Guess Where We Have Been?

This was the view from our hotel room....

And this, was our view on our walk to the elevator....

Can you tell?

We were in Hawaii!  Maui, to be exact.

Thanks to Rainman's job, we get to fly free....if there is room for us on the planes.

So thankful for his job/company!

We also, early in our marriage attended a timeshare presentation where I can remember us vividly sitting in our car in the parking lot before going in and looking each other in the eye and saying, "Okay now, we are going to say no to whatever they offer us, right?  We are only here for our free prize.  Agreed?  Agreed."

Yes, you guessed it......

We walked out of there proud (shamefaced) owners of timeshare points. 

They have been both a blessing and a curse.  We have gotten to stay at some fantastic/fancy-shmancy places over the years....but even after our initial fees and cost for the points, we have to pay "maintenance fees" every year (right around Christmas time) and they are getting higher and higher every year.  We have tried to sell our points a few times....but, no one bought them....so we took another vacation....and the love/hate cycle continues.....

I had to be talked into this trip by Rainman....and eventually the kids too, were campaigning alongside him.  I wasn't sure I wanted to plan on a vacation that involved 8 of us flying standby to a place that was about a 9 hour plane ride away from home....and then have to try to get flights home too.   I wanted to go someplace closer to home....that wasn't quite as expensive once you got there.

Obviously, I was out-voted.

But, it worked and we didn't even have many troubles with flights.  On the way there we all got seats....AND.....we all got seats next to each other.

On the way home, we all got seats to LAX and then 7 of us got seats on the first plane home.  I was left at LAX all by myself.  Luckily, I caught the next plane.  The beauty of that was two-fold.  I was able to just sit and read and not have to worry about little people, or pass out gum, or any of that mom stuff on a plane.  I did worry a bit because I wasn't with them....and they were spread all over the plane and not together, but they did great....Rainman said he even got compliments on how well behaved they were. The other great thing about me traveling on the next plane alone was that by the time I landed, Rainman and the kids had picked up our van and gotten all the luggage loaded....so I just walked out to the van and got in.

We did have one wrinkle when we got home.  Rainman had managed to lock us out of the house.  Yes, he had set the house alarm, turned the lock on the doorknob and pulled it closed after himself without either of us bringing a house key (which, by the way, I had told about.....I had changed purses and told him that I wasn't bringing my keys....oh, and,  I followed that up with, "There isn't any reason I will need them, right?"  I also said to him before we left, "Should we give a key to the neighbors or hide one, just in case someone needs to get in?"  Obviously, you can guess his answer.  )

I will spare you the details of how we got in......but, it involved a really high ladder and a hope that my sons were irresponsible.  Spoiler alert:  They were.

I will post more pictures soon.

Honestly, I am still a bit jet lagged....and our schedule this week has been all screwed up....bed times....school hours.....meal times......but, how can I complain about anything, when I got to see God doing this......