We went on vacation!

I have been wanting to write about our vacation for quite awhile, however, I couldn't ahead of time for one main reason... it was to be a surprise for Mike's mom, Aunt and Uncle.

Aunt sends us letters consistently keeping us up to date on what they have been up and what they have planned for the coming months. About 2 months ago, we got one of these letters in which she shared the details of Aunt, Uncle and Heather (Mike's mom) taking a cruise to the Mexican Riviera.

In reading this, the idea struck me that Mike and I could surprise them and take the same cruise as a family getaway. I checked on the prices before Mike got home and had a chance to read the letter. Once he did, I asked him what he thought of the idea and he was on board 100% right from the start, however, he wanted to contact Aunt to be sure of details and in case for some reason they weren't going to go, we would know ahead of time. Aunt promised to help us keep our secret and was very welcoming to the idea of us ambushing their cruise. By that evening, we had the cat/house sitter contacted & booked, had booked our cruise room and bought our flights. In a very few short hours, we went from not having any vacation plans or even thinking about going on one to a completely booked and planned vacation & surprise.

Aunt was VERY good about keeping our secret, however, due to unfortunate circumstances, Aunt and Uncle had to cancel about a week ahead for medical reasons so called to see what we wanted to do about our secret. We got on a three way call with Aunt, Uncle, us and Heather so that we could break the news that Aunt & Uncle weren't going to be able to go but that we had everything planned to surprise her and take the cruise with her. It wasn't quite the way we had planned to break the surprise to her but we still got to hear her on the phone and knowing that she wasn't going to cancel as well and that we would be seeing each other in about a week.

We were very sorry that Aunt and Uncle weren't able to join us too but we hope to see them in a few months and have a good visit then. Whenever we go back to visit family, we tend to stay with my family which means that we tend to spend the most time with them. We are going to make a better effort on our next trip of making sure that we set aside a good chunk of time to have a good visit with Aunt and Uncle as we miss them very much. We are hoping that Uncle will have had his surgery by then and is doing better again. Our fingers and hearts are crossed that he will be feeling better very soon. (Get well Uncle!)

We had a very nice visit with Mike's mom on the cruise. We got together for most lunches and every night for dinner. We also booked the same excursion as her for La Paz and had a lovely time.

We have been back since very late Sunday night but these first few days back, we have been feeling very off and trying to get back to our land feet again. It was a very rough week for cruise weather which hit us like never before so it has been much more difficult to get back to normal afterwards... I am so ready for the world to stop swaying & spinning already!! More on that in another post... still working on photos and scrapbook pages about it... so to be continued over the next few days...

Until then... I did manage to crop a photo to create a new online avatar for myself as it is way overdue for a new one... so my vacation avatar... in color and b&w... not sure which I like better yet... leaning towards the b&w I think...