I looked up my topic from last year, (good thing it's my last blog post, makes it easy to find) which was my Favorite Vacation. Due to the long distance dating thing, we did some pretty amazing vacations before we got married, so I'm just going to count vacations from since we've been married. Which really, we pretty much stopped taking vacations after our Honeymoon. Jay started school pretty much right when we got married, I spent 1/3 of my life traveling for work (or as they call it "all expenses paid vacation"), then we had Jamison, more school for Jay, and I think right around the time we had Gianna is when we actually went on another vacation. As anyone who knows me might guess, traveling with me is usually not a smooth process. Our first two days of our Miami/Bahamas cruise was without luggage (not my fault but that stuff tends to happen to me). That being said, having Jay with me does seem to counter the chaos somewhat. Since we have only been on a handful of vacations in the last 11 years, my selection comes from our Honeymoon in Cancun, 2 trips to Mount Rushmore, a cruise to the Bahamas, 2 trips to the Oregon Coast and Disneyland. Right away, the first two stand out as potential favorites because 1) we didn't have kids with us and 2) they were tropical, warm (in January) and 3) we really had soooo much fun! I mean, how can you compete with this? It is the middle of the day and we were doing nothing but relaxing in the sun on a private island while everyone else we knew was stuck in the horrible inversion and freezing temps back in Salt Lake.
But I actually think my favorite vacation was the Oregon Coast. Our second trip there which was with Jamison and Gianna in August of 2012. We towed our trailer out there and camped along the coast. It was amazing. I know that as a mom, I'm supposed to love having babies and cry over the fact that I don't have kids in diapers anymore, and I did love that time in my life but for me, THIS is so much better. I had so much fun on this trip and it was the first vacation with my kids that I felt like we spent time doing things that we all enjoyed. There was none of the work and weird logistical issues that came with vacations when the kids were younger (i.e. naptime, age limits, strollers, etc) and I truly just relaxed and enjoyed every minute. Camping worked out wonderfully since we were never confined to the space of a hotel room and relaxing by a campfire might even get higher ratings then a hammock in the sun (well, in January it's really hard to think that). Instead of taking the kids to things only they would enjoy while we watch, we went horseback riding, rode jet boats in the river, hiked the Redwoods and drank coffee/took naps on the beach by the ocean (well, me and Gianna took naps, that's not really Jay or Jamison's thing). Awesome trip and I hope to get to do it again! It almost makes me want to include the kids on the vacation to Hawaii that I'm currently planning for NEXT January.... almost. :)
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY JAY!!!
Some pics from our trip:
My anniversary posts started as a way to answer all the questions I most frequently get asked related to Jay or our marriage, but I think I've pretty much covered them all. In keeping with my once a year blog post though, I DO still need a marriage-related topic for next year. If you guys could all start asking me more questions so I can have topic ideas for future years, that would be GREATLY appreciated. But for now, next year's topic.... Planning Our Wedding
