Paradise

Our five days in Hawaii were beyond paradise. It was so luxurious having just the two of us- from the plane ride where we read OUR books and watched OUR movies, to waking up and going to sleep when WE wanted, and eating, drinking, napping, etc... when and where we felt like it. Did I miss the kids? Yeah... but not really until the last day. The weather wasn't great- in fact we really only had two nice beach days-but we found that it really didn't matter. I think we could have been in Iowa and ALONE and enjoyed it. Yep- it was nice to have the time away to reconnect and remember how much we truly like each others company. And it was a little unsettling to realize how very very relaxed we both can be away from the stresses of work, kids, and building a home. Now the trick is bringing the mellowness back to "real life". Hmmm. I need to work on that!

We ate so well- including breakfast in a beachside restaurant each morning followed by ice cream sometime before noon. Lunch was casual and dinners out were delicious, decadent, and all included beautiful ocean views (or a table right on the sand). We wandered around Lahaina and shopped, read our books by the pool, took naps, drank lots of boat drinks (Well, I did. Brian mostly stuck to Red Bull and Diet Coke), and basically just hung out together in a "child free haze of delight".  

Our flight got into Portland at 1150PM so we spent night #6 in a airport hotel. We got in and went to IHOP for a late dinner (OK... a VERY late dinner) and the next morning we woke up late and walked over to Ikea for breakfast and a leisurely stroll through the entire store. Even that day was heavenly. That's what I mean about Iowa. I guess the location really doesn't matter as long as you are with someone you truly love and enjoy being with (and that person, for once in 9 years, isn't under the legal drinking age). 

The vacation wasn't completely stress-free: We arrived in Portland at 630AM to find that our flight to Honolulu was delayed.... BY 15 HOURS! Our arrival in Maui was going to be delayed by an entire 24 hours. Ummm... not what I was hoping for. Hawaiian Airlines was less than helpful in getting it rescheduled but eventually we lucked out and found a flight to Seattle with a connection to Maui that would get us there even earlier than we had originally been scheduled to arrive. Unfortunately Hawaiian Air wouldn't pay for our tix from Portland to Seattle and 400 dollars later and a VERY tense full-on run through the terminal and we made it on an 8AM flight to Seattle and no further delays (coming or going) were experienced. 

The Grandmas took great care of the kiddos in our absence. I don't think any of the kids even really missed us too much. (Could it be that they needed a break from US as badly as we needed a break from THEM?). However, they were very glad to see us in the airport and had made us welcome home signs and decorated the house for our arrival. I was definitely ready for some kid snuggles and they were happy to oblige. Grandma Mary had homemade potato salad, broccoli salad, deli sandwich fixings and homemade lemon meringue pie waiting for us and Nana had bought me a bunch of tulips. Seriously? They were still spoiling us even after we got back? There is just no way to properly thank them. Their willingness to take on our chaos for the week is priceless. The fact that we were given a week to decompress and reconnect is priceless. Somehow I think the Starbucks cards did not do their work justice so I hope that by reading this they understand how very, very grateful we are to them. 

Aloha, everyone.