May-heee-co

For our 10^th anniversary John and I went to Cancun Mexico. We have known since our honeymoon we wanted to take a big 10 year anniversary trip. We always thought we would go to Hawaii. After buying a house in April, we toyed with the idea of not even going on a trip! After some praying we decided we needed to go but should probably stay a little closer to home and save a little money.

There were a lot of things playing against us; a lost birth certificate, passports needed in a timely manner, finding a LOT of childcare, etc. But like everything that is supposed to happen in life, the cards fell in place and we were able to go.

Thanks to my very sweet brother-in-law, we stayed at the El Dorado Royale in Playa de Carmen. This place is swank. It is an adults only all-inclusive resort. There are over 8 different restaurants, 2 dozen pools with swim up bars, several hot tubs, hundreds of secluded ocean side cabana beds and loungers, a spa, 2 gyms, a daily stocked mini bar, the friendliest staff imaginable, the most gorgeous view of the Atlantic Ocean and an endless supply of guac.

The first night was our only rough patch. I had only slept 4 hours the day prior to departure. I didn’t have anxiety about traveling, but I was worried about everyone I was leaving. Did work have everything from me to be gone a week? Did the three different people keeping my children have all the information they needed? Did I remember to unload the dishwasher? And sitting here on the plane ride home, I just realized we didn’t ask anyone staying at our house to check our mail. Oops. See, it can’t all get done.

We landed in Cancun at 1:30, but didn’t get settled in our room until 4:30. There were tons of check in procedures and champagne to drink and celebrations of our arrival. This place really does make you feel important. We left the room around 5:30 to walk on the beach and relax with a beverage before getting ready for dinner. We had no clue how crazy that next hour and a half would be. We locked ourselves out of our room, had to skype call the boys standing on the front porch of the casista while the maintenance men broke into our room.  John was trying to troubleshoot a TV issue while I showered and my hair dryer kept overheating which means it only worked for 3 minutes at a time. By the time we finally got to dinner at 7:30, I was ready for my first glass of wine!

I am happy to say the rest of the trip was smooth sailing. The food was absolutely incredible. It was ‘fancy’ as one of my friends would call it. Each meal; breakfast, lunch and dinner were at least 5 courses, and yes, while you are there you feel like you have to eat all 5 courses. I cannot say enough about the food. I am not sure if my turkey sandwiches are going to be as good when I get home.

The resort had a great gym and John and I worked out every day. I know some of you are going to say, “It’s vacation!!” but I like working out. I like working out with my husband the best. We never get to work out at home because of conflicting schedules. He works out in the morning before work and I work out at night after the boys go to bed. So to be able to work out together made me happy. And hey, there is no finish line.

We also went kayaking which is a work out in itself! We saw a couple sting rays floating across the bottom of the ocean, but not much else. This did help me get over my fear of the ocean! I am proud to say I got in the ocean multiple times on this trip without medication or alcohol influence!! The water is beautiful and clear and you can see forever. I only saw one tiny little bitty fish, but it was too pretty to be icky.

We also were able to have a candlelight dinner on the beach. Everyone there was shocked to learn we were celebrating our 10 year anniversary. They thought we were honeymooners. J

We are so thankful to everyone who helped make this trip happen. Thank you Jason, Melissa, Caroline, Phyllis, Donna, David, everyone at John’s work and my school, our boys for being such good boys while we were gone.

And thanks to you, honey, for saying I DO 10 years ago.