Ya Mon, Part II: Food and Fun

As I mentioned in my previous post, the resort we stayed at in Jamaica was very family-friendly. Besides the obvious (beach, pool, not having to wear umpteen layers to venture outside), I think the boys' two most favorite aspects of the trip were 1.) the unending supply of food, and 2.) the kids club. All-inclusive resorts are particularly nice for picky toddlers, because you can try a whole bunch of "healthier" options before finally resorting to the grilled cheese, without spending any extra dough. And the constant availability of food is also a plus with growing boys - ours enjoyed feasting themselves silly five or six times a day.

Daily post-nap snack on the patio: popcorn for the boys and lattes for Mom and Dad

I think Ethan's favorite part of the all-inclusive situation was being able to serve himself whatever he liked at the vast buffets, and Adam's was clearly the abundance of watermelon. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that this kid ate the equivalent of one of those little soccer-ball-sized watermelons every day. Unfortunately, I did not consider the mess made by a two-year old eating watermelon at every meal when packing, so it was tough to keep up. Somehow we didn't catch a picture of the watermelon-eating monster, but we did snap a shot of the boys and their ham rolls.

The resort had several a la carte restaurants in addition to the buffets, and they had a universal "kids menu" with all the usual favorites offered for the main course. The only appetizer offered, however, was a supremely healthy cream cheese wrapped in fried ham. Despite our revulsion, for the boys, it was love at first bite and they had ham rolls at every dinner thereafter. The kids menu also featured only one dessert, which we made the mistake of ordering just once. I assumed that a kids dessert would be a small scoop of ice cream, or a brownie, or something reasonably sized for the audience. But no...the dessert placed in front of Ethan and Adam was a chocolate dipped cone the size of Ethan's head, with, as if that wasn't enough in itself, a brownie inside. The thing was ENORMOUS.

The aftermath

To work off all those calories (and blow off all that chocolate-induced energy), we spent a lot of time at the kids club. Complete with jungle gym, climbing structures, sandbox, pool, legos, crafts, wii, and more, this place kept our boys very happy.

"Let me show you how this is done."

"Yup, got it."

Even though there were two of these things, I can't tell you how many fights I had to break up over who got the whale.

But of course, when no one is looking the frog is just fine.

Home just four days, the boys are already missing the kids club. Our snow-covered swingset and garaged sandbox aren't really doing the job just yet. Thank god for warmer temps this past week - if it weren't for the foot of snow in our backyard I would think spring might just be on its way.