Pictures from Jamaica

Here are some more pictures from our vacation. I could add many more, but that may take forever! These are just a glimpse. (I took over 400 pictures, and that is not including the pics Suz and Andy have on their camera. I'll have to add them once I get them.) Please enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Here is one of the pictures we had drawn there. The palm trees signify two people, and the hammock connects the two together! *S*

The vegetation was so amazing! There were these weird things all around.

Joe and I, at Christopher Columbus Point.

The main pool area again

One of the many scultures of food!

The ocean from our room!

Looking down from our room. It would've been nice to have our own "Plunge Pool" although the ocean was only a few steps away, why would you need one!?

View from our room.

Me partaking in the Beer Drinking contest. Needless to say, I did not win.

All giggles and smiles after tequila shots!

One of my views from my lounge chair!

Looking over toward the "family friendly" resort.

Me, the mean sky, and deep thoughts.

One of the gazebos used for weddings.

Looking out toward the main pool area.

Joe and I getting ready for our catamoran ride!

Me and my coconuts with Pina Colodas!! Yummy!

Looking at the main building.

The beautiful beach! The colors were so beautiful. I never really knew that there were places that had waters that look like this. Just breath taking.

Breezes Runaway Bay Jamaica 2010

Last October, Joe and I decided we wanted to go on a vacation before we really started the whole family thing. So after talking to some friends, Andy and Suzanne were takers and we booked our trip to Jamaica! We decided to do an all-inclusive Breezes Runaway Bay Resort and Golf Course. It was great! We flew out of Minneapolis March 7th at 7:10, had direct flight to Montego Bay, Jamaica, arriving around noon! It was great!!! We had a driver pick us up at the airport and bring us to our resort, about an hour away from the airport. They drive like madmen down there. Literally, inches away from the car ahead of them, on the wrong side of the road, and horns, well, they are always blaring!!! But it was still great!

Upon arriving to our resort, we had drinks in our hands! Did I mention it was all-inclusive?! Anywyas, our first night in paradise was great! A little chilly, but hey, I can't argue when the temperature is 80!

Our first full day there, Joe had to travel back to Montego Bay to do some work at a call-center he uses down there. We ended up getting a couple little perks from this as well! While Joe was away, Andy, Suz and I hung around, partook in a beer drinking contest (I did not win, sorry!) and laid around, just relaxing. It was a little chilly, but it still was nice. We had three pools to chose from and, of course, the ocean! So many different things were available to us. Volleyball, water volleyball, glassbottom boat rides, snorkeling (which I absolutely LOVED!!!!), catamoran rides, and many more. hte best part of it all, NO WORK AND RELAXATION!
On Tuesday, we ventured out and went to Ochos Rios and played at Mystic Mountain. Here we took a ski lift to the top of the rainforest, and then Zip-lined down!!!! It was amazing! Suz has all those pics on her camera so I don't have them yet. But it great. The tour guides we had were hilarious and made it a great expereince. Since we also had the option to do the bobsleding, we took the lift back up, and Suz and Joe went ahead and do the bobsled. According to them, it was great as well! Overall, a wonderful experience!

After playing here, we headed into Margarittaville for lunch! Not thebest, but still good! We then did a little shopping, souviners of cours! Then we went to Dunns River Falls. So what do you think when you hear that? Yeah, you'd go see the falls. Nope! We walked down the mountain, just to find out, we were walking back up the mountain, but through the falls!!!! It was so amazing! There were tons of people and guides around guiding us up the falls safely. It was great! Something you just can't describe.

Dinner Tuesday night, Joe and I ate at the Japanese restruant, which was delicious! Wednesday we hung around and played by the pool and relaxed all day! Joe and I did some water activities, he had a golf lesson, and Suz and I got to go to the spa. Wednesday night the four of us went to the Luminous Lagoos. It was where the right combination of salt water and fresh water meet, bringing micro-organizism to around. It's hard to explain but it was absolutely beautiful! We jumped out of the boat and got to swim in this bay. Everywhere you moved the water around, it turned a luminous green!! Just amazing!

Thursday, the temp was high 80s and not quite as breezy, but great! Nothing too exciting happened, other than some easy reading by the pool and swimming! I actually read a book for enjoyment. Something I have not done in many, many years.

Friday it was mid-high 90s and hot! We relaxed by the pools and Joe and I got to go snorkeling for my first time! It was absolutely great!! The vest kept me afloat the snorkel kept me breathing! I had never really seen anything like that beore. So on Saturday before we packed everything we got to go one more time!!! Although this trip was alittle longer, I also go stung by two jellyfish. Nothing, bad, but it sure did sting a big!

Joe had the opportunity on Friday as well! I had never seen him do this before, and he did a great job!! Smile for the camera!!

Unfortunately our trip home wasn't as pleasant as expected. That's awhole different story though. All in all, it was a great trip! I'd love to go back to Jamaica again, so it's in the works! We'll see where we go next time! I must say, I am definately going snorkeling again!

Here Joe and I are, our last hour at the resort. Here's to a great trip and many more!

Let 2010 Begin!!

2009 has pasted and it couldn't have been sooner. It has been a roller coster of a ride, and we're hoping this year will be a bit calmer. Emily moved out to Colorado with her boyfriend Kyle. Since she wasn't sure of her work schedule, she wasn't able to come home for christmas, and it's been since September since we've seen her. I can honestly say I miss that girl!!! Soon t hough she'll be here visiting so we are all looking forward to seeing her and Kyle.

On December 3rd, my dad offically retired from the Postal Service! It's crazy that I can say that, considering he's only 55!!! We are all happy and glad he's done. I keep telling him that if he wants, he can always come up here and babysit a couple days a week when we have children. (Granted that may not be for a couple of years, or something, but we keep putting that idea in his head, especially since he keeps asking where those grandkids are!!)

At the beginning of December, we had an unfortunate happening occur when Joe got laid off from Starbucks. Granted it was only a part-time job, it still sucked because now we are tighter with money than before and we were pretty tight before. Oh well, the upside to this was we get to spend more time together! Something we haven't had much of for awhile becuase he was always working. So this is a good thing!

At the end of December, Dad had surgery for prostate cancer. Everything went great and is at home recoverying. I'm glad it all went well, although he had a lot of pain to start with but I think things are settling down a little. The pathology reports came back this week and thank God, but they were all negative! Everything was contained in the prostate. He doesn't need any radiation or chemotherapy at this time. That is huge!! It's been a long past couple of months waiting and seeing what's going to happen. As you all know I tend to take on a lot and worry about everyone else, so this has been hard on me, and in turn Joe. So, I am terribly excited to hear good news from the Doctor.

As of now, we are heading into the new year slow and surely! We are hoping to get a couple of good weekends of skiing in along with some snowshoeing and getting out more. We are both still running and Joe is planning on doing another 1/2 marathon this year sometime. I may do another one, but depends on what happens. We are heading to Jamaica in March for a week with our friends Andy and Suzanne. This is a badly needed vacation and we are both excited to get away for a while. I'll post some pictures when we get back. I hope everyone had a great christmas and a great new year!

It's a Big Year for Turning 30!

On November 17th, Joe turned 30! I was hoping to plan a surprise birthday party for him; however, he planned and did the exact thing I was hoping to do for him. So, things had to change, and I had to come up with something different and extraordinary, as his surprise for me was great. So I talked to a couple of people and got some ideas and decided to plan on getting Wild tickets. The venture looking into them, though, was a bit difficult, but in the end I was able to get great Club Level seats for the night of November 20th. I was able to get a good rate at the Hilten Garden Inn in St. Paul that we stayed at for the Rascal Flatts concert in Sept. and it being so close to the Xcel Energy Center, I thought it would be a great place to stay again, so we wouldn't have to worry about driving. I booked it without Joe knowning, and kept everything on the downlow. I told Joe he needed to take Nov. 20-22 off from both jobs so we could do something. He was sketchy about the taking the time off, but he did it anyways! Yeah, it was hard for me not to tell him though. I love but hate surprises and I knew he was going to love this adventure.

Anyways, about two weeks before the game, Joe got an email from the Hilton checking to see if he needed anything for his room on the 20th, the room he had no idea that was booked under his name!!! I almost died! I did so well keeping it from him, and this had to happened. So all I could tell him was "It's a surprise, you'll find out when we get there." Fortunately, he took that answer and ran with it, not asking anything more.

On Friday, the 20th, we left Superior and headed south. When we got to the hotel around 3:30 and got up and went to an early dinner. We talked about maybe going for a walk later in the evening then for drinks. Yeah, that's what we were going to do....we headed out around 6pm for our "walk". I got all bundled up, jacket, hat, gloves. Joe looked at me and asked, "why are you putting so much on for a walk?" My response was, "I get cold," and left it at that. As we were out walking, I was looking around at all the people wearing Wild Jerseys and outfits, I started getting worried Joe was going to pick up on what we were going to be doing, but for some reason he didn't say anything.
As we were walking, there was a little park downtown with a soon to be skating park once it was cold enough. Plus there were little Peanuts characters around, so we stopped to take a couple of pictures. During this time, I gave Joe a card that I didn't get give on his birthday. As he was opening it, his eyes kept getting bigger and a huge grin on his face. I asked, "What is it?" and all he could do was smile and say thank you. Here is his picture with his tickets!!

Here's me, playing around the Peanuts characters before the game!

I was so happy he was surprised and exicted!! I'm not the best person at keeping a surprise but this worked out great! Here's Joe at the arena, all smiles!

This was our 2nd professional hockey game we've been to together, and I don't remember all the fights the first time that happened, but within three minutes of starting the game, there was a huge brawl!!! Blood, punching, everything, it was great!! They actually fought for awhile, I was shocked! All Joe said was, "They do that in professional hockey," something that didn't happen the week before at the UMD hockey game. This was much better! Fast pace and exciting! We took a lot of pictures, but here is one picture of the fav player I was instructed to watch for, Clutterbuck. (I think that's how you spell his name, not sure.) We ended the evening with a drink and a walk back to our hotel. A great evening, all in all.

Anyways, on Saturday, we headed west to Alberville to experience the Outlet Malls. We really didn't need anything, but had a great time at the Under Armour, GAP, Eddie Bauer, and many other stores. We also stopped at Dicks in Bloomington to pick up suits to go swimming, then off to the Cheesecake factory for cheesecake dessert later. We also stopped at REI, and got our christmas present from Joe's parents: a bike trailer hitch for the car. Now we just have to have the hitch actually installed on the vehicle! It's a long story. All in all, it was a great, badly needed time away from everything, weekend. And the surprise turned out perfect. Happy Birthday, Joe!

Alots going on, so I will update soon enough!! Sorry this isn't done but work and school have been consuming my every minute. Soon enough all you interested people!!