A Week of Fun

It’s so nice when every morning, the only thing I had to think about was the best way to have fun.  I didn’t have to worry about getting the kids to school or rushing to a work meeting.  Having fun was the only goal last week.  That was my first out-of-town vacation in over two-and-a-half years, so it was long overdue.  Though it was really more of Colin’s vacation, who dictated where we were going and what we were doing most of the time, I still enjoyed the vacation immensely.  In summary, it was three days of Legoland and two days of SeaWorld.  Colin probably had more fun than me, but I think every parent would agree,

Off to San Diego

Anywhere in the world, I asked him.  Colin has the week off from school next week and I asked him where he wanted to visit.  The answer, not surprisingly, was San Diego.  Legoland remains his favorite destination.  When we were living in Los Angeles, I was all for it.  Now Legoland is quite a drive away.  I tried to convince Colin to visit Disneyland instead, which would shave two hours off the drive.  Plus, I really like Disneyland.  Everything there is so clean and organized.  And, not that a high bar is set, but I think they have the tastiest food for a theme park.  But no, Colin insisted on Legoland, and

No More Free Flights

The era of free flying is over. My last free Southwest flight coupon expires June 2. After that, I’ll have to pay for airline tickets again. (The ticket that expires on June 2 is a one-way ticket, since I used up the other one-way half flying back from San Diego last month. If you want to use it, let me know. I won’t be using it.) For about the last seven years, I knew I could hop onto a Southwest flight for free pretty much any time I wanted. (Though it’s not as easy these days. Tighter restrictions mean some seat are off-limits.) The great thing about these free Southwest flights was

Split Family

Patti and Colin enjoyed their second consecutive day of fun at SeaWorld today while I worked and stayed home. I shouldn’t complain. I did have one day of fun at Legoland (on the hottest day of the year!) at least, whereas Owen didn’t make the trip at all. Then again, the reason Owen didn’t go to San Diego is that I didn’t think he would like it. For this trip, we decided to drive instead of fly. This helped save money on the airplane tickets and car rental. While Colin can be entertained on the 8-hour drive with his DVD player, the long drive would be tough on Owen. When he was a baby, we made the drive between Los Angeles and the Bay Area a few times with him, but now he’s old enough to know that being trapped in a seat for a long time makes him unhappy. So, on Sunday, the three of us

Day 16

And just like that, it’s over. My run of 16 work-free days comes to an end, as I return to work tomorrow morning. The two-week break was somewhat marred by poor weather in the first week and poor health during the second week (I haven’t had much of an appetite since last Sunday, when I broke a personal vomiting record that day), but overall, I’ve loved this long break. I finished several longstanding projects around the house. Organizing Colin’s room, as I previously wrote, was my crowning achievement. I still like to go in there just to admire my work. I also organized Owen’s room, organized all the