Celebrating 6

Last Saturday was our six-year wedding anniversary.

The day started with an Easter party at our Sunday school teachers' house (inside because it was raining).

And the day ended like this:

A redbox movie and a candy apple.

If the April 19, 2008 me could have seen into the future at the April 19, 2014 me, I'd have run down the aisle instead of walked. Marrying Ryan continues to be the best decision I've ever made.

Redbox, a candy apple, a sleeping noodle in his crib upstairs, and six years married to my bff.

My cup overflows.

Celebrating 6

Tribute from a friend

Our dear family friend Gwen Whiteman wrote a devotional for her church for Lent, and it's about Mom. It is so precious, I asked her if I could share it here.

Thank you for writing this, Gwen. It is such a tribute to Mom, and it makes me so proud to be her daughter.

Devotional for Friday, April 11, 2014 by Gwen Whiteman

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." Luke 10:27

Anne was the first person to greet our family when we moved to our neighborhood 25 years ago. She quickly organized a coffee for me so that I could meet others. Then she invited me to an in-home Bible study where half a dozen women studied the letters of Paul under her guidance. When a neighbor was involved in an automobile accident that left her comatose, it was Anne who organized the provision of a year's worth of meals to sustain a grieving husband and two daughters. And it was Anne who comforted all of us when another neighbor family lost a precious child.

She never asked for a lot of credit. She just cared for others in simple ways. She listened. She made people laugh. She was there every Christmas Eve with a plate of cookies and there to water plants, pick up the paper, and feed a cat when families went on vacation.

My dear friend died on the winter solstice in 2012, after a courageous, fifteen-year battle with cancer. But Anne was always about new beginnings, for she was one of the Easter people. My memories of Anne instruct me that when we live our lives after the manner of Christ, we can bless the world in ways that are eternal.

Prayer: Dear God, thank you for friends who give us a vision of you through their generosity and loving kindness. Amen.

   

Gwen and Mom, 2007

Bienvenidos (Our Mexican vacation)

Welcome.
Welcome to the Grand Velas resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
The place where food and drinks are endless and free.
The place where every room has a pool and beach view.
The place where staff members, in crisp white uniforms, serve you hand and foot, with a kindness and hospitality like you've never seen before:
Want to eat your lunch poolside? Done. They'll bring it to you on a tray.
Need another drink? You won't finish the first before the second awaits.
Want flank steak and shrimp for breakfast? They're in the breakfast buffet every day.
Too lazy tired to carry your plate of food from the buffet line to your table? Wait staff will insist on carrying it for you.
How about homemade chocolates every afternoon at 4 (brought to you poolside, as if you deserve some sort of treat for your hard work of laying out in the sun)?
Or room service, all hours of the day and night? Just wait for the knock at your door.
At the Grand Velas resort, the complimentary soap in the bathrooms is L'occitane, and the on-site restaurants serve Escargot. And I haven't even mentioned the 50-minute holistic body massage (which landed me on another planet.)

This was our all-inclusive Mexican vacation.

This was reality for the Thomsens last week.

This was luxury like I've never experienced before.

This was the place we took our teething, wild-man, wonderful toddler. And the place where he taught me yet another thing or two about motherhood. On vacation. In Mexico.

What I'm about to say next is called keeping it real.

My arms and neck were sore for the first two days of our trip from arm wrestling Will in the airplane on the way there. Of course, nothing in the hotel room or the resort itself was Will-proof, and my boy thought the pool water was cold, so he didn't want to be in it. (That's what you do with a child at a tropical resort: Play in the pool.)

I bemoaned to Ryan on Day 2 of the trip: "Everything about this place screams Relax, and I just can't seem to. It actually stresses me out to be at a place so conducive for relaxation when I can't relax!"

Ryan looked at me and said the most profound thing I'd heard in a while, and it sums up Mothering Lesson #1245 that I had to go all the way to Mexico to learn: "Your primary goal on this trip can't be relaxation. Your primary goal should be togetherness."

And honestly, with that, my trip started to improve.

I don't know why I didn't realize it before we left the country, but you don't take a vacation from motherhood. Not that I want to--but that reality didn't hit me until my margarita sat there melting while I chased Will around the grounds, trying to keep him from throwing rocks in the pool and disabling the sprinkler system. Like a young couple (with three kids) next to us at the pool said, "All of your parenting responsibilities are the same, you're just in a different location--which can actually make it even harder."

Which is why relaxation can't be your primary goal. That's what it used to be when I went on vacation. And boy did I read books and get good tans.

But at the risk of sounding corny, my memories of Will running behind the pool chairs, sneakily out of my reach, and the nanosecond he stopped to enjoy a cheese quesadilla, sitting in his lounge chair, are already sweeter to me not even a week later than all of my pre-motherhood vacations.

Those were relaxing, but this was much sweeter.

Thanks to my dear husband for the lesson and my little Will for proving the case in point.

I'll take motherhood. Any day.

Even if it means my margarita is gonna melt.

********

Here's what all that togetherness looked like last week:

Too bad looking out the window isn't this action-packed
the entire flight! Will had no interest in looking at clouds.

The taxi ride from the airport to the resort. Will thought he
was big stuff riding without a car seat. I should mention for
memory's sake that when we got off the plane at the airport,
resort staff was there to welcome us, with warm towels for
washing our hands and bottles of water. Let the luxury begin!



The view from our room. No lie.

Yes, I took a picture of the soap

The novelty of the water was short lived. Cute pic, though.
 

 

Maybe he'll like a float and some toys in the water. Maybe
his shirt is making him cold...We tried everything. His
face about sums it up.

 

Caught the nanosecond on film

Day 1. All I have to say is: Whiiiiite.

He was really into the guacamole. Too bad it's
impossible to make it that good at home.

This flotation device must be good for something.

Every kind of fresh fruit imaginable! Will liked the
strawberries. I had a heaping spoonful of kiwi slices every
morning.

That's the face of someone wreaking havoc in a hotel room.
(In case you didn't recognize it.)

Sure, you can use your shovels as forks.

We didn't spend a ton of time on the beach because
the water was freezing and the sand was hot.
Complain, complain, I know. But we went out there
a couple of late afternoons, and Will loved it. Especially
eating the sand. Ohhhh yeah.

Nachos by the pool? I think I will.

Okay so I actually ate these. I'm still trying not to think
about it. We ate at an amazing restaurant at the resort,
and when Ryan saw Escargot on the menu, he said we had
to order it. After all, it was free! I closed my eyes,
stuck it in, and chewed. Quite good. (But I'm still
trying not to think about it.)

Afraid I might get left out of the vacation pics.



Our favorite waiter Francisco

Will's drink of choice for the week: OJ

Peek-

-a-boo

 

If you know me at all, you know I don't do baths in hotel tubs. Heck, I don't do
hotels. But, this one met even my standard.

 

At the end of the week, they drove us back to the airport in a bus.
Highlight of Will's trip.

Togetherness

And when we got home, this was a bit of comic relief
from our efforts trying to get Will to go down for a
nap.
Bienvenidos home, everyone. Bienvenidos home.

Earning our margaritas

What's a vacation without a little stress before you leave?
Months ago, in anticipation of our trip to Mexico, I applied for and received Will's passport. At the same time, Ryan and I checked our passports and decided we were good to go -- both expired after April 2014.

First things first. Let's get the important things out of the way far in advance. Right?

Wrong.

Tuesday night of this week, Ryan and I sat on the couch to look through the Mexico paperwork we had received from Edward Jones:

Pack half of each person's things in a separate suit case so if one suitcase is lost, everyone has something to wear. Check.

Some of the restaurants at the resort have dress codes. Men should pack slacks and women should pack dresses or dress pants. Check.

You are required to attend three Edward Jones-hosted meetings during the week. Check.

Your passport must not expire within six months of your return date. If you need to renew your passport, do so at least one month in advance of your departure date.

Uhhhh. Rewind.

What? Your passport can't expire within six months of the date you are scheduled to return to the U.S.?

Ryan's expires in May 2014.

It is Tuesday.

We are supposed to leave Saturday.

I sat on the couch stunned, visions of margaritas melting in my mind. Ryan, on the other hand, in true Ryan form, is cool and collected. He picks up his phone and dials the number in the Edward Jones paperwork for a passport emergency.

Yep, I'd call it that.

The rest of the story includes Ryan gathering all of his life's most important paperwork, getting a photo, FedExing it, hundreds of dollars out of our pocket, and us waiting by the phone to get a confirmation email that our government employees had turned it around in one day and had FedExed it back.

In the course of writing this post, I got a text from Ryan that he had his new passport in hand.

Shew, shew, and shew.

Like I said, what's a vacation without a little added stress before you leave?

We will have earned our margarita.

Maybe two.

Adios for the week!

You think they have sticks like this in Mexico, Mom?