The grown ups were at a show when we arrived at the lovely Marriott Horizons resort we stayed at, so we checked in, look our luggage up to the room, and then headed out to the nearest restaurant for some dinner.  We were so sleepy that all we could eat between us was a roast beef sandwich and a bowl of soup, so we headed back and put ourselves to sleep with the kids.

In the morning the kids woke us all up.  At the 12 Irish Tenors show Grandma and Grandpa had been at the night before they dropped tons of inflated balloons from the ceiling, and the wise grandparents had thought to tote some home.  Degen just couldn't get over how fun it was to play in a roomful of balloons.  Luckily, they were especially hardy balloons that managed to remain mostly unpopped the entire weekend.  They played baseball and volleyball and soccer and other incarnations of sports with those balloons all morning.

Sonja and Dick had bought tickets to a show they no longer wanted to go to (Yakov Schmirnoff) that morning, so Colin and I went in their place with Lamerle and Sandy while they played with Degen and Maggie (and the balloons) at home.  It'd been a long, long time since I'd been out to see a show with Colin without kids and we had an awesome morning out.  Yakov Schmirnoff was about as funny and as clean as you could expect a comedian to be and we got plenty of laughing in during the show.  It was patriotic, too, as one might expect from a comedian who focuses his show on the unexpected moments of becoming an American after growing up in Russia. 

After the show, we went back to the hotel and Sonja made us all a yummy breakfast of eggs, bacon, melon, bananas, apples, hot cocoa, donuts (Dick picked those), and biscuits.  Then Sonja suggested that the girls (including Maggie) go shopping at the outlet mall (which we did) and then surprised me by buying me an entire outfit of clothes that practically doubled my wardrobe.  Thank you Sonja!  The boys stayed home and took naps and walks around the resort and spent some much deserved TV time.

On our way back from the mall, the girls decided that the guys were sick of making decisions about where to go for food, and we settled on finding a good ribs place for dinner.  After talking to the ribs connoisseur at the front desk, we went to the Rib Crib and almost all of us had baby back ribs which also served as our lunch the next day since nearly everyone ordered too much food to eat in one sitting.  The ribs were tender and yummy–Dick said they were probably the best he'd ever had.  Degen liked the trees (steamed broccoli) and Maggie liked playing with the straws.  Sonja practiced coloring with Degen on the kids menu–Degen colored and she told him where and which color to use.  She brought a little camera viewmaster thing for him and he enjoyed pretending to take pictures of everyone during dinner.

On Sunday we went to Sacrament Meeting and they were having the children's Primary presentation.  My ward is doing our Primary presentation on Nov 11th and I'm responsible for getting it done so it was nice to see someone else's ward do it before I have to run one myself.  Then we all hung out at the hotel for a couple of hours and your Dick started teaching me how to play pool and let Degen almost beat him at checkers (Degen doesn't know how to play checkers, of course).  

Since our drive home was uneventful and we were happy to be home, the trip was a success.  Thanks to grandma and grandpa for sponsoring such a fun vacation!

We spent a warm, sunny, and fun week in Kauai with the family.  We ate some great food and spent a lot of time at the pool and none of us got unreasonably sunburned, thanks to SPF 50.  I got to go to Spouting Horn, which I still think is amazing, and got to walk on the beach and go hot tubbing.  Sonja won a 2-for-1 massage deal and I got her extra massage, and it was the best massage I've ever had.  Ahhhhh…  We all got to wear leis and the flowers smelled soooo good.  I waited to get sick until Thursday, when I came down with my classic Kauai cold.  Everyone took the babies so I could rest in bed and watch a lot of HGTV and I actually felt a lot better by the time we got on the plane to come home.  Thank you family and thanks again and again to Sonja and Dick for the awesome vacation experience!

My Aunt Naomi picked us up at last-minute notice from the airport and let us sleep on her couch for a couple of hours, then lent us a car for a couple of days while we figure out what to do with ours.  Thanks Aunt Naomi for rescuing us!  Yesterday we sent our car to the mechanic, who said that fixing it would cost a lot more than we bought it for, so now we're trying to figure out what to do about transportation.  When it rains, it really pours.

Each chapter has a few practical writing assignments at the end for you to do to help you make plans and deal with your issues. An interesting thing about this book is that, unlike any other "diet books" I've read, they work on the premise that you need to figure out why you don't take care of your body (why you put the weight on) in the first place in order to make long-lasting changes. They discuss reasons like abuse, stress, and rebellion. There's an entire chapter on forgiveness and how you have to be forgiving in order to be healthy.

Another point they make in this book and throughout Flylady's writings is that many of us are so perfectionistic that we decide if we can't do it perfectly, then we won't do it at all. We procrastinate until it's too late, then say "why bother?" That's why they advocate babysteps–because it's too easy to make a huge goal, then make one mistake and give up on everything altogether. For people like me who have this attitude, it's better to focus on improving just a little bit at a time, being just a bit better today than I was yesterday, than to focus on how much ground I still have to cover. That way, if I make a mistake today, instead of giving up tomorrow I'll keep working at it. I haven't actually done the exercises in the book yet, and I'm not resolved yet to make any changes, but it's rolling around in my head and I think I'm already making some better choices about what I eat since I read it. Thanks for sending me a happy education, Sonja!