Adventures with Allie Too good to last

Vacations are all fun and games until they come to an end. My husband I have just returned from spending the last week in the beautiful Golden State visiting my sister Courtney and her family.

This vacation has been on my to-do list for well over a year, and it was well planned and well thought out, and when I tell you it was more eventful than I could have ever imagined, I truly mean it.

My husband Skyler and I are very much go-with-the-flow types of people, so when we plan for vacation, we normally plan for half of the time to be spent by doing whatever seems fun and convenient at that very moment. We don’t make itineraries, we don’t set anything in stone, we just, well, go with the flow.

We flew out last Saturday and had a slight shock when we landed in Phoenix and saw flight after flight being cancelled on the arrivals/departures board.

With a three hour layover we were both very nervous that our flight was going to be among those that would be parked on the tarmac for the foreseeable future due to the employee protests at Southwest, yet somehow, ours was one of three flights that remained on schedule.

One of my absolute favorite things about spending time with Courtney is that Skyler has people to talk sports with. I don’t understand the sportsball lingo and I know that Skyler appreciates having intelligent conversation with people who appreciate all things sports as much as he does.

The night we arrived in California, Courtney’s husband, C.J. took Skyler to a Giants vs Dodgers playoff game in San Francisco. Now, I don’t know who won the game, all I know is that they both had an absolute blast and that is all that matters to me.

While the guys were out at the ball game, Courtney and I stayed home with the kiddos and watched the game on t.v. (well, Courtney and the kids watched the game, I kind of just stared at the screen.)

Sunday was a very big day. Sunday was Skyler’s and my one year wedding anniversary! And no, we haven’t taken our honeymoon yet.

Sunday we spent the day watching NFL football and relaxing with Courtney and her friends and family.

My sister doesn’t ever hit the easy button when it comes to entertaining. We went all out. She made white chicken chili and I made cranberry salsa, we had a beautiful veggie tray and the most delicious homemade beer cheese I have ever had.

The way my sister’s house is laid out, there is the main living room the kitchen, then a den/ sitting room. If you stand in the kitchen, you can see both t.v.’s clear as day, so as we were cooking, we had the luxury of being the only ones who got to see both games at once. A luxury that was absolutely wasted on me because I couldn’t even tell you who was playing.

While I may not particularly enjoy football, Skyler absolutely loves it so getting to spend the day making him happy and spending time with some absolutely wonderful people was the best anniversary I could have ever asked for.

Monday and Tuesday we did absolutely nothing. And it was amazing. We just slept in and spent time with family.

Wednesday was another very special day. My handsome husband turned 27 years old! To celebrate, we went to Half Moon Bay, a very beautiful little stretch of beach about 45 minutes away from San Francisco.

Skyler had never seen the ocean before so it was a very exciting morning. Skyler and I both tend to be vampiric in the sense that we avoid the sun like the plague. So the fact that the one day we spent at the beach was the one day a year it decides to rain in northern California was an absolute miracle. It was cloudy and foggy and misting the entire morning, and it was glorious.

After lunch we decided to take a driving tour of San Francisco. We drove by the house that the t.v. show “Full house” was filmed at, and we drove through downtown and the best part of all, we drove across the golden gate bridge at sunset.

It was absolutely gorgeous.

Thursday we spent most of the day driving around Sacramento shopping and sight seeing.

Friday was yet another very fun and eventful day. We spent the day getting ready for my nephew’s seventh birthday party!

After we picked the kids up from school, we took him to get an obligatory birthday haircut and then went right next door to the single most impressive pet store I have ever been in. This store sold pets and pet supplies of the amphibious and reptilian nature.

Now my sweet husband chose to stay at the house for this particular endeavor, snakes and lizards are his kryptonite.

Snakes and lizards are among my favorite little creatures ever. I was in my element.

There was the cutest little albino bearded dragon and there was a huuuuge ball python named Princess Pretty, and she was beautiful.

The reason we went to the pet store was to find an axlotol for my nephew, however pet shopping with kids means you never leave the store with what you planned to pick up.

Instead of choosing an axlotol, he went with a gorgeous little leopard gecko and named her Randy.

Now most seven year old boys should not be trusted with the responsibility of taking care of any living creature in my opinion. However, my nephew went into the pet store knowing full well that he was going to leave the building with a living, breathing creature and it was his responsibility to make sure that it was given the best life possible.

After he picked Randy to be his companion for the next 10-15 years, he started asking the sweet lady who worked there all sorts of questions about what Randy’s favorite food was and what kind of house she would like to live in.

He wanted to know exactly how to take care of her so that her quality of life was as good as it could possibly be.

It was very wholesome to watch how excited he was.

That night we got to the fun part.

Birthday party time!

I finally convinced my sister to hit the easy button. We ordered pizza for dinner.

While the kiddos were all outside playing tag and basketball and whatever else it is that kids do for fun these days, us grown ups were inside watching, you guessed it, sports ball on t.v.! This time we were watching baseball in one room and hockey in the other.

This birthday party made me realize one very important thing about adulthood that I had never understood as a kid, children’s birthday parties are a whole heck of a lot more fun when the parents come too.

Saturday we flew home. We had a few hours layover in the Las Vegas airport and got to watch the sunset over the mountains through the windows of our terminal and it was absolutely breathtaking.

Now here is a little life-hack for anyone who chooses to take the late night flights and would like to be in good graces with the flight attendants, buy them snacks. Or gift cards for them to go buy their own snacks. Flight attendants work long days, and by the time that last flight of the evening comes around, they are hungry and dead on their feet.

While we boarded our flight home, I was passing out snacks (M&M’s this time) to all flight crew and you could see in their faces that they were grateful. One even gave me an extra bottle of water.

As we sat at the terminal getting ready for take off, we experienced the biggest inconvenience and simultaneously, the best customer service I have ever had on a flight.

The plane broke down at the terminal before we even started taxiing.

And the next available plane wouldn’t be available for three whole hours.

So we did what anyone sane people do when stuck at the Vegas airport for three extra hours…

We napped.

Now I did not expect to have the same flight crew as the plane that broke down. But we did. And I am so thankful I gave them snacks. Because snacks make tired and hungry people happy. And a happy flight crew means an easy flight.

So even though we didn’t end up getting back home until about six in the morning Sunday, we still had one of the most amazing travel experiences that I have ever had, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Courtney and C.J. have some amazing friends and I am so grateful I got the opportunity to spend time with all of them this past week, and I cant wait to do it all over again as soon as possible.

Be kind to your neighbors

Be kind to your pets

Be kind to your flight attentants