Celebrating 20 years of marriage bliss

Being married for 20 years seems such a long time, a milestone. I feel so young, as if it was yesterday. Maybe it’s because we did not have our beautiful little ones til late: I was 39 and Tony was in his 50's. We honey mooned in Fiji – hubby said wear something for warm weather. It was all a surprise til we checked in….but the float plane to our island was the real reason I had to wear shorts – so my clothes wouldn’t get wet when we waded in. What a fairy tale start to a life filled with love and adventure. It was the memory of white sand, a beach front bure to watch the sun go down and the warmness of the Fijians that spontaneously led us back to the Yasawa group of islands last week, this time to celebrate love as a family. We were on the plane with Ciara & Karl within 4 days of booking…& lucked out with Frequent Flyer points and on arrival to Octopus Eco Resort, and a beach front upgrade. BULA FIJI! We won’t spoil the fairy tail with - A four hour flight delay after getting to the airport at 4.30am, - Expired passport (we had a German one Karl could exit the country on, just had to work out how to get him back in – suffice to say we did! ) - Head lice (WTF) discovered whilst delayed 4 hrs! But that’s life, you just have to laugh and get over it. Our island was made for us – natural, raw, friendly, beautiful, no kids club, no electronics, yoga at sunrise and sunset, snorkeling off the beach, a †˜normal’ pool so the kids would be not be out of sight and stress us as we sipped cocktails and read our book, crab races, basket weaving, village visits and mountains to climb. We had plans to use babysitters, to make time for ourselves but we did not need it, the kids were so happy, content and so exhausted by the end of the day they were in bed by 7pm. We would wander up for dinner and dine with wonderful people from around the world. New stories every night. Our bure was only a 100m away, Karl (6) was smart enough to find us if he or Ciara had woken. We believe in developing resilience in our little ones. On return I reminisced and compared pictures from 13.3.93 with 13.3.2013. What were we like then? What were our dreams,? What did we look like? Have we changed? Was our island paradise as beautiful as remembered? I’m looking thru rose coloured glasses but I don’t think we have changed much, a few more lines, layers of life experiences, joyous times, hard times, loved ones missing, new loved ones arrived. We’ve lived well, travelled well, eaten well. And this really is a blog on food and beauty wellbeing, so I am delighted to report in that, eating beautiful food, keeping active outdoors (no gym for these bods) does keep you in shape to feel good (& look good!) and do all those fabulous things you dream about. My tummy really should do some sit ups – perhaps that shall be my goal for the year…as I never got round to setting & sharing them with you. Sorry. If I get game I will do a NOW & THEN pic of me in a bikini. BULA MY FRIENDS, TAKE CARE. Cindy x