Paradise Perfection

I can't even imagine where to begin with this post...

my view as I type in our room

All the reviews about Bluefields wax so rhapsodic that in the days before we left I was getting a little worried that I would be disappointed. We'd looked forward to the trip for so long and saved up and paid for it so carefully, it's a very different set of expectations from when you throw your kids in your car and drive off to climb on rocks somewhere near a state park cabin.

But oh my god has it been incredible. Spectacular views in every direction. Completely private. Amazing food. Absolutely nothing to do or fetch or clean or plan or research. I worry about nothing. I parent only when parenting sounds more fun than wife-ing or simply being. We wake up to the ocean and fall asleep to the ocean and in between we eat and play and rest and play some more. Our laundry is done and put away every day. Our meals are beautifully prepared, full of local ingredients and flavors with just enough familiar indulgences mixed in. The kids have two nannies we will all miss desperately when we leave. They are a seamless presence- popping in and out of the scene as needed, never feeling like an intrusion and never seeming put out.

We ebb and flow between playing in the pool with all the kids, maybe heading down to the beach to snorkel with just the big kids while Cora goes on one of her rambles with her beloved Miss Rowanna or "helps" the chef in the kitchen or is otherwise utterly spoiled by the staff, to sending the big kids back up to the pool to swim with Miss Tash while James and I spread out on some lounge chairs while Aldeen brings snacks and daquiris, and that's just before lunch.

After lunch it rains and James and I take a nap. We emerge whenever and grab some children and swim some more. At some point we'll probably get too boring for them and we'll lay in the hammock while they go play with Miss Tash again. Or James and I will swim out too far for them to snorkel and we can know that someone else is watching them from the beach. I haven't changed a diaper since Dallas. While James and I take a shower before dinner, the kids are whisked off for their own bath and reappear scrubbed and smiling so we can go eat in our tree house.

We always eat together, but if Cora gets fussy or impatient with our three courses, Miss Ro takes her on a walk. I haven't cleaned a dish or cooked a thing. There's hot black tea brewed in a carafe for me every morning. Tea! Everywhere has coffee, but no one ever brews fresh loose leaf tea. At times I think that's my most favorite thing. And then every afternoon the kids will go on a nature walk with the nannies and James and I go back to bed and I realize nope, the tea takes a distant second.

I have loved that this trip feels just as much like a fun family vacation filled with a million memories of our kids splashing and laughing and loving their first time in the ocean, while also feeling like a romantic getaway to celebrate James and my 10 years of marriage. Because that's what our 10 years have been- a million memories of our kids, with nights and dates and stolen moments that are just for us. I wouldn't want our anniversary celebrated any other way.