This is where we had our couples massage on the beach:)  I've never been so relaxed!

Looking tan now:)

This was our other excursion, Captain Hook.  It was more of a dinner/party cruise with a little bit of a Pirate story/fight.   Good entertainment, very good food, and dancing! 

Our last night.

Here we are at the airport Margaritaville.  We couldn't walk past it without making our own mark!

Here are our last pics from vacation.  Keith snapped a few from his phone on take off.

Well, that's it!  We had a great week away, but were ready to come home.  The kids had a fun week with Lindsey and Sarah at the house and were able to keep a pretty normal schedule.  All the kids were super excited to see us Monday morning but didn't want to go to school of course!  They wanted to hear all about our trip, see pics, etc.  Karson was really clingy a few days but all is back to normal.

It was really special for us to be able to get some time off and remember what made us become a couple in the first place, what we love about each other, how much fun we have together, and how many blessings we truly have:)