Wow, it’s been a solid year since I updated my blog. I can completely blame that on married life.

I’ve always heard the first year of marriage is the most challenging. Well, I am no relationship guru or marriage expert. But this first year of marriage has required humility, communication, patience, understanding and compromise. Two becoming one is a beautiful thing. But it takes work.

That being said, we are long overdue for a vacation! My husband received his first ever passport in the mail within 4 weeks of applying. I asked him where he wanted to go. Without hesitation he said Aruba, so I made Aruba happen.

We find ourselves calling this trip our “honeymoon”. Probably because our actual honeymoon last year was briefer than we would’ve liked. So this time we booked our trip for 7 days and 6 nights.

Some of my long time followers will recognize this trip is my longest one since I started this blog. In the past I was working with a more limited budget. I was the queen of the 4-day trip. Now that I’m a bit older and more established, I can afford to stay abroad for a full week.

We booked the flights 2 months ago. We paid under $400 each for roundtrip from JFK to AUA. Those 2 months flew by (no pun intended) and now our departure date is less than a week away. Lots of preparation in these last few days, hair, nails, clothes, travel supplies and of course packing. I got some new gadgets for this trip that I’m excited to test out. I will share my reviews in my coming posts.

Hubby is over the moon. Aruba has been on his travel wishlist for a long time. My followers would know I probably would’ve preferred to travel to Bali or Brazil for our 1 year anniversary. But we have to take baby steps as Ray hasn’t yet taken a flight longer than 6 hours. Speaking of babies, no little ones on the way yet. We want to get some more stamps in our passports before that season in our lives.

So that’s basically it. I will share we’re staying at 2 different resorts/hotels. Friends suggested we do this so we can experience the upper and lower parts of the island. And currently I’m very behind on booking excursions. I promised my husband I wouldn’t jam pack our itinerary each day like I’ve done in my past travels. So I think we’ll take the approach of one day with nothing planned then the next day with at least half the day planned.

Until next week, cheers.