Our annual family vacation is always a highlight for us. While we usually head south to the Carolinas, this year we spent a week in Costa Verde, Cuba with the girls at an all inclusive resort.

When you get back from vacation, people always ask, what was the highlight? It’s easy to give the obvious answer: palm trees swaying in the warm ocean breeze, spectacular sunsets over crystal blue waters, 30 degree temperatures and sipping on a pina colada before lunch at the swim up bar. But that’s not my answer. My answer would be family time.

We ate breakfast, lunch and dinner al fresco as a family each day. The girls played beach volleyball, we swam together, snorkeled, and swam with the dolphins at Bahia de Naranjo nature reserve.

Our last night, we gathered in the main square awaiting the nightly entertainment. We were playing one of our go-to family card games, Cheat, a favourite of Dave’s Mom. All the young kids at the resort were up on stage singing and dancing, the nightly “pre-show” entertainment to keep the little ones busy.

A French woman from Quebec struck up a conversation and asked us what we were playing. I tried to explain how the game worked. As we were chatting, the Spanish version of the Hokey Pokey “Chi Chi Wa” came on and all four of us put our cards down and started acting out the moves, which ends with you twirling around with your backside and tongue sticking out. I’ve never seen my girls so carefree and happy.

The French woman said to me, “Vous avez une belle famille”. It was one of those wonderful, sublime moments when I felt pure contentment and at peace with the world and so very grateful.

We are home now. Already we have migrated to our old habits, watching devices in different rooms, going our separate ways in our busy lives. But at least we have the memories of the past week. Here are a few pictures of our trip.