the vacation post!

we're back, unpacked, laundry done, and face peeling off....i must say that it was a wonderful trip! for some reason it has been super hard for me to type this entry...i'm not sure why...

as i mentioned previously, my dear hubby worked his butt off the days before we left so that he wouldn't have to work while we were on the trip. it meant so much to me b/c he has been working non-stop for the past few months and we haven't seen each other at all! i don't know what it is about vacations, but just being away from everything at home makes you feel so much better! i kept teasing patrick that he is a lot funnier and more likable in florida.

the trip started well. we dropped butch off w/my parents and had a pretty smooth flight--no problems checking in or anything. then it took FOREVER to get our rental car. for some reason, once we got into that car my brain broke. if you spend much time w/me, you know that my "CFS brain" can get me pretty confused and saying some crazy stuff. orlando has an unholy amount of toll roads--especially around the airport! i didn't realize that i was supposed to be helping patrick to navigate--that's what we have the gps for right? well, one of the toll lanes was really confusing--it split off into a ramp with "sunpass only lanes" on the normal road, and then the ramp said "change provided." patrick started to turn onto the ramp and i said "no no no" so he went into the other lane. we quickly realized that that was the wrong decision! but the wording was so confusing! later we saw a sign that going through the "sun pass only" lane without a pass could result in a $100 fine! yikes! (thankfully nothing happened...yet) the whole rest of the drive i was completely confused. i kept losing things and saying things wrong. we just had to laugh about it! we finally got to our hotel and ordered a pizza (we hadn't eaten in about 12 hours!) and i swear it was the best pizza ever! we ate the whole freakin thing!

the wedding the next day was gorgeous! we saw our favorite trafton family, and our old friend daniel. stephen and juliette were just so adorable and totally in love!

dr. trafton officiated the ceremony


the gorgeous reception!

the reception was super fun. they named the tables after all the special cities on their tour--we were at san deigo--the site of their first phantom performance as christine and raoul opposite one another. so sweet!

our table was kinda crazy. we were the table of stephen's friends and patrick, daniel and I were the only non-performers! i kinda felt like introducing myself as "stephen's fat boring friends f/m kentucky!" i mean, they all live in new york or LA and are in broadway shows. one is sandy from grease--the other girl has a part in Iron Man 2!! crazy! it was lots of fun though. we all teased patrick for his pickiness w/food and cracked up at joe's toast. fun times all around.

we are just so happy to see our dear friend all grown up and married to the woman that God clearly has chosen for him! i just wish that they lived here!

sadly, we had to leave the reception early for our hour long drive to daytona. it was rainy and dark, but i was like a little kid at christmas!!!! we got to the hotel and when we were checking in the girl at the desk asked if we had ever been there. i couldn't contain my excitement and told her that my parents were on staff and that i had spent half of my childhood summers here and that i dream about it at least once a month! she was so sweet and upgraded us from the 2nd to the 7th (top) floor for no charge! we got to our room and i ran out to the balcony, and even though it was so dark that we couldn't really see anything, just hearing the waves crash and smelling the salt made me feel so good!

we decided to get up early (i asked patrick if 8:30 was too early and he cracked up--we got up at 7:30) and went down to the lobby to grab some doughnuts and then went for a walk on the beach. ahhh... patrick was itching to get in the water but we didn't have our suits on yet. after our walk we went to ihop--patrick's favorite restaurant ever which was right across the street--for pancakes and french toast. we went back to the hotel to get into our suits and sunscreen, and sadly patrick's computer screwed up so he had to spend about an hour on the phone w/tech support (computer problems always follow us at inconvenient times--patrick said he felt like he was being tested) i didn't mind too much b/c i got to spend that time on the balcony reading some of my wonderful magazines while watching the waves!

taking the computer apart

we finally made it to the beach and spent a few hours swimming in the ocean which was so much fun! we just had the best time together. i really feel like we reconnected as a couple and just enjoyed being together. we had a few seafood dinners and a few ihop meals and just loved every minute!

the only bad thing about the trip was the sunburn! we had been out two different times on monday and put on spf 60 but i guess it didn't work! (patrick suggested re-applying at one point and i said i didn't think we needed to....oops) at dinner we looked like we hadn't gotten any sun at all. then after we came in for the second time that evening we noticed that we were starting to get a little pink...every few minutes we would notice that it was getting worse...then by the end of the night we were in serious pain! we still went out the next morning but the waves were rougher and were trying to beat me up! i got knocked under a few times, and at one point scratched my legs and feet really badly on the sand. i told patrick that we needed to take a break! we sat on the beach for a while longer and i collected some shells to take back to one of my coworkers. i think we had the perfect amount of time at the beach--we purely enjoyed the first day, had fun on the second but were hurting, and then were ready to be home by the time we had to leave.

patrick didn't have any work to do on the trip--which was especially good since he had so many computer problems! he was bummed though b/c central lost their games on tuesday so he missed the last games of the season. :( i got to read a lot, we took some naps, drove around a lot, and just enjoyed each other's company.

we got really lucky b/c the forecast was for lots of rain every day, but we had sun except for on tuesday evening. it was neat to watch the storm rolling in though!

i was sad that the chute family had to leave daytona during the time that we were here due to a tragic death in the family. hopefully we'll get to come agian sometime so they can finally meet my hubs!

our little pets are glad that we're home but butch is exhausted f/m a few days w/"grandpa, grandma, & autumn"

kitty dealt with this much better than when we went to disney last year, but he got in my suitcase as if to tell me not to leave him alone again!



i know i'm leaving things out, but there are more pictures on my facebook page! it's good to be home but i'm so thankful that we got to have this time together!