This is Us

So if you hadn't noticed, I took a little blogging break.
We were in beautiful Puerto Morelos, Mexico the past week.

It was heaven.

Definitely the best family adventure we have ever had. The occasion was my parents 30th wedding anniversary/vow renewal. My parents always took us on their adventures when we were growing up and I am so blesed that we occasionaly get to meet up for adventures as adults... like this one.

My parents marriage is such a testament to what love, commitment and faith can shape a family into. It was a neat experience hearing them express their love to each other and share the moment with us all. My sister, brother and sister-in-law made the trip down from Alaska to join in for the week. It is pretty much a whirlwind when we are all together. Thankfully we all have similar loves...

We love each other. We all have quirks, but I like to believe when it comes down to the wire any of us would give anything for each other.

We love parties. My mom has always been great at throwing a grand party for any occasion big and small. She arranged the vacation and we all pulled together to add little details to make their vow renewal special.

We love letting loose a little... my brother and The Sportsman had a little to much fun celebrating Sportsman-in-Training's 2 1/2 birthday. We started running out of reasons for parties so we decided to celebrate our little man. Strange? Maybe a little, but it was fun.

We love music. Sportsman-in-Training got his first guitar from a street side vendor. He wanted to be just like the mariachi band that played for the vow renewal ceremony. He is actually not bad at playing it and is very respectful and careful with the guitar.


We love boats. We hired a sweet glass bottom boat to take us for a snorkel trip. Parker and I stayed in the boat to look at fish through the bottom while the rest of the gang went snorkeling.

We love getting dirty. Sportsman-in-Training loved chasing the iguanas around. Here is before and after a chase. These pictures were taken literally five minutes apart. How do kids do this!?

We love relaxing. We know when we need to give each other space... several of us enjoyed massages while others were content to let Sportsman-in-Training give foot rubs.

We love water. Pretty much all of our adventures involve water. This adventure had Sportsman-in-Training learning to swim and going on his first kayak ride. Wish I had a kayak pic to share with you...

We love food. LOVE. It was all very authentic food, like the whole grilled fish below. The Sportsman liked how you went to a cooler out back to pick out what fish you wanted in your ceviche. I pretty much happily existed on fresh guacamole the whole trip.

We love exotic views and experiences. This was a day trip we took to Tulum to view some ancient Mayan ruins. I still can't believe the richness of color this place holds. It almost hurt my eyes to take it all in.