Last week I returned from a ten day trip to two gloriously sunny destinations. The first part of our trip was to Montego Bay, Jamaica, where I watched my oldest, best friend tie the knot on a gorgeous white sandy beach. After four days in the land of no worries, mon, we hopped on a plane and jetted to Playa del Carmen, Mexico for our annual trip of rest and relaxation.

The weeks, even months, leading up to this vacation had me all sorts of stressed out about work. Stressed out like I’ve never quite been before.

Work stress paired with the terrible, horrible, never ending winter we’re having means vacation could not have come at a better time. I shed a few tears when leaving Fielder behind with Justin’s brother, but other than that, you could say that I was positively beaming the moment our plane left the ground.

We spent ten days eating, drinking, celebrating, relaxing. We spent ten days not working. We spent ten days not having a care in the world. We spent ten days pretending that drinking fruity alcoholic beverages on the beach was real life.

Those ten days were absolutely fantastic, and as a result… my skin is darker, my attitude is brighter. My body is certainly heavier, and my hair a little lighter. And all of that feels pretty darn great.

Note: I started writing this post the day after we got back from vacation. I took some time to read while on vacation, and reading inspired me to write. I had visions of a minimal words, multiple pictures post that would sum up the beauty of the culture/food/weather we experienced while away. The next day, I found out that my SD card had somehow become corrupt (?!) and I have zero photos* of my vacation. No photos of my friend’s son playing the steel drums after his mom’s wedding. No photos of my family all dressed up and on the beach (Christmas card material, really). No photos of my favorite places/meals in Mexico. Nothing. And while I’m grateful to have even gone on this trip, and grateful for all of the wonderful/hilarious/embarrassing memories we created, not having photos to re-live those memories truly makes my heart a little heavy.
*The photos you see here were stolen from my momma.