How is it ALREADY March 4th??? lets go back to January.. and Sri Lanka.. shall we??

So we kicked off 2020 with Nola, Cora and I heading to Sri Lanka on January 2nd...  with a lovely 24 stop in Doha on each end of our journey.  To say that we had fun would be an understatement.  We had so MUCH fun.. We landed in Colombo, headed up to Dambulla, then to Kandy, off to Bandarawela, spent the night in a tent at the Udawalawe National Park, over to Mirissa and back to Colombo

We again used Intrepid Travel and had a lovely guide Mahendra and a cool family from New Zealand to travel with!!

Highlights: 

1.  DOHA and NIKKI.. and Jack and Jon.. but mostly NIKKI!!!  Man we miss you!!
2.  SO MUCH CURRY... and it is all so darn good
3.  THREE elephant encounters.. ONE where we all get a bath with an elephant!!
4.  Learning to play SPOONS.. who knew?? 

So whew.. ok.. Sri Lanka was amazing.. and I loved it..  We vowed to take as many bad selfies as we could (all of us, two of us, alone, etc) .... enjoy..   these are just the ones on my phone.. the girls are experts...

6.5 hour boat ride to see one whale??  OY

jet lag bites

biking is hard in the rain.. I bailed.. the girls however... pushed through and took selfies to congratulate themselves.. 

tea in a coconut on the side of a tea plantation..... and a 6 KM walk.. why ok.. thanks.. 

safari selfie

elephants wayyyyy to close

on our elephant walk before we all got into the river with her and gave her a bath.. 

smitten... 

worst tasting fruit ever... LOL.. 

at the top of the temple!!  not sure I would make those 500+ stairs but I had good company and good motivators

SPOONS with our travel companions.. SUCH FUN.. best night!! 

more smitten

Nola was the only one who got the cue to smile..

Tea Time 

Cricket confuses us North Americans..

dinner at a local home.. what a true treat

Royal Botanical Gardens

Lions Rock.. please note I hung down with the monkeys.. stairs.. OMG.. so many stairs

on the train in Sri Lanka.. beautiful country indeed.. 

6 KM walk thru the tea plantations.. so amazing.. 

creepy

serious case of the "please just let us sleep"

Cora captured every delicious bite we ate.. 

ok.. so not every photo was a selfie... sue me.. seriously smitten

I sit here in March planning June and July with my girls off at camps and not some family trip.  I am ever so more grateful to my husband who forces these girls trips upon me...  Sri Lanka will always be in our hearts.. :)

Turning 46.. Carnival and all that jazz

Feb. 15th... my 46th.. .. so upon returning from Mexico City and seeing all of the doctors and being on medicines, which is totally new for me, I am not going to lie.. a funk hit... The medicines make me tired.. they make me feel off, sluggish and sometimes sad... but when you plan carnival weekend way back in December 2019 and you almost didn't think you would see your 46th birthday, you suck it up and you go to carnival on a bus with 60 other peeps and make the most of the time you can stay awake!!!

I am not going to label or comment on the photos... I would surely just tear up.  These people are so precious to me.. I am forever thankful for the time I spend in their orbits.  They inspire me to be a better person.. they support me and they are amazing.  I am blessed!