Sick September

I can't believe October's a week away! I'm very thankful for this, however, as our entire September has been sickness in the Vaca household. The moment we walked back in the door from our Jamaican trip Audrey was running a nice high fever. By the time I got her to the doctor two days later, she was all better. The next week I came down with strep throat. I've never had it before, and I never want it again. I seriously thought the pain might kill me it was so bad! My sweet husband took over, cancelled all his trips (he even had a fun one to Purdue), and took care of the fam while I quarantined myself in our bedroom and recuperated.

Fast forward to this week. Shortly after these cute photos were taken at an awesome park down in Waxhaw, Ava passed up a pizza lunch so she could take her afternoon nap instead (NOT a normal reaction for a three year old.) The throwing up and fevers started shortly after. The first two days of this week Ava spent at home with me recovering from what we think is seasonal flu. The girl watched more TV than she's watched in her entire three years of life! Thank goodness for Redbox. Who knew Dora had so many movies out there?

As we roll into the last week, we're eagerly awaiting October. Fall is my personal favorite, and we have a lot of fun things planned like a trip to Purdue for homecoming, and our annual get together with Jim's family in the PA mountains. Can't wait! Stay healthy everyone... and get your flu shots!

By the way, Audrey is the sweetest, happiest baby in the world. She is now saying "da da da da" all the time and enjoys clapping her hands. Too cute!

Ya Mon!

So we are back from our anniversary trip to Jamaica. We enjoyed four glorious days of basking in the sun, reading books, and simply enjoying one another's company. Our resort was small, but had everything we needed. The best part of the trip were the beaches. This was the first time we'd finally succeeded at locating crystal clear water (even 40 feet deep) and perfectly white sand. It was simply divine!

Our resort had free watersports and activities, so we took advantage of them. Twice we went on the snorkel dive, and once we took the catamaran sunset cruise (where we stopped to swim in caves along the rocky shore.) As for watersports, we learned how to windsurf (I made it out to sea but couldn't seem to come back in, so Jim rode a waterbike out to rescue me). We also ocean kayaked and rode the aforementioned water bikes (which remind me of the one Barbie had when I was a kid growing up.)

We got to see jellyfish and stingray pretty close up as well which was cool and scary all at once. One day, I even got stung by a jellyfish! That was a first for me, and I'm happy to report that while it does hurt like a SOB, it's not as bad as you think it's going to be and the pain disappears within minutes. I never saw the little sucker before or after, and I was only in 3' of water!

One of Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville restaurants was in Negril, just a 5 minute walk from our resort. We strolled along the beach to check it out, being offered the opportunity to buy massages, souvenirs, and weed along the way :) Anyway, we enjoyed a few Landsharks and some college football before heading back to our resort to continue wasting our days away... until next year! We think we might go back to Mexico for some nostalgia.

Disclaimer: the hardest part of vacationing without the kids is, well, not having the kids. We missed them like crazy, but know that a once-a-year getaway is a must for all healthy marriages to remain that way. We weren't worried, they were in very good hands with Grandmom and PopPop Vaca, but we couldn't way to squeeze them upon getting home!