My trip to tropical paradise

(pictures will be added to this post soon, so check back)
I can definitely say that last week's trip to tropical paradise was a place of perfect happiness and my state of mind was definitely relaxed. The resort we stayed at was amazing. I've never been waited on by such a dedicated staff, and had such wonderful service. Not to mention the food- it was like we were attending a Top Chef competition every meal! I don't have my pictures from the trip since I had to upload them to a family member's computer so I'd have room on my memory card for pictures of my sister's wedding. Once I get them... I will share.

Wednesday

The day of travel... it worked out nearly perfect. Every member that travelled that day got to the airport within 5 minutes of each other. The Lord had His hand in that one for sure! We all headed through customs, a few of us got stopped; we caught up a little in line; and made a game out of seeing who could get through the 2 lines first. :)



When we headed outside to catch our shuttle to the ferry, Aliyah awoke. She was in a strange country, with strange people who all wanted to talk to her and hold her. Needless to say, she freaked out a little. lol For the next 18ish hours, she would cry any time she saw Grampy. That was kinda funny. (The next day Uncle Eric took Grampy's place). We all headed onto the shuttle, took a 20 minute ferry ride across turquoise water, and landed at our destination. Walked a few minutes through the town to our resort. After checking in, we headed over to one of the restaurants- at 10:30 pm- to eat dinner. :) We were officially in the land of minana with a little later time table. After dinner, I officially crashed out in the room.

Thursday

Later than usual breakfast- amazing food! Loved the omelet bar, the fresh squeezed pineapple juice, apple dumplings, all the fresh fruit, the coconut beignets, the tiny cups of espresso. Yum!

This was just a day to relax, and enjoy this little island paradise. So, we headed out to the beach. There was a restaurant nearby, and we sat on lounge chairs under little grass hut style umbrellas. The wait staff kept the drinks, shrimp tacos, avacado dip & chips coming. It was so awesome. I got one whole paragraph read in my novel I brought with me. haha! The water was too beautiful to stay out of. We even took Aliyah baby out in it for a few minutes at the end of our beach time.



Vendors came by and tried to sell us stuff while we sunbathed... wished I'd have bought something now. My plan was to wait until the last day right before we left to see how much moola I had left. Whoops! That didn't happen. One vendor in particular was very memorable. He started by trying to sell my sis-in-law a lace tablecloth. She said no... he then said 'do you love your mother-in-law?' She said, 'not enough to spend that kind of money!' Haha! Then he came over to us, and said, 'remember me... Mr. Deal, and my given name is Cheapo '- he will definitely be remembered. :)

We headed back across the STREET to the resort (yes the beach was across the street from the resort- wow!), and took a couple hours siesta. Umm... yeah... the island shut down between 3-5 pm for siesta. Some businesses stayed open, but most closed at that time. I was surprised by this. My experience in Las Cruces, and near the border of Mexico all those years had not prepared me for that. It was nice. I needed the break- yes, I needed the rest from lounging out on the beach, being served delicious food & drinks! lol The sun sapped me of my strength. Not really, but my baby did, ok?! So, we rested.

That evening we walked through the downtown market area. Mom bartered with someone for a little dress for Aliyah. It was so cute! Rachel and Joel bought some maracas. Mom got a sombrero- funny. Joel bought us all gelato before we headed back for dinner- yep! dessert first for us on our vacation. :) That was fun. Trying to keep "people" in our group from not getting run over by the local traffic. Having vendors try to sell us stuff everywhere we went. Seeing the bright colored buildings and the Mexican goods all over.

Dinner- delicious once again. Then we headed to the pool. Ohhh yeah! The resort had three pools, several hot tubs, lights at the bottom of each and a bar in the middle pool. Some of the folks went up to one of the rooms to play games. Me n Aliyah headed back to the room, since she needed her sleep. Got to talk a little with whomever decided to stop back by the room. Aliyah started up with a runny nose. yuck. Not a very good night's sleep. Oh well, that's what siesta's are for, right?! lol

Friday

Most of the group went snorkelling. Since things didn't quite work out for me to go that day, me n Dad, and then Rachel & Joel decided to head over to the turtle farm, and the Mayan ruins. I'm so glad we decided to do that with Rach & Joel... they were going to walk it, but it would've been too much. Dad rented a golf cart, and we travelled over to the turtle farm. It was just ok. The best part was seeing the big turtles swimming in the large oceanside 'pen'.

We headed out to the ruins, and it was stinking hot out by that time. So I decided to get some ice cream for Aliyah. This was her 1st time ever to have ice cream- and of course, she loved it. I think it cooled her down a little, too. Joel & Rachel got to feed an iguana a banana. The cliffs out by the ruins were so breathtaking. I can see why the Mayans would build there. It was beautiful. The Carribean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico met at the point of the island. Wow! That was an amazing place to be standing. I also bought a couple conch shells there, too. That was fun. :)

We went back, dipped in the pool, laid down for siesta. Since parents and "the couple" (as Cyndi dubbed them) had dinner reservations, we all headed down to the resort's main restaurant. That was fun having dinner with my bro & sis-in-law, sis & bro-in-law. It's funny to hear them talking about who is going to have kids first (they seem to be sparring about how the other couple will have them first. lol). Then we went back to the room, and hung out a little. I think the couples went out for strolls on the beach. I don't really remember what all happened at that point. :) Probably sleep at some point. Conversations, catching up more, getting the game plan ready for the wedding. yep! That's what we do.

Saturday

Snorkelling baby!!! First time, and it was so awesome! I can't wait to go again. Eric and Hannah went out with me. We had a guided tour, and we were the only ones on the tour, so it was pretty cool. I caught on pretty quickly how to breath with the snorkelling gear. Hannah held my hand the whole entire way. That was so sweet of her. We swam along a very long reef. I wore a life vest the whole time. I didn't necessarily need to, but it helped me to relax so I could just focus on seeing the fish and the reef, and breathing. :) (That reminds me of that blonde joke about breathe in, breathe out - lol!).

We saw some amazing fish... probably like most see- little yellow fish with blue stripes, some bigger blackish fish, some medium rainbow-ey fish, some light blue iridescent fish; then we saw a whole bunch of starfish on the bottom; we saw a stingray; we saw a couple beracudas. Me n Han swam away fast when we saw the beracudas! lol My favorite part was the "sea fans" on the coral reefs. They were a purplish color, and so beautiful. I hope Han got a pic of them on her underwater camera. I did actually get a pic of me in my snorkelling gear on my point and shoot, so I'll add it here.

Then, we headed back to the resort to clean up and get ready for the wedding. It was after all, the reason we were actually here in this beautiful tropical paradise. :)

I was so proud, and privileged to go out on the photo shoot with Rachel and Joel. The photographers were awesome. I was totally a "sideshooter". I even posed them a couple times. I would've probably gotten a few different shots, a few better shots, and done a few different things than they did if I were the main photog, but since I didn't have that pressure on me, I just let the main photog get the best shots. I still got some amazing pics. I'm pretty happy with about 20 of them. I'll add my fave here:

Soooo, that was pretty amazing. What a place to get married. It's almost as if we entered a place of perfection. I can't imagine honeymooning there. Wow!

The ceremony was so lovely. I think I can safely say it was the most intimate, personal, sweet and spiritual ceremony I've ever attended. Nearly every element was so beautiful: the vows!!! (can I get a copy? they were the best vows I've ever heard.); the worship songs and "One Voice"- such a nice touch; the song by Joel- RoManTic!!!; the poem by Rachel; the scripture readings by Elise & Hannah; the challenge by the pastor; the parents circling around them and challenging them and praying for them- so deeply spiritual.

The reception was supposed to happen at the cabana style restaurant out at the beach near the ceremony. It was however about to rain, so we went with plan B- Satay Thai style restaurant. Wow! What a plan B!! The food was the best ever. Wow! My favorite of all the deliciousness was the lime soup. I wish I had the recipe for that! Oh! And the pineapple sorbet. delish!

Dad decided he was going to liven up the party after they had already danced to some of the Mariachi music. He got up and pulled mom up behind him, and got the dance floor Go-ING!!!! Mom was a little shocked, I think. heehee! Then, they ended the mariachi band playing by doing a train down through the restaurant, and back upstairs to the private room. It was so awesome! Everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves so much by that time. :) hahaa!

Sunday deserves it's own post... more to come sometime soon. :)

Rachel and Joel... I really enjoyed my time with y'all and on the island. It was so amazing! Thank you for everything. I pray God gives you joy, peace, and a prosperous life TOGETHER!

Love you- Sarah