Back from our Babymoon!

No, I did not fall off the face of the Earth. We've just been a little bit busy the last few weeks. I was so excited to be heading out of Washington- summer sure came late here, and I didn't think I could take one more dreary day! Thankfully, we got to spend a few days in California with my mom, jet off to Aruba for a week, and then spend a few more days in California before returning to Washington (and, hopefully, some good weather finally!) Aili did excellent on the drive to California- she barely fussed at all! It wasn't her first trip in the car to California, but still, I was a little bit nervous about whether or not she would have any major meltdowns.Aruba was fantastic- I highly recommend it! It had the softest sand, wonderful sunsets, beautiful crystal-clear beaches, and super-yummy seafood. We stayed in a one-bedroom apartment/time share type thing and our porch led right out to the sand and beach- heaven. It was a great place to relax and watch the sun set while cooking dinner. We did some fun trips while we were there- hiked Mt. Hooiberg (haard, in the humidity while pregnant, even though normally speaking it wouldn't have been) which is in the center of the island and offers fantastic views. Aruba's small, so you could see the whole island, and if it is clear you can see the coast of Venezuela 15-20 miles south of Aruba. We also saw some caves, Indian drawings, the natural pool or "conchi"- a pool of ocean surrounded by rocks protecting it from the sea- did some 4x4'ing, lots of geckos and cacti, a pirate castle, and of course spent lots of time at the beach and pool. The only downer? The airlines. I swear, it is the only industry where you can f&^@! up that much and still charge an astronomical ticket fee. I mean really, it was ridiculous. After having drove down to LAX, we flew LA to Orlando, and then jumped on a plane to Miami. Unfortunately this plane was 45 minutes delayed, and we missed out flight to Aruba- the last one since there are only 2 per day. Bummer. As we ran to the gate, we saw the plane pulling out, and the lady at the counter said "we're sorry, we tried to wait a bit!" ummm yeah they left 2 minutes EARLY (whoever heard of a plane leaving early?) So we were forced to party in the city where the heat is on, as Will Smith would say, in Miami and then fly out the next day. Now, on our trip home from Aruba, we caught more bad luck. A small plane had to make an emergency landing at the Aruban airport, forcing the 13 planes about to land there to circle above the airport. Of course they didn't have enough fuel to circle for 45 minutes (yeah, because having an extra 45 minutes of fuel seems like too much of a buffer doesn't it?!) they had to go to Bonaire to refuel and come back. The plane that was supposed to fly us out to Chicago then had a pilot who, due to this small delay, would go over his number of hours allowed to fly per day per FAA guidelines. (Seriously, once again- why cut it so close? And of course there are no back up pilots). So, we had to stay the night again in Aruba and then get up at the a%@ of dawn to be back to the airport the next day. The worst? They made us clear customs and immigration AGAIN, making it a total of 4 customs and 4 immigrations clearings just to get back to Chicago. And of course all the other planes had landed, so it was a nightmare, not to mention a total fire hazard. People kept coming down the escalator and elevator down to the customs room, not realizing it was too full, and then the elevator was buzzing because it couldn't even close, because it was so crowded the people in it literally couldn't fit in the room.Have you ever been in a room fully of angry Jersey people and New Yorkers? SCARY. I swear, there was almost a riot. They were yelling at the poor security guards. The Arubans kept saying they were sorry but they hadn't had a situation like this before and didn't know how to handle it. Anyway, it was a nightmare. After finally arriving in Chicago a day later, we saw that wonderful United Airlines had overbooked every flight from Chicago to LA, and there was a standby list of 60 people at one point. Ridiculous. We didn't get to fly out for about 10 hours, and even then we barely made it on. After finally arriving in LA at midnight (felt like 3AM to us) we had to drive the four hours North to Paso to my mom's. Ugh. Can you say EXHAUSTED? Luckily we still had a couple of days to relax before returning home. I missed Paso soooo much! It was so good to see everyone. We even worked on a quilt for baby girl- I picked the fabric, Jeff designed the size of the pieces so they'd fit the right size finished that I wanted and cut them, and my mom is piecing it together. It should be super-cute, and I'm so grateful to my mom and fabulous hubby for helping me. Seriously, is there ANYTHING that man can't do? I think not. He can pour and finish cement, save lives, quilt, alter my bridesmaid's dress, do pretty much any repair around the house, rebuild boats...I could go on and on. Every time he comes to my grandparents house, he always finds a project to do too- this time he replaced the gutters that were broken. Seriously, I *heart* him. All this and he is one fanfreakingtastic daddy to our little girl too- he's even learning how to braid her hair. I can't wait for the quilt to be finished- only now I kinda wanna make one for Aili too. You know, with all the extra time I have :-)After a few more days in Paso it was time to head back, so we climbed back into the car for another 20 hours to drive straight through so I could go to work the next day (Ugh. They couldn't give me that day off). That drive went ok, except when the dresser we were bringing home for baby girl started to slide on the roof rack and had to be fixed on the side of the road in the middle of bum-f*&@-nowhere California in the blazing heat. No shade...over 100 degrees...AC failing....and Aili, sweating and screaming and yelling "turn off the sun!!" It was so damn hot in the car, but Aili's reaction made it pretty funny. As soon as we got going and reached civilization again (meaning, a ranch town with about 20 people, a million cows, and three times as many flies) I stopped at a gas station to get ice to melt on her to cool her off. She was a little happier after that, and was entertained by the next few hours I spent trying to kill the flies that got in out hot sticky car.
Anyway, so to sum it up, Aruba was AWESOME, the airlines can kiss my big pregnant behind, Aili got spoiled at grandma's in California, and I can't WAIT to do it all again and make some more memories with my quirky, fabulous family. Only after I'm done being pregnant :-) I have lots of photos on facebook, but here are a few for the blog:





Random photos from vacation, including the crystal-clear Aruban waters, caves, and the nightmare that was customs. More photos on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=197604&id=699945981&l=334d690d05