We're Back!

Sorry no pics yet, I literally haven't even had a chance to look at them or start to go through them (there are a lot!) Anyway, the trip was really fun, I honestly didn't realize how MUCH I needed it. Since I started Hip Monkey 10 months ago (can you believe it's been 10 months?!) I haven't taken a single day off, not even weekends. My entire life had become about my business and I thought it would be impossible to hand it off to anyone else. This trip forced me to just that. I hired one of my best friends, Marie, on to help with customer service and taught our nanny how to handle the shipping. Low and behold, I walked away for a week and they did awesome! It took me a couple days to stop worrying but once I realized everything was taken care of I got to relax, I mean really relax, for the first time in months. It was wonderful! We went to the beach, laid in the sun, played in the sand and ocean and swam in the pool. Oh and I got to read an entire book start to finish! I haven't had time to read for fun in a very long time. I read John Grisham's "The Innocent Man", it is a true story and very shocking. Not really a page turner like a Koontz book but very well written and interesting. Anyway the kids had a wonderful time. Katie met another girl her age and they were in either the pool or ocean boogy boarding ALL day, EVERY day! Even with a liberal amount of SPF 50 she turned golden brown. I'm so jealous of how awesome she tans. Her hair is also streaked with blonde now, she looks like a surfer chick. She told me she would be so happy if we moved to the beach so she could boogy board and surf every day. Hmm, I'm really thinking California is definitely on our short list of "where to move next". We got to see TONS of my family, there were over 200 people there that I am related to in one way or another. It was so wonderful to see all my family and especially all my cousin's new babies! For a long time I was the only one with kids but now we all have babies and it is so great. My grandpa had an amazing party that Kevin and I actually got to enjoy with no kids to worry about thanks to my cousin's wonderful nanny! We got to dress up and dance and everything, I forgot how fun that can be. The only bad part of the trip is that I ended with horrible food poisoning on Thurs. night and spent all day Friday in bed or on the bathroom floor. It was pretty bad. The upside is that I lost 5 pounds since I wasn't able to eat or keep anything down for 3 days straight. LOL Nothing like a case of food poisoning to give your weight loss that extra kick!

So we are back home now and hit the ground running. My dad is here and we are trying to get the breakfast room addition framed up and dried in before the snow starts. That way we will have all winter to work on remodeling the interior of the kitchen. Katie is back in school and is still loving it. Her teacher sent a note home today in her folder telling the parents how she doesn't believe in homework because the kids work hard for 6 hours a day and if she is doing her job then they shouldn't need to work at home. I'm starting to like this teacher more and more. :)

Well I need to get to bed so I won't have such a hard time getting up tomorrow morning. We all got in the habit of sleeping in until 9:30 every morning while we are on vacation and are still trying to adjust to getting back on our regular schedule. It sure was nice while it lasted though! Lots of pics to come soon.