we be jammin.

alright... Now that I have had some time to get life a little situated post-jamaica, I can now talk about my trip - Woo hoo! Fair warning, this will be a lengthy post.  Please stay away if you are annoyed by long ramblings and lots of pictures.  You have been warned.

Friday, November 6th
mr. bret lee and myself left college station around noon to head to san antonio to get the wedding festivities started for our dear friends steven and magan.  we got to the hotel, met up with bret's parents, got ready and headed out to the church for the wedding rehearsal.  very, very lovely.  steven and magan were glowing already!

After the wedding rehearsal we headed over to the rehearsal dinner at a yummy mexican restaurant.  the food was fantastic, the company wonderfully fun and the entire event went over without a single hitch!  once dinner was over, bret and i grabbed steven and took him out to meet up with a large group of our friends for a few drinks before having to turn in for the night.  i am so amazed at the large group of friends all these guys have.  maybe it's because i am a girl and i only have 2 or 3 close girlfriends... who knows!

check out that group of handsome boys!  mine's the cutest of course. no question.

Saturday, November 7th

At the crack of dawn i was up and in the hotel's gym running my 9 miles for the day. go me. i thought i was going to die but no worries, i made it!  after the workout me, bret and his parents had a yummy breakfast and then it was time to get ready and meet up with some of bret's good friends, tyler and kara, and their two precious children, kelly and presley that were in for the wedding.  last time we saw these guys was at mine and bret's wedding in mexico and kara was pregnant with presley jo! it's be a while....

that little boy right there is going to be a heart breaker.  he drew me a picture that is now proudly displayed in my house.  precious, precious boy!

That afternoon all the boys sat around entertaining steven with football and what not so my mother-in-love and myself headed off to do some shopping.  sounded like a good deal to us! i got some christmas shopping done and even managed to buy me a new dress for jamaica, some new boots and some earrings.  yay for unplanned shopping!  by the time we got back to the hotel the boys were already gone to the church so i began getting ready and then it was wedding and reception time!

check out that stud! best looking best man i've ever seen if i do say so myself!

us with the new, happily married couple! yay!

It really was a beautiful wedding with wonderful music and yes, i cried.  oh, and i had two pieces of cake. love. love. love. wedding cake. after we sent the happy couple away under a rain of sparklers, bret and i headed to the hotel for sleep.  4:30am was going to be coming way, way WAY too soon.

Sunday, November 8th

The day to head to jamaica arrived very, very early.  we were up, packed, showered and out of the hotel by 4:30am.  Geez.  We had a long drive to Houston ahead of us so thank goodness for gas station coffee and mcd's egg mcmuffin.  oh yes, and falling asleep with b-ret drove.

we are some pretty people bright and early yes? magan still had wedding hair and makeup so she shouldn't have even been allowed in this picture.  no fair.

We got to the airport with no trouble, parked, got on the shuttle and then it was the scariest thing ever... having to weigh my luggage...

does this girl know how to pack or what?!

Heading to jamaica mon! YAY!

We made it!

When we got to the airport in montego bay, our resort, Couples Negril, had their own little lounge room with people waiting on us, a bar and huge couches to lounge around on while we waiting for our bus to arrive.  I must admit, that was pretty cool. got my first taste of red stripe light while we waited. yummm.  once our bus arrived, we all piled on, the driver stopped to buy us all some more red stripe and then we started an hour and a half drive through the most gorgeous country i have ever seen.  jamaica was amazing.  i am still amazed thinking back on the style of living there.  it was very humbling and just fantastically wonderful.  i had no idea jamaica had these large green mountains rolling around the island. gorgeous!

yay for red stripe on the bus! and look closely... mine and bret's wedding koozie from Mexico came along for the trip as well.  yippee!

By the time we all got to our hotel, got checked in, got served glasses of champagne by very nice people, and changed clothes, it was time for dinner!  Hello yummy snapper.  i swear i believe i ate snapper at least once a day while in jamaica. yum

hello from jamaica! wish you were here

xx

Monday, November 9th

i am just going to throw this out there.  if monday's have to be apart of our weeks no matter what, i choose to live my monday's in jamaica.  just letting you know. me, being my typical early rising self, was up monday morning at about 6:15am... which, was 5:15am texas time.  i am crazy, deal with it. so, while everyone else continued to sleep, i decided to go walk around and take pictures!

that's right... i spent my monday morning getting to see all of thise beauty. jealous?

After walking around our resort and the beach, I headed back to the room, called and woke magan up (by request) and her and i headed to the gym to work out.  man.  i thought texas had some crazy humidity.  i was wrong.  way wrong.  running in jamaica is tough stuff.  i was sweating so badly my shins were sweating. my shins! i didn't even know that was possible.  ew.  after our work out, a much needed shower and some yummy breakfast it was time to relax and enjoy the beach!

can we say "gorgeous water" everyone?!

While we were in jamaica, around 2:00pm a little rain storm would come through just about every day so we would have to find different ways to keep ourselves busy.  Introducing the best thing i packed the entire trip:

farkle that is... not the drink. we played so much farkle in jamaica, it was awesome! seriously, everyday.  and if we weren't playing farkle then we were playing yahtzee.  bring on the false teeth and depends.  the four of us are set to go!  That evening, after the rain had passed, the four of us headed off to Rick's Cafe in Negril which is a place known for their crazy cliff divers and gorgeous sunsets.  never in my life have i seen such pretty water or such a bright, orange sun.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful and relaxing.  We got back to the hotel, had dinner and drinks and headed off to bed. (but first we played some farkle and the boys had some cigars) Yay!

Tuesday, November 10th

again. i was up bright and early, went to the internet cafe to play around and have my coffee and then came back, called to wake Magan up and we headed to workout again.  Gluten for punishment really in that humidity.  After the workout, shower and breakfast, we spent the entire day being lazy around the beach and the pool.  Took a nap in the afternoon when the rain came and then got ready for dinner at the reservation restaurant and for a fun packed night!

That evening we had some yummy, yummy and way too fancy dinner - we went to casino night at the hotel, we played farkle in the bar with our champagne and bob marley shots (ew) and then went to the piano bar the hotel was hosting.  I got to request all sorts of beatles songs, including my fave, "hey jude," so I was in hog heaven!

Wednesday, November 11th (Happy Veterans Day)

this was a day full of nothing! man how I love nothing days.  beach. pool. nap. food here and there. laziness.  that evening we all loaded up and headed to margarittaville for a relaxing drink which was super fun and again, gorgeous!

got to have the large drinks, yes?  When we got back to the hotel it was just in time to see a gorgeous sky, eat dinner, have a few drinks and hit the hay!

Thursday, November 12th

thusday... oh thursday... Thursday was the day that everyone decided to go scuba diving.  I did not want to go.  I had no desire in fact but I didn't want to be left behind.  But, turns out, I know myself and need to learn to listen to myself!  I did the pool training and said peace out.  scuba diving was not for me.  i need WAY more control if I am going to be 30 feet underwater with the sharks who will eat me alive. peace.out.  i did however get to go out on the boat ("i'm on a boat!") and chat it up with the boat captain. yippee!

after the scuba trip it was lunch time (yippee, food!) nap time, i headed to the gym to run 5 miles, dinner and relaxing time.  Oh yes, we played a couples game show thing that night... it was dumb but bret and i rocked. duh! ;)

Friday, November 13th (Happy birthday to my sister, Shannon!)

friday came way too quickly... last full day in jamaica, last night to be on the beach.  boo.  After a 5 miles run, we spent the entire morning at the beach, walking down to local spots, ate lunch at the grill, magan and i made some shirts, got ready and took pictures on the beach and then it was time to call it a night and get ready to leave on saturday. sad day, but gorgeous weather!

Saturday, November 14th (Happy birthday hubs!)

boo. saturday.  got up, turned our beach towels in, ate breakfast, checked out, went to get on the bus and realized i was missing my camera, snatched our room key back from the front desk, ran 100 mph to the room, found the camera, ran back in time to catch the bus to the room! geez.  Got on the bus and watched beautiful Jamaica go bye-bye

We headed off to the airport where we got to witness a strike by the airport employees... interesting.  Weighed my suitcase and actually went down a pound, go me! (bret's however went up, lol)  shopped around the airport, ate lunch, got on the plane, flew back to Texas, got in the car, grabbed chick-fil-a for dinner, drove back to college station and enjoyed sleeping in our own bed for the first time in over a week. yay!

Sunday, November 15th

we are officially home!  Our Sunday was filled with unpacking, making and eating cinnamon rolls, going grocery shopping, getting the cruddy underwater camera film developed, doing a lot of laundry, running 10 miles (yes, 10, ugh) watching football, taking a nap, eating tacos for dinner and falling asleep while trying to catch up on our shows on the DVR.

ta-dah!

Now... while I was gone I was given an award! Yippe! Thank you very much Lauren @ Dreams Take Flight for presenting me with this super fun award!

How sweet of you to remember one of your newest followers!  Lauren has a fabulous blog full of fabulous posts so please, everyone scurry on over there and say HELLO! Maybe you will get an award too! ;)

Following in Lauren's shoes, I would like to pass this award on to some of my newest followers and people who have stopped by my blog lately.  I love all the new people I am getting to meet and all of yall's blogs are too much fun!

Brittany @ Sweet, Sassy and Oh So Classy

Caroline @ Simply Smithwick

Llama @ Llama Tales

Cocktails and Cashmere

enjoy!

One last thing... While I was away my grandmother, Maw, who is a fantastic and published author, won an award for a story that she wrote (again!) This is her fourth time I believe to win in this particular contest for her writing and I am very proud of her! Yay Maw! Way to be a great writer!  something I hope you have passed along to me...

And now... it is time for me to catch-up on yalls blogs and get back to work! Yay! Happy Tuesday everyone - Hope you guys are having a great and wonderful day! 50 degrees in Texas and GORGEOUS outside! Yippee!

oh, oh yes! One more thing - Daddy and I have signed up for a 5k the Saturday after Thanksgiving in Longview that helps to "feed the homeless and serve the poverty-stricken in our community." Yeah! So that is a 10k on Thanksgiving and a 5k two days later! It will be Daddy's first so I am excited I get to run it with him :)

xx