Beaches Boscobel Ocho Rios Jamaica March 2011

In late December we decided we really, really wanted to try a Beaches Resort.  Beaches Resorts are  marketed as being the ultimate all inclusive resorts for families.  In addition to kids clubs, sesame street shows and characters, they have water parks with water slides for kids of all ages.  Mat is always bugging me about picking a resort that has a good pool area with fun things to do for Calie. (aka. some water slides for him).  We settled on the beaches resort in Jamaica that had just been closed for 3 months for a renovation.  In the months leading up to our trip I was extremely nervous, as we were trying something new.

This time packing was a little different traveling with a 4 month old instead of a 2 month old.  Bailey had begun eating baby food and cereal once per day. Since we were traveling to another country and had limited access to shopping, I decided to pack everything she would need. I packed all the baby food in a large tupperware bin in the middle of the suitcase and prayed that it wouldn't explode during travel.

We had a long day of traveling and once again came very close to missing our connection in the Philadelphia airport.  Once in Jamaica, we made it through immigration and customs and found our way to the private transfer.  We decided to book a private transfer as the ride from Montego Bay to Ocho Rios was about 2 hours. It was a beautiful drive along the cost and our driver was very informative but it was long! 

We got to the resort and the grounds and lobby were beautiful, but I was still nervous. So remember my last blog and how I said traveling with me could be difficult, due to my profession? Well it never fails!  My in-laws came with us, which was great.  We had requested, upon booking and during my three phone calls and emails to re-confirm, connecting rooms. Each time I was told yes that there were many connecting rooms in our category and the request had been noted.  Well guess what..we didn't have connecting rooms or even rooms beside eachother.  I ended up being 'that' person that my staff writes nasty notes about in the log book. But eventually after our second night they moved us to a room much more convenient to my in-laws. I guess the waterslides that kept both Calie and Mat entertained for hours each day made up for the mess up with our room.

Our days were spent at the beach and waterslides in the mornings, lunch at the barbecue hut (we I found my love for Jerk Chicken) and hot tub or patio in the afternoon.

Although a different country and resort, we seemed to slip into the same type of schedule each day as we did in mexico.  My favorite time of day was at about 3pm when Bailey needed a nap, Calie needed some quiet time watching a movie and we needed some patio time with red stripe.  Since this was a kid friendly resort there was no beer in our mini fridge, but we found the guy responsible for stocking it and gave him $10, we had red stripe in our fridge every afternoon!

As you can see the water slides were a hit. We spent most of our time at the middle slides which were just right for Calie. Although we took our share of turns going down them.  They had big kid slides too, but we only tried those a few times, each time Calie would want to try them and she was no where near tall enough!

Bailey spent her days lounging in the stroller, watching her big sister play via the baby bjorn and getting her cheeks pinched by all the sesame street characters.

My favorite part of our Beaches experience, was what they call a 'night, night tuck-in' you pick the character of your choice and they come to read you a book and tuck you into bed! It was so great and we didn't tell Calie it was happening so she was so surprised when Abby Cadabby showed up at the door!

 

On our 2nd to last day, Mat got one of the beach activity guys to take him and Calie out on a Hobie Cat.  They went out and around the point, so I couldn't see them and were gone for like half an hour, of course I started worrying. Apparently he took them to this beach down from the resort with no one and let them jump off and go swimming  - they both loved it!



I have been about 3 months trying to get this blog completed - so I am posting it as is and letting the pictures below speak for themselves.  The end result is we had a GREAT time and I would go back in a heartbeat!  I loved Jamaica and can't wait to go back sometime SOON!

Our First Vacation with Four!

Typically we take two family vacations per year, one in November, after the season and one in March, before the season. This year we really couldn't travel in November as Bailey Margaret arrived November 4th!  We decided that we still needed to get away, so we opted for a January vacation to Mexico.  We travel to Mexico frequently as we truly LOVE the people there and their hospitality!


After weeks of planning exactly how I was going to pack everything we needed and more for a 2 month old, in just 2 suitcases and 2 carry-on bags, I was done I had finally run out of time.  

At the airport it appeared everything was going as planned, passports - check, happy kids - check, Calie and her new buggy board - check, perfect feeding time for take off - check, correct day for our flight - check (yes I have once in my life shown up at the airport on the wrong day, mat was surprisingly calm about it!).

Yes it is blurry, but you get the idea!

We had run out of perfects for the morning and as we sat on the runway, patiently waiting to be de-iced, our 1 hour connection was slowly being reduced.  As we approached Philadelphia I starting packing up ALL of our belongings and told Mat we had to RUN OFF THE PLANE!  If you have ever flown through Philadelphia from Bangor to catch an International flight, you feel my pain when I say we had 20 minutes to get from Terminal C to Terminal A!

We got off the plane, got the stroller put Calie in it as she was not going to be able to run as fast as we were, Bailey was all set to go in the handy Baby-Bjorn. We sprinted and sprinted and then stopped for a moment to look at eachother, "where is the gate for the shuttle?" "I don't know, you weren't looking for it?" YES we had missed the shuttle gate, no point in turning back we just kept going and going and going all the way to Terminal A! We finally made it, barely.  The door to the gangway was partially closed as the nice male gate attendant asked "are you our passengers from BangER Maine?" "Yes I said we are from the BangOR flight"  

If my father had been sitting on this plane, I think we would have mumbled something harsh under his breath as we walked down the aisle. Everyone, I mean everyone was seated and buckled and here we came, late with two kids and three backpacks full of stuff!  But we MADE IT, barely!

We arrived in Mexico and yes I was stopped by the sniffing dogs, because I was carrying formula in my backpack, no drugs just formula, see the 2 month old baby?  One thing I love about the airports in Mexico, if you are traveling with children, they let cut in line ahead of everyone - it's fantastic! No waiting in customs/immigration or security.

Before I continue, there is one thing you must know before you read my posts on vacationing.  Because of my profession, I can be a pain in the a** to travel with.  I do my research, heavily before booking and then again before leaving, but you just never now.  The things that bother me are not what everyone else see's either, so it may seem irrelevant to some, but to me it is a big deal.

So we arrive at Azul Sensatori it is beautiful just like I had hoped.  We go to check-in, Calie gets a kids activity bag, I get champagne - life is good! Our room is not ready but should be shortly, ok I understand it is 2pm on a Saturday.  We go to walk around, get a drink, ice cream, explore...35 minutes pass, Bailey is starting to get cranky, hot, tired, sick of the stroller, sick of the baby-bjorn, sick of me she just wants some her time and space.  Our room still isn't ready, well this is when I start complaining, to Mat not the staff, because I don't do that. They could have cleaned the room in the amount of time we are sitting here? Why didn't they expedite it as soon as we showed up? Don't they have another room just like it that is already clean that they can switch us too? I mean come on these are all the things I would have done!! After about an hour and 15 minutes of waiting and Mat hanging out at the front desk waiting. The manager asks if we are still waiting for our room, no we just really like the lobby! He gets us to our room within 5 minutes, why was that so hard?

This is where the bad stops, I PROMISE!

Our room is perfect, I mean perfect. No dust on the lamps or picture frames, nothing under the bed, nothing left in the drawers or closet, no hair in the tub and most importantly no signs of, well you know those little bugs that like to travel.

We absolutely loved this resort, so much so that we bought weeks through their Frequent Traveler Program.

We had a swim up jacuzzi room, which meant from our patio you could walk into the pool and we had our own jacuzzi.

When we go to Mexico we always stay at an all-inclusive resort and stay at the resort the whole week.  We take relaxing to the next level. This was our typical routine every day for the entire week:

Get up, stop by the beach/pool butler stand and ask one of them to reserve us a beach bed for the day, go to breakfast, take a walk around the resort, stop at the kids club for a little while, go play on the beach playground, go back to the room, but our bathing suits on, go to the beach, lay in the beach bed, order some drinks, play in the waves and sand, got to lunch, go back to the room and swim while hanging out on our patio, shower, go to dinner, go to a kids activity, bed!

We ate every morning at Calie's favorite restaurant Spoon. They actually had a spot with a kid size buffet, they also had her favorite Pink Jumbo Marshmallow's (bombon's) served on toothpicks! 

Calie loved the kids club and went a few times without us, but lot's of times we all went or one of us took her.  They had a pinata party one night and face painting another night. 

The night of face painting, we ate at a Tapaz restaurant which took a little longer than expected, Mat and Calie left right after dinner to go the Face Painting.  I thought she would get a cute flower or butterfly on her cheek, but found this when I met them back at the room!

As you can see Bailey also enjoyed her vacation, so much so she exhausted herself everyday! 

In the end this vacation was worth all the hassle of getting passport paperwork filed two weeks after Bailey was born, calculating exactly how much formula we needed for the week, stuffing the suitcase full of diapers and cleaning bottles with bottled water. Although most of the excitement of our vacation happened before we even got there, the most important thing was that we got to spend time as a family.  We only get a few months out of the year to really enjoy each other and we have begun to cherish these vacations.

So I will leave you with these pictures to enjoy on this cold February day!

COMING SOON JAMAICA MARCH 2011!!

My First Attempt

So I have decided to start a blog.  I know, you are wondering when I will find the time to keep it updated?  Well this is something I have wanted to do for the past year and you don't  do things you think you may enjoy before you know it you are unable, so here it goes!

This first entry is to let you know a few things about my blog plan:

I am doing this for myself and my children.  I hope that someday they will be able to see this blog and it will act as a digital scrapbook in some ways.  I also realize that computers may not be the new technology then, but hey I can try. 

I hope to post the craziness of our life and the simple things about our life, with pictures included.

Reader beware, I am not a professional writer and will not pretend to be.  Please enjoy and don't criticize! 

Til the next entry....hopefully soon ;-)