We ventured on down to beautiful Mexico this August! This was actually “plan C” for our summer trip due to travel restrictions from COVID-19. We had originally hoped to go to Italy with some family members but travel to there was quickly shut down before we had a chance to purchase tickets. Then, we had then hoped to go to Belize instead but the country continued to delay its opening to tourism so we settled on Mexico, and it did not disappoint! It was fairly easy to travel there and did not require any testing or quarantine. We rented a car and spent time in the Quintana Roo and Yucatan states of Mexico, and visited the following cities: Cancun, Akumal, Tulum, Valladolid, Izamal and Merida. I feel like we got a really good taste of this area of Mexico and a mix of town and beach time. Noelle did pretty well despite missing her nap most days–She mostly loved the hotel pools and wanted to spend most of her time there. It was fun to brush up on my Spanish which I haven’t used in quite some time. Overall, Mexico is a great place to vacation–We found it to be really inexpensive and easy to communicate as most individuals know some English. We are thankful we got to go despite all of the craziness of this year!

Fun facts about this trip:

I was 30-31 weeks pregnant during it.

Sadly the camera lens I usually use broke on day 2 of the trip and it forced me to use a really wide angle lens the rest of the time which was an interesting challenge.

The most expensive hotel we stayed at was $40 US dollars per night!

All of the roads in Mexico seem to be one way, so it is impossible to back track, you just have to find another route.

I was honestly more scared about getting sick from food poisoning (being pregnant) so we were super careful about what we ate. Thankfully no sickness of any kind!

This was the first trip we’ve gone on where I didn’t make an itinerary or book all of our lodging ahead of time. We totally winged it and I have to say it was really fun travelling this way (:

This year we stayed home for Christmas and Nathan’s parents came out to visit and spend the holiday with us. The day after Christmas we took them on a roadtrip to Utah and Arizona, sort of a redo of the trip we took before Noelle was born because we loved it so much. This time, everything looked completely different though, because of the snow. It was below freezing for the majority of our trip which limited the amount of hiking we were able to do, but we still had a great time. We went to the Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park in Moab, Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park in Southern Utah, Horseshoe Bend in Page, AZ and Mesa Verde National Park near Durango Colorado on our way home. See some pictures below…

This year, we decided to do a family vacation with Nathan’s family to Door County, WI which is right on Lake Michigan. All of us (21 total!) shared a big Air BnB together. We visited the maritime museum, went cherry picking, did some hiking, visited some lighthouses and took a ferry to Washington Island where we visited a lavender farm. We all had a really fun time together, and I was really amazed at how pretty Wisonsin and Lake Michigan were! Here are some pictures from our trip…

At the end of July we flew out to Pennsylvania to spend time with my family. We stayed for about a week and a half which was so refreshing, compared to quick holiday time trips. I always love being home in the summer and enjoying the yard where I grew up in. Noelle loved Grandpa’s garden and he would frequently take her down there to pick berries and feed them to her. We took a day trip to the ocean while we were there and Noelle enjoyed playing in the sand. It kept her entertained for several hours haha. The rest of the time, we had our whole family together at home which is not a frequent occurrence, and it was so special.