Okay, I've finally found some time to get pictures from our travels uploaded to the computer. Bear with me - there's a lot to cover!! (If you just want to see pictures scroll down.) We started our travels the first weekend of July. We drove to Houston (we're getting very good at that drive!) on Thursday and headed to Gigi and Grandpa Randy's house. We got everything unpacked and settled in for some good visiting. Friday (the 4th) was spent hanging out with family and watching the fireworks (on TV, maybe next year we'll actually make it out to see some in person). Saturday morning we went to visit my Aunt Carole, Uncle Ron, cousin Lisa, and Uncle Scott. We hadn't seen each other since Christmas, so it was great to get a little time to visit. Then Saturday afternoon/evening was spent getting last minute stuff ready to leave for JAMAICA!! Because we would need to leave before Drew got up on Sunday morning, we told him goodbye and left him with Gigi and Grandpa Randy while we went to run some more errands and see a movie (Wall-E which was pretty cute). (I felt better having told him goodbye and having them put him to bed and be there when he woke up, rather than us putting him to bed and then just not being there for several days.) Drew and Gigi and crew had a wonderful time while we were gone. They played at the fountains in The Woodlands, visited friends and family, went swimming in the pool (Drew's first time!), got a haircut, ate guacamole (it's a good thing he visits Gigi - cause Mommy and Daddy would never expose him to that, but supposedly he LOVED it), and lots more fun and exciting things!! I'm sure he barely had time to miss us - but he sure was glad when we were back = big smiles and hugs!!! Then the second weekend was full with more family visits. Friday morning we went to visit my Grandma and Gramps and then Saturday morning Russell's sister, Auntie Randi, got into town after a 3 week trip to India!! We got to spend time with her and their grandparents for most of the day. Sunday was church and then load up the car and make our trek back to Louisiana. We love our visits back to Texas, but it sure is nice to sleep in your own bed again!!
Looking at birds with Papaw Dave
Eating at the table (sitting on books)
3 Wiggins boys
Drew watching fireworks
Dancing to the music
Check out the shirt - so appropriate (Thanks Gigi!)
Cool dudes with their sunglasses
Playing with
Gramps
Cuties in the pool!!
Now, for the Jamaica story. We had a really nice time and were super appreciative that Gigi and Grandpa were willing to keep Drew while we were gone (we really had to twist their arm,
haha!). It's so nice to know that he is completely taken care of and not have to worry about that while we were gone. Jamaica is a wonderful place to visit (if you've never been I highly recommend it). We went to Jamaica for the first time on our honeymoon (6 years ago!). This time we stayed on the opposite side of the island, in
Ocho Rios (we were in
Negril before). While it was a nice trip, and certainly refreshing, I must admit that I was a little disappointed. Maybe it was my high expectations or the picture in my head, but this time the resort/trip just didn't blow me away. Now, don't get me wrong, we had a good time and were able to reconnect and relax, it just wasn't as great as I had hoped. One of the big things that we missed was watching the sunset over the ocean. With the way this resort was situated we not only couldn't see the sunset (it was on the wrong side), but you couldn't see the sunrise either (if you were up and wanted to). There were much more mountains and landscape to see, but the beach left something to be desired (at least for us). It as nice, but small and a little crowded. Overall this resort seemed to have a much more "Spring Break" feel than our last one. Don't know if it's the brand, the location, or simply that we've gotten a little older. So, all in all, it was a good vacation - but not what I would call amazing. There was one thing that we did that was pretty awesome though (and it was a major factor in us choosing to come to
Ocho Rios this time). We were able to hike Dunn's River Falls. It's a huge waterfall that they take groups up and it was awesome - much more physically demanding than I anticipated - but so much fun. We had to wear these special water climbing shoes and made a huge "human chain" to make it up. Our guides were great and took pictures for us at certain points, but those pictures are on our waterproof camera, so I'll have to see if I can scan some of them to post.
The view from our room
The beach and beautiful water
Waterfall in the pool
Russell by the Bob Marley tree stump on the pitch-and-putt golf course
Us at dinner one night (the desserts were wonderful!)
Relaxing at it's finest
A special pic, just for Auntie Randi
Drew found our old yellow pitcher in the cabinet and has thoroughly enjoyed pushing it all around the house.
He finally has long enough legs to be able to sit on his "lion," now he's just got to figure out how to make it move.
Drew LOVES to eat with a fork (or two), especially macaroni and cheese!!
This week we started letting him eat whole bites off of the banana - no more cutting it up into smaller pieces - he wants nothing to do with small pieces anymore
Train them while they're young! Our new favorite past time is mopping! I even went and bought him his own little mop and he loves to push it all over!!
Daddy is so silly!
Playing in the splash pool in the backyard (he's very good at pouring)
Bubbles (our first real time to try them out). Drew loved putting the wand in and out of the bottle, he didn't really care much about the actual bubbles.
