Kid-less in the Caribbean!

Who are these 2 crazy kid-less people??

Last New Years my in-laws announced they were taking all of us to Sandals Negril after Christmas with no kids.  Entering this family I quickly learned they love vacations!  This trip added to my list that included: Turks and Caicos (Beaches Resort), Hawaii, and Wyoming.  Needless to say we were shocked and panicked finding out we were pregnant the next week.  How are we going to leave a 3 month old and a 4 year old that had been experiencing separation anxiety.  But we did, thanks to my parents and other family that helped with caring for our children.

Years ago I read that Cindy Crawford says her marriage has survived all these years due to vacationing alone.  My parents use to leave us and go to the beach.  As we got closer panic really set in.  I cried when I had to go back to work, soon 8 hours away from them was going to be a week!  My plan was to pump enough so my mom wouldn't have to supplement.  It was bad enough I was leaving Parker, I felt this is the least I could do!  I did the oils, tea everything and successfully pumped her a weeks supply then had to go into overdrive because she actually needed 8 days worth.  D was another story.  He is way into the calendar we have in the kitchen and enjoys keeping up on our daily happenings.  He proudly told his doctor that we were leaving for Jamaica on the 27th and when he turned 27 he was allowed to go.  Knowing he was going to be hanging out with his cousin the whole week eased the pain.  We took them to my parents, celebrated Christmas, put them to bed then left!  I cried a lot.

Rick's Cafe

Jamaica is the place to be!!  The airport was packed.  We had a great bus driver that pointed out all the hot spots between the airport and our resort.  Spots from Cool Runnings, some golf course Oprah owns and what it really means when the sign on the door reads "Beer Joint".  Our room was something out of Crate and Barrel with a view of the ocean.  The vacation started with karaoke and dancing sealing the deal it was going to be a great trip.

The Kerr Crew

Much like the when we went to Sandal's sister resort Beaches the food was amazing!  We found out that the resort Hedonism was right next door, so that added endless jokes and laughs when their guests walked our beach.  We rented a boat to Rick's Cafe on New Year's Eve, dolphins swam next to the boat (which I yelled, "It's just like Sea World!", I'm working on getting out more), we watched the divers at Rick's, then watched the sunset over the ocean.  The resort threw a white party which was so much fun.  The band seemed a little off with the countdown to the New Year since we could see fireworks going off down the beach.  The party ended earlier than announced but not until Shelly begged the dj to play "Poison" for me!  We even found a couple from Columbus that we watched the National Championship game with.  One day my brother-in-law's family made the trip over for the day from Trelawny.  It was awesome to meet and get to visit with Ralston's family.  It was a great trip but like my brother-in-law said before we left he thought this would be the first vacation that he would be excited to get home and he was right!

Our View

Being away from the kids was very hard and I would not suggest it when you have a 3 month old.  It is possible even while nursing!  But with FaceTime and texting we were able to stay very connected.  Now a word of advice when you do FaceTime don't do it while there is a steel drum band playing on the beach that Andy felt our 4 year old needed to see only caused a meltdown with him crying saying, "I want to go there!"  We did enjoy our time alone and being able to relax!  We can't thank our parents enough for making this happen.

I enjoyed myself so much I'm taking another solo vacation to Florida soon to celebrate Andy's oldest sister's milestone birthday.  I'll be giving a full report on how that goes as well as how Andy does being Mr. Mom!  I'm sure it'll be reminiscent of Jack Butler.