The Shuggy Blog

This year we wanted a complete beach vacation so we decided to go to St Petersburg Florida. Why St Pete? well, we had never been to that coast before but read a bunch of good reviews. It was important to find a kid friendly environment. No late night party bullshit. We flew Jet blue on Wednesday (June 2nd) and sure enough Sienna got to watch some cartoons. She really liked that. The flight was uneventful. Sienna is a very good traveler.

We arrived in Tampa (which is next to St Pete) in the afternoon and got our little rent a car. It was the first time that i used priceline and it worked out really well. The car was a tiny Kia Rio LX with a surprisingly large trunk. It took me a while to get used to how it handled. I have grown accustomed to how our CRV feels. So spoiled..

I shot a bunch of video clips. The final video would have been too long so i cut it up into 4 parts. I didn’t shoot many stills though. I need to work on that..

While in St Petersburg, we stayed at the Plaza Beach Hotel. The hotel is right on the beach. They also have a heated pool. I wasn’t so sure why they heated it but it felt good and Sienna loved floating around..

The first morning Sienna was up early as usual so i decided to take her out for a walk on the beach. That ended up happening every day.

morning walk

she loves the water

We met Houdini the parrot.

This was the first day on the beach. It was the calmest day. Not exactly a Jamaican beach but it was nice and not crowded at all.

mmmmmmm!! the beach!!

This is a really cute picture..

I don’t know where she got this from but it was cute.

I LOVE THE WAFFLE HOUSE!!!

I guess it’s good that we don’t have one in NY.

waffles rule!!!

We had a really nice time. I think we would go back again.

Shuggy Beach, Lisa, Shuggy, Sienna, vacation

Yes yes yes i know, i suck at blogging. bite me.. i’ll post shit when i’m good and ready!!

Since i’m so far behind, i’m going to try to just post random pictures and videos. I’ll explain as i go along though.

Back in early May, we were invited to a cinco de Mayo BBQ at Selinas place. Selina is one of the Santos sisters from Chicago who recently moved to Connecticut because of work. She has 2 kids and a nice big back yard.. We had a good time with them. The Mexican food was great too..

As i look through the pics i took, i realize i didn’t get a picture of her or her kids. Great job Shuggy.. i suck!!

Backyard fun

fussy

I love this picture of Lisa and Sienna..

Lisa and Sienna

From time to time Sienna and i go exploring in the “scary jungle”. The Scary jungle could be anywhere as long as there are trees and some kind of trail. This one was on the side of the belt parkway. Its a bike trail/beach. i’m not sure if you can swim there (i wouldn’t).

When we got there, we encountered a troop of boy scouts cleaning up the beach. Sienna and i started exploring the area and found some trails.

I guess she really loves that Jamaica shirt.

sienna and her binocutars

funny face

scary jungle

picking flowers for mom

We visited the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens in (duh) Brooklyn. It was a beautiful day and Sienna got to run around and smell EVERYTHING!! We did have to keep telling her not to pick the flowers..

i sooooo need to take more pictures!!

Sienna looking for the fish

Snack time

little photographer

she loves to run

Shuggy BBQ, Brooklyn, Food, Lisa, New York, Shuggy, Sienna, outing

Shuggy New York, Sienna, birthday

I got Lisa and Sienna making banana bread..

Shuggy Brooklyn, Food, Lisa, New York, Sienna

Here are a couple more videos from our trip. They’re very short. I’m starting to really like the little flip cam.

Here is my dad in his workshop. It was quite startling to me to see how disorganized it is knowing how organized he is. I guess when you retire, that part of you just goes out the window..

Here my mom cooks breadfruit..

This is what the ride down the mountain feels like. I didn’t move the camera at all to get the motion you see. It’s all crap road..

Shuggy Christmas, JP, Lisa, Rozkribenn, Sienna, vacation

After sticking around the mountain compound for a day or so, we loaded up the cars (JP came too) and headed out to the west coast, Negril. Beach Time finally!! For 3 days anyway…

The trip took about 5 hours of steadily degrading road conditions but once we got there, it was soo worth it!!

The resort was called Merrils 2 it was small but nice. The food was ok, I’ve had better. The rooms are clean. I guess the one thing that urked me was that they didn’t have fresh oj which is weird for a Jamaican resort but whatever. It’s not exactly kid friendly but they try..

Our room

pig tails by grandma

Sienna loves the beach

more little beach bunny

Uncle Baba loves the beach

that water was friggin blue!!!

they just had to run around

Dad

After 3 days at the beach, i wanted to stay but we had to get back to the mountain. The Christmas tree was waiting to be decorated..

back at roz

Sienna helps Uncle Baba

Gabby helps too

Dad just looks on

Cute little tree

I’ll be posting more video clips of this trip in the coming weeks..

Shuggy Beach, Christmas, Food, JP, Lisa, Rozkribenn, Sienna, grandma, vacation

For our Christmas vacation this year, we originally weren’t going to go anywhere. We bought a car earlier this year and that really took a huge bite out of our finances. As we got closer and closer to December however i started wanting to get away from New York to see my family in Jamaica.

Last year, we flew Air Jamaica. What a stinking pile of shit that airline was!! This year, Jet Blue was our airline of choice and what a huge difference!! They were organized and on time. The only complaint was that the TVs didn’t work that well in our aisle. I was hoping to occupy some of Siennas time with a little cartoon network action but oh well, the story books and stickers seemed to do the trick. She also took a small nap.

We had an early flight from JFK landing in Kingston Jamaica about noon. Below, Lisa and Sienna are having some juice before the flight.

A little juice before the flight

We tried to get her to walk around a bit hoping that she’d sleep on the flight. Here, she sees our plane and asks over and over if it was ours..

yes Sienna, that's our plane

Jet Blue

When we finally landed and cleared customs (faster than i ever thought possible), we were met by Grandpa, Grandma, Baba, Auntie Carol-Anne and Gabby.

Baba and Auntie Carol-Anne have drinks on the new porch.

JP and Carol-Anne

Rozkribben (the compound)

This is my favorite picture of the trip. Sienna looks older but is actually the younger of the two..

cousins

Goldfish share

Sienna and Daddy

Shuggy Beach, JP, Rozkribenn, Sienna, vacation

I’m so far behind on my posts.. I’ll do Christmas first then backup to vacation pix.. To just go strait to the pictures, chick here.

This year, Sienna was so much more aware of Christmas. She helped me put up the tree and decorate it. All the ornaments ended up being at the bottom of the tree but thats ok, i just moved them around. I don’t think she minded at all.. I wish i had the video camera going when we first turned the lights on. She loved it!! Every day she would ask me to put on the Christmas tree.. I wonder what next year will be like..

Anyway…

On Christmas morning, she was ready to go!! Her first words after seeing the tree full of presents was “WOW” then she went to wake up mommy.. Here’s what happened when mommy got up..

Shuggy Christmas, Lisa, New York, Sienna

Here are some new Sienna movies i shot last weekend. These are very short.

On Saturday, Lisa went to a craft fair in Manhattan so Sienna and i were on our own. It was a crappy day so the playground was out of the question. I decided to just walk around and run some mini errands that i could get done here in the neighborhood.

The first video is of the doughnut place near the subway. Somehow we always end up going there. I need to try the other food they make.

The second video is a quick train ride..

Shuggy Food, Sienna

WOW, it’s been almost a month since i posted anything to my blog!! It’s not that nothing is going on, it’s that so much is going on. I guess i’m a little lazy too. Work has been really kicking my ass lately. At least it’s been interesting projects.

Every once in a while Sienna and i go for a little walk. We usually do this when nothing else is planned for the day. On this walk we stopped by the puppies on Ocean Ave. After the puppies, we passed a bakery where Sienna got really excited about a cake in the window.

Sienna likes that one

it looks good

Sienna and Skippy just hanging out being silly.. She actually requested the photo be taken.

Sienna and Skippy

We visited the Childrens museum on Long Island and it sucked!! Ok so it’s not about me, it’s about Sienna but this place had nothing like the Staten Island one.. It wasn’t very big and there weren’t many exhibits either.. They even had a toddler section that you had to PAY EXTRA JUST TO FUCKING GET IN!! We already payed to get into the museum!! whatever, it’s not about me… The place just sucked..

blocks are always fun

rocking the mic

food time

I love taking her to the playground. We always have so much fun!!

She loves the playground

softball diamond

Another park. this one had lots of leaves for her to play in

so much running

leaf diving

so much fun

Shuggy Sienna, Skippy