A getaway for 2

The first and only time Mike and I had been on a vacation with just the two of us was on our honeymoon.  We've been married for 12 years, and our kids are getting older (as in, they no longer need nourishment from me), so we decided that it was time for a kid-free vacation.  Just us.

We both wanted to go somewhere tropical, so deciding the destination was pretty easy.  Somewhere in the Caribbean!  I literally researched for months and months before we made our decision to go to the Mayan Riviera, more specifically, the city of Tulum, Mexico.  My oldest sister has been to Riviera Maya a couple of times, and she always comes back with the most amazing pictures!  She said that we must check out the Mayan ruins in Tulum, so we just decided to stay at a resort in that same city!  We stayed at Dreams Tulum and it was fantastic!!   

The coast of Mexico as we were flying in

The main lobby of the resort

This was where we ate our first meal!  The view was amazing! :)

Just more of the resort's landscaping...

A cenote (which is a natural sink-hole...something like that) that was on their property

The activity pool

The quiet pool

One of the bars where we tried a variety of drinks ;)

Look how precious the workers are in their fancy little hats :)

They stamped these designs into all the ashtrays.  Pointless in my opinion, but whatever.  They really do strive to make the place as pretty and relaxing as possible!  So that's nice. 

 

The ocean was incredible!!  Really, that was one of my main must-haves, a nice turquoise ocean, and it definitely delivered!

We took a cab to the Mayan ruins, which were only about 5 minutes away.  It was beautiful!  The buildings were incredible and the view of the ocean was breathtaking.  Seriously!!!  It was gorgeous!

By the way, I didn't change the color or anything on these pictures at all. They are completely unedited.  The water really is that blue!

These sweet little lizards were everywhere!  Here in the ruins and all over our resort as well.

The walk through this jungle was probably the most peaceful walk I've ever taken! :)

We decided to wake up early one morning so that we could watch the sunrise together.  It was just as beautiful as I'd hoped it would be! :) 

This was the most relaxing vacation ever!  I had so much fun with the love of my life, my best friend, my sweetie!  I'm so happy he talked me into doing this!  We had such an amazing time together!

 

To say I was extremely nervous about leaving the kids would be the understatement of the year.  Not because I thought that they wouldn't be taken care of, but because I've never been away from them for more than a day!  I didn't want them to think that we weren't coming back (mostly Jett...I knew the older kids would get it).   Not having ever worked since Laney was born, I am not used to being away from them or them from me for so long!  In fact, the morning we left, I woke up about an hour early...you know how it's hard to sleep the night before a trip?  I woke Mike up and told him that, even though we would get to the airport way earlier than we needed to be there, we had to leave immediately, because the longer I laid there thinking about how much I would miss them was just making me anxious.  I had to get out of there!  ha!  I know that it was good to get a little independence (for them and for me!), so I'm glad we went.  But man, was I ready to see them when it was time to come home!   They did awesome and didn't cry for us at all, which was such a relief to me!  I'm so happy they did so well!

My amazing mother-in-law stayed at our house for the 6 days we were gone and took amazing care of them.  I don't know how we will ever make this up to her, but we are so thankful for a Mom and a Ma-Maw who was willing to do this for us!!!   My mom took the boys a couple of days, so a big thanks to her, too!!!  My mom and my mother-in-law are pretty much rockstars!!  We literally could not have done this without them!!!  I love both of them so much!

I miss the beach.  Can we go back now?