This trip was filled with such joy, beauty, warmth, laughter, love, appreciation, relaxation, great food, blue waters, rum punch, swimming, good talks, and FAMILY!

 Let me explain how we got here:

So, for Christmas this year my Mom treated everyone to go on this family vacation!  And everything about it was perfect.  I seriously can not thank my Mom enough for such a generous gift.

Beaches Resort

As you get older life has a tendency to keep you busy, stressed, distracted, and in general you just have more on your plate.  This is all fine and dandy, but the importance of stepping away and being able to regroup is a blessing.  My mom made that possible for all of us. 

In preparation for this trip I bought my first Nikon camera.  I couldn’t pass up their new water-proof interchangeable lens, point and shoot!  SO, all these images are taken with my new toy.    Enjoy!  

The house we stayed in had a private pool, rooms for everyone, steps from the beach, and best of all -a Butler for the week!  We were truly pampered. Beach DAY!

After a long first day … we were all tuckered out!  We relaxed, ate some amazing food, and started planning for the next day of sunshine.  We all knew we had an incredible week ahead of us.

We started the 2nd day by the pool side.  It was such fun having the kids in the pool, the swim up bar, a special spot reserved for us, snacks delivered, and baby naps in a cabana. 

The best part about this trip was that the only thing we had to think about was which restaurant we were gonna try next, beach or pool day, and what kind of daiquiri to order!  

Who doesn’t enjoy a lazy river?! The next morning my Mom and I went kayaking (her first time) as well as sailing.  I was so proud of my Mom because she doesn’t know how to swim, and she didn’t let her fear get her in the way.  It was nice to have some of that one on one time on this trip with her. …back to the beach! Beaches Resort did such a wonderful job being kid friendly, but not in an over the top kind of way.  And these lovely characters were spotted here in their throughout our stay.  It was so cute seeing how excited the kids got when they saw them! For Valentine’s Day, Joel planned a candlelight dinner for us by the ocean and I had planned a massage during sunset (on the balcony)  It was so relaxing!  Afterwards we grabbed Hibachi and ended our evening walking along the beach during a full moon.  During our night walk we saw two huge manta rays.  Was so exciting, and a great Vday if you ask me! 

Our last night & morning!