Category: Uncategorized

This title may be a bit misleading, so let me start by clarifying that saying “Shes gone” refers to a work trip, and nothing more.

Now that that is cleared up, Taylor never asked what happens in her absence, so I am going to pre-emptively share a bit of what happened while she was in Montreal for a few days.

The dishwasher broke, so we had to call the repair guy. Those machines are wildly complicated, and I wasnt about to try and fix it myself. His name is Max the appliance guy, he is from Ukraine, and did an ok job- it worked for a few days, then broke again. I think this says more about the washer than the repair guy though.

Mercy and I ate breakfast on the back porch because, why not? She grabbed my camera and reminded me that I needed to get a haircut, a task that always falls to the very bottom of my “to-do” list:

Then we rode bikes to Mercy’s school. Its sad this will only last a few weeks while she is at daycare in this new house before Mercy goes to kindergarten, but it has been really fun to do this several times. This week, we had a special guest (Rosie) join us for the ride. It is much slower on the way there, and she needs a push up a pretty big hill. Whats really great is how when her big-sister is there, Mercy will push herself a little more, determined *not* to be tired in front of her!

When Mercy got home from school, she decided she wanted to be “mommy daddy”. I didnt know what that meant, but she meant that she was going to dress like mommy (the bag) and daddy (the hat and the glasses and the wallet in hand).

All of Rosie’s friends were out of town that week, because thats how summer vacation works as a kid. Rosie was pretty darn bored, and I felt bad about her being alone all week (this was her week without any summer camps), so we did a lunch date to get away from the tv and ipad. She had two options: Panera, or Ichi Sushi (next door to Panera). She chose sushi, and we had some great conversations. Once she got started, she just chit-chatted the whole way through and I loved every minute of it:

Rosie also got creative with some friends that she later found out were still in town. This was a few minutes after she got on her bike to go for a ride, and called me from her friends phone around 12:30 on a Wednesday saying “Daddy, we made a lemonade stand and we need you to bring money and come buy some lemonade.” You bet your butt I walked 3 blocks over there and bought some a cup of low-quality powdered lemonade, and put on a big, big smile about it.

We also stopped by Cici’s house (my mom) and Rosie just sat in front of this gigantic painting for a while. Turns out Rosie was just super tired, and not lost in thought looking at this masterpeice. Yes, this happened before Taylor left when we drove past Cicis house and randomly stopped inside, but I still liked the picture and wanted to share it because its my blog and I am in charge. And it always amazes me how my mom can whip out these paintings in just a day, and has been doing it year-after-year for decades:

Mercy is really digging riding her bike. We rode to the playground, and even though it rained for a few days, we weren’t going to take “no” for an answer.

One rule I have always had is that its ok to get messy if you can change your clothes; meaning, “dont get messy while we are out doing stuff far from home”. So when Mercy asked if she could ride on the dirt trails we found near our new house, my first response was “no”. Then I thought about it, and decided, “why not?”. We can come home and change clothes and get cleaned up after. So, we did. And she always surprises me- she did great, and this was her first pass on them. Mind you, she is in pre-school:

Finally, we went to a church worship night. Our worship leader, Amelia, is so, so talented and she is moving on. We will be sad to see her go, but also appreciated a Wednesday night worship service complete with instruments for kids to play with. Our church always surprises me by their turnout: I only expected a few folks, but there was really a crowd, and of course there was cake afterwards:

beach, swim, and work!

Each year on the 4th, it’s time for the Register Family Vacation. Last year didn’t get a post on the blog, but 2024 did right here.

The kids are older this year- Mercy and Rosie both great swimmers. Mercy needs a bit of attention on the water, but she does pretty great with her cousins.

I had to work the whole week which was a bummer- had to make up for time off in March going to Mexico, and this put more of a burden on Taylor. But, I got to spend a good amount of time in the waves, and Friday was a federal holiday for the 4th.

The Haney’s stayed at the house next door which had a pool; in celestial news there was a strawberry moon. There were some beautiful sunsets, and the peaches we got from a roadside stand were absolutely delicious.

We cooked a meal one night- local North Carolina fish tacos, and they turned out great. They let me heat up the corn tortillas for the meal- 36 tortillas at 2 minutes each.

We have been doing a “Wine club” with some neighbors recently and did something fun: the sommelier we follow on tik tok recommended a super cheap and a decent priced bottle of cab: $5.99 and $20. It was such a fun experience we tried it with the family. All the guys preferred the $20 heavier cab, and ladies preferred the lighter one that was a merlot blend.

Rosie and I watched Jaws for the 2nd year in a row- it was awesome, but the little cousins kept trying to butt in, so we had to duck into a bedroom to watch it. For the fall, Rosie is going to watch her first really scary movie before Halloween- also something I am excited about. Stay tuned.

The parade was great- on a Friday this year instead of the traditional Saturday because so many people end their beach rental weeks on Saturdays.

Above is the big family picture from this year; below is from 10 years ago (2016). A lot of things have changed, but a lot of things are still (thankfully) pretty similar:

Im still as awesome now as I was back then. Maybe even more awesome?

Finally, for the last day, the Core family and the Lynam family came in- the cores stayed the week after, and Lynams joined in for a few days.

We had a fun day on the beach, and celebrated John’s birthday on the 4th of July- also a fun tradition the past several years.

One of the cool moments was getting to see the helicopters do a fly by for the 250th birthday:

Mercy was WIPED OUT on the way home.

One might think, “wow, thats alot”, and you would be right. Except it wasn’t enough, and as soon as we got back, Rosie had AG camp we had to leave the house at 7:45 each day, then dance at night now that she is dancing with the “seniors” until 9:30pm (this was an honor that she got moved up by the way, another story).

And, luckily the city swim meet was also this week for both kids at separate times!

Ok ok, I know- don’t be a jerk. I just realized when one work meeting with the CTO came up and I had to take it at the pool, and I thought, “what are we doing with this craziness of swim? Every day for 6 weeks, this is crazy!”. But, its only 6 weeks, and it helps them do something positive and work hard, right? Ask me again in 10 years and we will see, but I feel pretty good about it.

Rosie is an 11 year old in the 11/12 year old group this year. She doesnt swim year-round like many of them do, but she does do dance- and that must be enough, because she made it to the championship round- the 24th and last seat in the city (that is like 120+ people!). I’m so proud of her! This was her final event:

Finally, to get some time by myself, I finally got to visit the triad meat market across town for an easy Saturday morning. The place was great- they process their own meat (fresher, less preservatives than the big grocery store). Between there, and the farmers market, we really got a bounty. Then, a big old (Boston) butt went on the smoker, and we had a mediocre pork BBQ for dinner. It was a solid 6/10, but I am new to this smoking thing and it will only get better. Next time gotta go slower and lower despite what the recipe says.

This is a question I have heard a bit with friends at the pool, friends at church, and everywhere else.

No. The answer to that question is No.

But we are making great progress! Here are a few things I want to share from the past little bit that are worth mentioning about it:

Taylor left town immediately for a work trip.

This was a view from her morning walk 4 days after we moved in. And if you think I am going to make decisions about which drawer to put our bowls and silverware in, or the types of kitchen chairs or table we will have in our kitchen , you are out of your mind. Clearly that is a Taylor job, and it definitely won’t happen in her absence.

I got a new grill

Who cares about getting settled in, let’s smoke some meat! Obviously this was a higher priority. For the few days Taylor was gone, I tried one of each: wings, ribs, and a boston butt. They were all low-risk, because if they turn our terrible, who cares? And not very expensive at all to get a few pounds of meat.

So, no: my socks weren’t put away in a new closet the way that I would really like to do it, but I assembled the new grill and the ribs were pretty darn good, and that counts for something.

Father’s Day

Somehow it’s father’s day again. I dont know where or how that snuck in on us, but it did. So, instead of deciding where to put my winter gloves and snow pants, we did whatever I wanted to do, and that meant riding bikes to Ben and Jerry’s after eating my waffle-face breakfast. The kids did amazing. It was hot. I told Mercy to just follow her older sister, and she took that as marching orders and rode with reckless abandon, beyond the strength of most any 5 year olds.

Cardboard Boat Regatta

What in the world is a “cardboard Boat Regatta” you might ask? If you guessed “building a boat out of cardboard and racing it in the pool” you would be right. So the day before father’s day, instead of organizing a garage and figuring out how to mow the lawn for this new house, we spent the day building (or, just helping supply stuff) for Rosie and her BFF to build their own cardboard boat.

Their boat is called the “Karen Cruiser” and the theme was “I want to talk to the manager.”

It was really hilarious. Here is a very worthwhile video of it, without any AI at all:

The oven

The oven that came with the house seems great- its an LG, gas range. I think it even has convection cooking.

But it doenst have racks inside.

The old owners took the oven racks with them. And you know what can be cooked in an oven without oven racks?

I’ll keep waiting while you come to the same conclusion we did: nothing. Nothing can be cooked in an oven without oven racks.

So, I ordered new ones. 24.7″ seemed about right- amazon sells tons of them that size. But they are all too big and dont fit. 24.55″ are also sold on Amazon. Those also don’t fit. The model number is very, very hard to find on this sucker, and after finding the model number and searching, the result from the LG website was “0 items match that model number”.

So after 2 weeks and returning 2 sets of the wrong sized oven racks, the correct ones are on order. And no, the TV isnt mounted the way that it should be yet, but we will soon have a usable oven.

The Dog

One of my favorite things, and probably the simplest, is the dog door. I didnt realize how many times the dog is let in and out of the house during a day, until it doesnt need to be done anymore.

And while the dog does let itself in and out, we quickly learned the fence does not contain the dog. So, while Taylor was away on a work trip for several days, I spent many, many hours chasing the dog, who knows she is much, much faster than I am.

It was an opportunity to meet many new neighbors. And after the 7th time, I rage-ordered a special collar from amazon. Two (extremely low setting) shocks later, the dog has not run away in days.

Sorry, the books in my office have not been placed on the shelves yet, but the dog hasn’t run away, so thats something.

Things are going great, and we are getting there! As for “All settled?” That might be a couple years from now.

We thought we wanted to just remodel our kitchen. Then we went to go look at a house “just to see”, and 45 days later, we closed on it.

The past week was just downright wild. Rosie finished 5th grade. Mercy finished Pre-K. 5th grade had a graduation pool party. Taylor started to get all the feels about Rosie getting so big:

Closing, Moving, and the first night.

We had an excellent Realtor (and our neighbor) Chidi- he walked us through the process and joined us for a pic after closing, and then we will be putting him to work selling our old house in just a few weeks:

Since we are moving as quickly as possible, I borrowed my mom’s van for these few days (thanks mom!). Its much better than spending money renting a truck to tackle all the things a moving company can’t get, but driving this van comes with its own vibe. So I rolled up to the closing attorney (who was an old high school friend of my brother Jake) driving this bad boy, complete with the first load ready for the first night at the new (and very empty) house:

Also, I had to pick up Rosie from her last day of school in the van, along with her friend- I’m sure riding in that van created a memory both of them will carry with them for a lifetime.

After a couple hours at the pool, the girls and I came to the new (and very empty) house. It has no TV or internet, so we spent the night like savages: building a swing and kicking a beach ball around. The girls shared Mercy’s bed, and the air mattress I brought deflated before I even got on it.

Taylor went home to sleep in a bed.

Moving Day

The moving estimate/moving process was an interesting one at best, and let me tell you why.

In order to figure out an estimate, I had to do a video call with the company to tally all the items that are going to be moved. So, we did that- because I sure as hell am not going to mess with moving myself, or getting friends to help. That window of opportunity in life has closed.

After the video call several weeks ago, I reached out again saying that we have a ton of boxes that also need to be included; they said ok, no problem, we will add a few hundred dollars to the quote.

Then on moving day, I hear: “each item needs to be in a closed box, otherwise we will have to wrap it (in plastic) for you.” This is a silly rule, we are only going 1.5 miles.

Taylor had a hell of a time helping the mover align his original “quote” with what actually needed to move. And let me tell you, pictures of boxes fall short on how much stuff there actually was. The moving guy had to re-tally about everything upon seeing our packing in person (luckily it was only a few hundred instead of a few thousand dollars difference), and they were off to the races.

These movers were huge. 5 of them. Like oxes, and it was 93% out with 99% humidity. They didnt stop all day. They were polite and worked like mathmeticians figuring out the right geometry to get each piece of furniture out of the old house, and into the new. One guy bear hugged a dresser and walked up the stairs alone. My back hurt just watching that.

They did an amazing job. I can’t believe it all happened in one day, and if you ever need to do a move, check these guys out, they did a great job.

Now, we have to spend the rest of the summer selling the old house (1.5 miles away) and getting settled in the new house: I can’t wait to set up this smoker and dig into my new hobby.

After years and years of talking about renovating, the smarter solution isnt to renovate.

We “looked” at a few houses. In fact, only two houses- and Taylor really liked the second- it had what she had been describing a renovation to be- an open kitchen, extra bedroom, and more. It came upon us quickly- we were mostly looking to get ideas for what to do with our renovation, but the spreadsheets of numbers comparing the financial impacts of staying versus the numbers of going came out awash.

Buckle up, this is going to be crazy. First, we have to do a ton of work. Then, we have to do our normal stuff, and then we have to do a TON more work.

In the mean time, we need boxes. Places like UHaul sell boxes, for around $3 each. The moving company sells boxes for $7 each. No thanks.

Instead, I got to know the manager at my local grocery store, assured them I wasn’t homeless, and they set aside hundreds of dollars worth of boxes to use- a true godsend.

After getting the boxes, we have to get them home, re-build them with a tape gun, find the right size for the items we are packing, pack it with the newspaper grade paper we got from Amazon, take it back outside and seal it, and label it with the room and contents in each box.

In addition to all the packing and sourcing of free boxes, normal life things have to continue; Mercy’s soccer team, seeing my cousin in New Orleans a few weeks ago, Amelia’s graduation, and going to the beach for memorial day.

Recently I have been using ChatGPT to turn pictures of people into a specific theme, and it has been fun. But after all of these events, more boxes need to be sourced:

There are 15 days lefts until we own the new house. Moving day is one day after that, then we move aggressively to sell our current house. At this point, there is no time to think- I am just running off of adrenaline at all the things that need to be done before we meet with the closing attorney’s- and all of the work is based off of things I am not too good at: being very quick and detail oriented with emails for all the paperwork the banks require of me, as well as the realtor, movers, new homeowners insurance, closing attorneys, etc. In the meantime, we try and pack 5 boxes a day if we can help it.

It is exciting, yes. It will be the last time we ever move. And im excited- the new kitchen has a gas range I look forward to using, and a ton of other parts I am excited about- we can’t wait to have you over. In the mean time, wish us luck these next several days.

Taylor travels for work several times a year, and since we didn’t have a “Luke and Taylor” type of trip planned for the year, adding a few days to her work trip and using the time to see Jazzfest seemed like the best move.

Getting there wasnt great. After departing Charlotte, a storm was approaching the New Orleans airport, and seemed to just stall. It wasnt going anywhere.

The pilot came on and said “New Orleans has issued a groundstop.” What does that mean exactly? My phone had GPS, so I tracked it- we flew past the airport, south over the gulf. We were flying low, and the swamp was beneath us, and the storm was in front of us.

It was the first time I wasn’t 100% confident I was going to walk away.

The Food

This is the reason to come to New Orleans, and in order to do it right, reservations have to be made well in advance. So, we did. Most places worked great, one place was just decent at best.

For dinners:

Started the time by visiting Katies. This Was on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives season 11 (I think), and I couldnt say enough good things about it. My cousin Mary recommended it, and everyone else visiting for Jazzfest had the same idea.

The DDD featured item, the Crawfish Beignet, was just insane. Flavortown for sure.

After Jazzfest, we found a place for sandwiches that was still open around 9:30; An amazing sandwich, and about 1 mile walk from our hotel. The place was packed to the gills.

Brennan’s was the focal point though, hands down. Its an institution in New Orleans, and the creator of the dessert “Bananas Foster.” My cousin’s husband, Steve, works there, and he must have called in or something. When the front waiter (not the back waiter; this place has a “front waiter” and a “back waiter” for each table), said “Mr. Logan? We are pleased to have you, and our chef has a few special items we would like to offer family this evening.” Damn.

Let’s get weird: ordering the most unusual thing on the menu is what I love to do; so this time, I started off with Turtle Soup.

We got a steak tar-tar appetizer thing; I ordered the crawfish something. And of course, the bananas foster. I’m not joking when I say it was one of the top dessert’s Ive ever had.

The last dinner was Mr. B’s bistro. We don’t talk about Mr. B’s Bistro.

Lunches

We did what we could, starting with “The Turkey and the Wolf”. Taylor suggested this originally, and I thought to myself, “I don’t like turkey sandwiches. No”.

Boy was I wrong.

Our schedule was a bit screwy that morning, so we wandered around and got there way early. 10 minutes after opening, the line was 50 deep. Also a DDD featured restaurant. And if you look them up on youtube, they are on “Sandwiches that made history.”

What is so famous?

Bologna. And a Collard Green sandwich. Calling it a “sandwich” just seems a bit disrespectful.

It messed me up the rest of the day- the sandwich was 6″ thick, and I just didn’t have space for anything else. 100% chance I would do it again.

Festival food was tricky; a New Orleans food blogger made some reccomendations, and those ones had some pretty crazy lines. This was the only giant music festival where fresh seafood was an option, so of course I did: hit up Lil Dizzys. All the food vendors had some awesome signage:

Po Boys were also on the list; after our architecture tour, we made our way over to Mahoney’s; Was it simple? Yes. Amazing? Also yes. Just what we needed.

Drinks?

Yes, this city is known for em. The are known for too many of em. But, we strolled, and a few places were worth checking out:

• Napolean House; a light Pimm’s Cup. This was where the first Mayor of New Orleans lived.
• The carousel bar. We didnt get a drink. Just a pic.
• Sazarac Bar. Fancy fancy fancy. They invented the drink for goodness sake. It was the first one I had, and it was solid.
• Courtyard Brewery. Have you ever seen a handwritten beer list?

Honorable mention?

The hotel pool. Packed solid with people. Also having a crawfish boil that day, and time with my cousin and her husband:

The 9th ward, with Bourbon Street and all the tourist spots- I would venture to say its best to have an early evening in that area.

Jazzfest

They expected over 500,000 people for this two-weekend event. The day we went, there were 5 semi-trucks of Coors parked by the gate- and I have never seen such a gigantic crowd in my whole life. The scale was just bonkers.

During the single day we were able to attend, the Eagles, T-Pain, Little Feat, and several others were scheduled- AT THE SAME TIME.

We posted up a few hours early to see T-Pain and it was so, so fun. Jazzfest ends exactly at 7pm, and he played the last hour of the day- just jamming in so many bangers into that set, it was hard to believe:

• Low (Apple Bottom Jeans)
• Good Life (With Kanye West)
• All I do is Win
• Kiss Kiss (With Chris Brown)
• Im in luv (with a stripper)

While waiting, we put our chairs down to save our spots and made it to the small side tent (The biggest tent I have seen in my life) and saw Eric Lidell in the Blues Tent; packed crowd with hundreds outside the tent trying to hear. If you haven’t heard of him, give it a try. Its like a jazzy, blues version of Zac Bryan.

But, clearly T-Pain was the highlight.

T-Pain,

My name is Luke, and I wanted to tell a story about “Low”. It came out in 2007 when you and I were 22 years old. That year, I was in college, and “Low” came in hot. When we went out as college kids, that song was played all the time. Here is a picture of me in college, as well as the woman that became my wife:

“Low” was a good time. It got people moving- I am not the center of the party, but when that song hits, people like me got out of our chairs, and we danced.

Fast forward to 2010. “Low” is 3 years old at that point. You and I are both 25 years old. That woman from the pictures above- her and I got married. The wedding was huge, and the reception was at the Country Club . We were young and had tons of energy, and so did our guests. You know what we did during the reception? We got low. All of us. Just like three years before when the song first hit in the clubs while we were in college, it was like muscle memory kicked in. All of us- just a gigantic party- and we all got LOW!

The party last hours and hours, and it was just a big time.

Fast forward to March of 2026. “Low” is 19 years old. We have a daughter, and she is 11 years old. T-Pain, you and I are 41 years old now. And my daughter wants to do a dance in her 5th grade talent show at a local, suburban school. You know what she did? She got low. I kid you not, I thought she was going to get thrown out of that public school- and it was one of my most proud moments being a dad.

Three months later, my wife and I were able to make it to Jazzfest in New Orleans. Yes, there was an overwhelming amount of people there- the largest event I have ever been to. A few months before when I heard that T-Pain would be in the lineup, I started digging in. It wasn’t just “Low” that was played all of those years. It was:

• Good Life, with Kanye
• I’m in Luv with a Stripper,
• Kiss Kiss, with Chris Brown
• All I do is Win, with a ton of awesome artists.
• Cyclone
• Got Money, with Lil Wayne

Recently the album “On Top of the Covers” was released, and the story changed.

Not only does the T-Pain/”Low” story mean a good time at a party, but now that I am old, the story got even better: it now has a jazzy little sister that covers all the bangers I love, and it is so, so smooth and good. There is no auto-tune, but it hits all the notes covering all of our favorites:

• Thats Life, by Frank Sinatra.
• Summertime; this is traditional, but I like the Sublime version
• Don’t Stop Believing, by Journey.
• American Woman, by Lenny Kravitz.
• Tennesee Whiskey, by Chris Stapleton (I saw him live last year for the first time, amazing).

Just yesterday morning, while getting ready to go to Jazzfest, I played this album in our Hotel Room. The vocals have emotion, the rhythm is slower, and adds some special flavor to the songs we know, and when my wife heard those tracks, she said “This is T Pain? It is so, so good. Ok, we don’t have to see the Eagles (Who were performing at the exact same time), we really have to see T-Pain.”

I thought to myself, “I know baby. I know”.

We posted up in our spot 3 hours early. I didn’t know it, but T-Pain, I have been waiting 19 years to get Low.

Look at that crowd- it is the biggest crowd I have ever seen in my life; and T-Pain, we were all waiting to get Low, because that song is a good time. It is American Culture and heritage at this point. Right now, “Low” has overtaken “California Luv” as the anthem for a party. Spotify says it has been streamed 1.5 BILLION times; Tupac’s California Luv: 1.1 BILLION by comparison.

This crowd with me yesterday would say the same thing. You see, this is my story of “Low”. But the people watching the show were my age too- and “Low” is their story too. It is all of our story- T-Pain, you have been with all of us for years celebrating good times as we got “Low”.

Thanks for the good times T-Pain. I hope there are many, many more.

Sincerely,

Luke .

P.S. I may regret this, but here I am; all 41 years of me, still goofy as hell getting low:

Costco sells vacations too- so we got one for Spring Break this year. Taylor has co workers that have travelled a bit to Mexico and even though I am a bit of a wuss, Taylor convinced me it is worth it (it does have the best deals on all-inclusive types of resorts).

We did all the normal things, packed the car, dropped the doggy off, and set out- to CHARLOTTE. Why Charlotte? Well, costco sells cheaper trips if you are willing to fly at crazy hours like we are. So for the 7:30am departure, we went to Charlotte the night before and started our vacation right. Also Mercy had phone using the hotel phone to call Zippy. Sometimes I forget that she was born in a time when landlines didnt exist.

TSA was not being paid, and the national headlines said that lines were hours and hours long. Per usual, I was overthinking this- and wondering what time we should arrive for our 7:40 flight. We decided to catch the 5:00am shuttle from the airport hotel to be prepared for the worst.

At that hour, on a Sunday morning in Charlotte, it was the shortest and easiest TSA experience I ever had. Those people didn’t give a DAMN. Anyways, with my trusty fanny- ahem- MANNY pack ready to go, our $50 burger king breakfast hit the spot. Actually it made me feel terrible, but Rosie was excited about it because she had never had Burger King in her life.

The flight was great- Mercy kicked the seats in front of her and that stressed me out as the lady in front turned around. Taylor and I switched seats- she is better at dealing with that than I am.

Dreams Playa Mujeres

Early flights are cheaper- and give us almost a full day at the resort, so we explored for hours.

After a day of travel, I was thirsty and took a pina colada as we explored- but the tricky part was, there were no pool chairs available. The sun was hot, our room wasnt ready- and I was ready to rest. The front desk had to call their manager around 3pm, and we were ready to get to our room.

Resort Pools

The pools were great- there was a lot going on, they had some pretty huge water slides and hot tubs. Almost all pools were about 4 feet deep, some more shallow. Mercy was pretty good at swimming, so we felt fine. The hardest part was getting a chair- if you didn’t get out and reserve a seat by 7:30, you were out of luck. So, whoever woke up first in our room get that chore. Then, the hotel sent out an alert to all guests: “If you are not at your chair for 40 minutes, your stuff will be moved”. I’m not sure how that would play out exactly, but the last 2 days got much better.

Also the beach was covered with seaweed and smelled bad- the sand was beautiful though.

Resort Food

Is resort food ever amazing? I don’t know, but this place was for families- and the food was a solid 7/10.

There were a few options: Asian Fusion, Seafood, Mexican, Hibachi, French (no kids allowed there), and a Brazilian Steakhouse. We really liked the Brazilian Steakhouse, especially since my birthday dinner at a Brazilian Steakhouse was snowed out this year.

Besides the pools and the food, the landscaping was beautiful.

And, Taylor and I got to do some time in the spa and get a massage- the kids hung out in the “kids club”, and I felt ok about that- there is a ton of security and cameras around there. The steam room, sauna, and massage were a great escape.

The Best Part

Was the day excursion. Looking online from Greensboro, it was hard to tell- it is an overwhelming amount of choices, and I wasnt sure what was safe. After getting there, Taylor asked the front desk and got a solid recommendation for a day trip to the island we could see across the water. Since the beach at our hotel was so sucky, I was glad we got a chance to do this and see a beautiful stretch of sand in Mexico.

The water was an unreal color of blues- almost neon it was so radiant from the sunlight. The crew was amazing- they let us board first and get the VIP seats on top of the catamaran. It may have been an hour to cross the water- about 5 miles – from the port in Cancun to Isla Mujeres, The island of Women.

Rosie and I snorkeled- Mercy was too young so Taylor stayed with her- and I kid you not, it was the most fish I have ever seen. We could almost touch them- yellow and black and white zebra fish- just hundreds of them. The waves were a bit rough, but Rosie was a good swimmer so I wasnt scared. The water was a bit chaotic with several boats in the same place, but I kept an eye out for where we were supposed to go, and Rosie and I held hands through it all- it was so special, Im glad we got to do that.

Some people at the resort were telling us about their trip to Isla Mujeres the day before, and said it was worth it to get a golf cart and explore the island- so we did.

Im glad for this- it was just the right amount of exploring and adventure for me without being too unsafe. And, Rosie got a chance to see some of the smaller, run-down houses on the island. I was glad for this teachable moment so she could see how a lot of the world lives much differently than we do.

Did the kids get along?

Yes. There were a few arguments, but they got along great, and I think it is a combination of two things:

1. I had a good, brief conversation with Rosie about Mercy’s personality based on a book I am reading about the Enneagram. In just a few minutes, I shared how it is super easy for Rosie to make friends, but Mercy is a little more introverted, and looks to Rosie in a big way- so when Rosie toys around with her younger sister, it isn’t that Rosie is doing something bad per se, it just feels worse because of Mercy’s personality type.
   Rosie’s response to this? “What you just said sounded really wise”. That convo was on the first day of our trip, and may have had an imapct?
2. Rosie didnt have any friends there. Duh. But, this often leads to arguments at home- Rosie wants to run off with her friends in a normal way, and Mercy wants to be included, so Mercy feels sad, and Taylor and I have to intervene. This week, they just played together awesome, and I was thankful.

Ok, I am getting tired of writing this post now. Here are a few more pics: