Hearts Around the World

Since we got married, we have collected hearts from different foreign vacations we have been on together. It all happened by accident on our honeymoon.

We got to our resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico and had to wait for our room to get cleaned. We left our luggage at the front desk and went to explore the beach. {i always remember that that when we left Oklahoma it was rainy and chilly so i was roaming the beach in jeans and a hooded sweatshirt and hubby in jeans and a long sleeve shirt.}

On our little journey, we found a rock shaped like a heart! And that is how our little tradition started

I took this picture of the beach one day so it made a perfect backdrop for our heart rock.

Our next big trip together was in 2010 to Jamaica. We went with 4 of Hubby's pledge brothers and their significant others. While we were out on the beach we were looking for a heart. We picked up several that sort of resembled a heart but I wasn't totally satisfied. Then Coleman hands me one he found. What a sweet friend!

Sunset on the nude (except after 5 pm) beach

Our most recent trip was to Australia. By watching Oprah, I had seen the cool heart shaped coral reef. We spent a night out on the water during our Great Barrier Reef trip to Cairns. While I was out snorkeling, I thought it would be cool if I was able to find a shell or something that was heart shaped. Then I thought, "I am not a swimmer. I would not be able to dive anywhere to get it and this water is not so shallow." Hubby had gotten pretty good at diving down a little ways with just his snorkel gear (I suppose being a better swimmer than I am makes that an easy task...) so I could just have him get it. BUT, I noticed that whenever I had my head down, saw something neat and brought my head up to tell whoever was around, I looked back down and had drifted away from it. There was no way I would be able to show him where to go. Another reason is that when we were out snorkeling, Hubby normally went off to do his own thing while I just floated around snorkeling. Not that he ditched me, but I guess I just didn't snorkel fast enough for his likings. Regardless, I never remembered when I saw him to tell him to look for anything.

As we were packing our things on the last day, Hubby says, "I got you something." and pulls out a heart shaped piece of coral. Isn't he so sweet!?! I immediately got excited and then nervous. Nervous that some sort of alarm would sound saying a piece of the Great Barrier Reef was missing or that someone would take it would get confiscated in customs.

We bought this picture of the heart reef at the QVB in Sydney. This photographer has some really awesome pictures from around Australia for a really reasonable price! {I still need to buy a different color matte so that our coral heart is easier to see.}

Here is a picture of our Hearts Around the World.

We have plenty of room for them to expand too! :)