20th Anniversary Trip to Bora Bora

On April 17th, Bryan & I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary & he surprised me with a romantic getaway to the French Polynesia! He started planning it a while ago & was trying to keep it a secret, but he eventually told me back in January because we were gone for a while & there was a lot to plan before we left, especially with the girls. I took a ton of pictures because it was absolutely picturesque, so just wait for multiple blogs. Sorry in advance for the photo overload!

We'll start mid morning - we dropped the girls off at school & headed to DFW airport. We had a 4-hour flight to LA:

Followed by a 2-hour layover. We hit up one of the airport clubs & I was super excited to find that they had chipotle chicken & sweet potatoes gf & df! I just made it like a protein bowl & skipped the flour tortilla. I was SO excited to have a big meal before stepping on our next flight & usually it is hard to eat at airports:

Our next flight was 8 hours from LA to Tahiti & it was the cutest plane I have ever been on! Ha Ha - it's the little things friends that make me happy!

Not only did they have cute pillows & accessories, but the flight attendants had the cutest outfits & they were playing tropical music. I felt like I was on vacation already! We landed in Tahiti & our transfer was waiting for us with leis:

We stayed at a hotel near the airport & with the 5-hour time difference, it was 3:30 in the morning our time. It was late & we were exhausted but at least it was a nice hotel to sleep in:

We woke up fairly early & were excited to see how beautiful it was outside since it was so dark the night before:

It was too early to do much, but we had breakfast, enjoyed the view & then headed back to the airport to take a much smaller plane over to Bora Bora on a 45-minute flight. It was sunny & absolutely beautiful when we left Tahiti & unfortunately that was not the case when we landed! It was storming & of course it is this tiny airport where only 1 plane comes in at a time & the airport is so tiny, you have to deplane & then walk across the runway to go inside. They had umbrellas for us, but it was so windy, they didn't help. By the time we got inside, we were soaking wet, along with our carry-on bag:

It was the cutest airport & when you land, the only way to get anywhere is by boat. I saw their airport sign hanging on a small island but could not take pictures in the rain so I stole this from a friend's blog just so you could see how cute of an airport it was:

We had both gotten up & had looked "cute" because I really envisioned all of these cute pictures when we got there. Not so much! Instead, we rode in the boat & continued to get wet the whole way there. Ha! At least they tried to pamper us with warm towels, drinks, etc. When we got to the resort, they had a welcome committee with more drinks & live music. It was all so cute, but again, I was trying to stay dry & keep my stuff dry, so I got zero pictures. I went back later & took a few pictures during the sun so I could remember the open-air pavilion & wooden boats:

I don't usually advertise where we stay, but since this was a special milestone anniversary, we splurged. And to be honest, it is a very small island & there aren't too many resorts there. Their property is amazing, larger than I thought & they have just over 100 over the water bungalows - literally a bucket list trip for me! I have always wanted to stay somewhere like this & Bryan pulled it off. Thankfully it stopped raining by the time we checked in so we got to explore the resort & settle in before dinner that night without any rain, but you can tell it was cloudy out there:

This was our home away from home for the next 8 days! Room 114 in the Pearl of the Pacific overlooking Mount Otemanu. It was love at first sight! Even though it was cloudy, I took pictures of our bungalow before we settled in so you could see how cute it is & how amazing the views were:

As you can see, our bed faced the ocean & we had sliding glass doors with a huge balcony. I loved waking up this morning & looking at that view! But my favorite was the bathtub - I literally opened the glass doors & took a long, hot bath, read my book & watched the sunset every single night. Ask Bryan, that was my favorite for sure! They also had glass in the floor in the bathroom - by the tub, the shower & the toilet so every time we walked in there, we could see the water below us. It was so fun looking for sea life:

They even surprised us with champagne, fruit, a beach bag & matching straw hats:

We had to get a welcome picture even though we were still a wet mess:

This day was actually our anniversary, so we cleaned up & went to dinner at the Italian restaurant that night. Fun fact, this is the dress I wore to my rehearsal dinner & he wore that same shirt! We wore them again on our honeymoon & I thought it was only appropriate that we wore them again 20 years later. Let's be honest, I am just impressed both of us still fit in them 20 years later!

The next morning, we woke up & it was BEAUTIFUL! Even prettier than I could imagine waking up & seeing it in the sunshine. On our way to the gym, we walked around & I took pictures everywhere. I love taking pictures in the morning while no one is out. Literally, these pictures are from my iPhone - most of them aren't even edited & I don't use filters. Every time we sent pictures to the girls or we would facetime them, they thought it was a fake background. We will start with the bungalows:

When you walked from the bungalows onto the property, there were lagoons everywhere. They snaked in & out along the property & there were bridges connecting everything. The lagoons were beautiful - clear, calm & full or coral & sea life:

I mean the water color was unbelievable! Here was the view from the spa & the gym:

I went for a run several mornings & felt like I was running through the jungle on their walking trails around the property:

They even have a garden & I found all of the banana trees too:

Our package included the buffet breakfast every day & literally that is my favorite meal, especially with this view:

They even had a fruit stand with fresh fruit from their garden every single morning. Again, adorable!

This was the longest trip we have ever done without the girls, but it was worth the extra time since we spent almost 4 days traveling to & from there. I will post more but this is a good intro. I will say from talking to other couples & briefly experiencing Tahiti, Bora Bora is the place to be. We didn't stay at any other islands, but several couples did & everyone said this was the best by far. It was very romantic, mostly couples & hardly any families or kids. In fact, I would say half of the resort was honeymooners! It was the perfect getaway for the two of us & a definite item to check off of our bucket list. Thank you Bryan for spoiling us with the trip of a lifetime - I can't wait to share more pictures as we spent the week celebrating 20 years: