jamaycation + auntiehood!

well, it’s been back to the real world for me!  we got back home from jamaica late last night – what an amazing trip it was.  the trip down to montego bay was a little hellish, but luckily philip & i are so good at traveling together (read: we don’t get frustrated and we keep one another entertained, mostly like little kids) that we didn’t even let our eight hour layover in ft lauderdale get us down – not even when it was raining so hard we couldn’t go outside to get a breath of fresh air… not that it would have mattered because when i did try to walk outside the hot, humid air hit me like being slapped in the face by a hot, wet towel.  gross.
 
the long layover, shitty airlines (never fly spirit!), and bizarre hour and a half drive from the airport to our hotel in runaway bay all proved worth it once we finally got to the resort.  after checking into our room overlooking the ocean, we headed to the outdoor bar to sit down and finally relax.  i don’t know if any drink has ever tasted as great as that pina colada tasted.  we spent our weekend laying on the beach, talking, reading, laughing and sipping any fruit juice we could put rum in.
 
i should say that i am a water person.  i am totally obsessed with the water.  there are a few possible explanations for this – i grew up spending my childhood and all of my summers until recently on our family’s beach in port jefferson.  now i don’t necessarily believe everything about my zodiac sign, but i am an aquarius.  and aquarius are the water-bearers, and usually have an affinity for water.  this could not be more true in my case.  every time we’d go to the beach as kids, i spent the entire day in the water, and even now as an adult i can’t visit either coast without heading to the beach to just get my feet wet.  i’ve never been one of those women who goes to the beach to sunbathe and not swim – you’ve gotta do both!  so needless to say, we swam a lot and even rented snorkels on our last day, which was such a blast.  the best parts of the trip were the moments when it was just philip and i in the water, goofing around in the sea.  or the night we took a bottle of wine to the beach and sat in the beach chairs, in the dark, listening to the waves and drinking wine.  it was so romantic.

view from our balcony

view of the ocean from the pool with swim-up bar!

can't get enough of the ocean...

our spot for three days on the beach

me + my first love - the ocean.

courtesy of rocks on the beach and my camera timer!

saying goodbye - lobby of our lovely hotel

but the most amazing part of the weekend didn’t happen jamaica, it happened about 2000 miles north of the island up in new york.
 
my beautiful, amazing, strong cousin N had her baby two and a half weeks early!  little jack michael arrived early early sunday morning… while i was talking to philip, saying there was no way she’d have the baby while we were gone because she wasn’t due for almost three more weeks.  ha.  here is the picture of the little angel and my newest nephew!

 

i am already officially in love with him.  he's an angel.

one more week of maycation...