How to be Irie parents, mon.

The key to being good parents is to leave your kids for a get away vacation to Jamaica.

Sometime after the kids were born - probably while I tried to carry on a visit with Ricardo's parents with a formula spit up soiled shirt (You gotta designate between formula and breast milk, because there's a big diff) and one eye-shut from lack of sleep, while bouncing a poohey diapered baby on my knee - somewhere in all of that, my awesome in-laws -Gramma and Bean -announced that they would watch the kids while Ricardo and I would be going on a vacation just the two of us at least once a year. That is was important to our marriage. I think it's a gift they wanted to give us, a luxury that wasn't provided for them. And we've taken full advantage of it I'd say maybe averaging out to probably more than once a year.

This year however was tricky, because Ricardo has school. And work. And me too. And the kids. So, we calculated this one week in the entire year where we could get away, and Gramma and Bean could come watch the kids while they were in school. It's best to get away while the kids are in school so that Gramma and Bean could get a little break and recuperate during the day. It was the perfect storm. We checked with the in-laws casually, researched trips and get aways, floundering on whether we should go so far, or stay in the states. Blah blah blah. All-Inclusive or off the map? Once we got it all figured out, we booked a trip to Jamaica. And then we called Gramma and Bean and announced the good news. After all we were doing what his parents told us to for goodness sake. Isn't this great!? And then we realized Gramma was about to have knee replacement surgery.

So, while Gramma stayed home, doing physical therapy and working hard to recuperate, Bean got suckered into Mr. Mom role for a week. I must say, I'm a wee bit of a control freak, but I think its mild compared to some of y'all out there. You know who you are. I made a list of activities and minivan deliveries, a list of doctors and neighbors, and a list of their daily routine. And then I bolted. Quite frankly, I was a little nervous the ease of my job was about to be revealed. It's tricky at times, but now that we're out of diapers, potty training. The kids can tie their own shoes now. Good gravy, they can write in cursive. So, we left. And we left in full faith that the kids would take good care of Bean. Woops, I mean Bean would take good care of the kids.

So, Ricardo and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary a few weeks early with a trip to Jamaica mon. We enjoyed rum, Red Stripe, warmth, and having full conversations and completing our own sentences without being interrupted with a life lesson for a child like: "Don't interrupt." "Chew your food, baby." "Please wash your hands before you...ack, too late." Very important like that. We also weren't interrupted with "Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad!" I think you get the point.

What with all that talk in the last post about discipline and focus and lack there of. The BEST thing to do would be go to Jamaica. I mean, really. It took me a month to prepare for the trip. A week to enjoy the trip. And another week to get back into the groove of things like "Working" or "Exerting any energy" or "Doing dishes" .

Still, we made it and it was everything we'd hyped it up to be and more.

We each did our own research of Jamaica. Ricardo discovered a jerk chicken hut, and whatever other kind of smoked meats they had going at the time. The Jerk Hut was open for lunch every day.

By the way, we picked All-Inclusive. I might have insisted on it. This ensures options, binging, and no doing dishes. It also ensures some sweet Jamaican tells me how pretty I am while he pours me a drink.

This is so way better than Corona. How do you like the foodtography?

Ricardo lugged 25 academic articles to read and take notes on for some gigantic paper for his MBA class. So, he was not too pleased at my sudden and yet incessant kackling and delight in reading of my book on my ipod touch. Then ofcourse, I had to explain. Which I know is annoying, but seriously, you can't read chapter title like "Sold! To the Woman Holding Her Teeth!" and just keep that to yourself. Right? It's Wade Rouse's fault. I'm maritally obligated to share the funny. His book, It's All Relative, is a book about life with family over the holidays. It does not disappoint. Unless you're reading academic articles under a tree in the Carribean while your wife kackles.

Can you pick out which one is on stilts here?

That's an Sandals island over there. I know where they went with that. "Exclusive Sandals Island." But you have to take a boat to get there. I could have swam there. I'm just saying. I found out later, it's where the Europeans go to be topless. Wish I'd brought Ricardo's binoculars. Or maybe not. We did not stay at the Sandals, we just had a view of their "island". We stayed at the RIU. They are absolutely pristine and beautiful resorts. I hope to visit many more RIU's!

I took this picture for my moms. Just looked pretty. Never mind that I'm balancing while hiking up a waterfall at Dunn's River Falls...

This is the tree we lounged under. Every day. All day.

We asked a lady to take this picture for us. This is me laughing at her. She had a really hard time figuring out how to operate a camera for such tall people. It probably took her 10 minutes to take 5 pictures. 4 of which, Ricardo's head is cut off. The stilts guy would have really thrown her off. Sometimes I think that song Short People Got No Reason To Live is kinda mean. And then mostly I feel it's validated...

I made Ricardo take a picture next to this sign at the Bar. He has no idea why because Ricardo is not the music fan I am. I did all kinds of music research for this trip. There's Bob Marley and his most famous album Exodus. But I appreciate more, the stories of the artists. Like Bob Marley died at age 36 and fathered 13 kids...but two of those are debatable. What?

We'd had a few Pina Colada's and got caught in the rain. I can't even make that up. Seriously. It happened. It really happened. Right after I took this picture, trying to be all interpretive photographer with my waterproof camera and all, the water waved up and took my drink out to sea. Aw, poor me. I walked over and got another. Hooray for interpretive landscaping photography and all-inclusive resorts!

We've been to several places in Mexico, Belize, Ricardo has been to Ireland, and now we've been to Jamaica. I can wholly say, Jamaica will be seeing us again. As soon as our fiscal year is up with Gramma and Bean!

That's how I roll.
Song of the day: Love is My Religion by Damian Marley