18 years and counting

Today is mine and Josh's 18th wedding anniversary. I've been waiting for this anniversary for a while now...because from this point forward, I will have spent more time with Josh than without him. That is both an amazing accomplishment and a future full of hope and happiness! To document our 18 years of marriage together, I found a picture of the two of us from every single year...(which was harder than I thought it would be at first because before 2005, I didn't own a digital camera, so the pictures were a lot more limited!). 

Together Forever!

This was taken in October at Lagoon.
We were still dating and it was the first time I met his family!

This was taken in August at my parents' home the weekend my
brother Mick got married (just 4 months after our wedding). 

This was taken in the summertime in Oregon at cousin Jodi's wedding.

A selfie as first-time parents 2 weeks after Ammon came home from the hospital.

Not a good pic, but this was THE ONLY photo of the two of us taken
together this year, and it was taken while on the fall cattle drive. 

I helped with this specific church activity for adults...hence, my director-like outfit
(that I was required to wear, btw).

The first day that the twins got to come home from the hospital;
a special day after spending 2 months there since their birth. 

Taken after a memorable church baptism. 

At the top of the space needle on our trip to Seattle
for my brother Cody's wedding in July.

In the summertime at a Tolman Reunion. 

Taken at a reception at the church (can't remember exactly who's...someone in the
Chaffin family). I liked that we accidentally color-coordinated our outfits.
P.S. This was the year that Kanyon was born, but unlike the other photos of us
with our newborns, we obviously didn't remember to do that after Kanyon's birth!

On our 10-year anniversary trip to England--our first major vacation together.
This was on a bridge in London overlooking the House of Parliament. 

Taken at my Grandma Perkins' funeral in Utah in the fall.

Taken on a ride at Lagoon during the Perkins Reunion.

On a hike at Arches together.

Our first BSU game--for Josh's birthday in November. 

At cousin Weaton's wedding at the Rexburg temple in March.

At the Imagine Dragons concert in Boise in February.

After cousin KC's homecoming at Aunt Linette's house in Blackfoot. 

We match again! This was after a day of weddings--Josh's brother Malachi
& Molly's in Rexburg and our family friend Kimi & Preh's in Idaho Falls. 

On the 5th {& final} Day of the Mexico Vacation for My True Love and Me

I'm sad to write about this last day of our vacation to Mexico. I actually cried uploading these videos. I'll be honest, for about a month afterward, I was sad every day I woke up and wasn't in Mexico. The only thing that's seemed to console me is having a plan to return!!

Our flight out of Cancun was scheduled to leave at 12:40, so we knew we had a couple hours left to enjoy our remaining time at the resort. I'd wanted to see the sunrise over the ocean every morning since arriving in Mexico, but had never woken up early enough to do it, so I made a commitment to myself that I would wake up early enough on Monday the 9th so that I could see it before we left. You know when you get so excited/nervous about something that you can't sleep well? Yeah, me too. I was so afraid that I would miss it again, that I kept waking up every half hour starting at 5:30am (which is actually 3:30 our home time). Finally at 7:30, I got up, got dressed, and headed down to the water, because I couldn't take it any more! One of the things I really loved about our time in Mexico was that it never felt cold. When the sun went down at night, everyone would leave the beach, but the temperature didn't change, so I would enjoy sitting out there even after dark. Apparently, it's the same in the early morning before the sun rises: it wasn't cold at all, and the beach was quiet, bare, and so peaceful! I could spot some paddle boarders off in the distance and watched them for a few minutes. Josh and I both agree that if we were to take a ferry in the future, morning would be a much better time than the evening (like we did), because the waters were so calm!!

Josh joined me a few minutes later, and we watched with delight as the sun slowly rose on the horizon!

7:50am

7:58am

8:01am

8:02am

8:03am

8:04am

8:05am

8:07am

9:00am - this was right before we decided it was time to leave the beach.

We loved staying at The Reef. We would totally come and stay here again!!!
I loved their logo--if you look close enough at that circle of reef, you can see the
name of the resort inside it. Their cups had the same logo on them, but it was
inside out & backwards. We had SO many mango daiquiries, and I kept trying to
figure out what the lettering represented on the cup. I finally discovered what the
inscription meant. That's actually when we realized the circle of reef even said
the resort's name! We thought it was genius! If they'd had shirts for sale with the
same logo on it, we totally would've bought them!

The pool was so vacant in the morning!! 

We headed inside for one last buffet breakfast, after soaking in as many of the sun's rays as time would allow. Staying at an all-inclusive resort was definitely the way to go. We loved having so many edible options at our fingertips every day without extra cost or transportation or stress. They had such a huge variety of items for every meal. There were always multiple proteins, fruits, vegetables, carbs, and drinks. And they made the food display so beautiful every day, too!

This was my favorite breakfast item: Chilaquiles.
I have no idea what it is, but I had it every morning!

I had this juice every morning, too: 75% orange and 25% green
I freaking loved it!!! My cup is under the green dispenser. Every day
Josh would tell me that my creation looked disgusting.

Every morning there was a cook who grilled on a large skillet different things made
to order. On the last morning there, he was making eggs to order. On my last trip around
the buffet, he made two over-easy for me: they are my favorite way to eat eggs! I was
 super happy to eat them, and obviously the way I plated my food reflected that
happiness, because after I sat down, I realized the food on my plate looked like
a smiley face!

Josh was done eating before me, and didn't want to wait for me to join
him again at the table since there was a line waiting for the grill cook,
so while I waited for my eggs and ate them, he went back to the room.
This is how I found him: enjoying our view on the deck one last time!

After breakfast, we packed our bags, and left the hotel about 10:00am. We got a taxi ride for the drive back to the Cancun airport, which is about 45 minutes away. We enjoyed the sights along the way much more than the first time we'd passed them all a few days earlier (after we'd ridden on an uncomfortable midnight flight and arrived in Mexico with super rainy weather). We passed by the Mayakoba resort which was scheduled to host the PGA tour just days later. It was about 15 miles away from our own resort (and a few days after we got home, we watched it on TV, and I cried several times seeing the beautiful Mexico beaches and trees). When we arrived at the Cancun airport, we printed up our tickets, and this time the Frontier scanning machine had no problem with our passports. We bought a few more souvenirs, and waited about an hour before we were set to board. I was SOOO tired (because I'd slept like crap to catch the sunrise, but it was totally worth it!) and I had a headache, so I took a power nap on the uncomfortable airport chairs. When I woke up to use the bathroom, I realized we were right next to a BubbaGump restaurant. I took this photo of the sign in front of the restaurant, because I can never quote Bubba just right from his famous quote in the Forrest Gump movie:

Our seats on the first flight were right over the wing, but as we took off from Cancun, I got some nice shots of the greenery and beaches that I'd fallen in love with while in Mexico.

Everything is so green!

Check out that blue, blue water. You can't even tell
where the water ends and the sky begins!!

This is Cancun from a distance. The water is truly that
light blue! It is breathtaking!

We arrived in Denver at 3:00, then had a 3-hour layover before boarding the flight to SLC. It took forever to go through customs. Thank goodness there's a terminal train inside that airport, because it felt like we walked forever to get to customs, but then we got to take the train back to the terminal that our next flight was at. We ate some dinner at KFC, and I was SO glad to have access to 'real' milk again! It was the first thing I bought at the airport! I took another nap while waiting for our flight (since Frontier flights are so uncomfortable, there's no sleeping on them!). We arrived in SLC about 7:45 that night. My sister Tabbi came and picked us up, took us to our car at her house, and we started the long journey home. We were not prepared for a huge snowstorm that hit us about an hour after Idaho Falls. We should've made it home about 2:00am, but driving through the un-plowed thick snow with an icy base, and having more snow falling also made it hard to see (comparable to the Star Wars intro), so we didn't get home until 3:00am. I'm glad we even made it! At one point, we weren't sure if we would. We had been following in a semi truck's path, but at Tendoy, the truck was pulled over and there were no tracks to follow. We were in the small silver box car, and even with our snow tires, we were sliding on the road, and the car was losing speed and we thought we might have to park on the side of the road and wait until the snowplows come. But we [slowly] made it all the way home! We were both beyond exhausted at that point after such a long day of traveling (and waking up early).

12:30am

1:15am

When we walked into our home, the lights were off, and the children were in bed (they'd taken care of themselves in our absence with the help of Grandpa and Grandma T. who live next door). The house was clean, the counters were cleared off, and the boys had hung a birthday banner for Josh, put some cookies on a plate for him, and put some of their Halloween candy in a bucket as a gift to him. It was super thoughtful, and made me tear up a bit. We were so glad to be home, and couldn't believe they'd been so kind!

Josh and I both went to work the next morning--errr, I mean THAT morning just a few hours later. And it was during that day that I started having severe cramps and diarrhea. I thought perhaps I'd had the flu, but after a few days, it didn't go away. I'll spare you the details, but essentially I had contracted a bacterial water-borne illness (most likely from the ice in my treasured horchata drink). It took several days on an antibiotic before I started feeling better (although in hindsight, I think it was  a blessing that I got so sick, because I lost almost all the weight that I'd gained back while we were on vacation!). Josh got sick, too, but in a different way: when we landed in SLC, he started feeling dizzy and his vertigo was off. He had altitude sickness, and it took over 2 weeks for him to stop feeling dizzy and the headache to go away. As I was sick, I kept crying that I just wanted to go back to Mexico because everything was happy there. But Josh felt differently when we first came home, he kept saying: "Mexico made us sick, and I don't want to go again if it feels this bad to come home", which just made me even more sad. Now that it's been nearly two months, though, I think we're both ready to go back because we feel better and we remember the good! Josh breathed and slept better while we were there (the humidity worked wonders on his throat), I was more relaxed (which is a gift because the older I get, the more anxiety I have), he was happy (at one point he even said to me "by the way, I love this" as we were sitting by the pool, and he very rarely makes such vocal expressions of happiness), and we enjoyed each other's company immensely (well, except for that last night, but that's to be expected). It was definitely my favorite vacation ever, and I can't wait to go again--this time hopefully we'll get others to join us, too! (Mark down February 2017 on your calendars!!!)

On the 4th Day of the Mexico Vacation for My True Love and Me

Sunday November 8 was our 4th day of vacation in Mexico. We were delighted to wake up to another beautiful day! I never tired of the view from our hotel room's balcony: 

We went down to have breakfast in the hotel's buffet restaurant, and I noticed in the foyer (which was right next to the restaurant room) that the tall statue with the water feature had live turtles swimming around in its base. I don't know why I never stopped to look at that before, but I loved watching them. There was one turtle that was stuck on its back, and we watched as it struggled to finally make it over onto it's toes. They were so cute!

We'd originally planned on going to church services that morning after breakfast, but the previous day as we were being driven by our tour guide towards Tulum, we passed the church building and realized just how far away it was (as in about 4-5 miles) from our hotel. We didn't have a lot of funds left, and weren't sure how much it would cost for 2 taxi rides (there and back), so we decided to skip going. Instead, I planned for us to have a professional photography session on site at our hotel, which Josh was NOT looking forward to in the slightest! I don't think Josh and I have had a professional photo session with just the two of us since our wedding, which was over 17 years ago!! Our photographer asked us to both wear white, so we'd gone shopping 2 days prior to find what we wanted to wear for the session.  It lasted about 45 minutes, and the photographer had us take shots around different locations by the hotel. We started close to the hotel, and did the beach shots last. I really wanted more beach shots, but the reflection was so bad because of the bright sun that day, that both our eyes were watering, and we didn't get a lot of good photos due to our squinty eyes. We did get some keepers, though; 

Handsome birthday boy

This one is our favorite

Our poor eyes!

I loved this beach!!

At the very end of the session, he had us laying in the sand, with Josh on his tummy, and me leaning/laying on top of Josh. It was so awkward! And sand got ALL over us, which made Josh super upset--he was already mad because our photo session went longer than 30 minutes like we were told it would be and his eyes were hurting! So after the photo session, we took a shower to wash off the sand and changed clothes again, but the photo session put him in a bad mood for the rest of the day. We decided to go walking down Quinta Avenida one more time, to get a few more souvenirs for the boys. The streets were a lot less busy in the pre-lunch hours (the other day we'd walked it later in the afternoon). It was a nice stroll for us, and since we were already accustomed to their sales techniques, we didn't fall prey to them again. Except this time, we decided to try a massage session, after the masseuse girls both started massaging our necks and upper backs on the street. It was only $40 for a 70-minute session for both of us, which is way cheaper than it is in the U.S. It ended up being one of our favorite things we did in Mexico!! It was calming and soothing for both of us: I was SOOO sore from the previous day's experience with rappelling, and Josh was irritated with the morning's events. It was the best massage either one of us have ever had, and was such a treat!! Afterwards, we walked a little further down the street to get the souvenirs we had in mind, then we walked down a side street to get to a public beach access. We heard that the locals love to go to the beach on Sundays, and we wanted to get a real feel for the area. On our way, we passed the most beautiful trees!

Doesn't Josh look so relaxed after the massage? And a bit shiny, too--they used
a lot of massage oil on us!!

When we got to the public beach near the center of town, we walked along and observed all the people. It was definitely different than hanging out on our beach with vacationers. I didn't take any photos, though, because I didn't want to be an intrusive tourist. After we got back to our hotel, we took showers AGAIN because all that massage oil felt sticky. I took a few photos of the front of our hotel when we first got there; I've never stayed at a hotel without a front door before. When you first arrive, there's a giant hut awning, and you walk up a few steps and you're suddenly inside. A lot of the buildings in that city didn't have front walls or doors--which was totally unusual for me. But because of the heat and humidity, there's no need I guess. Plus, nearly business has security guards for that reason.

I loved these perfectly manicured trees at the hotel's entrance with their
braided trunks. I've never seen a tree like this before!

This is the front of the hotel's foyer (with the statue and water
feature I mentioned earlier). On the right side is the check-in
desk, on the left is the restaurant (which does have doors), you
can see the indoor bar's TV on the far left, and on the far right
is a gift store and tour guide office.

This is the view inside of the foyer looking to the outside where the large hut
awning protects cars from the rain as they drop patrons off, and shields
against the sun's rays from heating the foyer too much. 

After our shower, we had lunch at the buffet restaurant, then changed into our beach clothes. By this time, our beach was pretty full, so we spent a lot of time by the pool that afternoon. They always had activities going on in the hotel, and around the pool, and it was fun to people-watch while Josh read his book. And we both drank a lot of virgin frozen Mango Daiquiries again of course!

We saw several para-sailers on the ocean from our hotel. I totally want to
try doing this next time we go to Mexico!

By early evening, the beach was clearing up, so we went out and swam for a bit in the water and laid in chairs along the beach. It was so relaxing! We were trying to soak up as much enjoyment as possible on our last full day in Mexico. As it got later, and darker, we had a hard time agreeing on what to do for dinner. I wanted to eat at an authentic restaurant, but none were super close, and Josh didn't want to spend money on a taxi or a big meal. I didn't want to just eat at the buffet restaurant for our last meal. After having a stupid argument over it, Josh went back to the hotel room, and I took a solo walk along the beach until it was dark. Then I decided that I was just going to go ahead to a restaurant myself. I walked about three quarters of a mile, then took a taxi the remainder distance to get to El Fogon (the restaurant that our local professional photographer had recommended). It was another 3-sided right next to a busy road, and even though it was late on Sunday night, it was a happening place! I waited just a few minutes on the sidewalk until there was an open table.

None of the workers spoke English, and I only recognized a few words on the menu. I still don't really know what I ordered!! But, I did order Horchata, and was SO excited to have the opportunity to finally have one! The hotel didn't have any, and the milk in Mexico was disgusting (all warm and creamy-tasting), and I was tired of having juice and pop all the time (I never tired of the Mango Daiquiri drink, but I wanted to have something else, too), and I NEVER drank the water. When they brought the Horchata out, I was delighted, and I loved that it was in a large goblet, too, because it made it feel more fancy. I drank it so slowly, as to enjoy every sip!

I couldn't believe the amount of food that came with my meal, and I wasn't even sure what to do with it all! On the plate under the foil was small tortillas, so I topped meat and sauce and veggies on each tortilla and ate it. It was very good, but I surprisingly got full very fast. It was a fabulous meal for only $12!!

As I sat there in the restaurant alone, I was right next to the meat cutter's station. It was fascinating watching him cut meat and cheese off the blocks suspended on a metal rod from the metal hood. I loved the energy in this restaurant: the workers were busy and talkative, the customers seemed happy,  and some type of Mexican NBA was being shown on a large TV in the center of the room. I enjoyed the whole experience of eating at this authentic restaurant, and I was sad I didn't get to share it with Josh. But I did take him the leftover meat and tortillas for him to try!

I used all my remaining dollars and pesos to get a taxi-ride back to the hotel. When I got to the hotel room, I couldn't find my room card. It must've gotten lost in the taxi or on my walk, and Josh wasn't in the room or answering his phone, so I went to the front desk and got another. Josh arrived about a half hour after me. He'd walked down Quinta Avenida again, and went to Senor Frog's. But it was also super busy there, so he didn't order a meal because the tables were full. He just got a drink, and then walked back to the hotel. He was happy that I'd gotten him some food. We sat on the deck of our hotel until it was well past bed time, sad that our last full day in Mexico had come to an end.