Yeah Mon Jamaica!

We never got a really good honeymoon after we got married, so we finally decided to take one.  We flew Annette's cousin, Kassie, out to watch the kids while we went to Jamaica.

When Kassie came to babysit, we took her to see a beautiful trail and the Susquehanna River.

Our flight there was uneventful except that Charles name was spelled wrong so we spent an unexpected half an hour trying to get his name changed before we could check in.  Customs in Jamaica was pretty easy and fast.  We figured that we would need to change at least some of our money in to Jamaican dollars so we did so.  Come to find out they pretty much all use US currency.  The Jamaicans thought we were super crazy to have made such a dumb mistake like that.

We stayed at Half Moon Bay in Rose Hall Jamaica.  This little movie shows you what the entrance of the lobby is like.  The highlight is the last couple of seconds when the lobby is graced by Annette's presence.

We are not sure which room we were supposed to stay in, 145 or 154 because there was contradicting information.  The bell hop led us to 154 and our keys worked there.  We loved our room and where it was located.  Here is a little tour of it.

This was our balcony.  You can see that it was raining on the first day which was SO gorgeous.  We really got blessed that the weather cooled down so much since everyone said it had been quite hot and dry for sometime before.

This was the restaurant we ate at the most and this is what the area looked like.  The whole main lobby and most restaurants are open to the environment.  There are no doors.  We loved that open feel.

This picture (like most) is better if you blow it up to full size.  This tree was covered in vines and was pretty amazing.  We spent Monday mostly familiarizing ourselves with Half Moon Bay and enjoying the rain.

This is a picture of the beach, but it looks like Charles is blocking the view.  There is a cool gray type bird on the building which we saw frequently on our trip.

Annette loved this grass.  It was so fun to walk on the grass since it was so squishy.  The grass is called zoysia tenuifolia.  It doesn't have to be mowed, but when it goes a very long time without mowing it mounds up.  It is great for everything except for daily wear.

Here's Annette playing with the grass.

Up there with chocolate and puppies, girls like little bridges.  Annette enjoyed this one.

Charles really loved all of the different flowers and took a picture of a few like the bush below.

Everything in Jamaica is so green!  When walking in puddles of rain water it is warm!  We love the ivy growing on the cement wall.

The palm trees grow so straight. 

We watched the sun set on our first night.  Gorgeous!

Tuesday we hired a taxi to spend the whole day with us and take us wherever we wanted to go.  We were all alone in a very new nice Toyota HiAce.  It was our first time being driven down the opposite side of the road--thank you British Empire.  We had the driver take us to another popular vacation destination, a city called Ocho Rios.  There's a place there called Mystic Mountain where we took a ski lift up a mountain and then rode a Jamaican bobsled ride and did ziplines down part of the mountain.  Keeping Utah in mind, we use the word mountain purposefully (not PA hills).  Some of their mountains are thousands of feet high straight out of the ocean.

We went up this huge ski lift up the mountain.

Here is a view of the water from about half way up the ski lift.

And the view in front of us.  We were SUPER high up.  This sent nervous pains through Charles' body since some of those trees are probably around 100' tall.

While on the ski lift we got to see up high into the trees.  All of the trees had vines growing up them, but some trees had other plants growing on them.  This tree had something that looked like aloe vera growing on it.  I guess some birds dropped some seeds on the tree and then they grew.

We went on a "bobsled".

And went ziplining.  They were pretty good ziplines, but we didn't scream once.  Everyone else in our group screamed.  The guides thought we were extra tough.  Annette didn't think it was as nearly as scary as childbirth, so no need to scream.


This is one large tree with other multiple trees/vines growing up all around it so you can hardly see the large main tree in the middle.

Also while ziplining we saw these trees growing up out from a rock.

The double cables seemed like a nice touch for safety--not that the line would break, but in case the tree broke.

We ate this fruit call ginuep (not our photo).  They were tasty.  They have a big seed in the middle so you suck that fleshy part off.  Why don't they have these at Walmart?  Speaking of Walmart, there is a shack in Jamaica that was painted with the words, "Future Walmart".  Our taxi driver pointed it out to us saying it was the closest they had to the store.

Here is another gigantic tree.  This one was next to the Luminous Lagoon which is in between Montego Bay and Ocho Rios.  Do you see Annette?

The Luminous Lagoon (not our photo) was one of the biggest reasons Annette wanted to go to Jamaica.  At night time the microbs in the water glow when they are disturbed.  There are only four places in the world where this happens and Jamaica is the only one that is all year and the brightest.  We took a boat out and then Annette hopped in and swam around.  She felt like she was glowing like an angel.  It was her very favorite part of the trip.  The Jamaicans said that when it rains the entire lagoon glows like crazy.  It was super hard to take our own photos and an incredibly nice camera is needed.

Wednesday we watched the dolphins.  Half Moon Bay has six dolphins in a blocked off part of the ocean.

They swam about 30 feet from us and we could tell that they wanted to play with us, but we left that for our some other time.

We went horseback riding!

It was fun to try out an English saddle, but we kept grabbing for the horn that wasn't there.  We trotted around here to get to know our animal.  Trotting is painful.

Annette's always wanted to go horseback riding on the beach so we were able to check this one off of her bucket list.

Riding in shorts is not recommended.  Your legs get rubbed raw.

The horses want to drink the water, but you can't let them get much because it's so salty.  They don't use salt blocks for their horses because of the ocean.

This is just a gorgeous picture along our ride, even if it was just taken with Charles' phone.

We got to ride the horses into the ocean which was awesome!  Charles' horse pooped in the water.  That kind of squelched Charles' desire to go swimming in the ocean.  

Luckily his phone wasn't dropped on the ride.  You can imagine how hard it might be to get good pictures/video while on a horse!

We decided to wake up and check out the sunrise Thursday morning.  This was a little pier we walked down.

The beach didn't have a ton of rocks, but when it did, they looked incredible.

More gorgeous rocks

We found these little critters while we were waiting for the sun to rise.

We had to wait over an hour for the sun to rise because it wasn't all the way up until 5:45.

A few other things that we did were swimming in the pool and ocean, kayaking, working out in their Fitness Center (which is nicer than LA Fitness), being eaten alive by mosquitoes, Annette waking up super early, and the ATM eating our debit card leaving us with no cash.

Thursday we went swimming in the pool for a second time.  They also had a lap pool and a hot tub.


Some food we ate: jerk chicken with rice, jerk pulled pork, jerk sausage sandwich, omelets, smoothies, minestrone soup, Bomboloni (cream puff dessert thing), beef patty (breaded), and coco bread.  When you eat anywhere there was always 10% tax on food and 15% for gratuity even if it wasn't a sit down place.

This was growing just outside the steps up to our room.

Guess who didn't forget dressy clothes?  Now guess who did?  We wanted to eat at their nicest restaurant, an Italian restaurant named Il Giardino, but the guys had to have a full button-up dress shirt and dress slacks to eat there.  We convinced the restaurant next door which only requires dress shorts and polo shirts to serve us from the Italian menu. It's all the same company.

We got the best desserts ever!  Charles' was called Tortino Tepido Di Cioccolato Fondant Con Salame Al Cioccolato.  Translated, that must mean chocolate cake with molten middle, chocolate mousse, and two disks of fudge.  It was so heavenly that Charles got that Wednesday and Thursday night.  Oh, and the mint chocolate chip ice cream scoop was incredible as well.

Annette got the best salted caramel ice cream she had ever had!  If Charles predeceases her, she's found her new companion.

Our flights home weren't too bad.  Our layover in South Carolina was when we did customs coming back into the US.  We barely made it to our next flight since customs took so long and we had to go through security again.  One thing about customs that I didn't know was that you have to fill out these cards with info each time and of course we didn't have a pen either time and had to borrow one from a fellow fliers.

Kassie and the kids made this super cute little welcome home sign for us.  She cleaned our house spotless for us when we got back and we were so grateful!  The kids loved her and can't wait to see her again in a week and a half in California.

We brought home this Conch shell.  It was Annette's souvenir.


Charles and the kids all got Jamaican shirts.

Charlie Loves Being 4

Charlie is an amazing four year old!  He feels so mature and older now that he is four.  He feels like he can conquer the world and do anything that is hard.  He has been telling me what things he can do now that he is four and here is his list.  After writing the list he posed for me to take pictures of him doing some of the things.

Charlie has huge muscles because he is so strong!

Charlie can share and not take.  Charlie is good at cleaning up his room every evening before bed.

Charlie loads the dishwasher. 

Charlie can sweep the floor. 

Charlie can wash the windows.  Charlie helps clean a lot of the home.

Charlie can kill flies. 

Charlie decided that now he was four he would start singing in primary.  Every Sunday when we came home from church I would ask if he sang in primary and he would always say no.  I would then ask if other kids sang in primary and he would say yes.  After his birthday song was sung to him on Sunday he wanted to sing in primary now that he was four.

Charlie has gotten much better about talking to his friends (we refer to everyone as friends, not strangers, he has enough stranger danger, no need to increase it).

Charlie is very good at getting himself dressed every morning before breakfast, often it is even before we come out of our room.

Charlie is good at opening large doors, like the truck door.

The last thing that Charlie said he was good at was chopping trees.  I guess watching your parents rip bushes out of the front yard is like chopping a tree down yourself.

Charlie is such an awesome boy and we love him so much.  He is such a great big brother and loves being four years old. 

Why I Did My Triathlon

Charles wrote about the general day of the triathlon.  But now I want to tell you the back story of my triathlon.  Prepare yourself for a grand, life changing story... (sorry no major weight loss pictures)

I have never been athletic.  I have never hidden that fact.  It was just who I was.  I had never believed that I could ever be athletic.  A few months back, around the beginning of March, Charles convinced me that we should get gym memberships so that we could go on more dates (to the gym), but at a lower cost.  The main reason is because his back and core needed strengthening.  And it would also provide the kids with an opportunity to get out of the house and be with other little kids.  I consented, rather reluctantly.  After a few times of going I was rather enjoying myself.

I was fairly proud of myself for actually going and working out.  I was mostly riding the stationary bikes.  After about two weeks of going I got the crazy idea that I should do a triathlon.  I still hadn't really swam hardcore in the pool and still had never touched the treadmill.  I hated running.  I was literally scared of it.  I couldn't run at any sort of slow pace for more than half a minute.

When I told Charles about my crazy hairbrain idea he could hardly believe that his un-athletic wife had come up with something so not like herself.  I honestly don't know why I decided to do it.  I have always looked at people who do races to simply beat their prior times as ridiculous.  Why would you pay money for someone to time you when you could go out and do it by yourself and time yourself.  I think possibly one of the reasons I latched onto the idea was to give myself a goal to focus on in my life.  I wanted to break out of just being a mommy.  I wanted to find myself, a new part of myself.  Four years ago I was overdue with Charlie and since his birth my life has been directed toward the kids most of the time.

But once I latched onto the idea of the triathlon I had a greater drive and motivation.  I hopped on the treadmill with a determination to actually learn to run.  I started swimming with a determination to learn how to swim properly with my face in the water.  I googled every problem that I was encountering.  I googled how to learn to run.  How to breath while swimming.  How to kick properly.  How to change a bike tire.  I wanted to know everything.

As I was looking around for a triathlon in the area I realized that most were on Sunday and the few that were not on Sunday were in Philly, Pittsburgh, or New Jersey.  With Philly being the closest I was drawn to that, but the date of the race was sooner that I wanted.  I didn't think I would be ready in time.  And then I remembered a story about my Grandma Hatch when she was learning to play the recorder and wanted to play in church.  It motivated me to do it even if I didn't feel 100% prepared.

While on my journey of training for the triathlon Charles' cousin, Stephanie, ran the Boston Marathon and posted about her journey to accomplishing it.  She said that ten years prior she couldn't run a mile and a half.  I thought to myself, "Annette, if Stephi can go from that to a marathon, I can learn to run, too."  Every time I got on the treadmill I thought of Stephi running her marathon.

Through all of my googling I came across something that said something along the lines about just starting the race, you don't even have to finish.  If you even start the race you will have done more than not starting it.  It gave me a new perspective.  I would be fine with simply starting the race.  If my body gave out and I couldn't continue that would be fine.  I still accomplished more than I had before.  I gave my best effort.

When I crossed the finish line my body was really at the end of it's line, well, at least my legs.  My arms were still fine since the swim was cancelled.  I was so happy to have done it.  I thoroughly enjoyed having finished my triathlon, or at least 2/3rds of a triathlon as the case was.  I am still very un-athletic and have a long way to go.  But I want to continue.  I want to do it again and maybe again and again.  I want to keep my body healthy and strong.  I still don't really enjoy working out as much as a lot of people at the gym.  I don't really like getting sweaty and stinky.  But I like having a body that can run, bike, and swim.  I often think about an emergency situation.  Could I run/bike/swim if I had to save my life?  Can I go the distance to save myself?  Heavenly Father gave me this body and I need to take care of it.  I can accomplish goals and do hard things beyond my comfort zone.

First Triathlon!

The trip began by me going to work in King of Prussia while the rest of the family went to see Valley Forge.  It seems the trip to Valley Forge went as well as you might expect for having three kids along and it culminated in a bee sting on Annette's foot.  She thought her triathlon was doomed, but she trudged on in the spirit of perseverance as portrayed in the history of Valley Forge.

After work we went to the hotel and took off to the triathlon to sign in and pick up Annette's packet for the next day.  We ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant with my coworker, Doug, and his girlfriend.  We got to the hotel about two hours later than we wanted to and got a rotten night's sleep!

Annette thought that doing a triathlon wasn't crazy enough so she got a tattoo beforehand.  Just kidding.  Apparently, they write your number on both arms with a Sharpie AND they write the age you turn that year on one of your calves.  If you're the type of person to hide your age, a triathlon is not for you.

A mother's work is never done.

Never ever.

Henry was quite happy and agreeable for most of the trip.  His happiness was momentarily hindered when, seconds before his mother crossed the finish line, a very large lady who was running at a good speed (a spectator) plowed him over.  Granted, he probably staggered in front of her, but she probably should have been more careful, too.  She went flying into a crowd of people and I think got hurt worse than Henry.  I ignored it all so I could take Annette's pictures as she crossed the finish line while my coworker Doug tried to calm his wrecked nerves.

Thanks to the BYU jackets, we ran into some Alumni from New Jersey who wanted to stop and chat. We saw others with BYU garb, but didn't get to say "Hi".

Annette's pre-triathlon warmup.

Annette's in there.  This picture is like Where's Waldo.

There's Annette and her running buddy, Casey, who she met while they were standing at the starting gate.  They helped encourage each other through the first run.

 

The kids mostly hung around the bike trailer while they waited...

...and waited....

...and waited...

...but they were quite a bit more patient than I think I would have been at that age.  Little did Henry know that this was where he was soon to be obliterated by someone 10x his size.

And the triumphant moment arrives!

I was surprised she had energy to be almost silly at the finish line.

If you blow this photo up you can see her time, except you have to subtract time since she started in the third wave.  She came in 95th out of the 99 in her wave (women 29 and under).  

She found her new friend afterward and got a picture taken.

She got her time breakdown for each part of the race.  Run (1st 1.55 miles), T1 (first transition time), Bike (15.7 miles), T2 (second transition time), and Run (2nd 1.55 miles).  Total time: 1:55:36!  The swim part got cancelled due to weather/poor river conditions so they split the run up on either side of the biking so they would still have two transitions.  The running was Annette's personal best time.  Annette didn't realize until a few days before that the biking was 15.7 miles, she thought it was 15 miles, so it was the farthest she had ever biked, another personal best.

But not even Annette could be as tuckered out as these little guys.  They were as tired as if they had competed in a triathlon!  Elizabeth got to wear the finisher's medal.  I would say the only thing more miraculous than all of these events was that our gold fish didn't die while we were gone for about 30 hours.

Summer Fun

I made a road for the boys' cars and trucks.  It was a Pinterest idea which worked great.  The parking lot area was Charlie's idea though.  I have since made more corners so it works better.  It is a bit slippery on the hard floor and Lizzy messes it up, but on carpet the road pieces don't move as much.

We have been enjoying the outdoors with chalk!

Lizzy loves to collect and recollect all of the chalk.  After a few minutes she is filthy!

I have decided that I am going to be creative and try to draw something new for the kids every few days.  I started off with a train.

I drew this fish and part of it that is not in the photo is a river going up our steps that the fish is swimming in.

We are ripping out the two large bushes in our front yard so my herbs and other useful plants can have more space to grow.  I made this wreath with the branches of one of the bushes.  I added lavender and a ribbon to make it all pretty.  It is dying quickly and will be in the trash tomorrow, but it was fun while it lasted.

Lizzy needed no teaching about necklaces.  She loves them and has commandeered all available necklaces that I would let her have.  She often also wears my sewing measuring tape and unplugged power cords draped over her shoulders.  She has been really good at not choking herself too which is a defiant benefit.  Oh, her umbilical hernia is apparently not as large as it seems and won't need surgery unless it is not gone by age 4.