Category: Vacation

Cancun or Bust

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Last Tuesday spun by like a wooden top.  Jon worked on the house all day with Jason while also trying to take calls for work.  I sat on a dozen conference calls and cranked out emails in an attempt to avoid having my colleague overwhelmed while I was out.  When I got home, we madly packed our clothes realizing that shorts didn’t have buttons (and of course neither of us can sew) and dresses were torn.  Too bad we didn’t look earlier.  Oh well, we realized we’d be in our bathing suits most of the time.  I packed the kids’ clothes and boots for Grandma Meg’s and Peepaw’s house, and tried to gather some games and toys that both the kids and the grandparents would enjoy.   We put the kids to bed at 9 pm, and as I left Maria’s room, I heard her sniffling.  When I went back to give her a hug, a full-out bawling session occurred.  She begged us not to leave for Cancun.  It was awful.  We did not expect that type of reaction from her.  I rubbed her back and laid with her until her eyes shut.  I walked out of her room softly hoping not to wake Mario.  When I peered in Mario’s room to ensure he was asleep, I was taken aback when I saw him sitting straight up in his bed wide-eyed staring out at me. 

“What’s the matter, pumpkin?”

“I don’t want you to leave me.”

Jon walked in the room and both of us let out a collective sigh. This unexpected emotion from the kids took us both by surprise and we stood there holding Mario between us and rubbing his back.  They actually do love us….  We let Mario lay with us and we are sure that we were both out before he fell asleep.   When we woke at 4:30 am, Maria got up, too.  She cried again for us to stay and it was only when Maggie laid with Maria in our bed that she calmed down.  What a way to leave!

We arrived in Cancun at noon to a beaming sun and breaking waves.  Heaven.  This is our third trip to Cancun – Jon’s company sponsors the trip.  We stay in the same hotel each year, and play in the same part of the ocean.  We eat at a lot of the same restaurants, and hang out with the same group of friends. As much as that may seem monotonous, it is actually very soothing.  We have no concerns about how the hotel will be, whether the beach will be nice, how the food will taste.  We know it is always close to perfect.  The first couple of years I felt a little overwhelmed with Jon’s friends and their wives.  A lot of them know each other well from going to Cancun every year or because they live in the same city.  I am a lone goose.  But this year, I let go of any concern about not fitting in and just enjoyed myself.  And it was the best trip we had in the three years.  Jon and I ate incredible food, played like kids in the ocean, snorkeled, drove a speed boat (Jon felt like Crockett in Miami Vice!), sat together on the balcony listening to the waves, and talked uninterrupted!  I loved diving in the ocean for sea shells; Jon would stand on the beach with the water hitting his legs waiting for me to bring shells to him.  It was a precious gesture on his part. We laughed hard at Jon’s friends’ antics.  They are all hilarious in their own right.  Phil is from the UK and has a quirky little accent.  He is so cool that he could afford to wear white beach shoes and still look good.  Dave is from Michigan and he is your down-to-earth, good-natured guy who always has a funny story to tell about his kids or his wife or their adventures.  Joe is a slick, suave Michigan guy who is always considerate and making sure that people are having a good time.  Their wives definitely make them the men that they are – they are the backbones of their families.  Strong, funny, and intelligent, they always welcome me into their group and make me feel at home.  Those are the three guys and their wives that we hang out with the most in Cancun but there are others who provide us with much entertainment, also.  It’s a good group and the camaraderie and brotherhood amongst the male colleagues is enviable – I wish I had as much fun with my work colleagues as these guys have together. 

The resort

I got a killer head and foot massage on our last day at the beach.  It was the “Organic Massage” and consisted of a scalp massage, hot towels, face massage, foot massage and hand massage.  It ended with a back massage and hot towels on your back and legs.  I thought I had died and entered heaven.  She poured citrus oils on my hair and spread them on my skin during the massage.  I smelled like a lemon when I left.  Jon went jet skiing while I got my massage.  He didn’t realize that there were 10 foot waves to conquer out in the ocean.  He was a hurting puppy when he came back to shore. 

We flew home on Sunday and rested for an hour before we headed out East to pick up the kids from Meg and dad.  They had a great time on the farm, as always.  They rode the horses and played outside.  Maria reported to us that Peepaw cut down two trees and “almost killed himself!”  She loved telling the story.  Mario reported that he almost fell off their horse, Taz but Peepaw caught him.  Maria is learning how to ride Taz better and even steered him herself.  She wants to take horseback riding lessons so badly, which I have been struggling with since I know nothing about horses.  Jon loves the idea because he loves horses. 

M&M with their Mexican flutes

I always dreamt that my daughter would play soccer and softball and all of the other sports I loved to play as a girl.  I have slowly gotten over my preoccupation with what I think Maria should be and realize I need to let her be who she wants to be.  So, horse riding lessons are in her future (of course she picks the most expensive hobby!).  When they rode up to meet us, Maria and Mario had huge smiles on their faces.  They jumped out of the car and gave us gigantic hugs for minutes long.  It was an awesome few minutes.  The ride home was just as awesome with them describing their week to us and listening to us about our adventures in Cancun.  The evening continued to be great with wrestling and airplane and reading books.  We fell asleep with smiles on our faces. 

Then Monday morning arrived.  Back to the grind.  Running around the house trying to get dressed and packed and papers filled out for school.  But I took a deep breath as I loaded Maria’s lunchbox in her book bag.  I stepped back from the table and stared at M&M and Jon in the hallway putting on their coats.  Can I love them anymore?  One thing that getting away does for me is reinforce how lucky I am to have such a warm husband and adoring kids.  Even if we are at each other’s throats at 8 am on Monday morning.

Marietta or Bust

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The fearless foursome on the bridge

Jon and I have not spent a weekend together in our new home.  I was in Italy for the first two weekends and Jon was in Colorado for the third and what was supposed to be the fourth.  However, he is such a good shot that he got his elk early and decided to head back on Wednesday so that he arrived back at the house on late Friday night.  The original plan was that he would arrive home on Saturday late afternoon.  Based on that plan, I had agreed to go to Marietta with Jon’s mom and dad, Maria and Mario, and Maria’s and Mario’s cousins, Alana and Giovanni.  Patty and I are very similar in nature – we both talk a lot, are boisterous, and enjoy taking too much on!  So, when Patty found out that Marietta had a Zombie Night on Saturday night, she figured why not round up the kids, go to the event and spend the night at a hotel.  I liked the idea right away. 

Of course, Jon got home on Friday night, which put a little damper in the plans since he was hoping to have us home with him for the weekend but I think he quickly got over any melancholy with the thought of having the house to himself for 24 hours.  Patty arrived at the house around 11 am on Saturday and after shuffling kids and clothes and stuffed animals around, we were headed East to Marietta, Ohio where Patty grew up along the Ohio River.  We arrived to the hotel after two and a half hours of Tom & Jerry and “the word game” where I give the girls a word and they need to write it in a sentence.  Alana loved the game so much – she would craft a sentence quickly and then patiently wait for Maria and when they both recited their sentence, she would immediately beg for another word.  Maria, on the other hand, played the game four or five times, and then finally said “Mom, you are acting like we are in school!”  The girl needs her down time. 

The upcoming cast of Jersey Shore II

The girls decided they wanted to sleep with me and the boys would sleep with Patty and Joe.  We threw our clothes in the rooms and decided it was time for a swim.  I love seeing the kids’ faces light up when you tell them that we can go swimming.  Swimming in a hotel pool is like heaven for them and they get so excited and slap-happy whenever they know they are able to go.  The only downside with this pool was that it did not have a hot tub for Mario.  I was glad of this fact because I do not like him going in them (I know kids should not be in really hot ones – we have had mild ones in the past) and if I was not around, he would want to sit in one for an hour.  Luckily, this hotel had a fairly warm pool so Mario was not purple when he came out.  Patty and Joe went to Patty’s sister’s house to start the food while I took the kids to the pool.  Mild chaos in the pool area but nothing I can’t handle; I don’t know how parents have four kids willingly though.  I played around with the kids for a while and then let them play together (I am really trying to get Maria and Mario to play by themselves or with each other and not rely on me).  Mario is so funny in the water – he goes like a madman swimming and splashing and jumping – and then he just completely peters out and wants to leave right away.  The others just play around, lounge on the side, splash a bit, and could stay there all day.

Dancing with a young zombie

After the pool, we headed over to Patty’s sisters’ house, Aunt Mae (Mario loves Aunt Mae because that is the name of Peter Parker’s aunt).  She lives right on the river and her house also ended up being the center stage for the zombie contest.  The stage set up right outside of her house so we got to see zombies parading the street all night long.  Patty and I were not sure whether the kids had to dress as zombies or whether they could enter the contest in their other costumes since we had never experienced a zombie fest before but it ends up they would have looked very out-of-place as an angel, a groovy 70s girl, a pirate and a transformer (unless they would have put fake blood all over them and tore their clothes up).  Everyone dressed up in some zombie fashion.  Alana begged to put fake blood on her and ragged clothes.  Patty drew red lipstick on all of their faces but we could not find any old clothes that fit.  Maria immediately asked to have the lipstick taken off. “It looks really dumb, mom.”  When Alana started dragging her foot down the street and tucking her arm into her shirt in order to look more like a zombie, Maria rolled her eyes at me and whispered “we look dumb trying to act like zombies when we don’t have real costumes.”  That is a huge difference between Maria and Alana: Alana very much acts like a 6-year-old girl – playful and silly whereas Maria very much acts like a 40-year-old executive woman – serious and direct.  

The claw woman

Dinner reminded me of my Grandma Heile’s house.  We had pulled beef, cole slaw, baked beans, green beans and cookies. People also brought chips and brownies and cupcakes.  This is a very bad scenario for Maria and me. We both like to graze at these “buffet” like events.  And graze Maria did.  She ate two meatball sandwiches, beef, baked beans, chips, cookies and cupcakes.  By 7:30 she was complaining of a hurt tummy and asking to lay down.  She was knocked out at 8 pm.  I took the remaining crew out to the stage to dance to lots of 80’s music.  They were hysterical dancing.  Mario acted like he had a microphone in his hand and he sang made-up words to the songs.  Alana danced like she was on Dancing with the Stars, and Giovanni went from one side of the stage to the next hopping and bouncing.  They loved looking at all of the costumes.  There was one girl who had claws for hands with really long fingernails.  THey intrigued Mario who kept swearing to me that they were her real hands.  I should have known when he had me look at her for the tenth time that he would have nightmares about them that night….

We finally called it a night at 9:30 pm and left for the hotel.  Maria never quite got out of her slumber and Mario was pretty tired when we got into bed (Alana was going to sleep with us but decided last-minute she couldn’t bear to be without Grandma).  We watched one show and fell asleep for about an hour before Maria woke up with a belly ache and Mario woke up with the claws in his head.  It was a restless night.  But the morning brought a buffet breakfast downstairs in the hotel and we got our energy back in us for another round of swimming (Maria and I paced ourselves with a half of a waffle, cereal, and hash browns). 

The crew with grandma and grandpa

This swimming episode was a little more chaotic because I got under water with them, threw them, and let them play “beauty shop” with my hair (much pulling and water splashing).  But, what our trips for if not to hear the laughter of children happy to be able to do whatever they want to the adult in the water?!  We swam for nearly an hour and half and then forced ourselves out to get showers and head back to Mae’s.  It was a splendid day outside at 64 degrees and the leaves changing colors to vibrant reds and yellows and oranges.  The kids and I did another walk over the bridge to the other side of the river and got sticks to pretend we were fishing off the dock (we had taken a walk on Saturday, too, which was so wonderful up until the time that Mario looked at me with that “I just pooped” look on his face and we had to do an emergency throw away of his undies as well as a poop under the bridge).  The kids found a platform to climb, also, and they acted out a play about a girl who wants a car and her mom refuses to get her one.  Hilarious. 

Cheesing it up on their platform

We hit the road back to Columbus around 3 pm – close to four hours after I thought we would take off.  But it was well worth it between the zombies, hanging out with family we rarely see, watching the kids enjoy the hotel and the pool, spending time with Patty and maybe best of all, taking in the beauty of Marietta’s changing leaves and old bridges and wide river.  I felt ready to move and walk and hike with the gorgeous outdoors.  When we got home tonight, Mario begged me to sleep with him.  I gave in and rubber his back and Maria’s legs for a while.  At one point, I mentioned that I wished we were back in Marietta.  Mario shot up and said “Why, mom?”  I answered that I liked waking up to no schedule, seeing the river, hanging out with grandma and grandpa and all of the kids.  He looked at me quizzically and then responded “But why would you like Marietta – there aren’t any pigs or baby monkies?”  He knows those are my favorite animals but to put those two together cracked me and Maria up.  A good way to end the weekend.

Summer Break

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My attitude shifts when, after months of cold and darkness, the sun finally decides to hang out with us a little longer.  Flowers join the party.  Neighbors come out of hibernation.  Birds serenade you as you roll out of bed in the morning.  Ahh, summer.

We are getting our first experience of summer break for Maria who is in between Kindergarten and 1st Grade.  Maria is going to school two days a week through Kids’ Club where she gets to hang out with friends and go swimming one day and on a field trip the other.  Mario is only going to daycare two days a week (versus 5) so it is like a summer vacation for him, too.  Our sitter, Megan, stays with them 4 days a week (one kid only two days a week and both the two other days).  This is the end of our first week with Megan and with the new school schedule. 

When I dropped Maria off on Monday morning, she clung to me like she had on her first day of daycare and Kindergarten.  I introduced her to other girls but nothing helped.  I read her a book and played a game with her when finally the teachers announced that the kids needed to line up to go outside.  A tall girl, Elly, saw Maria having a hard time and said “I will play with you outside, Maria.”  Maria looked up at her with a tiny smile.  I reassured her that the day would be fun, and she slowly loosened her grip on my hand and let me depart without massively wailing at the door.  Throughout my day, I got concerned about Maria’s clinginess and strong need to have me by her side.  This is a constant struggle for me – I need to let them do more on their own so they won’t be so distressed when I leave.  I guess there are worse things I could have done to her as a baby, like beat her or not change her diaper.

By the time I picked Maria up at 4 (yes, I left work early), she was in a great mood talking about how awesome the day had been.  There is a higher being when you need one.  My day had been ridiculously stressful so if she would have been wailing when I arrived, I would have called it quits at work and stayed home with her until she was 18.  Luckily, for both of our sanities, that did not occur. 

On our walk to swim lessons, she boasted about walking to and from the pool with her class.  She also got to play with her favorite lifeguard and swim teacher, Nick. He made a train with all of the kids on his back.  Pure heaven she tells me (embarrassingly and with a promise not to tell dad!).  She went to Olentangy Indian Caverns on Tuesday on a real live bus (every once in a while I would look up from my work and think about her on that bus and pray that everything was ok – neurotic, I can be) and got to go on a tour and collect rocks (our favorite activity).  

Mario was typical Mario at daycare drop-off.  He complained about going to school, was grouchy as hell when we took him in (teachers coo over him and say hello and he sticks out his tongue or lifts up his chin and ignores them all); and got annoyed with his friends when he first saw them.  nevertheless, by the time we picked him up, he was talking about how Ben did this and Sophia did that….  He showed us the books he read and the activities he did and raced us down the halls.  Again, thank god for that welcome back.    

The first day with Megan was trying for all.  Maria had a meltdown because Megan asked her to read and asked her to clean her room.  When asked to read, she did her Maria self-defense move and cried about being too tired and not feeling good.  Megan picked up on it when she asked Maria to clean her room later and Maria had the exact same excuses after she had been playing just fine for an hour earlier.  Megan is no dummy.  Maria screamed and cried and basically went ballistic to the point that Megan texted me and told me she did not know what else to do.  My face immediately lit up upon receiving the text and when I got home, Maria and I had a long talk.  Since that day, she has been much better (then again, I don’t think Megan has asked her to clean her room again for fear of Maria’s wrath!).  Mario adores staying at home.  Megan is good for him because she is an athlete and he loves sports.  They can shoot baskets, play Wii, and ride bikes. 

In the summer, I try to get home at the latest around 5:30.  We have been good lately about eating dinner at the house before we run out to the pool, the yogurt shop or Zach’s house.  Once out of the house, it is like we are in a time warp.  Every night I tell myself that I will get the kids home at a decent time so they can bathe and read books and watch a show and go to bed by 9 pm.  That would give Jon and I at least an hour or two to relax.  But, inevitably, I look down at my watch at the yogurt shop or the park and see that it is 9:15 and we are not even home (baths go to the wayside at that point – poor dirty kids).  In the Winter, an hour feels like ten hours because it is cold and dark and wet outside.  You are stuck in the house playing games or watching tv or staying warm.  In the Summer, an hour feels like ten minutes it goes by so fast with all of the things you can do.  Hit the park, head to the library for outdoor music, eat at the yogurt shop, visit friends’ houses. 

The other night we hit Music on the Lawn for Conspiracy.  Conspiracy is a kick-butt, jammin’ local band.  Maria and Mario played around with some neighbor kids – Mario tackled people as soon as they approached him to dance.  The typical Mario.  However, I think I scolded him about 50% less than last time so we are making progress.  They played a few Black Eyed Peas songs that my girlfriend and I embarrassed ourselves to as we pretended to know how to dance hip-hop.  One day I will take lessons….

At the yogurt shop

When we woke up the next morning, Mario and Mario and I acted like we were driving in a car (on Maria’s bed).  Maria and Mario were my parents.  I begged them to turn on the imaginary radio.  Mario shouted “I know what you like daughter, Black Eyed Peas!”  Maria chimed in right after Mario with “No way, hubby, she loves Michael Jackson more!”  I can’t wait for next Tuesday – I think it is a band that does MJ songs – Beat It , Billie Jean, Human Nature.  I will definitely ignore the time for that show.

A much needed get-away

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Looking out to the waves.

Jon and I took off for Cancun on Wednesday a couple of weeks ago.  It was a nail-biter prior to Wednesday morning at 5:30 am when we took off for the airport.  I got a leg infection on Sunday afternoon – thought it may be a hernia since my left thigh and groin were swollen and red.  I went to the ER on Sunday morning to ensure it was not a hernia and discovered it was an infection.  Luckily, antibiotics kicked in quickly and I felt better by Tuesday morning.  Then it was Jon’s turn to give us a scare.  He came home on Tuesday night feeling nasty with a headache, stomach ache and slight fever.  He never got his flu shot this year, and he felt like it was the flu coming on strong.  We packed our bags up on Tuesday night but in the back of both of our heads we were thinking that the trip would likely be cancelled. 

Jon and I braving the zip-line - we were pros!

Wednesday morning came and Jon got up from the bed to get his alarm at 4:45 am.  He still felt achey and his stomach hurt but no fever.  It was quite the dilemma at that time of the morning – my body had no desire to get out of bed and the fatigue overwhelmed the senses, which were screaming to get out of the 9 degree weather to sunny Cancun!  Jon and I waited until the last-minute to decide to go; called Maggie to come over and get Maria to school, and headed out to the airport.  Seven hours later we were in 79 degree weather staring out at the ocean. 

We had a marvelous time between playing in the ocean, zip-lining through the “jungle” , driving ATVs through dirt paths and ankle-high puddles (got my brand new gym-shoes dirty though – ugh!), and swimming in a cavernous pool of fresh water.  The ocean was our favorite – we both love diving into the waves and getting thrown around.  We agreed that Spring Break should be at the beach if it is warm enough.  Meanwhile, the kiddies were with our beloved parents. 

Maria enjoying a tractor ride (altough her face says differently!)

Maria stayed with her Pee-paw and Mama Meg.  She got treated to her Uncle Jack’s concert on Friday night and the farm on Saturday and Sunday.  She went on two hikes with her Pee-paw, both lasting over two hours.  That kills me!  I ask her to walk to school a half mile away and she whines the entire way.  Something about that gorgeous farm….  It helped that there was ice coating the creek – Maria loves cracking it.  Mama Meg played barbies with her (what a saint!) and cooked up some yummy food.  Meg is the only relative I know that actually vetoes certain barbies going out to the farm!  It seems that she refuses all the sluts and bimbos so I gotta give her a shout out – way to keep Ri real!  Mario stayed with Grandma Ionno and Papa Ionno.   They spoiled him like mad (as they always do) and he was in heaven.  It is his second home up there.  He sat on Papa Ionno’s lap one night and ate mini Nutter Butters while they watched basketball.  Mama Ionno cooks him whatever he wants, scratches his back softly (Mario scolds me everytime he comes home from Mama

Mario and his Grandma Ionno

Ionno’s house that I don’t scratch his back as good as Mama Ionno!), rocks him to sleep, and lets him wrestle her.  He is the king of the roost in that house, for sure. 

I treated Maria and Mario to COSI when we returned from Cancun.  We spent 6 hours at that place!  They saw geckos, entered a submarine, played in the kids area, changed the weather, and got shocked by electricity (supervised by a real scientist – not a torture device for being bad!).  I was pooped, as always, when I got home with them but the kind of pooped that intertwines accomplishment with exhaustion, gulping down life with drop-dead fatigue.

Mexico

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Oaxaca

An entire month before my travel to Oaxaca, I lamented about my upcoming trip with colleagues, friends and family. 

“The flights are so awful.” “I am going to miss the kids.” “Mario is having his big cookout for the 4th.” “I just want to rest on my three days off.”

The day crept up on me and I found myself dragging my body out of bed at 4:45 am to get ready for a 5 am pick-up.  Kissed the babies good-bye and hugged my hubby and off I went to the airport.  A coffee and oatmeal.  A Sky Mall magazine. A few words with my younger brother. A subway sandwich. Peanut M&Ms. A cranked neck.  We were there.

Oaxaca.

Plaza down from the hotel where kids play soccer

My younger sis, Sarah, has lived in Oaxaca for close to three years. She met the love of her life while going to school in the city.  He is a native to Oaxaca – his family lives in the hills abridging the city. We met him about two years ago.   He survived the family orientation. He posseses a calm demeanor, which is perfect for my energetic sis. He is a photographer – she is a writer.  They both love adventure and coffee and dancing.  They decided to “go on this journey together” and marry.  That is the reason for my departure to Oaxaca.

Sarah picked us up in a flat bed truck owned by a Mexican friend of hers.  We drove in the flat bed with the luggage back to Sarah’s apartment and our hotel.  The hotel was quaint and adorable. My room consisted of a bed, a desk, and a bathroom.  There was a courtyard on the first level and a terrace on the second level.  The courtyard had a small fountain with two snapping turtles floating in it. 

My turtles

We went to restaurants, we drank, we laughed, we reminisced.  It was wonderful.  The weather was perfect. No

The crew partying it up at a local restaurant

 humidity. Perfect blue skies. Puffy white clouds.  Large twisting trees. Incredibly difficult hiking trails. Crosses. It did not feel foreign to me – it felt like my little sister’s home.  Her wedding is able to be summed up with two rather opposing adjectives – quaint and spectacular. 

The sister and brother of her husband, Jorge, hosted the wedding in their backyard.

Getting ready for the ceremony

  Jorge’s nieces were the flower girls.  A mariachi band played. They wrote their story as the ceremony and they recited their own vows.  We danced with a live turkey. We drank Mezcal.  We jammed to old ’80s music. And at the end of the night, Sarah looked just as radiant and beautiful as she had the moment before the wedding.  

Dancing the night away

As I stood next to her and looked over at my little brother Jack who is six years younger than Sarah, flashes of their childhood came back to me with a vengeance and it seemed surreal that I was now standing in a Mexican yard watching one of them marry and the other graduate college soon.  There are moments where I feel like life is moving like molasses and the day will never end, especially when Maria and Mario are ont heir worst behavior.  But I see my little sis and bro and I see my babies at age 5 and almost 3, and I know that it in the end, it all goes lightening speed.  As it should, I suppose. Who would want to remain in high school forever?!

Dancing with the turkey

On Sunday, Jorge’s mother hosted a blessing ceremony at the same house.  She cried as she caressed Sarah’s hair and explained to us in Spanish how important it was for her to give a Catholic blessing to the new couple.  Her emotion moved us all.  The Bible verse read was raw and appropriate – one I had never heard before.  She etched the sign of the cross in the air to both Sarah and Jorge and hugged them hard.  It was one of the most tender moments.  We continued to drink Mexcal and beer and eat home-cooked food and soak in the Mexican atmosphere.  We ended the night with a round of pizzas and a game of cards.  Does life get any better?   

Meanwhile, Maria Grace celebrated at her Aunt Susie’s house with all of her aunts and her Grandma Lolo.  They toasted one to us around 6:30 pm (5:30 Mexico time when the wedding

Maria partying with her aunts

 began).  They laughed and partied and swam all night – Maria Grace had a blast with Grandma Lolo who treated her like a princess for three days straight.  She came home with toys and dresses, and coloring books and lots of fun memories. 

Proud fisherman

Mario celebrated with a night at Grandma Ionno’s house and then a trip to Uncle Mario’s house where he caught his first fish.  A catfish he would have you know.  And it was really big he would have you know.  A man’s man.

Cancun

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My sister just wrote a superbly astute post about the dichotomy of travel.   I have tried to find a way to express my longing for the familiar the second I step on a plane to leave home, and I have failed miserably.  She captured it elegantly and beautifully in about two paragraphs (yeah, she has to one up her big sis – if it’s not through running, it’s through writing).  Her  blog is http://www.posatigres.com.   She talks about “the missing feeling” that she gets when heading out on a trip.

I get that “missing feeling” in different variations when I head out on a trip but I always get it.  When I left for Cancun on Wednesday morning, I got it as soon as I woke up to take a quick run.  I always complain about the running routes in my neighborhood because there are only so many directions that you can take.  Therefore, you would think that I would be excited about a new place, warm weather (it was 20 degrees when we left Columbus on Wednesday), and gorgeous running scenery.  Instead, there I am pulling up my running pants and slipping on my sweatshirt thinking “Why did we schedule this trip?”  What happened between the time that we scheduled the trip and the day the trip occurred that can cause such a divergence?  Then, I am out running and thinking back to two days ago when I was giving Maria and Mario a bath and Mario splashed water all over me and Maria and Maria hit him in the head and he pinched her back and I yelled at them both and Maria yelled back “I don’t like you mom!” with her hands crossed over her chest and Mario splashed me again in the face.  I walked out of the bathroom into the hall, glared at Jon, and asked him to remind me of that moment if there was any time during our trip that I started to miss home.  So, a momentary wish to get away hit me but then – before I even hit the next block – that aching pain for home comes back.

Nevertheless, I arrive home and don that smile of mine as I do my last-minute packing.  “This trip will be so much fun” I pronounce to my hubby.  I continue the back and forth through the trip – experiencing moments of sheer delight in being in Cancun (diving against the waves of the ocean, playing with the dolphins, enjoying a meal without any little person throwing food on me or interrupting me every second) and experiencing moments when I miss my babies and my Columbus life (there were so many kids in our hotel reminding me of Maria and Mario with every turn of the corner).   But, in the end, as I sit here ready to board a plane back home tomorrow morning, I cherish these past five days away.  It has refreshed me, drawn me closer to my hubby, allowed me to appreciate all I have, and most of all, given me a new experience to tuck away in my pocket.  I typically take trips that involve lots of hiking and exploring and sleeping on hard surfaces but this one I spent lounging next to an ocean and eating at fancy, upscale restaurants.

It was nothing like my home life and that was what made it so pleasurable and satisfying.  But, in less than 24 hours I will be back in such a life with my babies – seeing things just a tad bit differently – and forgetting how I could ever have experienced that “missing feeling.”