Andy and I just got back from a four-day, three-night trip to the all-inclusive Sandals Royal Caribbean resort in Jamaica. It was the first time we've both left Levi overnight (with my parents), and we all were reunited in one piece. Here's my running list of all the wonderful things we encountered:
1. The flight. A 3.5 hour flight without a toddler! What a luxury. For the first time ever, I was able to watch a movie on my own device (Kindle Fire) during the flight. Before Levi, I didn't have an iPad or Kindle Fire. I was able to stretch out the 2-hour "Water for Elephants" that I rented for $4 throughout the whole flight. I also ordered hot tea as my drink, the most un-toddler-friendly thing I could think of.
2. The weather. About 82 during the day, 72 at night. It was never too hot, never too cold. The breeze was friendly and constant. I just loved being outside so much, even if it did result in a few Jamaican mosquito bites including three on my forehead.
3. The trees and birds. Again, I loved being outside the whole time. The huge almond trees on the beach had the most amazing leaves. There was a bird that I never saw, but I thought at first that it was a person yelling "help! help!" I also spotted the Jamaican hummingbird with its long tail feathers. I love hummingbirds.
4. The room and the butler. We were in a butler-serviced suite! That meant we had two butlers (one we only saw a couple times, the other was our main guy). Joshayne and Orlando. Every time Joshayne would ring our bell, he'd call out "It's Joshayne... the but-lerrrrrr." He would set up our beach chairs and towels, bring me nice virgin drinks, make our dinner reservations, bring us snacks... My favorite was when we returned to our room after a long day at the beach (tough life) and he had drawn a rose-petal scented bubble bath and put flowers and candles all over the room! Loved that. The room itself was beautiful and luxurious. If it had rained "liquid sunshine" and we were stuck inside all day, I wouldn't have minded.
5. Getting to know my baby. The early baby movements are easy to miss when you are running around and going about your daily life, but on the first day of vacation, I felt like I got to spend so much time with my little girl. All those fruity cold drinks and time just relaxing... she would move all over the place. The best was when we went to the drum show and she kicked up a little storm while the drums were playing! I loved knowing she could feel and hear some of this world that she'll soon be a part of.
6. Seeing Andy. Vacation is only vacation if my hubby is with me. Just having him by my side was the best part.
7. The baby name game. We went through every single girl name in the 60,000 baby names book we bought for Levi. That's approximately 30,000 names. Unbelievable. We wrote down every name that we didn't have an immediate "no" for. So far, still no official name but we also won't really decide until the birthday anyways.
8. Tie-dye. The resort had a daily schedule of little activities throughout the day and each evening. Aqua aerobics, anyone? They had a tie-dying session! I stole one of Andy's undershirts (thank goodness I bought him new ones for Christmas) and we bought a little t-shirt for our baby girl. They are pink and yellow tie-dyed to match. It'll be a few years until she's big enough for her shirt, but I still think it's pretty awesome. (Don't worry, Levi isn't left out. He got a hand-painted Jamaican egg shaker.)
9. The music and dancing. Dang, but they can dance!! The drummers and dance group was absolutely crazy to watch.
10. Reminiscing about our honeymoon. This resort was totally different than our honeymoon resort in Mexico. This was much more compact (very good for a short trip and made it so much easier to get around quickly) among other things, but we kept coming up with things that are different now than 7 years ago. No Facebook photo posting yet! No Facebook statuses! No iPad or iPhone! I didn't have a job. We didn't have a house, car payment, dog, kid...
11. Wearing a bikini and totally not caring. No pictures, enough said.
12. The lack of schedule. The latest I slept in was 9:00, but it was still a sleep in! We didn't have to eat lunch at noon and dinner at 6:00. We weren't confined to our rooms after 7:30. It was nice to have a little freedom.
13. Missing Levi. I found myself missing the funniest things about Levi. In particular, his little squishy baby armpits. I realized it had been four days since I had picked up a baby (must start saying toddler) under those sweet little arms. Four days since I pulled his arm up while getting him dressed and tickled his little arm pit. Grown up armpits are gross, but baby armpits are sweet. ;)
This list more than makes up for the fact that I didn't get a drop of Jamaican rum in my frozen fruity drinks. Totally worth it!
What a treasured time for you and Andy to spend together before your little princess arrives. Thought of you while you were there...glad you had a good time. And kudos on wearing a bikini while prego! I bet ya you were glowing!
ReplyDelete