Cayman Islands

Even though there has been no shortage of traveling between my family members this last year, we just don’t travel together. Mom and Jeff have been to Hawaii several times over the past couple years and they went to Rome and Paris this summer, mom and I went to London and Paris a few years back and then to Orlando in October.. aaaand, Kevin went to florida this summer and flew in an airplane for the first time in his 14 years! However, our last family vacation having nothing to do with work was literally about 10 years ago when we went to Hilton Head for a week over my school spring break. Needless to say, we were overdue! This one definitely made up for lost time! We brought my grandparents and Jeff’s mom Ann Marie with us for a week in the sunshine and left the snow behind in Virginia! It was so beautiful! We had some sort of activity planned for almost every day, whether it was Jeff and Kevin playing golf, fishing, snorking, swimming with dolphins.. it was a GREAT week! I think we all could have stayed for another week, mainly because we didnt want to come back to the cold after running around in the beautiful 85 degree sunshine all week. I (surprisingly) didn’t take a ton of pictures, as I was a little nervous at bringing my camera with me on some of our adventures, so if the quality of the image doesn’t look up to par its because we took a little point and shoot camera instead :0) Happy viewing! Hope these pictures warm you up some! ci1Not a shabby back yard huh? This is where we spent a GREAT deal of time: ci2Surprisingly I was more nervous with the dolphins than the sting rays! ci31This picture cracks me up, I didn’t think Grandma was going to come in.. well, she came part of the way in anyway ;0) Couldn’t have the sting rays gettin her toes! ci4ci5ci6ci7Next up was dolphins! I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, and Kevin was beyond excited. I was a bit caught off guard when we showed up and they just said “OKAY jump on in!” no instruction or anything! I have it on video how Kevin then proceeded to literally shove me into the water.. sheesh, little brothers… ci8Like I said, I think I was more nervous with the dolphins than the stingrays! Talk about up close and personal ;0) This was pretty much my facial expression all day.. a good mix of terror and excitement! ha! ci9They called this the nose push lift off.. you were supposed to lay flat on your stomach, feet flexed and pointed straight down with your knees locked. Then two dolphins swam up behind you and pushed you right outta the water! eep! ci10ci11ci11bci12ci13ci14ci15It only rained one morning while we were there, but of course it was the morning we were supposed to go horse back riding on the beach. Thankfully we thought we’d give it a try anyway and wouldn’t you know as soon as we got up in the saddle the rain completely stopped and it turned out to be one of the most beautiful mornings we had! My horse I think was part fish, because it had to walk in the water and splash THE. ENTIRE. TIME. I could have redirected Nemo (what I named him afterwards since I never found out the real name) if I had wanted, but my Kevin’s horse insisted on walking right behind mom’s horse, and thus putting him in PERFECT splash position.. he and I were both soaked by the end of the ride ;0) ci17It took everything in me not to go tearing down the beach, Nemo and I had a need for speed!! I resisted though, I’m sure Kevin’s horse would have followed and I’m fairly confident he would not have appreciated that as this was only his 2nd time up on a horse ;0)ci181ci19This vacation was also the first time since Kevin was ONE, yes you read right thats 13 years ago, that we made a point to have a nice picture taken of our family. I guess thats what you get when you have a family of people who don’t like having their picture taken! Well, 13 years later.. here it is! ci20ci21ci22The entire group: ci24It was a great week! I’m pretty sure I could go back again tomorrow and do it all over again! This was where you could find me all week, Harry Potter book and strawberry smoothie in hand.. yep, life is good :0)ci25

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  1. Nicole says:

    Jess – you look GORGEOUS and you guys look like you had a blast!

    BUT HOLY TOLEDO – look at Kev!! He’s a MAN! :) I guess it’s just been that long. Let’s have a date over the holidays? Love you!

  2. evelyn says:

    first of all LOVE the hair cut! and secondly, i am sooo jealous of how beautiful your stay was. i’m so glad you had fun and relax. miss you!

  3. Christine Pries says:

    These pictures are great .. looks like you all had a great time !! Well deserved I am sure <3

  4. Tina Hale says:

    Awesome pictures! Looks like you had a blast. I love your hair cut by the way :)

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