Annabelle Needles // Move Beautifully

Two weekends ago, Cory and I got away to celebrate a few amazing accomplishments with good friends (I’m thinking someone should take the bar exam every summer just for the vacation excuse – no?) and for some much needed R&R.  We ended up in Turks & Caicos, an island neither of us really knew anything about – but we’d use our passports and be able to swim, which pleased both me and the mister, respectively.

This trip was a bit of an anomaly for me, usually vacations involve loads of research and hardly a minute of sitting still upon arrival.  Our time in Turks was much more spontaneous – our friends picked the island and we did, by our standards, very little study in advance.  Also, we did lots of sitting (it was lovely).  Aside from a few walks along the beach to a snorkeling spot and a restaurant, and a day trip on a boat, we didn’t leave the resort.  A lot of that had to do with the crazy expensive cab fares ($11 per person per one way trip?!) and a lot had to do with the fact that we’d both been going going going and needed a bit of nothing.  All in all, I was happy for the change.

1 & 2. We stayed at the Sands at Grace Bay – which was beyond expectations and had the coolest pool ever.  Also, I love tropical foliage.  Nice change of pace from pine trees and aspens.

3.  We didn’t see Jojo, nor did we hear the bell – though Cory did see a shark!

4. Our view from a hammock where we napped one afternoon.  Glory.

5 & 6. One day we took kayaks out and dove for sand dollars.  That was probably one of the coolest things.  Note:  Sand dollars = extremely fragile. Can’t even tell you how many we broke!

The light at sunset was so amazingly golden and the sand was some of the softest I’ve ever felt.  Our ritual of evening walks was even more special these few days.

I am so grateful for the time spent away – husband and I both returned home much more refreshed.  It’s amazing how we de-prioritize and devalue rest in our crazy busy everyday lives, and yet rest is one of the most vital things to being able to live out a properly prioritized and valued life.

So, what did I learn in Turks & Caicos?  Well, I learned to embrace messy hair and bare feet.  And I learned that restfulness is a choice (you book up every spare second of your day – no one forces that upon you) and that probably sanity would be much more easily maintained if I remembered that more often.