one night we had a special anniversary celebration dinner, set up down on the beach.

ian and i checked in on the video monitor several times a day, missing our boys so much:

and on our last day we went out on the sea on a big catamaran.

we cruised along the coastline past little islands to a super beautiful cove, where we got out and had a little barbeque and swam in the sea.

here’s our friend jose. he was one of the cooks and also our go-to guy for anything we needed or wanted around the house. he set up the boat ride for us and came along to barbeque us lunch!

one more stop on the way back, at another aquamarine bay – we all jumped off the boat into that stunning water for a little swim!

we took a good photo of everyone on our last night:

and a few photos of mom and dad with their original nine kids … but this selfie outtake shows you that most of our family awesomeness comes from the in-laws 😉

one last sunset swim/paddle board:

and one last evening gathering … we had all gathered fifty shells from the beach to have mom and dad bring home to remember this incredible trip celebrating fifty years. we gave each shell with one word that we’d use to describe mom and dad’s marriage. to me, their union is really remarkable and i’m really grateful for their partnership.

we all departed from the house on sunday, and before people started taking off we had a little family church meeting overlooking the ocean. i’m so glad faith is a big part of my family and i’m thankful for the faith perspectives of my family members.

yeah, i can’t believe this epic trip actually happened – it seems like a dream. it was pretty awesome. hooray for fifty years of rick & linda!