Vacations lead to busyness

March was a BUSY month. It was FILLED with travel, some for fun, some for work. Early in the month, Meghan took Addison on a trip to see her best friend Beth down in Missouri. They had their first Southwest Airlines experience which wasn't too bad I hear. Before they could get back, I had to leave for a conference in California. All in all it was an entire week before I saw my wife and daughter again. It was lonely...but I kept busy at home by building some MUCH needed storage shelves in the storage room. Its amazing how productive I can be when I have no other responsibilities around the house! :-)

The conference was very interesting, I go to it every year to catch up on what is happening in the aerospace industry. Most years its at the Beverly Wilshire (on Rodeo Drive and via Rodeo...shopping mecca for my high end readers), where Pretty Woman took place. I actually usually stay elsewhere though to save the company a little money...its a Four Seasons hotel, its NOT cheap. I had yet to see any celebrities there in all three years I had been there. I came close this year, Sarah Palin came through the lobby of the hotel about 2 minutes after me. The guys at my table for Lunch saw her and said hi. I guess she was very nice and friendly...she does have a new book and TV show to sell though so being friendly is in her best interests!

Shortly after we both got back, we had a vacation to Puerto Vallarta planned. It was a VERY unique vacation in many ways. It was our first vacation with a toddler which made it quite unique and extremely tiring. The first half the trip was rough, the 24 hour flu swept through the family. I got it the night before we left so I was basically worthless on the trip there. A couple nights later it was Addison's turn, which is something I wouldn't wish on ANY parent. Last was Meghan who got it the night after Addison after sacrificing herself all night with Addison. Luckily, Doug and Jeannie (Meghan's parents) were with us or I don't know how we would have managed!

We did manage to spend some time on the beach though. Addison loves playing in the water...she HATES the sand though. She hates it so much she won't even let us set her down in it, we have a great video but its not on this computer. It worked out to our advantage though cause she wouldn't leave the beach mats we put down.

Addison's top 5 favorite things about Puerto Vallarta were:

1. The tigers and birdies which we visited many times a day to ROAR at.
2. The waterslide that she would go down with her dad...over and over and over
3. The slide at the mall nearby (see video below)
4. Playing in the ocean and pool
5. The water fountain in the hotel lobby (see video below)

While the vacation was tiring and not nearly long enough, it was SO memorable. I can't help but to think how fortunate we've been with vacations during Addison's life. It won't always be like this but we are taking advantage of the opportunities that God blesses us with. I am sure we'll be back in Puerto Vallarta again one day though, its a wonderful place and Paradise Village is a great resort.

The worst part of vacations, beside them ending, is coming home to a pile of work. At my job, I am a one man team so when I go on vacation, everything just waits for me...it makes vacation into both a blessing and a curse at times. I am just now, weeks later, finally getting caught back up again. I would take this vacation again in a heartbeat though...seeing the joy on Addison's face as she experienced the ocean was priceless!!

Changes...to our home

God's been so generous with us. While we aren't quite to the point where Meghan can stay home (hopefully once we sell our rentals we should be able to do it though) God's blessed us so much. Recently we found out that not only are we getting a nice tax rebate but I also got a bonus which I TOTALLY didn't expect. Honestly, with layoffs and stuff, I just didn't think they'd be giving out bonuses this year. I was besides myself with joy when I my boss called me with the news though. One nice thing with both of those is that we always tithe off of each of them and we usually do something different and find some new charities (besides church) to donate. This is kind of fun cause I like the idea of helping people out and using that money we've been blessed with. Now its time for us to figure out where we want to give the money too...there are so many good organizations out there that need money!

The other fun thing is that we decided to take a big chunk of that money to finish our basement. We aren't going to put in the bathroom (yet) but we are going to have a finished bedroom and an additional den area down there. Luckily, the old owners did a LOT of the dirty work leaving us with a few smaller things to do to finish. Basically, we need to put down some carpet (the expensive part) and then paint, install a closet, and do some finishing touches. It will be nice to have the extra den so we can move the Wii and the other game systems we have down there so that if someone wants to play, they can at any time! :-) We rarely play though so we'll see if that changes very much.

A big step for us in this process (and probably the most fun step) was getting new furniture. We decided to move our current stuff downstairs and get some new stuff for the main room. This is really the first furniture that we've bought together. Almost everything else in the house was either one of ours from before our wedding or a gift at our wedding. I picked up the furniture on Saturday night and got it all set up, it looks SO nice. We decided to go with leather so our furniture is more "kid-friendly". It was tough to make a decision but we ended up settling on a couch and two recliners. The recliners are amazingly comfy, I think the couch is going to be jealous cause I don't see us using it too often! haha

I also started working on some new shelves in our storage room in the basement so we'll have a place for all our stuff in there! The first one turned out nice...now I just need to move it into the room, and secure it to the wall. Not something you can do alone! Since Meghan is visiting Beth in Missouri this weekend I had a lot of extra time so I spent most of the weekend organizing, cleaning, and building. It was quite productive but I sure do miss my girls. I am off to California in the morning for three days so I won't see them again until Thursday morning. Its going to be a rough 6-day stretch.

A tough week ahead...

I knew this day would come but I managed to put it off for FOUR months...

Today is my first business trip (without my baby coming along). Honestly, its going to be hard to not see my little girl (and my wife) for most of the work week! I am accustomed to spending so much time around her lately that I think I am going to go into withdrawals by Tuesday night! Luckily my wife has family here now to support her while I am gone which gives me some peace of mind! She'll do well though, Meg really has this parenting thing down!

On a positive note, Addison is doing great! Addison is healthy and growing nicely...at her four month checkup we found out she is 11 pounds 13 ounces now and 24 inches long. She's long and skinny, does that like anyone you know?? haha I am sure she will love to be blessed with my skinny genes if that is the case! There isn't much that is harder to endure though than watching your helpless little 4 month old baby get shots though. I have NEVER heard her cry like that though! We are expecting a new cousin for Addison in the coming weeks which will be so fun for her...Meghan and I each had a cousin about the same age as us and we have fond memories of us hanging out together!! We can't wait to meet little baby Vik!