The BEST vacation ever!!

I got back last night from the absolute best vacation ever! It was a true vacation, not the kind that you come home from and NEED a vacation! No, I'm totally rested and relaxed and ready to bring it all on! If you're the jealous type you probably should stop reading right now! :)

Thursday Thad and the kids dropped me at the airport where I flew to Dallas and met up with Katie for our flight to Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. We got in and started ooking for Jennifer and then headed off to our beach hotel for the night. Katie found a deal on a Days Inn about a block from our Marriott. It was super cute and "cozy". Totally an old beachy feel from the days gone by. We had a great first night, wore matching jammies and sat around with masques on our faces!

In the morning we packed up and headed up the street to the Harbor Beach Marriott Resort and Spa where we spent the best 3 1/2 days you could imagine! We got checked in early, and thanks to Thad's "elite" status we got a room overlooking the pool AND beach! It was awesome! Beautiful pool and palm trees right below us, and the sound of crashing waves and awesome view of the blue green water and white sand off in the distance. We could see the cruise ships coming and going and little people on top waving goodbye to anyone who might be watching!

We walked along the beach and hung out before heading over to the Spa for our pedicures, and then realized that the Spa was AWESOME and we should have been hanging out there all day! Who would have known?? They put you in a robe, point you towards the fresh fruit and juice, nuts and yogurt raisons....and then outside is a beautiful salt water pool and spa that sits above the "common folk" where you can soak up the sun with the best of them! Amazing! So we went and had our toes done, then came back to hang around in the pool and sauna. We got ready there and then headed out to find a store to buy some treats and food.

Now something I didn't realize when we planned this trip a few weeks ago, was that Katie has the golden touch! Seriously, she's almost magic! Everything good happens when you're with her. So we got directions to a grocery store and decided it would be fun to walk....just 2 miles away! So we start walking along the street and out of nowhere comes a trolly. And he actually stops and asks if we want a ride! Well, SURE that would be nice! And then guess what....it was FREE!!! So he took us to the door of the grocery store, dropped us off and picked us up about 30 minutes later and dropped us at our hotel! Totally magic! We also found the most delicious pizza and pasta shop and grabbed a slice of pizza! So yummy we rode the trolly back for more later!

So Friday night after spending the evening at the spa and loving it we decided we needed another day! Who wouldn't, right? So we schedule massages for Saturday afternoon! Yeah!!!! Saturday morning we woke up and went for a run on the beach. Yes, Katie drug me along for a little jog about 1 1/2 miles in the sand! It was a KILLER!!! I'm not a runner anyway, but this was almost torture! When you're at the beach and you see people running by they make it look so easy! And it was...for about 10 steps! I actually made it back after running a couple minutes, walking a couple minutes. I'm sure Katie was bored out of her mind thinking can we pick up the pace here....just a little!! So when I think we're finally done, Katie says "lets just catch up to Jen" who was walking. The only thing was, I was jogging about as fast as she was walking! So I start yelling "JENNIFER!!! JENNNNNIFERRRRRR!!" But she has her iPod on and of course can't hear. Finally she turned around and I waved her back and was put out of my misery! The massage couldn't have come at a better time! After our massages we hung around the pool and the sauna, I read my book, we ate some snacks and then got ready to head out for dinner.

We had been told there was a happening place calle Los Alos or something like that, so we caught the trolley and then a bus and eventually made our way to this street that had restaurants and shops up and down it. It was really cool, Christmas lights wrapped up the palm trees, the smells of yummy food everywhere you walked. We ate at a place that smelled super yummy, but ended up not being so great. But we still had a fantastic time looking in the stores and talking to people! There are people from all over the world and it was fun to hear where they were from and all the accents!

So then....OK, I took a couple days off and am back now, maybe I can finish this but I really should go to bed! Thad's still in DC and it's 11:48 at night and I"ll have to get the kids up by myself! Ugghhh!....so then....we decided to go snorkeling the next day. Now if you remember from my previous posts, snorkeling and me don't really mix too well. But Katie was soooo excited and it was her birthday, so I thought I would try it again. Well she had brought big monster fins and gear so I thought I would use her stuff instead of my hot pink fins and kids mask and snorkel. So we get our fins on at the beach in our chairs, and waddle down to the water picking our knees up high trying not to fall. OK, picture this...we have our masks and snorkels on, then these HUMONGOUS fins, and Katie is in her nautical themed swimsuit, and I'm in my swimsuit that covers my butt, and we have a big diving flag on a big foam floaty thing in our hand so the boats won't run over us, and we're trying to get down to the water. Jennifer was actually video taping us and some guy walked by and said that would be good blackmail, and at midnight when we were both trying to sleep Katie kept watching the video over and over and laughing sooo hard! Even when she was brushing her teeth she couldnt' stop thinking about it and laughing! I finally had to sit up and watch it, and then I started laughing and couldn't sleep and I thought I was going to throw up! So.....we finally make it down to the water and get in to about our knees and I fall over! So then we make it a few more feet about to our waste and I decide I'm ready to TRY IT! So I put my snorkel in my mouth and practice breathing, then put my face in the water and WOOOOOOOOOOO, INNNNNNNNNNNNNN, WOOOOOOOOOOO, OUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTT....The people boarding the cruise ships could probably hear me!! I could breathe just fine above water, but under water...forget it! So we decide to start heading out to the first reef about 100 yards out. I start swimming, take about 3 breaths, swallow water, come up coughing, rip my snorkel out, gag, cough, gag.....try it again. This turns into a pattern...three breaths, gag, cough, throw up, Katie laughs, gag, cough....try it again! And my goggles were fogging up so it was like the allergy commercial when they take the medicine and peel off the fuzzy layer and everything is clear. I would put my face in the water and I could hardly see, come up and take off my mask and it was all very clear! I would look over and Katie and she's snorkeling away, little black snorkel up in the air! Finally after swimming halfway across the ocean (Jen said she could hardly see the flag anymore) and waving away boats, I have hardly seen anything, I'm not even using the dumb snorkel anymore, swimming and trying to keep my head above the waves we decide we're tired and decide to go back. This is after swimming for about an hour and not finding anything and I finally say I can't wait to get there so I can stand up! I was so tired! And the reef was supposed to be about 4 feet under water, you probably weren't supposed to stand on it but I didn't really care! I had been snorkeling with a hole in my snorkel for about an hour, my ankles were killing me from the monster fins on my feet and I was getting grumpy! So Katie switches masks and snorkels with me and guess what??!!! My snorkel had a LEAK in it somewhere!!! She couldn't do it either! So I snorkeled back just fine! And we actually saw some beautiful fish! We must have missed the reefs on the way out, and saw part of it on the way back. We swam through TONS of baby jelly fish and I think I got stung on my arm, katie had a bunch of red marks on her when we got out! Oh, and when I had the bad mask on I looked over and totally started freaking out and screaming and swimming away. I thought there was a jelly fish right up against my face and I couldn't get away from it...then I realized it was my snorkel that wasn't in my mouth!!! The mask was so foggy I couldn't tell! That was funny. So next time I'll stick to my kid mask and we'll go OVER instead of OUT so far! I guess we'll have to go back soon!

So after the snorkeling we hung out on the beach and at the pool. Took the trolley out to our favorite little Italian place we liked and came home and went to bed early on our last night! Our last day we walked on the beach, picked up lots of shells to take home, bought some presents for the sorry ones that had to stay at home! Sent Jennifer on her way to the airport, hung out at the beach and pool and then caught a cab to the airport where our first class seats in the first row of the plane were waiting for us!

Ahhhh...what a great vacation! And to think I actually toned down this entry so you wouldn't be extra jealous!!! :) Honeybun, you really are the best! Thanks so much! I love you! OHHHHH and when I was gone.....

OK, so Thad left for DC for the Inauguration on Monday before I got home, so thanks to family and friends for taking the kids! We couldn't have done it without you...seriously! So the morning after I got home I was going to drive the kids to school. I parked Thad's car behind the van so I told the kids to go get in Daddy's car and I would drive them to school. So they all start saying that we have to drive the van, and then they would laugh and giggle. I thought they were being funny since Thad's car was behind the van. So we get outside and they say to at least look in the van. Well, the van was locked and I didnt' have the keys so I just peeked in and it looked clean, and then they said LOOK AT THE RADIO!!!! Thad got me a NEW STEREO when I was gone and it plays my iPOD!!! Yeah!!! My old CD player didn't work anymore and I wanted a new one! So I was soooooo excited!!! We found out it didn't work because there were guitar picks in it, but that's another story! :) So THANKS HONEYBUN!!!! An awesome vacation and a new stereo in the car! Life is GOOD!!!! I love you!!

OH, and one more thing...tonight at cub scouts Harrison and "Uncle" Steve were racing scooters down the driveway, and then Harrison says they can't race anymore because I got a new radio in my van! Apparently it was ok to race and scratch the van BEFORE, but now that I have a new radio it's NOT OK! I love that logic! Thanks for playing with Harrison, Uncle Steve!

And now I'm done! It's 12:12AM, I'll be up in 6 hours with the kids. But that's ok, it'll be a good day. Thad comes home! And we can watch LOST!