It never gets old

The next few days looked much like the first, but the monotony of laying on the beach and eating all day was by no means getting old.

15 for 15 years. It looked a lot better five attempts earlier before the tide kept washing it away.

They have an incredible reef surrounding the island, but there was a devastating typhoon a few years ago that destroyed a lot of it. Most of the remains have been washed up on the shore, such a shame. And it's not too pleasant to walk on barefoot either. It is slowly coming back to life, though.

My Karate Kid. Did I tell you that I used to have a crush on Ralph Macchio? I would lay in my cool teen aunt's bed dreaming of Karate Kid as I stared at the poster hung just below the Rainbow Brite wallpaper border. What a dream boat.

The ever changing sky this night was just jaw dropping. God is an incredible artist.

Our last day was spent much the same. No surprise.

But it ended on such a romantic note with a candle light dinner on the beach. It felt like we were on the set of The Bachelor. In case you were wondering, I said yes to the fantasy suite card and he gave me the final rose. I landed my dream guy. I really did love this night. I feel like so many times our dialogue is the same. How was work? How are the kids? Can you believe this weather? It's like that Modern Family episode where he's looking up current events on his phone under the table so that they can have something intellectual to talk about while they're at dinner (if we're being honest, there's a Modern Family episode for almost every aspect of life). But we were really on a roll this night and it felt so good. Sharing childhood stories, aspirations for our kids, religion, future goals and my secret dream job to be a National Geographic photographer. I started falling hard all over again. The boy in baggy jeans and a backwards baseball cap who stole my heart while playing Smashing Pumpkins on his guitar, has now turned into this incredible man. Look how far we've come, baby.

We couldn't avoid the inevitable any longer. The day came when we had to say goodbye. It was another early morning, but these spectacular sunrises make the pain of waking up at 5:30 on a vacation not quite so painful. Still painful, but a little more bearable.

Quite arguably New Zealand isn't too bad of a place to come back to. It's like going from one vacation destination to another (except only one of them has warm beaches and cabana boys). And it's always good to be back together as a family. We spent the entire next day camped out in pajamas on the couch watching 23 consecutive episodes of Curious George while Maddox was excited to share with me that he found three different ways to itch his tongue. If it weren't for the splotches of random sunburns, the cut from the coral on my thigh and the occasional traces of sand I'm still finding in the car, then I would think it was all just a dream. But all good things must come to an end, and home is a pretty good place to end up at.

Finding Nemo

Sleeping in every day was on my bucket list, but at 6:30 am I was wired. I decided to go for a run on the beach. Running on the beach has always sounded so dreamy to me. I bring my running shoes almost every single time we go on a beach vacation, but sleep, working on my tan or eating an entire bag of Doritos usually wins out. I laced up my shoes and knew this would be the perfect start to our day in paradise. My fantasy ended with me killed over feeling like I had the lungs of an 80 year old smoker. As my life flashed before my eyes I questioned how Baywatch makes it look so effortless. I felt like I was running on quicksand, I sunk a foot with each step. My shoes were soaked and filled with sand but there were too many broken shells and coral to run barefoot. So much for that. At least now I can sit and eat my Doritos guilt free. That morning's excursion was snorkeling at this beautiful sand cay and reef. I've only attempted snorkeling one other time and it was a less than stellar experience. We were on a cruise and I got the worst sunburn of my life. My face blistered then broke out in a rash that resembled a bad case of teen acne and then my whole face decided to peel off. The salt water felt like instant death. I was excited to actually enjoy the experience this time. The thing with salt water is that I didn't realize it makes you float. As I climbed in the water I had a moment of anxiety, we were out in the middle of the ocean and I couldn't figure out why I was the only one concerned about drowning. I clung to the ladder trying to decide if the embarrassment of asking for a floatation device outweighed the risk of certain death. I decided to just go for it and it was incredible. The water was crystal clear and the sun illuminated the most vivid world as we floated along above the set of Finding Nemo. I kid you not, between everyone in our group we spotted the entire cast, Mr. Ray, the octopus, the puffer fish, Dory, Scar, Crush, no great whites but there were reef sharks...and the crowning jewel were the two little clown fish hiding in the sea anemone. I considered asking for their autograph. The drop off was my favorite place (don't touch the butt!), the rainbow world on one side and the eerie deep blue unknown on the other. Just magical.

Then back to the island in time for lunch

I loved how they did meals here. Every day at 8:00, 1:00 and 7:00 on the dot they banged a wooden drum to call everyone to eat. We had read on trip advisor how everyone loves the intimate setting and the chance to get to know the other guests. I was all like pssshhh, we're here to make out on the hammock not to make small talk with strangers. So I was surprised at how much we enjoyed getting to know the other guests. I loved hearing their stories, although it made our lives sound a little dull since ya know, we don't take our 9 year old on a ten day bike tour of France, or have our kids enrolled in trapeze school with the circus, or Jason's office window doesn't have views of the Egyptian pyramids. But hey, my kid once played minecraft for 6 hours straight, that has to count for something, right? It was such a fun mix of people, Neil Patrick Harris' doppelganger, the couple that took us three days to determine if it was a mother/son or husband/wife relationship, the little Aussie boys that quite preferred sitting next to our beach chairs and discussing reef sharks while we tried to nap, and the other American Asian man that all the old folks kept calling Jason, you know cause all Asians look the same. Jason is such a people person and I love that about him. He can carry on a conversation with anyone...oh you like the Giants, have you heard the latest stats...these are my thoughts on the Green vs National party....here's the pros and cons of socialized medicine...I mean I never thought it would turn me on to hear him discuss the different currency exchange rates. But in an odd way it did. Which is most definitely a sign that I'm getting old, but it's kinda dead sexy how informed he is. Meanwhile I'm over here like, "hey, I love the color of your swim suit, would you consider that more of a salmon or coral?". Maybe I should expand my news source beyond People magazine.

We exerted so much energy eating those big meals that it became standard protocol to hit the lounge chairs after every meal, you know, to let the food settle. Eventually we would make our way out to do some kayaking, paddle boarding or volleyball.

Every afternoon like clock work the dark clouds would roll in. We only got rained on once, but I loved the look of a brooding sky.

They have so many coconuts on the island and we jumped at the offer to get some for us. I was secretly hoping to watch him shimmy up the tree in his bare feet, but he used a hook instead. I thought I've had a real coconut before but the look and taste of the "milk" wasn't at all familiar. It wasn't quite what I had expected, but I felt so glamorous sipping a coconut on the beach. My favorite was this "snowball" dessert where they roll scoops of homemade ice cream in freshly shaved coconut and drizzle it with chocolate sauce. Divine.

Not sure how I managed to see that beautiful sunset since my eyeballs are covered by my hat. I just want to reach in there and make a few adjustments, but whatever. It was beautiful.

The staff here were amazing, some of the kindest and friendliest people we've ever met. And they know everyone's name. And they can even tell the Asians apart. Every evening they would gather together and play vindi vindi, drink kava and sing traditional songs on guitars and ukuleles. I loved getting the true fijian experience and not just some contrite tourist gig. At least it felt that way to me. There was just a happy feeling in the air, and it wasn't just a result of the kava. We were living on island time and I loved every minute of it.

Bula!

The rope light illuminated the sticky concrete floors as we made our way to the faded red upholstered seats. Back row, left side. I had hung out a few times with him and his boys that summer, but after a rather fateful day on the lake and his infamous line, "you ever kiss a Chinaman before?", we decided there might be more to our relationship than the Provo Town Center food court and an unfortunate Sunday dinner of refried bean tacos. The dollar theater was quite naturally the next step. The Truman Show was on the big screen and as Jim Carrey fantasized about Fiji I began to fantasize about it too. I had never even heard of it before and wondered if it was an imaginative place contrived for the movie. When I realized this place actually existed I knew right then and there that someday I wanted see those white sandy beaches for myself. Sixteen years later, and the dream that hatched on our first date in that dimly lit theater has now become a reality as we celebrated our 15 year anniversary on those white sandy beaches in Fiji. I like when things wax poetic and come full circle in life. We had to wake up at 3:30 am to catch our 6:00 flight, which was fine since we were too excited to get much sleep anyways. One perk to having such an early flight is that we had a birds eye view of an amazing sunrise. I love that sliver of sunlight breaking through the clouds above the city lights.

3 1/2 hours, two episodes of "How I Met Your Mother", 1 magazine and 3 chapters of "The Fault in Our Stars" later, and we found ourselves descending over the lush mainland of Fiji.

To experience the true Fijian paradise you need to leave the mainland and stay on one of the hundreds of islands, or so we were told. With so many islands to choose from it was hard to narrow it down, but when Jason came across Navini we knew it was just what we were looking for. A small island with pristine beaches and only 10 bures (beach cottages), so the staff outnumber the guests. You can spend the day relaxing on the beach, venture out on their morning excursions or use any of their water sports equipment. Okay, now I'm just sounding like a brochure. The point is, it had great reviews and it lived up to our expectations. From the airport we took a 20 minute drive to the port then a 30 minute boat ride out to the island. As we cruised along I just remember feeling completely and utterly relaxed. It could have been the lingering valium from the plane ride talking, but I loved the feeling of not having a care in the world. Every vacation should start this way. And this right here is our little slice of paradise hidden in the middle of the South Pacific. (As a side note, the second island to the right is where they filmed Castaway. The Truman Show and Castaway are on our short list of movies to rent when we get back.)

We were welcomed by a member of the staff waving to us from the shore and as soon as we stepped our bare feet onto that warm sand I was already dreading the moment we would have to say good bye. We settled in, sampled from the platter of fresh fruit and tested out the hammock and lounge chairs. The rest of the day was filled with delicious food, naps and about 567 pictures of slightly varying angles of turquoise water and white sand.

The view from our front porch. I like what I see.

The only exercise I got that day was rotating from napping in the hammock

To reading on the beach chair. It was a pretty good way to spend a day.

There was this yacht anchored near by that night. Some of the guests were out kayaking and stopped to talked to them and hear their story. They are from Sydney and have spent the last 5 years sailing around the world. This is one of their last stops before going home. They left when their daughter was 3 and she is now 8. Life on the sea is all she has ever known. It kind of hurt my brain just thinking of the logistics of raising a child and living on a small boat for such a long time, but what an incredible adventure. I would have loved to hear their stories.

Sunset walks on the beach sort of became our thing. It only takes 10 minutes to walk the entire circumference of the island and we decided we needed some way to burn off the twice a day desserts. We fell asleep that night to a movie on the laptop, a cool breeze blowing through the windows and a smile on our face. Not really with a smile plastered on our face, but you know, it sounded like an appropriate way to end this post.