Countdown: 11 More Days Till Vacay!

Prior to getting married, I saved a lot of money.  Partly, it was because I was single and it's just easier when you don't live like a rockstar (or know rockstars who will foot the bill for you), but also because I never took expensive vacations.  The longest vacation I ever took was for two weeks to be a camp counselor at the Ronald McDonald Camp for Good Times.  I know, I'm a huge dweeb.  I followed that camping experience (we lived in cabins but there was a lot of dirt everywhere, thank goodness it was too cold so we didn't have to do our actual campout night inn the woods - *sigh of relief, yes I'm also a wimp) with a trip to Vegas for three days where I stayed at the Venetian (who stays anywhere else though, really?!).

Since being married, I have gone on more vacations that I can count.  I love that marriage means combining two family styles, some of which means new traditions for me!  My family doesn't vacation as much as Andy's family, their idea of a vacation is a bus tour outside of California or in Canada or of course, the ever popular, Las Vegas.  The farthest we ever went was Taiwan and Hong Kong, but those seem customary with my Chinese descent.  As a result, I have been to all the big cities in the U.S. (both for family vacations and from business training and trips), but Andy has been to more countries than me.  With the addition of a grandkid, my dad has been convinced to take a future trip to Hawaii with the family, so that is exciting, and they'll definitely be making it out to Salt Lake when we're there next year.  Meanwhile, we are counting down 11 days until our next vacation!

Andy's parents are coming into town next Thursday night and then we will have a week off (technically, my job is never off ... I'll just work while I'm there and try to work a bit more this week to offset the hours reduced next week) to venture off into Portland, Oregon (hello Nike Company store!) and then Vancouver!  The last time I went to Vancouver was with a bus tour (how else do you think we would do it?!) with my family which was one of the best trips we had made in a long time.  We all remember it vividly and I still have one of the blouses I bought from that trip (I think... small chance I may have given it away before we moved.. if so, I'll be really bummed... hoarder!)  But I'm excited to make new memories, and even take some photos with our fancy camera.

Jordan's also excited!  He's been practicing a lot of new words and can now say: mom, dad, yes, yay, no (barely says this one, he prefers to shake his head), all done, golf, moo, woof-woof, i love you (this one is faint but he's trying).  It's so exciting, I can't believe how much they learn right now.  I went over nose and head in Chinese while in the bath with him on Saturday night and he was able to recognize it the next day.  Smart kid (takes after his pops).  Now we'll just have to work on Ogo and Grandma so he's ready in 11 days!