The Exuma Islands, a place we have dreamed about and talked about for over 10 years. We sat at Willow River State Park, drinking strawberry daquiries one hot summer day dreaming about sailing around the Exuma Islands. This was before we bought our sailboat and sailed for 2 months in the Florida Keys and realized that we were not ready for the cross ocean venture.... However, our 2 month sailing adventure on our teeny tiny sailboat made us both realize that we should spend the rest of our lives together. We knew we would get married near or on the ocean, a place we both love. So on Friday December 13th, 2002 we got married on the ocean pier at Sandals Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica. It was the best decision and we loved every minute of it. I remember saying as we left the resort, "we will have to come back to Sandals on our 10 year anniversary!"
December 13, 2012 we celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary not only at a Sandals Resort but a new Sandals Resort that happened to be in the Exuma Islands, a place we have been talking about for 13 years. We knew this was the resort to be at.
The anticipation of leaving about killed me. I literally did not sleep the whole week before we left. I had never been away from the kids for more than 3 nights and we were going to be gone 7 nights and 8 days....it was so difficult. I cried about it, worried about it, stressed about it.... there was no fun part of the anticipation of this trip. We had a good plan, detailed notes, friends stepping in willing to help and Grandma so we knew the kids would be fine.
Once we arrived at the resort and handed our glass of champagne I was able to relax. We had a few hitches early on in communicating with my mom and the kids back home but we got that figured out with in the first few days. We spend the majority of each day at the beautiful beaches & fabulous pool drinking dirty bananas. Man, they were yummy! We loved all the different restaurants and tried a lot of different foods we wouldn't normally try. We also took many many walks up and down the beaches, a lot of the talks would either end up being about the kids or about how we need to buy a bigger sail boat and so another sailing trip someday. Both topics made me smile & feel happy!
We took one excursion, a boat trip to some of the outer islands to snorkel, swim, feed the iguanas & pigs and mostly get a glimpse of the beauty of the cays of the Exuma Islands. The water was amazing! We saw Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's private island and home. Stopped at a lot of islands and got to swim, hike and look for shells. We (mostly Jacques) also got to feed the wild pigs and iguanas, I took pictures. Although it was cool to see them on these uninhabited islands, they were kind of scary and I stayed my distance. We hiked to the top of this cliff where on one side it was the Atlantic Ocean and the other was the Caribbean Sea. While the Atlantic Ocean looked so deep blue and rough, the Caribbean Sea was calm, beautiful and peaceful. This day trip was definitely the highlight of our trip!
We went to the french restaurant at the resort for our anniversary and had a wonderful dinner and dessert. It was definitely our favorite night of the trip. We talked a lot about how our life has changed in the past 10 years but really how much it has stayed the same. We may have built 3 houses, moved 3 times and had 3 kids but we still have the same dreams and goals. This makes my heart smile.
The time came to say good bye to this beautiful week and amazing island. And even though we had full bellies from all the food and drinks, a tan from all the sun, we were feeling a little empty with out our three favorite people. We got home at 9pm and when we pulled into the garage and waved at them with the door open, there were tears of joy! It had never felt so good to hug our kids. It was great to nurture our relationship and have some "us" time but it was good to be HOME!
~It's My Life
