Vallarta Anniversary Trip

A few weeks ago Mike and I enjoyed the most wonderful vacation to Mexico to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary! We had such a relaxing and refreshing time together. Although our anniversary is not until June, it worked out for both sets of grandparents to babysit in April. Weston and Elsie spent the week in Spokane with Mike's parents and Grace and Noah spent the week in Bend with my parents. Mike and I had 7 whole nights all to ourselves (insert Hallelujah Chorus here)!!!
We were able to stay at the Grand Mayan Resort in Nuevo Vallarta (about 20 minutes North of Puerto Vallarta). We agreed it's the nicest place we've ever stayed (thanks to my parents for the use of the timeshare)!
By the end of the trip we were ready to come home to "real" life and missed the kids so much. Although it was a fantastic vacation, it was good to be reminded how blessed we are in our day-to-day, normal life. Although being home is much more difficult and full of work it is also very rewarding and fulfilling!

All week it was about 85 degrees and sunny! I like this photo above because it shows all the beautiful, tropical plants that covered the resort.

This is a photo of our kitchen/dining area. We had a two bedroom suite with a kitchen and a jacuzzi tub. Our balcony wasn't ocean view but had a private little pool and patio chairs.

We went into Puerto Vallarta for half a day. It was nice to visit and see a few things but we were more interested in relaxing and reconnecting in our marriage than we were in sightseeing. In the photo above we are standing on the Malecon in front of Banderas Bay.

Mike was very impressed by this Seahawks poncho and wanted a photo (not impressed enough to buy it though).

This is the cathedral in Puerto Vallarta. Mike took this photo.

The beach at Puerto Vallarta.

These are some of the resort pools from the view on the 4th floor. There were about 6 different pools at the resort as well as a lazy river (pool river at the bottom of the picture). You could jump on an inner-tube and the current would take you around all the other pools. It was fun to ride the tube around, especially when the wave machine was on! There were also 2 wave pools, a water slide and a pool with a water playground for the kids.

Another photo from the 4th floor. This one shows the wave pools, lagoon, ocean, and the Mayan ruin which is actually the tower the water slide comes out of.

Lazy river picture.

This is the kids' pool/playground. There were lots of families with young kids vacationing here. We were glad to be there without kids this time but would love to bring them at some point.

Mike and I visited a little surfing town called Sayulita for another half day. It was about 45 minutes North of Nuevo Vallarta. It was very small and had a laid-back feel. I think they were going to host the Mexican long boarding competition there the next day. The church in Sayulita.

Mike enjoying the sunset at on the beach in front of the resort. The night before I took this photo we enjoyed the most beautiful sunset either of us had ever seen but we didn't have the camera with us. We brought it the next night but, of course, the photos don't do it justice. What a wonderful creator God is! I was reminded of my smallness and God's power as I watched the sunset.

One of our favorite days of vacation was the day we did the Outdoor Adventure Tour through Vallarta Adventures. The excursion started with a speed boat trip across the bay to a small village, we then loaded onto huge all-terrain vehicles and drove up into the Sierra Madre Mountains to the base camp. We were then all harnessed up into repelling/zipline gear and loaded onto mules. We rode the mules up into the mountains for about 30 minutes to the first zipline. Luckily, the mules do the trek 2 or 3 times a day so we couldn't mess anything up or steer them the wrong way. They did gallop a bit and try to pass each other on the path, but nothing too scary. From there we did about 10 ziplines and 2 repels. Let me just say it was SO MUCH FUN!!! We got to repel down the face of a waterfall and land in the pool at the base. We also zipped down into the river and later repelled straight down from a hanging catwalk. Mike and I felt safe the entire time. We were double-clipped onto the ropes and there were about 6 guides with our group. The last zipline ended right at the base camp where were could change our clothes. We were soaked from ziplining right into the water!

Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take our cameras on the tour and decided not to spend the money on the professional photos they take. But take my word for it, Mike and I were pretty awesome zippers!

We are so thankful to the Lord for this special trip and for the 10 years of marriage He's given us so far. Lord-willing we'll be celebrating our 20th anniversary in another 10 years (the years seem to be going by faster and faster). We were pretty stunned to realize that on our 20th anniversary our kids will be 17, 15, 13 and 11. Yikes! Please pray for us over this next 10 years!