Friday, March 13th, Day Five

Disclaimer: I'm sorry these posts (especially this one) are turning out to be so long, I'm sure most of you aren't reading them all, which is fine since I'm mainly doing this for my own journaling experience and to be able to look back and recall events. At the very least, I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Traveling and vacationing with this many people means schedules will change and you have to be flexible and just go with the flow.

One of the things we had talked about wanting to do while in Puerto Rico was visit the rain forest. We had been told it was fabulous and that the kids would love it. My mom & I had discussed a group of us going on Sunday, after all the wedding festivities were over and done with, but for some reason it was brought up that we would go on Friday instead, which was fine with me. The crazy thing was when we started talking about who would go, this is how it went:

Kelly: felt like she needed to stay close to the hotel because more guests would be arriving that day and she didn't want to be away all day, unable to greet people who had just flown in, so she wasn't going to go.

Kristy: is prego and didn't think trekking through a rain forest was such a good idea

Cole: is 20 months old, wouldn't truly appreciate it for what it is, and would be a handful to keep up with

Katy: had no intention of taking her almost 1 year old son, Bradley, so that meant either she or Brent (her husband) would be staying back at the hotel with him

Blake: is 3.5 years old, may have liked it, but also gets car sick and it was almost an hours drive to the place, also, might have gotten tired and fussy mid-way through.

So, that left, me, my mom & dad, Ashlyn, Brady and Brent. At the last minute Katy decided that Brent should bring Bradley, the one year old with us, which was a little crazy, but fine.

So by around 1oam 4 adults, two 7 year olds and one 1 year old piled in the minivan and headed to the rain forest.

It was a bit of a drive, but really cool when we got there. As we drove into this national forest the first major site was saw was a small water fall. Really, just water that was streaming down a big rock. This is Brent, Brady, Ashlyn & I.

The next stop we came to was a look out tower. It gave a really great view of the whole rain forest. I didn't get many great pictures up there, but here's an idea of the beauty we saw.
Finally, we came to the main attraction which was a .7 mile trail that lead to a large waterfall. To my family .7 miles didn't sound far. But to me, with 2 parents who are not normally the hiking type, 2 1st graders and a baby in a stroller (yes, my bro-in-law pushed the 1 year old in a stroller through the rain forest! hilarious, you should have seen the looks we got!) and with varying terrain, I knew it was going to feel like 5 miles, but we were up for the challenge. It really was a beautiful hike. Hearing the sounds of the rain forest. The trail was very narrow and bumpy, which made things interesting for Brent, who was pushing the stroller. Thankfully all that bouncing around didn't seem to bother Bradley one bit! Here's a few pics of us on our way to the waterfall.
Some of the leaves were HUGE! We found this one that someone had formed into a hat and Brady wore it most of the way to the waterfall. People along the trail thought it was hilarious! It was especially great when some guy walked past us and said, "Oh, wow, I made that hat earlier today!"

When we were about 3/4ths of the way there someone told us that the last part was a bit treacherous and the stroller probably wouldn't make it. My mom was looking a bit winded and I wasn't sure she needed to push herself all the way, and then still have to trek it back. So, she, Brent & Bradley turned around early, leaving my dad & I to press on to the waterfall with the kids! This is what we saw when we got there! That's me and the kids on the rocks kind of in the middle there.
The four of us hiked it back, with only about one melt down per child, which I consider about par for the course. It had been a long day, it was after lunch time and we were tired and hungry. We made it back to the car around 1:30 I guess. Someone told us where we could grab some quick food and then we were back on the road back to the hotel. Of course, when we saw they had coconuts for sale that you can drink out of, we thought this was an experience we just had to have. So, my dad got one for the whole car to share. I'll just be honest and say it tasted like dirty watered down milk, which is really bad to me, since I don't even like milk! Yuck! But it did make for a cute pic.

It was about 3pm when we got back to the El San Juan. Ashlyn & Brady were eager to get to the pool, and so was I! We hung out by our favorite pool/hot tub combo for about an hour and then had to go get ready for the rehearsal that started at 5pm.

The wedding was on a pseudo bridge thing that connected the 2 main pools. Here are some pics of us running through how things would go the next morning. Oh, and yeah, maybe it started raining midway through and we had to run for cover...hoping this wouldn't happen the next day during the real deal.

Ashlyn & Brady practicing reading 1 Cor 13...precious!

After the rehearsal we had the Welcome Dinner at 7pm. It was supposed to be on a patio restaurant by the beach, but as I mentioned earlier it had been raining, so it was moved to the Plan B location...the 10th floor patio area that was open air, but with a roof. Um, let me just tell you, this might should have been the Plan A location because it was AMAZING! So, alls well that ends well.

It is a Berry family tradition to do something a little silly and sweet in honor of the couple at the Rehearsal Dinner. This time we let the kids get in on the embarrassment, errr, I mean, entertainment. I had written a little narration that told the story of Kelly & Brandon. How they met, fell in love and then the proposal. Ashlyn dressed up as Kelly, with a nice brown ponytail hair piece & Brady was Brandon, dressed in his Drs outfit and everything...it was precious, if I do say so myself. Here's a pic of Brady down on one knee, reenacting the proposal.Friday was a long and event packed day. After the dinner a lot of us headed down to the Casino. No, I didn't gamble, I was just along to see what it was all about. I did give my sister $20 to play blackjack with. She had already put in $40. When she was $15 up she cashed out and gave me my $20 bucks back...see, no harm done. I guess it was around 11:30 and we all headed up to bed in preparation for THE BIG DAY!!!

This has to go down as my longest post ever! If you hung in there and read it all kudos to you! Leave a comment and let me know you were a trouper! Feel the love!

Super Duper: feeling much much better!

Super Pooper: budget reductions at church...ugh stress