summer in winter

we took our yearly family trip to jamaica last week. and let me just say that for a vacation, it was a lot of work with a 9 month old but still so absolutely worth it. caroline, of course, is a seasoned jamaican traveler, so it was super easy with her.

the weather there was perfect... sunny and low 80's. a bit heavenly i think.

our daily routine went a little like this:

• 7am- wake up
• 7:15- breakfast was waffles or cereal and fruit for both girls
• 8:30- swim
• 10- hadley's first nap while caroline keeps on with the fun
• noon- lunch
• 1pm- walks/park/playtime
• 2:30pm- hadley naps and caroline has down time
• 5pm- cocktail hour and virgin pina coladas for the girls (well, not for hadley!)
• 6pm- dinner, which for caroline always consisted of black olives and hadley's had watermelon and pasta
• 7:30- some form of hotel entertainment...band, movie, magician, etc...
• 7:30- also bedtime for hadley. the husband and i took turns with this one

this is what we did. every day. all 5 days. it really was so much fun. the only hard part being that there really wasn't anywhere for hadley to get down and crawl around. so most afternoons caroline and i would take her in the hotel hallway to crawl, as this was the only area that had carpet. i think she loved that little bit of freedom.

caroline is a fish and really loved the pool, lazy river, and water slides. she and the other big girls loved going to the pier to feed the needle fish. they also went on a glass bottom boat one day and made leather flower hair clips another.

and you know the girl had to come home with her jamaican braids again!

so a lot of pictures now...

hadley on her first plane trip. she sat in my lap for take off and landing. we did not bring her car seat and i think that was a great decision on our part. it would of just been one more thing to lug around the airport!

caroline all fancy for our first dinner. love her sense of fashion.

hads absolutely loving the pool with mafra pushing her around
the girls and i at cocktail time. look at the beautiful view behind us!
smiles
again at cocktail hour enjoying some beautiful jamaican scenery. for what it is worth, in jamaica, it doesn't have to be cocktail hour to have a drink. it is more like cocktail day!
snack time at the pool
dolled up for dinner
relaxing
pool time
feeding the needle fish on the pier
pretty
the cute threesome in their matching dresses- ellis, mafra and caroline
daddy and haddie
fishes
glass bottom boat trip
soaking her feet in the water one night after dinner... you can semi see her braids in this picture
it was a great vacation.

but there is no place like home!