We made it back to ‘Merica just in time for the 4th of July! We actually had a pretty busy vacation. It all started with a football game. I was invited to play with Operation Once in a Lifetime (OOIAL). They are a charity who has the goal of making dreams come true for military families, no matter what branch. They had a flag football tourney… at COWBOY STADIUM! That meant I get to play on the field where pros play, with some cool military dudes. Problem: My flight out with Kinsey was the very next morning at 6 am. It was single elimination and my goal was to not injure the knee I hurt when I had my lego accident at home. (I stepped on one of Cason’s legos a week prior to the game, and tweaked my knee… I hate legos). Good news: I did not hurt my knee. Bad news, but good news for our team: we made it to the semifinals. We almost lost the first game, which meant I would have gotten to go to sleep at a decent time since the tourney started at 7. I ended up catching the winning touchdown pass on a hail mary… I wouldn’t tell the guys this, but as the ball hung up in the air and I reached out with my left hand to attempt to catch it, I thought: “what if I just let it go, so I could spare my body potential injury, and get some sleep?” I ended up catching it, and we ended up playing three games in all. I played two and a half, because I got a horrible calf cramp in the third game. I also sprained my wrist. How? I dont know. I was diving around like an idiot. I had a blast though, and I made a couple new friends who say they will take me to shoot big guns in big armored cars. I also think I made a new husband and wife with kids friendship. So there were a lot of positives that came out of this.

The next morning we left the kids with my mother in law, and Kinsey, my sister in law (Keley), and her friend Sue hit the airport. The US Virgin Islands where exactly what we needed. We ended up going to St. John after taking a ferry from St. Thomas. It’s a really chill place. We met our guide/lobster hunter/driver/island getaways employee. She took us to get our rental car, and then we followed her on a quick tour of the island. You can find a beach with people to hang at, or literally find a beach with just a couple people and practically have one to yourself. She took us to the house we were staying at, where we said, “WOW!” for about an hour at every view, bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen. Then we had some dinner at a restaurant called Indigo Grill, which became our spot, and basically did what we did every night. We ate, drank, laughed, and went home hoping to see some asses. Yes, there are wild asses on the streets, and they are super nice. They let you pet them, but they don’t let you ride them. Don’t do that. I totally did not attempt to do that. Not once… or twice, because I thought we had gotten into bff mode.

We also hit up the British Virgin Islands! We got on a boat with our new buddy Jason, who was on freaking survivor!!!! I have never felt as safe as I did with a dude who was on Survivor, because if anything went down and we got stuck on an island I would totally start an alliance with him, and get the girls kicked out. We went to Jost, and that’s where I met Big Al’s long lost cousin, I think. The whole time we had this crazy fantasy that we would run into Kenny Chesney, because he goes there a lot. We went to a bar right on the water called Foxy’s, because Kenny sang about it, according to Kinsey. The actual owner was there. His name was, you guessed it, FOXY! Black dude, with a cool accent. We got invited to meet him because I had four girls with me, I think. Sounds like something Al would do. First thing he did was tell an inappropriate joke after he found out I was Mexican. Sounds like something Al would do. We all laughed, and took pictures. He told more jokes, but I couldn’t really understand him. People seemed to be very protective over Foxy. He has been knighted by the Queen of England, and he has jammed out with Kenny Chesney on the guitar a bunch of times. I think I loved it because he did remind me so much of Al and his bar. We also hit up the Soggy Dollar Bar, but I passed out on the beach and got a weird tan because Kinsey missed a couple of spots with the sunblock. We had a blast!

On the way back Lobster Leah decided we should stop in the middle of the ocean because she wanted to catch us dinner. So we stopped, she put her gear on. Tank, mask, goggles, and some thing to grab lobsters with, and dove down. She was gone for about 40 minutes, and came up with the biggest lobster I have seen in person. These lobsters don’t have claws, but they have spines. While I was trying to be cool in front of Kinsey, it started flapping its tail and it cut me. Lobster: 1. J-Si: 0. Its ok, because we ate him, so we win. We just took it to a spot and they cooked Leo for us! Yeah, we named it Leo, because Leah caught him. I have never caught my dinner… ok, had someone catch my dinner. It was like hunting, except I didn’t have to shoot guns, and I got to do backflips off of a boat into super blue water… I also decided to bring Leah into my alliance with Jason if we got stuck on a deserted island. We could totally use her lobster hunting skills.

I also had my first open mic performance. When we ate at that Indigo Grill spot (shout out to the owner Allison), our waiter told us he would be performing and hosting an open mic at a bar across the street from Woody’s (another Kenny favorite), and that was actually the name of the bar: Across the Street. So after drinking some painkillers (coconut milk, orange juice, pineapple juice, and nutmeg… I know, that nutmeg sounds weird, but they are delicious) we headed out to the bar to check it out. Our boy was playing the guitar, we were having a good time and then he asks, “Anyone want to come up?” Guess who screamed “my husband!!” Yup, my wife. I wasn’t sure about my playing ability because of my wrist injury, but I said figured that nobody knew me… but I still didn’t want to sing, so Kinsey managed to get me to sit on the stage with the guitar, and Lobster/American Idol Leah (we gave her tons of nicknames) came up to sing a song called “Hell on Heels”. We went with Piston Annies because its country, and if Kenny was around, he would come party. I know the song, but didn’t know how to play it. Kinsey says, “no problem, and gets the chords with lyrics on her phone. Now I have no way out. So we start playing, and it’s going well. Kinsey is enjoying it so much that she wants to sing too, but she takes the phone away from my face… and I got lost. Our song fell apart, and turned into Kinsey singing acapella. But we did get some claps. I also attempted a One Direction song… people on the island don’t know One Direction, except for the 18 year old waitress. I would have played one more, but our boy came up and took the guitar from me.

Rest of the week we spent it exploring in the Jeep we rented. I think every car is a Jeep. It made me feel as if we were in Jurassic Park. We went to a beach, and every single car in the parking lot was a Jeep. But, honestly this was the calm and beautiful experience Kinsey and I needed… even if we didn’t find Kenny Chesney. If you want to check it out let me know and I’ll get you in touch with Planning Leah.

The kids were super happy to see us. We had an awesome fourth. We had an awesome week together. Everything is awesome… except that eating so good may have led me into the dad bod movement. I might accept it and let it happen, because aint nobody got time for working out 🙂

Check out all the pictures from my trip HERE!
 

Thanks In Part To: