Hawaiian Vacation

Ty left for his second deployment during the second week of March. If someone would have told me the adventures we both had in store for us during the next 8 weeks, I would have laughed in their face! I would have especially giggled if they'd have mentioned that during the last two weeks of his "deployment," I would be given the chance to join him in Hawaii!

It was about the middle of April when Ty finally got to his intended destination (long story... blog post to follow) and was given word that on their way back to the states, (sure enough) his squadron would be making a pit stop in Hawaii to help with a particular exercise. The kicker... family/spouses WELCOME! Ty and I tossed around several scenarios and finally decided to just fly me out and have our own vacation for the first time in our lives. Even though it would be a "working" vacation, we refused to pass up this amazing opportunity.

Plane tickets were bought and before we knew it, Grandma Walsh flew in to stay for the 10 days that I'd be gone. At this point, I had never left either of the kids before and never even stayed the night away from little Miss Whitleigh. Even though I knew that they were going to be in great hands, I stressed. I cried. I tried to prepare Joni for everything from disaster to bliss. I put together a mini 10 day "advent" calendar for the kids to look forward to each day. It contained a note and prize for each of them in hopes that if things got too bad, at least they could look forward to a present in the morning.

My departure morning finally came and I left the house before the kids even woke up. It was a crisp 37 degrees outside so, on top of the capris and a tank that I was wearing, I had no choice but to layer it with MY WINTER COAT! Once I boarded my plane I had one stop off in Seattle before heading over to Honolulu. The flight was exactly 49 minutes and I cried for 48 of it. I was so nervous and kept envisioning Whitleigh waking up in hysterics because of her mother's absence. As soon as the plane landed, I quickly called home to see how things were going. Whitleigh answered the phone in a very cheery voice, "HI Mommy! Good morning!" I was instantly relieved. I answered back and naturally in my overbearing motherly nature started to ask her how her morning was going, if she'd ate breakfast, what she had, did she brush her teeth, what was she wearing... it took her all of about 3 seconds to quickly interrupt me and say, "Mommy, where is Daddy? I want to talk to Daddy." I had to laugh and now (looking back on it) I really have to laugh! At that point, all nerves went out the window and after getting off the phone with her, I packed my winter coat in my carry-on and started dreaming of the beaches of WAIKIKI! Oh, and getting to see my hubby too! ;-D

Ty was there at the airport to pick me up and we both commented that the "reunion" was a little awkward. After sharing the customary hug and kiss... we just stood there looking around the baggage claim area and every once in awhile exchanging smiles with each other. It was like we were waiting for the 6 and 3 year old to do all the talking for us! Minutes passed before we finally started to exchange some small talk and slowly the realization of the fact that, "Wow... this is really different without two kids interrupting us, running around, or even fighting over who gets to be held by Daddy first" hit us both. We were on vacation... alone! A-L-O-N-E!

Ahhh.... this was getting better by the minute.

Pearl Harbor Visit

For the next 10 days, Ty and I enjoyed the beach, amazing food and drinks, being tourists and of course sleeping in! It was positively wonderful. I had never in my married life felt so relaxed. We missed the kids terribly and shared daily phone calls (sometimes more than one) and a daily Skype dates. It seemed after each one, I was able to relax even more as we went on with the rest of our day. Of the 10 days I was there, Ty only ended up working 4 of them which was another wonderful surprise. It was crazy to think that we had never had that much time together with it just being "us" in the 11 years that we've been together. It was fabulous! Positively fabulous!

Naturally my 10 days went by to quick. However, as much as I didn't want to leave beautiful Hawaii, I couldn't wait to see my kids! I left on a Friday morning and was given very high hopes that Ty would be returning as soon as Sunday so, I had that to look forward too also. Even though it was really late on Friday night when I finally landed in Boise, the kids went crazy when they saw me and for the first time ever, they were fighting over who was going to be held by Mommy!

They had an amazing time with Grandma Walsh and Ty and I couldn't have appreciated it more! It was a trip we ALL needed!

Now for the most depressing part, this is what we woke up to on Saturday morning. Really Mother nature, really?!