Day 3, mon

Tough life to have to wake up to these surroundings, right?

 Day Three began with a trip to the West Beach first.  Well first, was a stop at the Seaside Grill bar.  

 Addie wanted to do a booty picture for some reason.  This is the bar area where the kids perfected their ordering of strawberry daquiris (alcohol-free of course). We grabbed our fruity beverages and headed to the West Beach, which is where the wedding would happen the next day.

 Benjamin was all about wearing goggles this trip.  On the cruise last year we paid out of the wazoo for a pair of goggles, so for this trip I brought four different pairs and styles so we weren't gouged at the gift shop again!

 So peaceful and pretty, right? The temperature was warm, but not ungodly hot.  There was always a nice breeze blowing from the Sea.  

 A lot of playing in the water commenced.  Best purchase ever- a swim shirt for Brian to wear too! It was so much easier than having to slather sunscreen on him all day long. 

 Keri and her best friend Loretta joined us on the beach. Addie joined them too.

 Ben, in traditional Ben fashion, snuck up on them and stood like this trying to scare them. He must've stood there not moving for at least 90 seconds.  Nutso.

 Judy got in on the water action too.

 Benjamin and I played too.  It's sort of hard to see, but you can see the sunburn I got the day before. After that experience, I opted to wear a t-shirt most days over my bathing suit.  I am totally that person who is now in their wedding pictures with very distinct sunburn lines in my formal wear. Oops.

 MomMom even got in the Sea and surprised us all by actually being able to swim really well! The kids   told her they would teach her and once they showed her a few moves, she took off! Brian and I were shocked, having never known she knew how to really freestyle swim! 

 Coming in for a break for lunch.

 The yellow towels were the ones we exchanged each day.  You could keep your towel for $25 if you wanted. Let me tell you, these were not nice, fancy worth-$25 towels! No thank you!

 Burrito Benjamin was quite comfy.

So then we went to the buffet for lunch (and this resort had the soft serve ice cream machine which always worked!!) Then we decided to get de-sanded and go to the water park. The resort had the largest water park in the entire Caribbean! It consists of a lazy river, a long, winding tube slide and three body slides.  It also had the ever-popular swim up bar. There were waterfalls sprinkled throughout too. Really fun.

 The entrance is one of the zero-entry pools, where there are no stair or anything, just a slight grade down.  There were a few geysers which Ben and Graham enjoyed playing with.

 Looking down from the rope bridge.  The building straight ahead is the swim up bar in the water and then the other side is a restaurant called Mangoes, where we ate a few times.

 Aunt Danielle's friend Eric was a good sport playing with the kids, and by playing I mean allowing them the climb all over the poor guy.

 There's MomMom and Aunt Danielle hiding under the shade and Brian and Dane. (A fun game would be "count how many different drinks people have in their hands...."

 Brian and Dane. Dane is married to one of Keri's co-workers.

 From the bridge looking into one of the pools where the body slide dumps you.  The tan colored thing is the slide where you ride the tube down. 

 Graham, Ben, Eric, Brian, Addie and Scott.

 You can kind of see the zero-entry part to the left.  

 Nothing better than seeing a pregnant lady carrying a beer. Luckily it was for Scott, but the Diet Coke was for her.  Sadly, this Diet Coke tasted like bologna--it was horrible.  So horrible in fact, it was one of those "Taste how awful this tastes" sort of drinks. 

 Lounging around. After spending the afternoon in the water park, we decided to go back to the room for a little rest and clean up.  While getting dressed I heard singing and walked out onto the balcony (fully clothed, by this point!) to see a wedding going on at the wedding gazebo!

 Keri and Scott considered the different locations on the property for the wedding and this was one.  My concern was that people would be walking by, etc.  I actually called her into our room to see this happening, because at the top of the picture is an entrance to a hot tub. People in bathing suits were running by, screaming, kids chasing each other,etc, the whole time of these people's wedding.  This sealed the deal that the wedding would definitely happen on the beach...which is really why someone goes to Jamaica, right? You an get married in a garden gazebo anywhere.

 After resting and eating dinner, we allowed the kids to do a little night swimming in the pool.  There were only two elevators for the entire resort--weird, right? We found where the stairs were, and the kids were quite happy to go up and down the seven flights of stairs instead. With it being dark out, they didn't need swim shirts.

 The pool water was unbelievably warm. 

 Graham, Ben in goggles, and Addie. They really got to be much better swimmers while in Jamaica, which makes me quite happy.

 Could that be a better ambiance? 

One of the reasons we suggested they take breaks mid-afternoon was so they would be awake for the 9:30pm entertainment...karaoke!

 Ben could hardly contain his enthusiasm...

With this being the ONLY night-time entertainment, a ton of people from the resort were there..probably 250 people. The host explained there was a contest for the best and worst singers. Addie immediately wanted to enter. After scouring the song book, which hadn't been updated since at least 2000, we settled on a song.  We got her all signed up and the host informed us that kids aren't included in the contest portion (so that kids don't feel badly if they don't win, etc). Addie was the first child singer and there was only one other- a duet of a 16 year old boy and an 11 year old girl. In typical Addie fashion- she rocked it! She was pretty mad that she wasn't able to be in the competition portion. Oh well.  

Link to the video 

 http://youtu.be/-usORCBD