Showing posts with label Family Vacation. Show all posts

Never a Dull Moment: Family Vacation Edition

I was recently reminiscing about my cousin's wedding in Montego Bay and how much fun we had with the entire family vacationing together. And then I started remembering some of the mishaps and misfortunes that happened on this trip and couldn't help but laugh.

Have you ever been on a perfectly seamless vacation? I'm sure rosy glasses can make anything seem perfect but, when kids are involved, unexpected things are bound to happen.


Most of the extended family arrived a couple days before K and I since they opted for a longer vacation so we missed some of the initial incidences but here's what transpired on this family trip.

Day 1: Hour 1
The groom's sister and her family with three young girls all under the age of nine were one of the first to arrive. As soon as the parents checked into the hotel and got settled, Chloe, the 3-year old hightailed it for the pool and jumped right in even though she doesn't know how to swim. So we had a near death drowning experience upon arrival.

On day two, Chloe's 6-year older sister got stung by a jellyfish while swimming in the ocean. If you've ever been stung by a jelly fish, you'd know it's extremely painful especially for a child to endure.

Everyone trucked along enjoying our vacation in paradise and had a blast at all the events leading up to the wedding.

With all the swimming and water activities during the day, my cousin's sweet 2-year old Zoe developed a terrible ear infection which had her screaming in pain by the time the wedding ceremony came around. With no access to proper medication, Zoe's mom felt helpless with the little supplies she had packed for the trip.

Meanwhile, Zoe's adorable baby brother was the center of attention with all the Jamaican mosquitos and ended up sporting red polka dots on his soft baby skin.

Dominic, my 3-year old nephew, got bitten by a stray cat on the resort so my mom, being the nurse in the family, rushed him and his parents off to the local hospital. I don't know all the details from the waiting room but it took them over 8 hours to return and Dom's parents spent hours trying to get in contact with their family doctor and sort things out with their insurance company back at home.

I'll round this up with my teenage niece who was a also a bridesmaid in the wedding. She got sunburnt so badly in the first couple days leaving her with a florescent pink tan and in pain for the rest of the trip, even though she said she applied sunblock over and over. Oh teenagers!

With all misfortunes aside, I love my family and it was still an extremely fun and memorable vacation. There's never a dull moment when you have a big family and especially when kids are involved!

Maybe I'll create a Never A Dull Moment series and talk about all that goes wrong with adults or in the workplace or life happenings in general...


Vacation Highlights

I'm back and hoping to catch up on all the blogging over the weekend!

Thankfully Friday arrived really quickly this week after returning home from Jamaica on Wednesday night. It's never fun jumping right back into reality but a two-day work week makes it so much more bearable to deal with the post-vacation blues.

We flew to Montego Bay last week Friday for my cousin's wedding and had an amazing time catching up with 20+ family members that came in from three different countries. It was really good for the soul and, being at an all-inclusive resort in paradise, made it that much sweeter!

 
I plan to post a full travel recap next week when I've had time to organize my photos...and my brain, let's be honest...but I wanted to share some highlights from the trip.

Family Time
K and I are the only ones that live in the US so spending time with my parents, sister, and the extended family was much needed. Especially being able to catch up with my cousins and meet their babies (and not-so-much-babies anymore) for the first time.


 

Pre-Wedding Fun
On night one, the bride-to-be willingly agreed to participate in the Miss Iberostar "pageant" which was really a very unorthodox competition involving collecting as many shirts and pants from the audience. Guess who won?



On night two, we secretly organized some extra entertainment from the staff that came to the beat of the Magic Mike soundtrack. She was a good sport and it was no rated-R show but it was so fun and pretty hilarious to cap off the night before her wedding.



The Wedding
This is a given because it was the purpose of our trip but we got to witness my cousin and her love say their vows in a beautiful setting.



Post-Wedding Fun
We only had time to leave the resort and do one excursion on this trip so we picked a catamaran cruise (more to come on this) but snorkeling was one fun part of the excursion.


On our last night we had a bonfire cocktail party on the beach for one last get-together before saying our goodbyes the next day.


Bonus Highlights
Other than all the quality time with my family which is priceless, a huge highlight of our trip was winning two free gifts. I chose a 50-minute massage at the and K picked two tickets to the VIP departure lounge in the Montego Bay airport. So much unexpected pampering but we loved it!


The MoBay VIP departure area offers complimentary food, drinks, and a really comfortable lounge with reliable WiFi access so it was a really nice end to our trip.

So happy to be home to be with my Lola but lots of detoxing and cleaning eating is much needed for the next few weeks.

I hope you enjoy the weekend just as much as I will enjoy sleeping in my own bed!