Arriba!!

Last weekend Karl & I returned to South Carolina after a wonderful 10 day trip back home.   Our primary purpose for the trip was a family vacay to Mexico.  The Cuppetts L.O.V.E Mexico and my dad planned this whole trip for us!  Karl & I have been leaning on The Lord & this vacation thru the past couple of rough work/homesick months here so we were just absolutely beyond excited to get home!  The trip was awesome- we were at this exact same resort just 2 summers ago with no boys; it blows my mind that in 2009 I was merely dating Karl, Callie didn't even know Jeremy, & Maddie hardly knew Matt.  Now, 2 years later, we are at the same place with 2 husbands + 1 fiance!!  Having guys with us definitely changed the vacay- we the boys had a football & frisbee in tow, played hours worth of chess on the beach, jumped off the pier multiple times, kayaked, and had lots of swimming contests- not your average Cuppett vacation but a welcomed addition to our normal family fun!  Prepare for picture overload.

I seriously felt like The Brady Bunch the whole vacation.  If you think that toting around 4 look alike ginger girls gets some attention from strangers, try upping the family number from 6 to 9.  We took lots of stares and questions- "Are you all together?  Like all of you?"

 The day we arrived, we encountered a pretty rough start to our vacation- it was pouring rain the second our plane landed and didn't take a break the whole first day... that would've been fine had it been the only... the only thing I can think of right now is "ball buster" and that isn't blog appropriate..  bump in the road that we encountered.  However, Karl & my room was upstairs as was Callie & J's and those woven/straw/thatched roofs are not meant to withstand {what we later learned was} Tropical Storm Micah.  So, an hour later and with not an inch of dry clothing on us, we switched rooms and headed to dinner.  This is where the ball busting continued... last time we were at the resort it was totally great.  I mean, I wouldn't say that this resort is "Honeymoon worthy," but it was great for an awesome family vacation.  Most importantly, this resort has the best beach on the whole island, which is really why we go there.  Well, back to this trip and this dinner- we quickly realized that the food had definitely gone from 3 1/2-4ish stars to 1/2 a star in the two years since we had been there.  It was bad, y'all.  Every meal from the first to the last was spent begging for something edible and complaining to management incessantly.  This led to ordering Pizza Hut and having it delivered one night and then management approaching us on the beach the next day with a conversation that went a little like this, "We saw you had to order out pizza last night.  We are so sorry our food has forced you to do that.  We would like to invite you to a special dinner as a way of apologizing and trying to make you feel welcome."  We all looked around at each other suspiciously not knowing what a "special dinner," would entail.  Later that night we found ourselves eating off of fine china and being served pricey wine while those around us weren't.  Redemption?  No.  Nice and finally delicious?  Yes.  Awkward because the other diners saw that we were being served different food than them?  Yes.  If you know our family, you know that confrontation and customer service are two things we don't shy away from... mmhmm.  The food didn't rain on our parade too much though, we had an absolutely stellar time and ate lots of Pringles..

On Tuesday we all went snorkeling.  The Cuppetts LOVE snorkeling and we were all really excited to get Karl, Matt, & Jeremy in on the action.  It was super fun and an awesome afternoon & evening with a beautiful sunset!  So nice!

 Maddie has an underwater digital camera that is so fun!  We have been enjoying it for several years now and really take advantage of the underwater feature!  The water in this area is absolutely crystal clear and gorgeous shades of blue!  Ahhh, heaven!

This was a TOTAL flashback to SBX when my sorority sisters & I were all abandoned in the Caribbean  while we were snorkeling.  Fortunately, no such event happened this trip.  I don't think I could've survived it without them :)

Matt bought a ukulele before the trip and serenaded us with some seriously perfect music while we were on the beach.  Matt is one of the awesome musicians who did the music at our wedding- it's so fun to hear him play some of our wedding songs, especially while laying out on the beach in Mexico!

I got thru several books this trip- I'm just starting to regain my love of reading after it was stolen from me by this jerk called Nursing School.  I read "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," by Stieg Larsson {slow but good in the end, I think I'll continue on and read the other 2 books in the series}, "Heaven is For Real," by Todd Burpo {quick, fun, encouraging read that totally made me light up!!  Karl thinks it's "fake" but I think it is awesome and totally legit! A great pick after losing my Pa recently}, "Two Kisses for Maddy," by Matt Logelin {I love reading this guys blog so I enjoyed his memoir- wouldn't be interesting for most people I think... and depressing too... but I still liked it.}.  I recently finished, "The Help," by Kathryn Stockett {highly, HIGHLY recommend... like my favorite book right now}, and now I'm just starting "Something Borrowed," by Emily Giffin and have "Bossypants," by Tina Fey on the backburner- I know... couldn't I pick something not on the Best Seller list?  No.  I don't want to waste my time when someone is already telling me what is good and worth my time.

 We successfully talked Mom out of matching white shirts + khakis for the whole bunch like we {and countless other beach vacationing families} have been subject to for the past decade+

 AHH look at the water!!! Dying.

See that boy in the baseball hat in the corner?  That's Callie.  Ha.  Sorry, girl.  So funny I couldn't resist posting the pic.  You look so happy.

 There was a kids play area that we didn't touch the first time we went to this resort.  This time, however, we had 3 boys that were definitely ready to get into anything fun & exciting, including the kids play area.  Three times we found ourselves racing down these slides and dumping water on each other, it was so fun!!  Annnd leave it to the guys to use our floats to go down the slides with and make them extra fast!

In my parent's will, if they die before Emma turns 18 then Callie & Jeremy get her.  Hahahaha... so we joke about them being her parents.  See C&J's little daughter being creepy back there?

 Several rain showers while we were there but none lasted long enough to drive us indoors.  Thankful Tropical Storm Micah ended a full day and a half sooner than forecasted- PTL!

our "human pyramid" that almost killed me.  and produced some seriously awkward pics.

This was such a fun trip and we are so thankful to my parents for helping us get there & for planning the whole thing- it was AWESOME!  Praising The Lord for {not surprisingly} working this trip out perfectly amid several crazy circumstances, getting us all there safely, and providing us with the resources to take such a relaxing and luxurious vacation- we are spoiled, blessed, & well aware of it.

ANNNND back in Sumter, loving life, & trying not lose my little tiny ginger tan
Hannah K.C. Burton