Of all the countries my husband and I have visited, we agree that Italy is one of our favorites. So we were obviously ecstatic when my family decided to take a family trip to Italy at the end of March this year!

Of all the countries I've visited, Italy is at the top of my list to see more of. As of writing this, I've only been to Rome and Venice, and both cities had so much culture and history but felt so different from each other while still feeling distinctly Italian.

Amsterdam is one of my favorite cities in the world. Amsterdam was already on the top of my travel list because I wanted to visit the Anne Frank House  and see  the famous tulips . Unfortunately, the tulips only bloom for approximately 8 weeks in the spring, and I missed them the first time I visited by a few weeks, but I made it back the following year in time!

For my very first trip to Mexico, we booked 5 nights at the all-inclusive resort Valentin Imperial Riviera Maya . Some of our good friends have been to this resort several times now and were heading back for another trip, so we decided to join them -- and I'm so glad we did! Since we didn't leave the resort except for our scuba-diving trip, this travel recap will serve mostly as a review of the  Valentin Imperial Riviera Maya . Overall, I highly recommend it -- and I can see now why our friends, and so many others, continue to return to the resort!