2 Year Anniversary

Wednesday 12th November 2014

Armando and I are officially already into our second year of marriage. The first year was definitely very challenging with moving to England, meeting my side of the family for the first time and bringing our second child into the world. The most challenging part was having to be separated for those few months Armando was in El Salvador and I was in England.
But now, in our second year, we moved back to El Salvador as a family of four. We bought our first home together and even made our family more whole with a new little puppy. As always it's brought it's up's and down's but this year has definitely brought more up's. We're not taking our lives and time together for granted because we learnt how it felt to be apart.

It's quite hard to find decent English cards here and Armando's family isn't big on giving cards for events but I am so I always try to find a nice one. The card that I found had some lovely words in, not 100% relevent but enough to make me smile and pass it along to the one I love.
"For My Husband on our anniversary

This life we share, it may be less than perfect, but it's got one big thing going for it -

It's ours.

It's yours and mine, and it's made of all the moments we've lived together, all the memories that no one shares but us.

It's ours, and it simply wouldn't be without our commitment to what we began together all those years ago.

It's ours and, perfect or not, it's something to be grateful for, something I'm happy I share with you"

I got Armando a t-shirt and new lego phone case and he got me a mirror and a bag.

To celebrate our day we went out for a meal to a place called Ruby Tuesday's that we hadn't been to before, it was really nice.

Last year I decided to start a tradition of taking a picture of us holding the previous year's picture. It's kind of awkward asking someone to take a picture of us while we're holding a photo frame but I think it's worth it because the pictures turn out to look quite nice.

Puerta del Diablo

During a trip with my Auntie back in 2014 we decided to go to a park that sells El Salvador's national food (pupusas) so she could try before leaving.

After eating and having a walk around the park we went a bit further up the road to Puerta del Diablo which is some cliffs. We've been there before but this time we decided to climb up a higher one.

Chloe was in school that morning so we just had Elliot to carry up. It was sooo windy that day but the views are incredible.

Day Trip

Tuesday 5th August 2014

We went out with a big group of friends first to a big park that sells pupusas (which is the national food here but I never understood the fascination). After eating a late breakfast we all walked around the park which is pretty big. We were looking for the maze that's in there but when we eventually found it we found out it was locked that day for some reason. After our walk around, some playing on the slides and some more snacks we left for our next destination. 

Right near the park a bit further up the hill there's cliffs which are called 'Puerta del Diablo' which in a English gets called Devils Gate. I've only been there once the whole time I've been here and that was before both of the kids were even born. Our walk up the mountains was a lot harder this time carrying the kids but it's worth it for all the lovely views.

We were all really hot and pretty tired after the trek up the hills so our last stop of the day was to get ice cream, both kids had a power nap in the car on the way there.

Las Hojas Beach

Sunday 8th June 2014

I've been wanting to go to the beach for a while but the weather has been rainy (which is odd for El Salvador). But on Sunday we finally got the chance to go and it was REALLY hot.We went to Las Hojas beach which we've never been to before. We spent most of our time in the pool because Chloe loves it.

We went onto the beach a bit too but Elliot didn't like the sand at all and Chloe didn't like it when the water moved over her legs.

We had a lovely meal with a view of the pool and beach while eating.

Both kids were exhausted by the time we got home (about 4pm) and had a nice long nap in the afternoon.

Trip to Furesa

Saturday 19th April 2014

On Saturday morning we went to the zoo (Furesa in El Salvador). It was both our kids first trip. The place was made in the middle of mountains so there was a lot of walking involved which meant both kids were carried most of the morning and gave us a good work out. But it was worth it to go right to the top because look at the views. 

The zoo mainly has wild cats and most of them were sleeping during our visit and we couldn't even spot them in their cages. There were parrots, peacocks, raccoons, monkies, hippos, foxes and some other animals too though.
There were two hippos who were in the water when we got there but they both came out and had a bit of a walk around.


We had to go up a huge hill to get to the monkies but I'm glad we did because they were Chloe's favourite bit and she was singing "monkey monkey monkey monkey" and pointing at them a lot.
Before we left Elliot made friends with a turtle.

Royal Decameron Day 3

Monday 20th January 2014

We got up early again to go for breakfast and hang out by the pool. Armando played beach volleyball while I sat with the kids on the beach to watch. We went in the pool again after that and Chloe had a great time riding around on Mummy's shoulders and back. 

When we got out of the pool we went to pack all of our things away and check out before going for dinner. We spent our last few hours walking around and went to the park again just before leaving at about 2.30pm.

Royal Decameron Day 2

Sunday 19th January 2014

We got up early and went for breakfast. Armando stayed in our room with Elliot while he napped and Chloe, his Mum and me went down to the beach before the sand got too hot to walk on. Last time we went to the beach Chloe was scared of going in the water because of the waves but since Decameron has the sea blocked off by rocks there aren't any waves, the water just slowly moves over the rocks through the day. When Elliot woke up him and Armando joined us down at the beach. It wasn't Elliot's first time to the beach but it was his first time going into the water and he kicked his little legs the second I sat him down. 

After the beach we all got ready to go for dinner. Chloe wouldn't eat much because she was too excited to get back to the beach and pool but she did eat an ice cream cone. Since it was pretty hot around the pool at that time of day we decided to take the kids over to the park for a little while. Chloe loves slides so much but there aren't really any decent ones in the parks near us so she just went up and down on the slides for a while. Elliot went into a swing for the first time, I was holding him up because he can't sit by himself yet (we're practising).
We went back into the pool in the afternoon when the sun was starting to go down and Elliot joined us too. We put him in the blow up float that we bought for Chloe a few years ago and he was ok floating around for a while but then got bored of it. As soon as we took Elliot out of the float Chloe decided she wanted to go in it. After the pool we went to get ready for our evening meal again. This time Elliot slept through the meal while Chloe was awake and playing. We went to see a show that was on the stage after that. It was Arabian themed, they had lots of dancing and even got some women up from the audience to compete - the winner got at shirt.

Royal Decameron Day 1

Saturday 18th January 2014

We set off from our house a little after 6am and got to the resort at 7.15am which was faster than we expected to get there since there was no traffic. We hung around in the lobby area until 8am (check in time). After checking in we changed into swimming costumes and put our bags into the storage area (we couldn't get a room until the afternoon). We had a bit of a walk around and had our first dip in the pool. Chloe enjoyed it much more than I expected. 

We ate dinner and then went to get our room and all had a short nap. While the kids slept Armando and I went into the jucuzzi. When we went back to our room the kids were awake so we went to eat and saw someone drawing character pictures so we had one done of all four of us before going back into the pool. 

When it started it get dark we went back to our room and got ready for the evening meal. We put Elliot into his pjs straight away since we figured he would fall straight to sleep. He slept while we had a few drinks then woke up while we were eating but Chloe fell asleep instead so at least we only had one child awake during the meal. After we'd eaten we went to see the fire/water show they had in one of the pools. They had dancing on platforms floating in the middle of the pool and fire poi and other things. We didn't stay right to the end of the show because it was getting late.

Day At The Beach

Saturday 21st December 2013

This morning we went to the beach. It's still crazy to me that just a few days before Christmas I now live somewhere that's so sunny and hot enough to go and walk along the beach and splash around in the sea. This was Elliot's first time at the beach and he enjoyed rocking in a hammock (as he has been at home too lately).
Chloe was fine walking along on the beach at first but then as soon as she went near the water and started getting splashed by the tide she cried and didn't want to even walk anymore.
We played a while in the pool before eating.
We walked along the beach to find a shell to keep in Elliot's keepsake box (for his first time at the beach).
It's such a beautiful place and I'm glad my kids get the chance to grow up somewhere with such beauty and so many great places to make fabulous memories.

Marriage Celebrations

After we had finished up with the lawyer and were officially married the first thing to happen was everyone gathering around to congratulate us.

Armando his friends and I went out for a meal while Grandma and Grandad watched Chloe.

After the meal we went to buy some drinks from the market and went back home to celebrate. When we got home it was about 10pm and Chloe had woken up. I tried to put her to sleep but there was too much noise in the house so she just came downstairs with us. She's always well behaved when there's lots of people around.

There were lots of shots drank and lots of drunken dancing from Armando's friends. It was a great way of celebrating and having some fun. Chloe didn't go to bed until everyone had left for the night but we figured it was ok since it was just a one off.

Two days after our marriage Armando, Chloe and I went out for a nice meal together as an extra little family celebration.

Married!

Monday 12th November 2012

Exactly two years after we got engaged, we got married today.

It wasn't a big white wedding with tons of friends and family surrounding us like I would have hoped for. It was just at home with a lawyer and some of Armando's friends to be witnesses and translate for me. Admittedly it's not as romantic, without the nervous walk down the isle of the humble smiles of close loved one's but since I have no-one here with me in El Salvador this was the best option for us.

Even though it's not really a wedding, it's the day of our marriage and that makes it so special in itself. I'm now connected completely to the man I love forever. 12/11/12! A fantastic date for the marriage. Not only is it just a cool date to write down but it's also 2 years after Armando proposed to me. Armando loves to have little random meanings behind everything too and when he realised that 121112 added up to 8 (his lucky number) he said "it has to be that day!"

We each wrote each other something special to read before getting married. I just wrote something really short that are like my 'vows' I guess. Armando wrote me a letter and along with it he gave me a letter he had written years ago, a year before he even met me. He wrote it to his future love saying that even though he didn't know who I was yet or if we'd already met he already had the love in his heart for me knowing that I would be with him in the future, it was so sweet. It's pretty strange that he wrote it in English even though it's not his first language but I guess deep down he somehow knew he wanted someone from somewhere else.

My something old was a picture of my Mum from her wedding day, something new was the dress that Chloe wore, something borrowed was a bracelet from Armando's Mum and something blue was my hair clip.

We had 3 witnesses for our marriage (Mario, Alvaro and Alejandro). They all came early (which was very surprising especially on Mario's count because he's always late haha). The lawyer came just after 7pm. I really am not sure about everything she said because it wasn't really translated but it was just all the legal mumbo jumbo that goes along with getting married. I was pretty bummed that I didn't even get to say "I do"! "Si accepto", not quite the same ring to it right?

We signed our life away (just kidding) then that was it... we were married. No longer Miss Tarry. Now Mrs Tarry Tamayo (I still don't like that I have to have the two names, now Armando, Chloe and I all have different names) but that's just how they do it here.

El Salvador - Royal Decameron Resort

Our first family trip to Royal Decameron beach resort in El Salvador - Here's some pictures from around the resort.