5 years? Really? Not quite, but we are celebrating anyway.
Almost 5 years ago, we spent an amazing week at the beach with friends and family, ending it with a ceremony in front of 100 others, exchanging vows. Toes in the sand, we said, “I do”. We followed that with another week with 3 other couples on an amazing honeymoon trip. Both took place in Mexico, the wedding in Puerto Penasco and the honeymoon in Cancun.
At that time, I told Tracey I wanted him to take me to Europe for our 5-year anniversary. I did not know where, and I did not want to plan it. I wanted to sit at sidewalk cafes and people-watch. I wanted to stay in a place with a balcony that I could step out on and look below at cafes and busy streets full of life happening. Oh, and of course I wanted to go, first class!!
I had picked 5 years, because I figured my daughter would be just shy of 16 years old, and I would be ready to leave her for an extended period of time. I was wrong! As we passed our 4-year anniversary and began talking about the trip to Europe, I decided I could not do it. And even though she went to Australia with her dad for 3 weeks this year, I am not ready for it to be my doing, my decision to take time away from being with my daughter. So now what to do? Where to go? Do we skip? Do we take the family? Do we take friends? Do we forget about it and plan it for when she is off in college?
So many questions and so few answers.
We like to take a family vacation once a year, where we take all the kids and grandkids. With the family growing, we might be looking at every other, or every few years, lol. Or perhaps we just scale back and focus on spending time together instead of where we go.
So, back to this story, Tracey and I discuss the many options and the many thoughts whirling around in our heads. We decided to celebrate back where we said “I do”, and to invite others to go with. We, of course, start with the kids. Now that Chris and family live in Texas, the girls’ school schedule is not the same as ours here in Chandler. So they are unable to go in October, our anniversary month. Tracey and I discuss it again, pray about it, and go back to the kids and get their input. They can’t go in October, but are all for our family vacation being in Puerto Penasco (aka Rocky Point).
Talking to all the kids and checking our schedules and calendars, we pick a week in June that works for us all. We rent the condo next to ours, so we will have plenty of room now that there are 9 of us. And then we decide to invite the other 100 people that attended the wedding, knowing that most would opt out, I mean, it is OUR anniversary, not theirs.
We have a few who might like to go, so I will work out a discounted rate with the resort to offer to anyone who wants to go with us.
Fast forward months, it is now June, and we are headed to Rocky Point with about 65 friends and family!
To say it was a dream come true would not even come close to explaining it. Something I have always wanted was to be able to be down there, not necessarily with others, but at the same time as others we know. We could hang out together, have meals together, but each has our own place to retreat to and enjoy family time. This was just that. We were blessed by each and every person who showed up, and we can’t thank them enough.
We had meals together. We hung out in the pool, lazy river, and beach together. We played games on the patio and inside at the dining table. We shared drinks, food, and, best of all, friendship.
We even had all 65 of us together at one time at brunch on our patio on Sunday morning!! Some people stayed 3 days, 4 days, 5 days, and some stayed the whole 8 with us. Sometimes there were 10 of us, 25 of us, 35 of us and sometimes it was just the 9 in our family. It was pretty darn perfect.
We can only hope that everyone else had a great time and made great memories. We hope you will consider doing it again with us, but maybe we won’t wait 5 more years!
We thank our kids
Chris, Rachel, Lilah, and Norah
Cody and Michael
Caitlynn
Without you, life is just not as fun!! We thank you for the many laughs and even the tears. Thanks for taking time out of your busy lives to make time for us old folks. We look forward to our next family trip.
We thank our families
Leslie and Larry, Hayden and Amy, Kayley and Garrett
Scott, Kerri, Stefen, and Isaiah
Jeff, Michelle, Megan, and Matthew
Melanie, Jen, Chase, Evelyn, and Ben
We know life is busy, and with your own families, even busier. We are grateful you were here with us then and now. Thank you for loving us and supporting us. We look forward to more time with all of you.
We thank all of our friends
Robert and Michelle
Kevin and Jenee
John and Lisa, Jake, David, Becky, Shea, Zane, Paul, James, Liliana, and Evangeline
Taylor and Nick, Hayley, and Ashley
Dave and Debbie
Mica and Jim
Tim and Carrie
Jimmy and Audra
Marcos and Tania
Garret and Shane
Michael, Xavier, and Dominic
I hope you know you are more like family than just friends! We were blessed you chose to come celebrate with us, and we hope to see you all again very soon.
We love including family and friends on all our adventures and would love to be included on yours as well. Life is the journey we take with those we love. We love you all and thank God for each of you.
Much love
Donna and Tracey
PS, we would like to put together a Shutterfly album. If you have pictures from our trip, please send me your email address so I can add you to our Dropbox, so that you may upload your photos for us. Once we create the album, we will send you a link in case you want to order one!!