Can't wait for our Anniversary!

So, if any of my friends have talked to me at all in the past year, they would probably know that me and Ken's 10th wedding anniversary is this Summer. We have been obsessing over it for a long time and are soooooo excited. We really have wanted to do something big to celebrate it, anyone who knows our history, knows we didn't have a honeymoon or wedding really either. So this is a major deal for us.

And we have spent the past year discussing our different options. Our main dilemma is that Ginger will only be 8 months old when it is our anniversary, so the obvious week away by ourselves won't quite work. Heck we would settle for 3 or 4 days, but again she will only be 8 months old, and she is way too cute to leave anyways. We don't even think Rose could handle 3 or 4 days. The boys could if we made them but I don't think they would appreciate it.

So our thinking has ranged from buying a timeshare to commemorate this special event to, well you can read the whole journey. Positives about a timeshare would be, it would be the gift that keeps on giving year after year, right. And my favorite spot to go with my family has always been the Marriott Mountainside Resort in Park City. An added bonus is Ken's family is there and so is Tasha and our friends from Utah obviously. And Ken's brother offered to sell us his timeshare for a smoking deal, although it's a Marriott in Park City, just not the one we have always stayed at. But it would still be super awesome.

Then as we daydreamed about our ultimate anniversary celebration we discovered that we both want to go to warm ocean somewhere and go snorkeling. So the obvious choice was Hawaii. And we figured we would just bring the whole family and rent a timeshare. Fun for all of us! But then as we started planning out more details we realised tons of fun as a family, but what about for us as a couple, seeing as how it is our anniversary we were thinking about.

Which brings us to our 3rd option. Like what if there was warm ocean really close and so we wouldn't spend much time flying and we could possibly leave Ginger for 2 nights in the capable and loving care of my parents. And voile, Cancun started to sound really appealing. 2 1/2 hour flight away so if we left on say a Friday morning we could stay two nights and be home by the time our kids got out of church on Sunday. And we would look at each other and say two nights isn't really all that long, after all, right??? Even though it would only be two wonderful nights together without any kids, like that's gotta equal more celebration time as a couple then a week somewhere fabulous with all the kids.

But then we would look at Ginger and just melt. And of course by this time Darin and Nathan had definitely formed an opinion of which one they preferred. Hawaii obviously. Here's a tip though; talking to your kids honestly creates family bonds. So the boys are asking us one night about what we are talking about so we tell them it's about our anniversary choices. And I point blank, tell them they should be so thankful that we just had their baby sister (Ginger) because if it wasn't for her we wouldn't even be considering them coming with us. And Darin immediately runs over to her and starts kissing her and says "I love you, Ginger!" "I love you, Ginger!"

We also started to form another idea which was to go somewhere for 4 nights and just bring Ginger along with us, but that idea quickly washed out. Especially when we realized that meant no snorkeling together, no romantic anniversary dinner, no parasailing.

Anyway, our deliberating has come to an end. We have finally decided, which I know many people have heard me say that before. But this time we decided with our bank account. We have actually purchased our tickets and paid for the timeshare. Drum roll please......

We are going to Cancun for 9 nights. We are taking all of our children, and we are taking my parents. We are renting a fabulous 3 bedroom condo (we hope, the pictures online are pretty amazing). Through the process of picking a rental I realized I have gotten pretty spoiled because I really only wanted to stay in condos that had granite countertops in the kitchen and nice looking bedding, like as in not from the pastel period in the 80's). The condo is right on the ocean, it has two kiddie pools, and another pool and a couple of spas, plus even a playground. Also, there is a swim up bar and convenience store on-site. And the best part is that it is perfectly situated right next door to the Ritz Carlton Resort. Which we have also reserved for 2 nights so we can really celebrate our anniversary! (if Ken is lucky, but I promised him I would stay 1 night without the kids, and he said if we have to bring Ginger or Rose over the 2nd night that would be fine. We are really hoping she will be taking a bottle by then). And my wonderful parents will babysit the kids for us those two days, and I should be able to relax since I can walk 100 yards down the beach to see them if something comes up. And we also get to have a fabulous family vacation. Because that was another downside we had thought of; we were afraid we would enjoy things so much and wish we had taken the kids so they could see and do things too. And the reasons we chose Cancun over Hawaii was; the 5 hour time difference didn't sound like fun to adjust the girls to, and neither did the 10 hours of travel that included a minimum of 2 layovers each way. Plus two nights at the Ritz-Carlton in Cancun is $900 for two nights-- at the Ritz-Carlton in Hawaii it is $1800. However our condo in Cancun is more then the one in Hawaii would have been, doesn't quite make sense to me. Another plus is we all get to get passports.

Anyway, I would just like to say I am super excited to celebrate with my wonderful husband Ken, who gets me, and gets why I was so torn about leaving our babies (really he has been just as much of a softie as me), and is willing to move huge hurdles out of the way to sweep me off my feet on our anniversary.

Here are photos of the condo.

The precious kitchen I was talking about.
I believe this couch will seat all 8 of us.

1 of the kiddie pools

View from master balcony.