Jamaican Vacation Part Two

Whew! I survived working 12-hour nightshifts Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday and am now ready to post the rest of our trip while it is fresh in my mind!

Thursday morning David began his scuba diving instruction. Here he is learning the ropes of all the equipment. After being instructed in the pool, David went on his first open-water dives where he dived to a depth of about 35 feet. He saw lots of fish, coral, and several huge sting rays!

While Dave was diving, I enjoyed doing an aqua aerobics class, swimming, walking on the beach, and lounging at this pool while reading Les Miserables.

We branched out from pina coladas and daiquiris and tried a few different mixed drinks. The "Banana Boat" fast became our new favorite. It seems to be a pretty simple concoction; the sign says it is merely banana, lime juice, milk, and sugar.

We had fun playing pool for a while to pass the time before dinner.

Thursday night we had dinner at the Thai restaurant out on the private island at Sandal Royal Caribbean. Once again it was fantastic food and the setting was spectacular!

We noticed this guy off the deck where we were eating. I had a nightmare that night about him descending from the ceiling over me like a spider! Scary!

Friday morning David headed out early for his last dives to complete his certification. When I got up I headed down for a breakfast of mango, watermelon, pineapple, cantaloupe, and a banana!

I definitely could get used to eating such delicious food with such a beautiful view!

I loved these fresh tropical floral arrangements in the lobby.

David and his scuba instructor after he'd finished his dives. After taking his exam David was officially a certified open-water diver!

David and I had signed up to go on a snorkeling trip together after he finished his dives, but just our luck it started to pour! We had reservations for dinner at Le Jardinier, a pretty outdoor French restaurant. We knew we probably wouldn't get to eat there with the rain, so we snapped this picture of us in the restaurant just to remember what might have been! :)

Sigh...I think it is so pretty. I think we would have really enjoyed the experience and we could have tried escargot! Oh well.

The beach is so pretty in the rain.

It was fun taking a stroll in the rain before getting dinner at The Cricketer's Pint. We had barbecued chicken wings, potato wedges with cheese fondue, yummy coconut chicken curry, and a creamy pasta. It was so good, I forgot about my disappointment of missing out on Le Jardinier. :)

Our last sunset in Jamaica. The Asian style gateway is part of the Tokyo Joe's restaurant where we had had dinner earlier in the week.

On Saturday, our last morning in Jamaica, we got some banana boats and played pool.

We walked around the resort reminiscing about the fantastic week we had and dreaming about returning here someday!

David on the beach in front of some Hobie Cats. Earlier in the week we had lessons on how to sail these and were able to take one out on the water by ourselves! They are really fun!

Our week in Jamaica flew by so fast. We were sad to leave but are grateful we were able to take such a great vacation together!

Jamaican Vacation Part One

David and I have been counseled by many friends and family members to take advantage of our remaining time before our baby comes to enjoy sleeping, relaxing, going on dates, and pampering ourselves. We took this advice to heart and decided to get away on a vacation. We originally were looking into going to a country or two in Europe, but this was back when I wasn't feeling very well at all and I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to handle a lot of walking and touring sites. So, that's when we looked into going to a resort and ended up booking a week at a Sandals all-inclusive resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica! It ended up being the perfect vacation for us because there was no limit of activities available to us (snorkeling, sailing, kayaking, glass-bottom boat rides, scuba diving, tennis, pool, darts, etc.!) but also it was a great place to be to do absolutely nothing!

We arrived in Jamaica Sunday evening May 16th, we were so excited to explore the beautiful resort, eat delicious food, and drink lots of yummy mixed drinks (non-alcoholic of course!). We felt so lucky to book a beautiful ocean-view room with a balcony. We were pretty tired after our day of travel, so after doing some exploring and having dinner we went straight to bed.

Monday morning I woke up feeling really hungry; we ordered a plate of fruit to our room, opened the doors of our balcony, and stayed in bed eating pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew while listening to the ocean lapping the shore just outside. It was pure bliss! We then got ready for a day at the beach and headed out for some adventure.

We went on a snorkeling trip, here's a view from the boat of Sandals Montego Bay's beautiful beach and resort.

We also saw some dolphins swimming in the water on our way to the snorkeling site! It was really hard to snap a picture of them, this was the best we got.

We had a great time snorkeling and saw lots of beautiful fish and different types of coral. Back on shore we relaxed a bit. Here's Dave enjoying a daiquiri and the picturesque view!

The resort grounds were spectacular, there were lots of fun little hideaway spots with hammocks or chair swings to steal a cozy moment with your sweetheart at.

After a day at the beach we got showered and ready for a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant at the resort called Cucina Romana. This was the only time I straightened my hair during the week, the humidity turned it into a frizzy mess pretty quickly so I didn't waste my time doing that again!

Dave and I at dinner. You can't tell in the picture, but we were just over the water. It was a beautiful restaurant and a fantastic dinner!

Tuesday morning we went to the nearby Sandals Royal Caribbean resort to check out the place, it was gorgeous there as well! They had a soft-serve ice cream machine right on the beach which I visited many times during our stay!! :)

We went on a glass-bottom boat tour which was fun; but snorkeling is definitely a far better way to see the underwater life since the noise from the boat engine scared most of the fish away. Here's a picture of the pretty coastline from the boat.

We decided to take advantage of the opportunity and signed David up to get certified in scuba diving. I got certified while I was at BYU and most of my family are certified divers as well, we all love it! David jumped right into his scuba diving book and loved learning about the equipment, skills, and science that goes into diving safely!

Sandals Royal Caribbean has a small off-shore private island that is really neat. The Asian style building is a Thai restaurant. There also were several beaches, a pool, and some exotic birds on the island.

We went back to our room to get ready for dinner and nap a bit but were feeling a bit hungry. We called down for a hamburger, fries, and some daiquiris to be delivered to our room and enjoyed them on our deck. Oh boy we were getting spoiled!

For dinner we went to Tokyo Joe's, a restaurant at Sandals Montego Bay. It was fun, you selected what vegetables, meat, or seafood you wanted prepared with which seasonings and sauces and the food was made right in front of you. Again, it was absolutely delicious!

We listened to this fantastic steel drum band a bit before calling it a night. Another great day in paradise!

On Wednesday we took an excursion to Negril. It was so fun to see the beautiful Jamaican countryside and learn about Jamaican history and culture from our tour guide Dalton.

The tour included a three-hour stop at the Sandals Negril resort, it was just as beautiful as the resorts in Montego Bay. We signed up to go snorkeling at the Negril resort, but it was cancelled when it started to rain and thunder a bit.

No problem, mon! We just stayed on the beach and enjoyed reading and relaxing. Here's my cute maternity swimsuit, it was fun having a pregnant belly to show off at the beach! :)

Next the tour stopped at a fun mall where we did a little souvenir shopping. We got this cute baby top for our little guy. We can't wait to meet our baby and see him in this top in the coming months!

We also stopped at this market where they were selling jewelry, wood carvings, and shells. We didn't buy anything here but thought it was neat.

David was so excited to see this gentleman selling fresh coconut water, we had to get some! The man just lobbed the coconut open with his machete!

Here's David enjoying a sip from his coconut. This was something he grew to love on his mission in the Philippines.

Our final stop in Negril was at this beautiful cliffside resort (which was not a Sandals resort).

The water was just gorgeous and the cliffs were so striking!

There was a spot for cliff jumping, David did the jump twice.

We love Negril!

When we got back to our room in Montego Bay we found this sweet surprise waiting for us! The Sandals staff were fabulous and made us feel so pampered and cared for during our stay!

...to be continued...

Crazy/Wonderful Times

Two Fridays ago (April 30th), I was home alone while Dave was at a Boy Scout leadership training activity.  I had just come in from getting a Blizzard from Dairy Queen and was sitting on the couch with the TV on when SMASH, I heard a loud noise and glass was flying across the room.  I had no idea what had happened, but my first thought was that someone was shooting their gun into our apartment.  I covered my head with my arms and army-crawled into the kitchen with my cell phone where I called the police and left a message for Dave to come home!  The police said that they would come by to take a report.  When I felt sure that it was safe I went into our living room to investigate, someone had thrown a rock through our window! When David got home the police still had not come to take a report, so we called the police again to see if they were coming and were told that they were bombarded that night with calls.  It was the end of the semester at the local state university and I suspect some college-aged kids had perhaps gotten a little drunk and wild and thought that throwing rocks through windows would be something fun to do.  In the end the police never showed up, but fortunately we weren't hurt and none of our own property was damaged.   We're grateful that we were protected!

Here's the view of the window from outside.

A close-up of the shattered glass.

Here's the rock that was thrown in.  I just took this picture with the computer camera, sorry it's grainy! :)

Things have been pretty tame since that crazy night.  Yesterday we went to Boston to attend the temple.  The grounds were so beautiful with the flowers blooming.

We then went to the Boston Public Garden.  I loved these bushes that were groomed into swirly gumdrop shapes!

We took a ride on a Swan Boat, it was so relaxing and fun!

We spotted a turtle, several swans, ducks, and a bunch of sweet little ducklings in the water.  

We also walked around Beacon Hill which we just love.  We found a particularly fancy street with lots of luxury stores like Chanel, Armani, and Hermes.  The shop windows were all beautifully done.  We were intrigued by a children's clothing store called Jacadi Paris, we went in to discover tons of expensive, beautiful baby clothes.  The clothes were mostly a nautical theme, I'm going to be on the look-out for some knitting and sewing patterns to copy their style!  

Yesterday evening David was honored by the local scouting district for completing his Wood Badge program.  This represents a lot of work and David put in a ton of time to complete the requirements.

The taupe-colored kerchief is worn by scout leaders who have earned their Wood Badge.   I don't think the kerchief's color is very nice, but I'm sure proud of David for all of his hard work!

One Day...

David's experience with Teach For America opened our eyes to the struggles of the public education system, especially in less-affluent communities such as New Haven where David taught. The motto of Teach For America is, "One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education." In a country as prosperous as ours, there is no reason for a child to be denied access to a quality education based on their family's income or where they live.
Saturday night we went to the movies and were especially drawn to the following preview for the documentary "Waiting for 'Superman'." We're really excited to see the movie when it opens this Fall.

Halfway and Other Happenings

We've reached the 20-week milestone of our pregnancy!  It's hard to believe we're at the halfway point of this exciting journey.  I've been feeling wonderful and love feeling our baby's movements and little kicks, Dave has yet to feel him move but it will happen soon I'm sure.

So, it seems most of you were pretty unimpressed with my belly in the last pictures I posted, but what do you all think of me now?!  It's a definite bump!

We've had a great couple of weeks that I want to recap:

Mom and Dad Choules came for a visit in March.  I still wasn't feeling my best at the time, but we had fun playing Ticket to Ride, Bandits, and other games as well as just plain enjoying each other's company.   

Dave had his 27th birthday!  As usual, his birthday was just another jam-packed busy day.  We squeezed in a little celebration with a cinnamon roll breakfast before he had to head out for the day.

We had an opportunity to see Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera!  We spent the afternoon in Manhattan before the show, it was a beautiful spring day and we loved dining alfresco for dinner.  The opera was, of course, incredible!  Our amazing friend Tammy was in the opera and invited us to come see her backstage after the performance in her very own dressing room.  Wow!  All I can say is we are such lucky ducks to have had this opportunity!

We've been loving the recent gorgeous weather!  Here are some pictures of our day in Edgerton Park:

I love seeing the community gardens in the park where people from the area can have their own little plot to grow vegetables and flowers.

This porch is so beautiful, we like the lion face on the front of  it.

This was a good spot for a pregnant girl to get a little rest, isn't the park beautiful?

Me and my honey.

We just love living in New England in the Springtime!

It's A...

BOY!!!

Our little boy waving hello!

We are thrilled and love that we can call our baby "he" instead of "it" now!  It was so wonderful to hear that all of his measurements are right on track.  He had his arms up by his face and was lying at an angle that made it difficult to get a nice profile image; despite the ultrasound technician's best efforts to make him move he was too comfortable as he was and did not budge!  This is the ninth grandson out of ten grandchildren on Amy's side, what are the chances of 9 out of 10 being boys?!  So fun!