Celebrating our 23rd Anniversary

On April 27th we celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary.  This year we chose to celebrate at Lake Atitlan.  It was a very fun, relaxing get-away!

Our actual anniversary was on Saturday but we started our celebration on Thursday morning.  We began with a blueberry pancake breakfast.

After school we drove to Panajachel and checked in to our hotel.  It was our first time to stay there.  I am always a little nervous about trying something new but we really loved it.

These towers have hotel style rooms and also apartments.  We rented a private-owned 2 bedroom apartment that had a kitchen and living room.  We took our own food so we could fix our own meals.  It was cozy and much better than staying at a hotel.

We were on the 13th floor.  This was the view looking down.

My favorite thing of all was the view looking out.  The town of Panajachel was to the left.

This was our view looking straight ahead.  It was cool and cloudy on the day we arrived.  Normally you would see breathtaking views from here of two volcanoes on the other side of the lake.  I spent the majority of my time sitting out on our balcony just soaking in these views.  It was beautiful!  At  night you could hear the waves rolling in on the shore.  It was so peaceful there.

After getting settled in we walked down to the lake.  You can see the boys ran ahead to the pier.

One of their favorite things was standing on the lake shore and tossing rocks in to the water.

In spite of the coolness they still swam that night.

After breakfast and a little math and reading on Friday morning we headed back down to the lake for some fun.  The owners of the apartment had this inflatable boat for us to use so we carried it down with us. Here are David and the boys airing it up.

These two were very excited!

 We took a rope and kept it tied to the pier so they couldn't drift off too far.

We spent the rest of the day playing in the lake and swimming in the pool.   

Cruz took this photo of us on our anniversary eve.

We drove into town and had supper at Circus Bar.  We love the pizza there!

This was our beautiful view on Saturday morning (our actual anniversary)

The boys on the pier waiting for our boat. 

  We took a short pleasure ride around the lake.  It is one of my favorite things to do.

boat ride on our anniversary

our building off in the distance

the town of Panajachel

We returned in time for one last quick swim and then we headed up to our room to pack.  While getting ready to check out we heard a helicopter approaching.   We had seen many helicopters fly in and out on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning at the nearby Hotel Atitlan but this time one was headed towards our building.  It landed right on top of us.  This photo was taken from our balcony. The boys thought it was the coolest thing ever. 

a short video of it flying away

We drove back to Antigua that afternoon.  We unloaded our things at home and then drove into town.  We went to see the United Buddy Bears exhibit that had just opened.   We grabbed a quick meal at Wendy's and then called it a day.  I love that we began our day at beautiful Lake Atitlan and ended it walking around beautiful Antigua.  

And here we are 23 years ago (April 27, 1996) at Harmony Baptist Church in Crystal Springs, MS starting this life together.  It has been an amazing journey and I look forward to many, many more years of celebrating it together.