Jamaica!

I cannot tell you how many times I heard Cody say some variation of "Jamaican-me-crazy!" while we were on our trip this month.  It made me smile or laugh every stinkin' time.

We had been wanting to go on a beach vacation for a while and decided that this summer was a perfect time to do so.  We wanted a relaxing trip in which we didn't have to do or worry about anything except enjoying our time.  Cody found a deal on Expedia for an all-inclusive resort in Ocho Rios, Jamaica.  It included our flights and the resort for a week and we were immediately pretty excited.

We stayed at the Jewel Dunn's River Beach Resort and Spa and would highly recommend it if you're looking for an all-inclusive Sandals like resort but for less.  (At least it was less with the Expedia deal, I guess we're assuming it's less just in general.)  The resort itself was really nice, the staff and overall service was wonderful, the food was good, and of course it was gorgeous.  We would love to go back and stay there again except that Cody keeps reminding me that there are so many other places in the world we'd also like to see one day.  Maybe after we see all of those we'll go back : )

Most of our vacation was simply relaxing at the beach.  Cody and I both read two books while lounging around.  Each day we would eat a massive breakfast and then go plant ourselves on some comfy chairs at the beach.  After moving back and forth between the sun and shade a few times and reading a chunk in our books we would go get lunch.  Usually after we were done with the beach each day we would head over to the pool to de-sand.  (We did rinse our feet first; we didn't want to be those people dragging sand into the pristine pool.)  After some pool time we would grab a snack (-this might have been a little too large to just call a "snack") and then go freshen up and rest for a bit in our room.

After some down time we would get ready for dinner.  Some of the resort restaurants had a nicer dress code than others, so we had a few "fancy" nights and some nice but not-so-fancy.  Each night after dinner was a little different.  A few times we were just ready for bed and called it a night, and a couple times we stayed up and explored some of the night-life at the resort. (Cody decided this was the one area semi-lacking where we stayed.)

 

 

Besides all of our relaxation at the resort, we did enjoy a couple activities throughout the week.  One day we went to a place called Blue Hole that was a natural spring area with some small waterfalls and swimming areas.  It was gorgeous and amazing!  We had to pay a driver to take a bus there and then pay for a few guys for a tour but it was definitely worth it.  They took us up the spring a bit to some neat areas and then back down it to where the waterfall was.  They walked each of us (we were with two other couples from our resort) to a mid-low point on the waterfall where we could jump off.  Walking down to the jump-off point was more nerve-racking than the actual jump.  It felt like you were going to slip the whole time and you couldn't really see where to step.  The guides kept saying "Step there! Walk in the foot holes!" -but I tell you, I could not see any foot holes.  After the waterfall activities they took us to a different part farther down the spring a bit where we jumped off a ledge into the swimming area below.  It was a high jump to me but not to Cody lol.  He wanted to do an even higher one that only the tour guides did for everyone to take pictures of.  I'm very glad they wouldn't let him try it.  Cody jumped from the ledge immediately when it was his turn whereas I think they had to count about three times for me to finally feel good about being ready to jump.  This Blue Hole excursion was our favorite part of the whole vacation.

 

Another day we did snorkeling which was fun.  They had everyone get an empty water bottle and fill it up with tiny pieces of bread.  Once you put it underwater and it filled up, you took it to swim around with and could squeeze out some of the bread for the fish to swarm at to eat.  We saw a lot of the reef, of course tons of various fish, two stingrays, and apparently some squid.  I must not know what squid really are though because everyone kept pointing at the squid and I didn't know what to look at.

Lastly something we did a handful of times throughout the week was sail on a small catamaran.  The resort had them available and someone would take you out for a ride out to the reef and up and back down the beach.  The second time we went out Cody mentioned to the guy that he used to know how to sail one from when he was a camp counselor, and the guy gave Cody a quick refresher and then directed him as he took over.  After Cody proved he could handle it, we took the resort sailor back to the beach and we were able to go out just us with Cody sailing.  Unfortunately we were pretty bummed the last days we were there because we wanted to sail a couple more times with Cody taking us out, but they were either yellow or red flag days and they only let a guest take it out on green days.  We did get one more ride in those days but a resort sailor had to take us.  That last ride was pretty fun though.  It was a yellow flag when we went out and we could definitely tell a difference.  Compared to the perfectly calm smooth rides before, this one was much rougher.  The guy made several comments about the wind starting to get angry.  As soon as we pulled back up to the beach, we weren't even off the catamaran yet and he started yelling "Red flag!  It's a red flag now!"  We thought it was kinda amusing and were very glad we got that last sail in.

Overall everything was amazing and we had a fantastic vacation.  We got used to four meals a day (honestly the "snack" was really another meal), sleeping in together, being served drinks and snacks, and being carefree with no schedule to follow.  Coming back home was difficult for Cody!  All I heard that next week was "Nobody served me a drink at work today."  And "I'm hungry; I miss the omelet station from the breakfast buffet."

We had a wonderful time together and are very grateful we were able to finally go on a beach vacation.

 

Wisdom Teeth

At the beginning of this month I had my wisdom teeth taken out.  I had been having a bad pain in my mouth for a while and finally decided to get it looked at.  Turns out I had one of my top wisdom teeth already grown in some and was supposedly at a weird/sideways angle.  So I scheduled an appointment to get that all taken care of.

I'm sure almost everybody else has at some point had this done too.  I was thankful to not have any wisdom teeth on bottom, so I only had to get the top ones out which sounds like it is a little easier to recover from.  If you know me though, I seriously freak out with needles (shots, blood work, etc).  And I don't mean I just get a little nervous or dislike it.  I get extremely anxious about it, always cry, sometimes practically bawl, and occasionally start to see funny colors and feel like I'm about to pass out.  It's very embarrassing now that I'm no longer a kid.  I always go in and as soon as possible try to tell the nurse/whoever that I really have trouble with this, hoping that they will understand and be as quick/gentle/sympathetic as possible.  Sometimes they are and sometimes it's someone who is just like "Um, you're going to need to suck it up." Either way, the person usually makes some comment at the end like, "You really weren't kidding."

All that to say I was extremely nervous about getting my wisdom teeth out.  Obviously I'd rather get the IV and be out of it during the procedure than whatever the alternative would be to refusing the IV, but I was still panicking and felt ridiculous since I'm suppose to be a "grown-up".  Cody was there with me to drive me home.  I was very grateful to him that he decided to work from home that day so he could be there at the appointment with me, drive me home, and take care of me while I recovered that first day.

As soon as the lady came to get me from the waiting room, I asked if there would be any way I could have my husband come in with me while they got the IV started.  She seemed surprised by the request and said she'd find out for me.  I got in the room and was okay while I waited for a few minutes, looked out the window, and got all situated in the chair with a blanket.  But as soon as I saw someone come in and get ready to start the IV, I sat up and started asking questions while looking around anxiously for Cody.  Fortunately the lady was very sweet and asked if I did need to go get him.  It seemed like they were all ready to start and since I already felt like I was humiliating myself I decided to try to let them do the IV without him coming in.  I figured they would go get him if I really started to have trouble.  They had me hold out my arm and that prompted the crying.  It was in pretty quickly and then I started asking how long it takes to kick in and how aware/unaware I would be during the procedure.  After that all I remember is the lady starting to say something about how it should start working any second now... and then I woke back up seemingly instantly, thinking that they hadn't even started yet.

Overall I felt like it went great (minus the IV) and I had a pretty good recovery after the first day.  The rest of that first day was awful.  I don't know if it was just because of the pain medicine, or trying to eat too quickly, or what -but that was a bad day.  After getting home I ate a few bites of some mashed potatoes and promptly threw them up, and proceeded to throw up all day long.  I have not thrown up that much since I was a little kid.  I don't even remember if I ate anything else or not, but somehow there was still enough in me to keep vomiting.  In my head I assumed it was because of the pain meds and I did NOT want a repeat of that day, so even though I was still in pain, I stopped taking the real pain medicine and only took over the counter stuff starting the next morning.  Whether it was the medicine or not, I was able to eat and not throw up again thankfully.  I didn't do anything on day 2 except sleep, eat, and rest.  Day 3 I started to feel somewhat better and be up a bit and after that I started to feel better more quickly.  And now that everything is better and healed, the pain I'd been ignoring for quite a while is finally gone!

Cody videotaped me a bit on the drive home from the oral surgeon office.  Well, mostly it's video of us sitting in a parking lot waiting for Luby's to open up so he could get me some food to eat when we got home.  He took three fairly short videos all within about a 15 minute period while were were waiting.  I rewatched all three videos this afternoon and was crying I was laughing so hard.  Cody had originally shown me the videos the day of the surgery and then tried again the day after.  At those points I did not find them very funny, but I sure do now!

I think I plan on using the videos as entertaining and quick pick-me-ups for family and friends for a while!

Wedding Fun

Beautiful outside set up

Earlier this month we enjoyed a beautiful wedding for a couple in our small group from church.  Their wedding and reception was at a small place in the middle of nowhere in Dripping Springs.  It was absolutely gorgeous and we had a blast at their wedding!  It was really neat to be able to have almost all of our small group be there together.  We enjoyed quality time with friends, lots of picture taking, great food, and dancing. Congrats to Angelica and Keith!!!  Thank you for letting us all get to celebrate with you on such a special day.

Very unique and artsy site

The weekend started off with some of us carpooling to Dripping Springs.  Four of the couples in our small group ended up renting two cabins at this little place close to the wedding site to stay Friday night after the wedding.  We arrived, got ready for the wedding, and pushed around some twin beds to make king sized beds (-king sized beds with gaping holes in the middle and apparently ants in the cabin Cody and I weren't in!) for each couple.

We arrived at the wedding just in time and met up with the rest of our group.  It was outside and the set up was seriously amazing and gorgeous.  Simple enough yet beautiful.

After the ceremony we walked to a different outside area for drinks and appetizers while the bride and groom did pictures and all that jazz.  We enjoyed hanging out and took the time to take some pictures ourselves

Hanging out during the in-between time.

 

 

Most of our small group from church.  One other couple was gone on vacation and therefore wasn't at the wedding, and of course the bride and groom were a little busy with their own pictures.

After a bit we were able to go inside for the reception.  The dinner they served was really awesome and the whole reception was wonderful.  The inside was decorated beautifully and all the toasts/speeches were sweet and funny, dancing was fun, and food was delicious.  We really enjoyed ourselves and had a lot of fun.

  

 

While waiting for the dinner line to die down, we wandered outside 
and took some pictures by this really neat old rustic car.

The boys removing a spider.  I was not going near the car otherwise.

Boys group pic

I really like this one that's more natural with them all just laughing.

Boys pic again

Girls turn to take a group car picture.

Walking back inside to the reception.

There was lots of fun dancing!

We had some fun girls dance time.

Getting ready for the send-off.

And they're off!

After the wedding was over some of our group left to head back home and those of us staying in the cabins carpooled back.  We changed and then hung out for a bit to end the night.  At one point Cody and I went out for a walk while I think the others played a card game.  I wouldn't have expected to enjoy a walk in an unfamiliar dark place, but it was actually quite fun.

On Saturday two of the couples had to leave for other things going on that day, but one other couple had plans with us to go up to Lake Travis and enjoy the afternoon.  Our plans ended up changing and while the afternoon didn't turn out as expected, we still had fun and enjoyed the time with friends.

 

The boys going out to toss a football.

Not quite Lake Travis, but we did enjoy the time with friends!

Overall we had a fantastic weekend and loved every minute of it!  

Congrats again to the sweet bride and groom!