The next day...

 So I might have two days combined in the pictures- you  know it's tough when days of Jamaican sun, sand and water start to look alike!  The morning after the wedding Ben woke up and said, "I'm not sniffly, but I feel like I've got an ear infection." His right ear was super sensitive to touch.  While at breakfast I decided to take him to the nurses station.  She checked him out and declared he indeed had an ear infection and she called the on-call physician.  We were told to come back at 11:00 when the doctor got there.  At 11:00 Brian and Ben went to the doctor and came back with an antibiotic and ear drops, plus a bill of $400! We have to submit it to our insurance company, and hope they reimburse it! The horrible news is that we were told Ben can't put his head under water the rest of the trip!!! Yay, that's easy to do in Jamaica when you're 5....  We even tried the $5 ear plugs in the gift shop, but they were for adult ears, so no go.

 There was more swimming in the Sea to be had.

 Such a nice breeze off the water 24/7.

 The water was so warm.

 We took PopPop and Keri out on the Hobis too.

 All aboard

 Fun times.

 Proud Mom moment, when the kids managed to hold their strawberry daiquiris above the water.

 And they have a few while at the beach.

 We took a break from the sun and went up to the outside bar and watched some of the Olympics. The kids were thrilled to find out that they had Chex Mix behind the counter, just like at home! Addie ordered her Ziggy Marley, the non-alcoholic son of Bob Marley. Ziggy has strawberry daiquiri, mango daiquiri and coconut daiquiri on top of each other.  Of course topped by a cherry. I can't even begin to tell you how many cherries Addie ate that trip!! Brian's got his Fuzzy Thing (which sounds really potentially weird, without some sort of comment in parenthesis following it! Am I right?!)

 Like a pro!

 My baby girl, sporting the new necklace that Ben picked out for her.

 Enthralled by the Olympics.

 Later that night we went outside for some more chess, and relaxing on the water's edge before having dinner at the Seaside Grill again.

 So cute

 Watching the sun set from my lounge chair.

 Tough life, right?

 Then I was getting all artsy with my pictures.

 So pretty and peaceful.

 There was an open-air market around the pool that night.  Addie found "the most beautiful shirt ever." MomMom walked her over and the woman said it costs $15.   She came back to Brian and us and we told her that she could spend $8 on it. She went back to the woman, who told her $12 was as low as she could go.  Brian went over with Addie and low and behold Addie got her shirt for $8.  There is little else that my husband enjoys more than bargaining with merchants for their goods.  He even got three carvings on behalf of Keri and Scott for Quinn's bedroom for a ridiculous price compared to what they initially said they cost. We were shocked to see people pay the first price stated for some of the stuff!  And yes, on Addie's new beautiful shirt- the flowers are stamped on and then the "artist" outlined the flowers in yellow puff paint. MAHVELOUS!

 The chess game went a long time.

 Then it was dark outside. I actually videotaped the sound of the waves crashing. So peaceful.

 We had dinner at Seaside Grill.  While we were having dinner, the pool area hosted the Caribbean Dance night.  They called people out of the audience and of course the kids had to volunteer. Then they needed some adults.  Of course I offered.  The man led each person in a routine, where the two women sit facing each other with these two wood poles.  They clack them back and forth to a rhythm  and the man showed each person what pattern they had to do. Addie and Ben had to put their right foot into the middle, then out to the side, then into the middle, etc, all while the poles are moving.  He showed all the kids their routines, which they all did to much fanfare. Then he started with the adults.  The ladies before me had to do slightly more difficult tasks like stepping left, then right, then middle, etc.  Then it was my turn....

 Yes, I had the luxury of having my routine have me on my feet and hands, with my body thrusting up and down between the moving poles below!!! I was crying from laughing so hard.

The night ended with the limbo man doing ridiculous tricks like this one. Unreal.

No problems, mon

In Jamaica, one of the most common phrases we heard was, "No problem, mon." In fact, it's such a frequently uttered phrase that the most common next statement is "No problems, just situations, mon."  Addie has taken to saying that now. 

The next day was just a water day. We beached and water parked. Nourie Grotto was in full force too.

 Getting people together to go to the beach

 PopPop and Addie

 See Keri's big ole belly? So cute.

 The Activity Board said there was a soccer game that afternoon on the lawn, but when we got to the lawn, they were set up for a wedding (they do 4-5 per day!) so that was a no-go. Our Activity Staff friends decided to take us to the wedding gazebo lawn for our soccer game. It's still decorated from the earlier wedding! Addie enjoyed reading the married couples' program.

 There were probably 25-30 guests who showed up to play soccer. Aunt Danielle was the only girl.

 It was really fun to watch Brian play again!

 It was so popular that they actually had guys waiting to get in on the game!

 Scott was the first volunteer to let someone else sub in.

Afterwards Brian was quite happy.  

I don't have any other pictures from that day, but I bet we ate dinner and then swam or something.

It was actually funny because the next morning when we got up and dressed Brian put his dried swim shirt on and as we were walking he commented on something stinking. Then he thought it was him and we couldn't figure out why. All of a sudden he had an ah-ha moment when he realized he played 45 minutes of soccer the night before in that shirt. Up til that point I had hand-washed our suits each night and dried them on the balcony rack, but that night Brian just put his shirt out to dry. Lesson learned, believe me!! I actually took his shirt from him in the lobby and washed it in the bathroom sink on the main level of the hotel so he wouldn't be offending anyone! 

Wedding day

Friday morning was a relaxing one.  Take a look below at the "cloud of cuteness" that was created by Benjamin in the comfy bed.

 It started like sleepy Ben...

 And looked like this on closer inspection. I might have to make this an 8x10 all by itself!

We had breakfast and decided to give our bodies a try at windsurfing on a Hobie thingamabobber.

 Life vests for safety

 and they were off!! A captain could take up to three others out on one at a time.  Powered totally by wind and the skillful hand of the captain, these bad boys were awesome!! We cruised quickly over the waves and got splashed by crashing over cresting waves.  Really fun!!

 That's Scott with Addie and Graham.  Look closely, she's lounging like a professional on the hammock part!!

 Coming back onto shore.

 Judy, Tristan and Alex headed out too. Poor Judy was terrified of the waves and speed. Her bladder *may* have spontaneously emptied while out at sea...

After riding those awesome things, we found what I deemed "Nourie Cove and Grotto" where is essentially where we remained for the next five days...

 It's the other side of the swim up bar, inside the water park. See the tables and stools? This part was relatively shady and out of the burning sun.  See the little wall above Scott's head? That's where Mangoes is. If you make nice with the waitresses, she'd take our order from the water and bring our food out to us there. We ate our lunches in the water a few days too.

 The bar opened at 10:00am.  We were the first customers, so proud of that! :) The kids liked to sit on the bar stools and jump in.

 My proudest picture...strawberry daquiris! That's our bartending friend Owen in the background. He took care of us at Nourie Cove for a few days.  

 Cheers!

 Owen made us the Friday drink of the day... it may have been called the Tropical Dream or something like that. Others were The Fuzzy Thing, The BamBam, Bob Marley, Ziggy Marley, The Rum Runner and a few more. 

 Isn't it pretty? Actually now I think this one might have been called the Sunrise or something like that. No matter what, it was delicious.  Notice I've taken to wearing my shirt, so as to not get more color for the wedding.

 First thing drinks. There were plenty more that day...

Ben worked on his swimming and floating. 

 Graham with his dad just hours before he became a married man.

 These may have been Round Two of drinks.

 That would be Ben's booty, because he learned how to flip underwater.

 And he's back up!

 Going down the final body slide

 Whee!

 After that afternoon of fun we headed to the hotel room to get cleaned up and ready for the wedding.  Naturally I didn't bring my camera to the ceremony, because that might've looked tacky with a camera hanging from my neck while all dressed up. So these three pictures will have to suffice until we get the official beach wedding pictures from Keri.

 Handsomest ringbearer ever...we kicked off the sandals before the ceremony.

 This is actually after the whole wedding and dinner.

Can't wait for the formal pictures!! There's one of the four of us on the beach which should be superb!!