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After breakfast on Saturday and a final dip in the bath (Sienna and Yves did not partake), we headed over to Reach Falls, about half an hour to 40 minutes away. Sienna had fallen asleep during that ride (she actually fell asleep quite frequently going down the mountain!). The falls were very quaint and not what I had imagined when I think of waterfalls (I tend to think of Niagara Falls when I think of waterfalls-LOL! That’s a lot to live up to!) The water was colder so I didn’t bother changing into a bathing suit nor did Yves or Sienna. I guess I should have changed Sienna because she couldn’t get enough of the water, even tho it was cold! She wanted to go in it and ended up with a wet butt. I waded in it a bit and it felt good after awhile although the rocks made it a bit uncomfortable. Carol-Anne went all the way in, shivering at first! Gaby didn’t want to go in nor my mother in law!

After this dip, we went to have lunch at Hotel Jamaican Colors,  a cute hotel by the water that my in-laws stayed at for their anniversary. It is owned by a french couple that came to Jamaica on vacation about 5 years ago, fell in love with Jamaica and decided to move there. I believe they bought the land and built the hotel on there. How crazy is that? Instead of rooms, there are little stand alone rooms and the views of the water were really nice! The girls liked running around and the pool. They dipped their feet into the pool (of course Sienna wanted to go all the way in!) There was a very cute moment where Sienna was telling Gaby something and pointing at something, as if to say “look at that.” So cute!! Lunch was good although the wait for it was pretty long. We did not end up getting back to Kingston until around 5ish so decided to order Chinese and bring it up the mountain. We got up the mountain at around 8. I wish you could see the beautiful stars in the sky that night and apparently every night! So beautiful!!

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Yves and the girls are ready to go!

Friday was a road trip! My mother in law wanted to take us to the waterfalls and there were 2 in Jamaica that she has been to. It was decided to go to Reach Falls and we can stay overnight at Bath Fountain Hotel and Spa since it was a 2 hour drive from Kingston. Carol-Anne was able to borrow a car from a friend so we were all able to go. I was in the car with my FIL, Yves and Sienna and CA, my MIL and Gaby were in the other. It was typical Jamaican roads to Bath, passing through sugar cane fields, little villages, windy roads around the water… We got to Bath around 4 and were allowed 2 soaks in the tub during our stay. The water at Bath has been tested and it has one of the highest mineral contents in the world. It’s supposed to help such ailments as gout, some skin conditions and chronic rheumitism and disorders of the spleen and liver. Unfortunately, mosquito bites was not listed so it didn’t help me with those (the salt water from the beach did wonders though!) and I also got new ones there! It was an interesting place and I agreed with Yves when he said it had an old age home sort of feel to it, especially since the workers were wearing a sort of an orderly looking uniform on. We had a nice room with a balcony and my inlaws shared a room on the top floor. Sienna enjoyed the bath! The dinner wasn’t anything to write about although Sienna enjoyed the spicy soup they served!

Arriving at Bath

Holding hands at Bath
Here’s a cute video of Sienna giving Gaby a kiss (or 2)- please comment or e-mail me for the password!

Kiss at Bath from Lisa on Vimeo.

Hallway leading to the reception

The bath

At dinner

Enjoying the balcony

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On Thursday (the 18th) there was a power outtage in the morning. Yves had warned me this might happen and I was familiar with it from hearing about it from my in-laws. It was quite windy with a bit of rain the night before and during the early hours of the morning. Yves knew it went out because he heard the neighbor’s powerful generator come on. I wasn’t bothered by it at all. It was hard to be bothered by it when it was a bright sunny morning. If it would have happened at night, it would have been a bit spooky! Of course, if this happened at home, I’d be pissed! My father in law started the generator (after some initial trouble) and was able to plug the refrigerator in. Rema, their housekeeper, came in early to make us some johnnycakes. YUM! (I might give the recipe a try! They tasted just as good without butter as they did with butter!
Rema’s Johnnycakes!

Gaby eats a sausage!

Sienna’s chatting with Gaby

A tired Gaby with Rema

We decided to head over to the neighbor’s yard because they have a swing and slide set for the girls. Their kids are a bit older but told my mother in law that they were welcome to come over and use the set at anytime. Sienna was quite happy about that!

Trying to coordinate double swinging unsuccessfully!

The 2nd or 3rd rainbow seen so far on the trip!

In the afternoon, we went for another little walk in search of a cow we heard the other day. The walk was not as steep as the first day. It was a nice walk and got to see the sunset. We didn’t find any cows though but did see some roosters.

Yves holding a tired Gaby!

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Wednesday we went to the beach called Hellshire, a locals beach, no tourists at all and JP met us there. It’s about an hour from Kingston and since it takes almost an hour to get down the mountain, it was about a 2 hour ride to the beach. And since we were only visiting for a week, we only got a chance to go once. It’s a beach the family has been going to for years and they always go to Shorty’s Joint. The beach has a bunch of shacks that people make food in and they have wooden lounges in front. Shorty’s was the one we went to. We had fried fish, festival (a fried dough) and bammy’s. YUM! (Although I got a fish bone stabbed into my gums relatively early, I still enjoyed the fish!)

photo by Shuggy

While waiting for our lunch, my father in law enjoyed some fresh raw oysters. There were various people walking around trying to sell stuff to people. Such as horse rides, fresh lobster (any of the shacks will cook it up for you), fresh oysters and massages (!). The rest of us enjoyed the wonderful, warm, blue water. Sienna loved it and would not stop laughing or smiling. The water was a tad rough but wonderful all the same. Sienna went in quite a few times and I know I probably could have stayed in it all day! Gaby seemed to be enjoying the sand more that day and Sienna was just as content in doing that as well!

On the way back from the beach, we finally enjoyed our first truly Jamaican patty! My mother in law picked us up some from Tastees, as we were told this is the best place. It was quite delicious and the crust was thinner than the ones we are used to at Golden Krust in NY and the meat seemed to be all meat! YUM! I wish I could have one right now! We also got to see a beautiful rainbow going up the mountain. It turned out to be the first in at least 3 more rainbows to be seen on this trip!

Sienna helping her grandpa mix up the salad for dinner.

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We spent a week in Jamaica to visit with Yves’ family. We stayed with his parents up in the mountain. Yves grew up in Jamaica and spent about 2-3 years at the mountain house during his early teen years right before moving to Chicago. Before that they lived at the beach house and I’ve heard about both these places for awhile. It was nice to finally be able to see where he grew up.

My main concern was the flight with Sienna. The flight itself was almost 4 hours and then from the airport to the mountain was almost another 2 hours. Sienna was awesome! We got her her own seat and I’m glad we did. Although she only slept half an hour on the flight, she was relatively well behaved! The only tension was landing because of her ears popping and she wouldn’t drink anything but I kept offering her water. Once we got out of customs after an hour, Yves’ parents and brother were there waiting for us. We felt the heat and humidity right away and of course I got a mosquito bite straight away! I pulled out a dress for Sienna to change into so she didn’t have to suffer too much. We headed over to pick up her cousin Gaby from day care and then spent some time at Carol-Anne’s apartment to break up the traveling. The first time up the mountain was rough for me and my bladder! Yves’ warned me about the roads but I really had no idea! It’s only 10 miles but it’s winding and bumpy so takes about 45 minutes to go up to their house.

We made it up the mountain! In front of the main house.

Going to the cottage where we’ll be living and sleeping.

Night view from the main house

Tuesday we stayed up in the mountain and roamed around the area. It’s cool up there at night and in the morning. We took a walk/hike in the morning to see the coffee plants and the mountain and wonderful views. It was also CA’s birthday so her and JP came up later for cake and dinner.

Watching the Muppets DVD in the morning

These benches are made of concrete!

Going for a tractor ride with Daddy and Grandpa!

Coffee picked and ready to be sent to the factory!

Gaby and Sienna help Grandma decorate the tree!

The next post will be about our trip to the beach at Hellshire! Yves also has a flickr set that he’s updating faster than I am posting! Check it out here!

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I promise a post soon about our wonderful trip to Jamaica! I thought instead of getting too far behind, I would post about Christmas and hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

We made out pretty good since we really didn’t want to spend too much on gifts because of our trip. I really lucked out as Yves bought me a new ipod! 120 gb! What a surprise too! I also got some afghan hooks to try tunisian crochet, a zakka sewing book, ‘tell me what to say‘ parenting book and a case for my new ipod! I got Yves one of those furry bomber hats and a pair of Keen shoes (which were a bit too small but since I got it from zappos.com, they were open today and able to exchange them- I LOVE zappos.com and wish all online stores were as good as them!) Sienna made out pretty well with a farm set, baking set, guitar, toy camera and Auntie Joy stopped by later and gave her a Little People’s camping set. She played with it all! My parents had also bought her a table and chair set and some cute clothes. Yves family gave us a nice assortment of stuff that we carried home in our bags. I got pretty earrings and an earring and necklace set, Yves got a book and a t-shirt and Sienna got a pretty gold bracelet, some books and a puzzle board and we are all sharing the Jamaican rubber bracelets and keychain and screwdriver set with JP’s radio station logos on them, a bossa n’ Bob Marley covers CD an Jamaica cap! I hope I didn’t forget anything! I made a bacon, egg and cheese frittata and turkey sausage for breakfast and my parents came over for lunch. They cooked broccoli, baby bok choy and spinach and we ordered Hong Kong style steak and Honey Walnut Shrimp from the chinese restaurant. All quite good! We were able to connect with the family in Jamaica and got to watch them open the presents we got for them. Almost as good as being there!

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Yves got himself an early Christmas present! It’s replacing his G4 tower so it’s a long overdue upgrade. It’s pretty cool!

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Yves says that of all the years we’ve been together, I might have helped decorate the tree once. It’s true that I get lazy in decorating for the holidays so I can’t really dispute that but I don’t believe it was only once! Maybe twice! In any case, I did not help this time. Yves and Sienna decorated the tree on Sunday, a perfect rainy day activity!

Sienna was actually helping by handing Yves the ornaments from the box!

Here is a picture of the tree lit

You can see it better in this photo. Don’t they look damn cute?

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I think Sienna’s almost ready for Guitar Hero World Tour!

And here is a cute picture of Sienna at Emma’s house for a playdate. Those are Sienna’s mango snack and Emma loves them too! So nice of Sienna to share! 😉

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The past few Fridays haven’t been terrible but they weren’t very pleasant because they were filled with doctor appointments. The 14th was for Sienna’s chest x-ray and blood test. Her new doctor wanted her to get an x-ray because of the coughing she was still having just to double check. The blood test was to test for lead, apparently that’s a new thing and recommended by the American Association of Pediatrics (I guess her old doctor didn’t follow the AAP). Yves took off to go with me because I didn’t think I could handle the x-ray. Well, the x-ray went smoothly, no tears! It was the blood test that produced tears! Poor thing! They had to get 4 vials of blood (not filled) and by the 3rd one, Sienna wasn’t very happy and no matter how me, Yves or Bob tried to console her, the tears came. We went to the library after that (we were in and out in an hour!!) and she was fine for the rest of the day. Me and Yves were more traumatized and Yves felt like taking a nap! LOL

The next Friday was my turn, going back to see the cardiologist for a follow up. I try not to get annoyed at waiting for 2+ hours to get in but I can’t help it. Either they overbook or the doctor comes in late or something because I always ask for the very first appt. and the assistant assures me I’m getting it yet I still wait so long. UGH!! I was supposed to do a stress test back in October but the insurance wouldn’t cover it so the doctor went to another center and somehow I got in. So the following Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, I went in for a stress test. I couldn’t eat breakfast or have any caffeine and the test took about 2.5 hours. It didn’t feel like that long because I hardly had to wait for anything (how pleasant!). They took a sonogram of my heart, pictures of my heart then I had to walk on the treadmill for about 3 minutes and then they took more pictures of my heart. I had to wear a heart monitor for 24 hours, a little gadget with wires attached to my chest. It’s not a big deal, I had worn it before several years ago when I was getting heart palpitations and that’s how I found out I had mitral valve prolapse. I had to drop off the monitor the next day so we’ll see what happens! I hope these next few Fridays will be doctorless!

There were 4 more of these plugs on my stomach area

Here’s the monitor around my waste.

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