Sun, Sand, Surf and....HOOPS!

This week, 4 years ago, Todd and I were soaking up sunshine at the beach and sucking down strawberry-banana Lava Flows by the pool in Maui. Ahhh, I can hear the wind swaying the palm trees and the sound of the crashing waves as I write this...wait a minute, that's just Ella flushing the toilet, for the second time - stalling bedtime again I'm sure. Anyway, back to my fantasy vacation...I can tell I'm going to have to try very hard to channel those very distant memories, considering what's happening at the moment. Maybe some Lamaze breathing will get me focused. Rats, I guess I would've had to take a Lamaze class for that to work. See, there I go again, distracted. So as I was saying, we went to Maui in 2005 to celebrate our 10th anniversary and to watch the Zags play in the Maui Invitational. It was the first time Todd and I had been on a real vacation, even our honeymoon was a 4 day trip to Seattle (which by the way was perfect at the time, I actually asked Todd if we could go home early because I was so excited about getting all settled in to our house). We usually took camping trips, or would visit my parents in Colorado when we did get away. Both are totally fun, but not what I'd call vacation, especially the latter (just kidding Mom). We did sneak to Disneyland a few times during those 10 years, but we always went with family or we tagged it onto one of Todd's business trips. That's a whole different story. Let's just say engineers and other nerds that attend "The Sensors Expo" apparently don't see women all that often. Todd took me to this conference to see the exhibits (exhibits indeed) a couple different years and it was barely worth the bribe of Disneyland, and you know how much I love Disneyland.

Okay, back to what I was actually supposed to be writing about. So we finally made our dream getaway, the only problem was by now we had Ella and I was SO nervous about leavng her. But she was just a couple weeks away from her 2nd birthday and Todd convinced me I'd be fine. Well, I wasn't. We planned a 5 night trip and the 5th night was the only night I didn't cry, and that's only because I knew we were heading home the next day. Don't get me wrong, we had a BLAST, I'm just not good at leaving my babies. So, that was the first and last time we've both been away since, unless you count the 2 separate nights we were away when we had Dawson and the twins - please say that doesn't count as a night away. If the kids keep torturing me the way they have been I can guarantee you I won't have a tough time waving goodbye to them and hopping on the next plane outta here.

One of the highlights of our trip was meeting up with some of our closest friends. We went to the Gonzaga games and one night went to a super-duper fancy restaurant for dinner. Remember that D - the waiter used some little broom doohicky thing to wipe the crumbs off our table every now and then? Now I'm a farm girl that used to ask if I could bring my horse in the house when it was cold, so that was a far cry from any dinner date I was used to. Diane and I were half hoping the menu included mac 'n' cheese. The whole trip was a blast and my favorite thing by far was snorkeling. I fell in love with the sea turtles/honu and wish I could post the pictures from the underwater camera of all the sea life we saw. Next time we go somewhere tropical I'd like to dive. I have a very bizarre phobia of sharks, seriously, but I still loved getting my snorkel on, flippering my way to the waves and watching the amazing world that's under the water. It truly blew me away and I wound up being the one dragging Todd further and further out. With one eye out for sharks of course. Actually it was so funny because after we went I read an article that said not to wear anything shiny or metallic because it attracts sharks, kinda like a lure does with fishing. Well my bikini had probably half a dozen metallic silver buckles on it, oops - guess I lucked out on that one.

Well, I've been dreaming about a vacation a lot lately, but the chances of someone wanting to watch all 4 of our kids aren't good. Heck, I don't even want to watch all 4 of my kids some days. So we'll have to strategize. I think I may be able to talk Todd into a vacation if I put an educational spin on it, you know, something for the kids. Disneyland is a great lesson in cultural diversity, and Ella is taking Spanish classes, so maybe Mexico would be vital to her truly understanding the language. Wish me luck...

PS if you go to my Playlist and choose the song "Over the Rainbow" by Israel K., you'll be listening to the same music we listened to poolside:-)