Our Jamaica Trip.

We had a blast on our Jamaica Trip. I will post some photos and when I figure out how to add videos from my camera I will add that too but it may take me a while since I don't have much time.
Emma did great the entire trip even though she was getting all 4 of her molars! She did great during the day but got up several times at night. She was a bit scared on the plane at first when we hit turbulence but quickly overcame her fear and was fine the rest of the trip. She didn't complain even though it took us over 12 hours for the entire trip before we were in the hotel room. When we arrived at Beached Boscobel they were having a parade that also had Sesame Street Characters and Emma just could not believe that Elmo was there in person. It's the only character she really knows because she doesn't watch much TV. She got to know more during this trip though. Our room was pretty big and nice enough. You could tell it wasn't new but it was clean and well kept. The resort on the other hand was very nice. Nice pool area, nice water park, nice but small beach (a bit of seaweed the first few days due to storms). They had great food at the buffet and the adult only restaurant. The other restaurants were also good but not spectacular. There were also activities throughout the day. At least two things featuring Sesame Street characters. Usually a stage show with music which Emma loved. They also had a nice Reggae band at the buffet which Emma joined on several occasions to help shake things up. Emma's favorite things on the trip were the beach and the water park. The beach was basically a huge sandbox with a water element. The last two days she finally went in the water and got quite comfortable in it. The water park was also a joy. She was scared to go in at first but once she did she didn't want to get out! The water park had three slides that you could take a small child like Emma and go down the slide with them. Emma was a bit hesitant at first but once she tried it she loved it. She went several times with both me and Adam. She even went underwater a couple times when going down the slide because my footing slipped and I went under holding her. She was under for what seemed like eternity and I was terrified she would freak out. She was a bit shaken but once the water was out of her eyes she was fine and didn't even want to get out of the pool. The last day we went to the pool she went down smaller kid only slides all by herself with us at the bottom to catch her of course. I found that to be very impressive since she was only 25 months old. She kept wanting to go over and over again. I was very proud. In the pool, she kept thinking she could just let go of me and swim on her own. She stayed in the daycare one day for a couple hours as a trial for the next day when we went to Dunns River Falls which are these falls you climb so you can't take a young child. She did fine both days and got to see the Sesame Street Characters and take pictures with them. The trial day we spend in the larger pool where we floated on mattresses and drank at the pool bar. It was nice to have some adult time. We also went to the Dolphin Cove where all of us petted the dolphin which Emma was scared of and would not touch. She loved it from a distance and like it when when he splashed her but up close was a bit much for her. We bonded more as a family. Emma learned more Polish and got a bit more brave. It was definitely a great vacation which was too short. But good times always go by too quickly. I would definitely go for at least a week and a half next time. If you do excursions which we did two of, and count in the two days of travel, you only get 3 days at the resort really which is not nearly enough time to enjoy everything the resort has to offer. We did do some kayaking, some sailing and at the dolphin cove we went snorkeling but there were more activities offered that we did not have time to do. We definitely all felt we could stay longer! But now it's back to reality. I am very glad we went. There were so many bad things that happened before we left for the trip that I felt really guilty for going. Sort of when you know so many people around you are having a hard time and you just go up and go on vacation. However, we had planned it way in advance and had no idea all these things were going to happen. The trip really helped I think. We did relax and enjoy ourselves. On Sunday night, when we went to dinner to the adult only restaurant and Ewa stayed with Emma, we talked about this. We both teared up talking about Andy, my grandfather, Paula but also agreed it's things like that that really make you aware how precious life is and how we should enjoy it because you really don't know how long you have together. Life is unpredictable and we don't want to have regrets that we didn't do this or didn't go there. This is why we went on this trip and why we will continue to do things to enjoy life as much as we can....