Mine's Cuter Than Yours......

I'm only kidding, of course. I am sure you all have lovely, beautiful children. Well, I am sure many of you have lovely, beautiful children. Statistically speaking, all of you can't. I mean, I've met alot of kids and trust me when I say they are not all lovely, and beautiful. But alot of them are and I am sure that yours are among those. But you must admit, I pretty much hit the kid lottery.

Unfortunately, there is no way to keep her from becoming a teenager. It is happening right in front of my eyes. And if I can be honest? It's crap. Look, at her in this picture she is texting and laughing. At me. Friday night she texted her Dad from her bedroom. He was in the living room. Of the same house. The text? "Does mom have bagels" The next text? "Sooooo...."

But, I have to admit. She's beautiful. Both inside and out. And I suspect that is all that will carry us through these next few years. That and the peaceful feeling I get talking to her knowing that she is not my child who will spend an hour talking about big-piles-of-dog-poop and butt cracks.

All I Want For Christmas Is......

O, Mexico....

Well, if Hawaii was amazing (and amazing it was...) then Mexico was amazingly fun. I think Casey and I both took the Hawaii trip a little too seriously. I, mean, we knew that it was an incredible luxury and that even if were are at some time able to take our family back there, it probably will not be a trip like that. With open tabs, multiple spa trips, and private dinners at the ocean's edge. Probably not. I'm not gonna rule it out entirely but...

Mexico was, well it was just Mexico. We had zero expectations for this trip. Casey has won this one a number of times throughout his career and I have never been able to go along. Some years taking a spouse was simply not an option, one year we had a newborn, once we were given the option to pay for me to go and simply decided to decline. This year everything seemed to fall into place with the small exception of the little fact that we were spending the week in Maui just three weeks before this trip. Hmmmm.

It all just worked out, though. And we went. And we had a whole lotta fun. Didn't really do anything, and I think that was what was so fun about it. Relaxed, chatted with friends, sat in the pool. Here are a few shots I took while we were there.

Talking with some people we met in Hawaii. They were a hoot.

That's our hotel- Cancun Palace. It was adequate, I'm not sure I would recommend it but I wouldn't tell someone not to stay there either. I think The Grand Wailea probably clouded my judgement just a hair.

Hawaii Phot-O (like five-0, get it?)

So, I am finally getting some of the pictures from Maui up. This was actually one of the first pics I took while we were there. It was something like 4:00 A.M. local time, we never did adjust to the time change. The things sticking up to the left are Tiki torches, then Palm trees and behind that the Pacific Ocean. I'm sure you knew that, I just like saying it.

The only water elevator in the world. Completely awesome and way too cool that I have a husband who was dying to take a ride in it. We did and then went on every one of the water slides. Then back to the adult pool because I was dying to go in there because in all 12 years of our marriage we had never been able to go in the adult pool. We've payed our dues sitting in the baby pool. The baby pools are not so much filled with water, if you know what I mean. the adult pool was a big step for us.

This is the chapel there on the grounds of the Grand Wailea (why-lay-uh) It was beautiful. If you look beyond it you can see them setting up a dinner. That wasn't for us but we did have breakfast our last day out there, made to order omelets and mimosas. As the tradewinds blew in and we were, quite literally, steps from the Pacific Ocean. A-ma-zing. I wanted to cry when we left. Okay, I did cry when we left.

Another shot of the chapel.

This is the sacred pathway leading up to the adult pool and cabanas. Where there were waiters and bartenders. And an open tab.

My hunky scuba divin' man. He had a blast. I parked my butt on a lounge chair and just looked at the waves gently rolling in and tried to soak up enough Maui for the next 12 years.

Just a shot I loved. Not a mountain in the background........volcano.

These would be the lounge chairs where I parked my butt.

Seriously, even if you have to save for the next 10 years ( and you very well may have to...) I highly, highly recommend Maui as a vacation destination. Specifically the Grand Wailea, it was superb. This trip was high on our what-we-are-thankful-for list this year, I promise.