Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a peaceful day with family and friends, gathered around laughing and sharing memories. And making some new ones, too.
The girls and I had a traditional Thanksgiving Feast, complete with reggae playing in the background.
We left the table setting for four people tonight and shared what we were each thankful for in our lives.
We talked about Chad and how much we missed him being with us on Thanksgiving.
We shared our heartaches with each other and promised that it was okay for each of us to be sad and happy at the same time.

We had a busy, busy day.
The girls had breakfast with all the characters from Sesame Street. Cailyn was way more excited about it than Carys was.
She was very sad to see Cookie Monster, since that was Chad’s nickname around our house.
There are still cookies in our cookie jar from early August. I can’t throw them out just yet.
Cailyn got to lead the Conga line with Abby Cadabby and I’ve never seen her smile so much.
Carys finally warmed up to Elmo — who doesn’t love Elmo!?!

We played all day at the waterpark and pool and then made our way to the beach for a photoshoot before dinner.
After we dined on turkey and all the delicious food, we walked around for a while and chatted.
Sweet, sweet girls.
Who are, surprisingly, getting along (and not driving me crazy). For the most part…

While they were napping today, I took some photos right outside our room of the flowers & such.
I brought Chad’s wedding ring with me, and I took a few pictures of that as well.
It was a good day, with a few tears. But it was still good.
I kept telling myself that Chad wouldn’t want us to be so melancholy in a place as beautiful as this.
And I chose this island specifically because I think it’s as close to Heaven as we can possibly be.

Anyway — here are pictures from the last twenty-four hours.  (You can click to make them larger in a new window….)
Enjoy.
Happy Thanksgiving.