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

Counting Down

This has been another long weekend.  I have been looking forward to Memorial Day Weekend for the past month because Karl's squadron was getting Friday-Monday off- not abnormal- I mean, hello, are these not the people that should have the weekend off?  Well, do I even need to say the following predictable course of events that went down?  Probably not... Karl was 1 of 2 people that was called in to work Friday.  And Saturday.  And Sunday.  And Monday.  I don't know why these happenings still get me in a tizzy, it is so the norm that I should be all frenzied when he does get a weekend off or a federal holiday.  I HAVE TO HAVE TO HAVE TO become less Type A.  How can I do this, people?!?  God is painfully shaping me and molding me into something that I have never ever been.  So Monday I was thinking he would surely get off by lunch and we could make it to the pool for a picnic lunch and an afternoon of relaxing.  I was sunscreened, cooler packed, and waiting in my coverup for 3 hours.  Woof.  We did, Praise The Lord, get to the pool at 4:00 and get to enjoy ourselves for a whopping 2 hours.  I promise someday I will stop complaining about military norms.  The Lord frequently reminds me how Karl & I got to this place and in this place- by no accident.  And I know thousands of families (Karl's included) love & thrive in this lifestyle- which gives me so much peace & hope.  I guess this just still isn't the norm for me.  I still have a hard time accepting the fact that people are OK with this lifestyle of little/no notice, separation of families and couples for ridiculous amounts of time, and getting shuffled around from office to office by paper pushers. Sorry... I'll stop.  Clearly I need respite for a minute... and to keep praying for the two fruits of the spirit that I lack the most- gentleness & self-control.  Amen.
...All of this to say that I am counting down until Wednesday at midnight- when Karl's leave officially starts and we head home for Cuppett Family Vacation 2011!!!!  That's right people!  Get ready Mexico, our family of 9 is headed your way for a week of sun, sand, & snorkeling! After a couple of rough months and feeling seriously slapped around by various government establishments my soul just feels weary and in need of a break from this town of seclusion, lack of friends-a-plenty, and my family.  I know Karl feels the exact same way, I hate that it isn't as easy for him to escape for a weekend with me and I am so grateful for this trip with him.  He is more deserving of time off than anyone I can think of!!  We have both been looking forward to the break and time of rejuvenation for literally months, we are both feeling very burnt out at the moment.  My dad swears that he won't drive any of us to the airport until we can all sing Kenny Chesney's, "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem," by heart.  He was a little shocked when I told him that song is super old and I have known the chorus since I was in Junior High and he did not discover the perfect vacation song himself.  Sorry, Dad.  Until then, I'll be distracting myself with cleaning, packing, and making lists... my specialty. As always, clinging to the verse that has brought me to where I am- "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."- Romans 12:12- am I going to laugh in 10 years remembering that I felt like this is a time of affliction??  We'll see.  That's what this blog is for...

See ya when I'm tan!!  (Joke.  Do you know who I am?)  
Hannah K.C. Burton

luna de miel

Or at least that's how FreeTranslation.com translated "honeymoon."  It was fantastic.  Like, as in, I was already mentally on the beach 3 weeks prior to our wedding, so, needless to say Karl & I couldn't wait to get there!  We went to Playa Mujeres in Mexico and I would go back in a heartbeat- it was pure luxury, relaxation, gorgeous... I could go on & on!  Karl got us this incredible room- the second story consisted of two outdoor beds and our own pool overlooking the resort on one end and then the ocean and marina on the other.  The food was to die for with more restaurants than we could even get to in our 5 nights there.  We ordered room service for breakfast every single day and had coffee delivered promptly at 8 every morning before our breakfast arrived- like seriously, incredible.  Our days consisted of lying under a palapa, only getting up for lunch or a quick dip in the ocean, because we had all of our drinks and snacks brought to us... ha.  One day we took a half day snorkel trip- super fun, and one day we took a ferry across to Isla Mujeres and rented a moped and rode around the island all day!  We maybe stumbled across a semi-nude beach that day... OK so here are just a few of the like hundreds of pictures from the trip!

Here we are waiting for our flight out!  We stayed at the Hyatt at DFW the night before we left and it was perfect- so easy to be right there and not have to deal with traffic or anything!

The grounds were beautiful!  This is the courtyard in the center of the building we were in!

This was our view from our front door/the back of the second story!  So, so incredible!!

I spent so much time reading, reading, reading!  Maggie is my go-to book girl and she didn't steer me wrong!  Little Bee was great as was One Day- I couldn't put them down the whole week!

Ha.  K & I just think this picture is funny.  We were on our way back to our room after dinner one night... he looks so dramatic, as do I.  Just being silly...

Pre-beach one morning

K is going to kill me for this.  I couldn't resist posting this picture of the immaculate blue sky and my super hunky husband.  Go ahead and drool.  I am.

The beginning of our super fun adventure on Isla Mujeres! 

the more enjoyable scenery on the nude-ish beach we rode the moped to

we came across this completely deserted beach on the side of the road.  it was totally beautiful and perfect!  K played in the water for a while and I just enjoyed how perfect it all was!  completely priceless memory with my brand new husband!

here we are on our own little beach, moped parked up on the cliff!

dinner was always SO good!  it was fun to get dressed up each night with Karl and go have a nice dinner!

we drank A LOT of drinks all week... the funny thing is that they were all virgin drinks.  the staff looked at us like we were crazy when we ordered everything without alcohol but we both thought it just tasted so much better!  so, here we are with our virgin Miami Vices!

like I said, room service breakfast every.single.day.

here we are right before we left!  horrible leaving! we can't wait to go back!!

I know I skipped to after the wedding... I just had those pictures on hand.  Only on day 3 of my week-long oath to post each day.  Never thought I would make it this far, did ya?

Until tomorrow, Hannah BURTON