Dear Michelle Obama,
Thank you! Thank you for coming along with me on our family vacation to an all inclusive resort with pools, drinks and endless sleeping in. I’d like to take this moment to sincerely apologize for dousing you in my morning mojito on day 2 (Yes, before 11 am) and then outright dunking you into the pool on day 6. But I sincerely hope that you maybe just enjoyed your mojito and pool experience as much as I did this Spring. My husband declared that you’d probably be proud to share my mojito with me!
Sincerely,
Mary at Couch von Rot
PS- vacation was so relaxing that I only made it through chapter 2 of your book. However, I liked what I read so much that I’m already reading sections of it aloud to my husband. #WIN. Oh, and yes, the pages are a little warbled from the pool-dunking… but you know. Think of it like the beach wave look.
Ok ok. But really. Spain. What a beautiful place we went to. And at such a desperately awful time of the year for weather in Hamburg. Where to begin?
Well, I guess we’ll start with some “Eye Candy”:
It’s tempting to tell you all the nitty-gritty details, like when I told Rowan not to sing “Frozen” on the top of her lungs on the airplane to which she responded, “Why?! Nobody’s sleeping!” Or the adventure of day two when George swung himself off a swing and into a wooden pole… face first. Don’t worry, he ended up fine–getting to talk about how tough he was with every stranger. (Mama and Papa were just relieved he hadn’t broken his neck or lost an eye… because yes. The crack sounded that bad.) And yes, he was still healing when we returned back to Germany 6 days after his accident. Ouch.
Before we left, we pulled the trigger and bought floaties. Good ones. And the kids put them on and went swimming… while I was sipping a mojito (see letter to Michelle above). It was an awesome addition to our vacation:
We were happy to be at a family-focused resort. We were surrounded by families eating dinner at the early hour, trying to stretch their kids to nap time and hovering over those same kids through the cafeteria-style lunch to make sure their juice didn’t spill on the way to their table. (And when it did spill? No big deal. It’s a family resort.) We had this overwhelming feeling like every one there, no matter where they came from or what language they spoke… were just trying to relax on a vacation while having children. Oddly unifying.
Oh, and for our meals? This was the view:
We were just silly lucky when we arrived and were informed of our (free) room upgrade. We had a hot tub on our balcony and more square-footage than we deserved. And the view from our balcony was stunning, both mountain and sea showing themselves off:
The kids had a blast. They enjoyed the “dragon pool” with slides and water just deep enough to not need floaties for it. George cracked us both up when he went up to the slide and was told, “Vámanos!” by the life guard. He splashed into the water, looked up at me and said with a giggle, “That guy called me Bama!” They both participated in the kids’ program for 2 two-hour session (read: 2 dates for parents) and were totally crazy for the nightly Kids’ Disco. Our kids were overly concerned that dinner would take too long and the dancing would start before we arrived. They were also the last ones to want to go home. We’ve created music and dancing lovers and I couldn’t be prouder.
All in all: Amazing. I could tell you more stories like how it’s great to be a red-headed woman asking for a drink at a bar (read: long pours and tall drinks) or how the pool-side grill became a “thing” on day 4 and we had fresh burgers and fries pool-side every day after, or how our kids discovered cola for the first time… But, I’ll just leave you with a few more photos of what the goal really was:
Quality family time.
And we had it. Lots of it. It was unwinding. It was fun. It was warm. And the kids are still talking about it… 3 weeks later. George commented out of the blue this morning, “Let’s move to Spain.” Yup. We had a great time. And I’m so grateful. Our life has been one long adventure here in Europe and taking a full seven days with only us to rest, relax, enjoy, and become better friends was just the thing we were looking for.
Two bottles of sunscreen later and we’re more than ready and happy to say:
Gracias, Spain!
Couch von Rot 