When the basement flooded we had it cleaned, sprayed with anti-microbial stuff, carpet and padding ripped up, dehumidified and fitted with nicer rubber padding and soft, delightful carpet. We HAD to do this because I have a severe allergies to mold, and we just couldn't take the chance. EVERY time we went down there to watch a movie, I would end up sucking down half a bottle of benadryl. I convinced myself it was all in my head.
Move on over to the new house and Hubs is going through basement boxes and organizing his office. He gets to a giant blue tub and opens it up.
Mold, mildew and memories.
It seemed there was a crack in the bottom of the rubbermaid tub, so while we thought it was fine from the flood, water had leaked in and ruined everything in the tub. Yearbooks from college, a scrapbook I'd started my freshman year, pictures, and our honeymoon pictures. Granted, Hubs spent more time puking in the toilet than hanging out with me, but about 3 hours before the Mexican sushi hit him, we were snorkeling, swimming with dolphins and paying way too much money for 8x10's of us posing with parrots. They were now ripply and covered with mildew/mold.
That settled it! A second honeymoon we needed. And just in time, we were headed out to Colorado for a ski trip! Woo hoo!
We drove up a night early so we wouldn't be rushed to get to the airport, and the Holiday Inn Express gave us a lovely room...with 2 double beds. Hubs called down to see if we could get a room where we wouldn't have to I Love Lucy it, and not only did they move us to a room with a king bed, we got this:
Nice.
Yup that's a heart-shaped jacuzzi tub in the room with a stability bar. Not enough bleach in the world.
We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, so Hubs got a shoe shine and I ran, well rode, to concourse E just to get a Caribou Coffee. Yumm. We met up with the other 2 couples at our gate and were ready to board. That's when we all pulled out our tickets to compare loading zones. Hubs got to go on first. Normally he would have just stayed behind to load with us, but with all of the charging for bags and more carry ons, he loaded first and took two of the group's carry on bags to get a good spot.
And boy did they.
I some how end up loading in the last group and look up from my ticket to see my sweet husband sitting in first class.
"I'm so sorry, I tried to get them to switch me and you, but the flight is super booked and they wouldn't let me..."
WOW.
I reported to the emergency exit row to find someone sitting in my seat. REALLY?!
"Oh! Do you mind? I was going to sit in the middle so we could sit together, but if you don't want the aisle, we can move."
"No, that's ok, my husband just upgraded himself to first class. Apparently I'll sit anywhere."
I settle in with my new friends, Chris and Christie, who prove that you may not be able to upgrade your ticket to first class, but you can upgrade your carryon to a mini bar. As soon as the drink cart came by, they requested oj and cranberry, then whipped out the mini-bottles. They kindly offered to spike my drink, but I figured someone on the exit row needed to be sober enough to pull the handle and push out the slide, so I stuck to my diet coke.
One thing I noticed on this flight? NO one is cranky on a flight to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. No one. Which makes sense. Everyone there was either heading back to a home they loved or heading out for an awesome vacation. And apparently, no one was more excited to get to CO than the guy sitting across from me. And boy was he popular. Every 2 minutes, some new booty was coming over to chat, and in an effort not to yell, every person would LEAN OVER providing me with a great view of their back pockets. Yay.
We land, grab our bags, hop on our shuttle and are off to the lodge. And it was amazing. So great! Fantastic view of the gondola, ski in, walking distance to the market, fire place, just wonderful. I wanted to write Florida a letter and ask it to send the kids and dog on over because I wasn't leaving. But the real test was skiing. I use to be pretty good, but I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that I had nothing to lose. Get hurt? Sit out a couple of weeks of high school! Now? Kids, life, dog, cooking, cleaning, life. Too much in the way to risk falling and breaking something. So we took it slow. Like riding a bike! I have to thank p90x, because after a full day on skis, the only part of me that was sore was my ankles from where my under armour was cutting off my circulation.
We spent three fantastic days skiing and I think we need to do that at least twice a year. It was so much fun and Steamboat was just beautiful. It was like Disney covered with snow. Actually better! Wait, did I just say that?! My reason is, in Disney, you have all of these parents stressed about making this the once-in-a-lifetime-fantastic vacation and end up giving you a fantastic place to kick back and take in some light verbal abuse (You WILL ride the tea cups and you WILL like it! I don't care if you're tired, we're walking over to do Splash Mountain NOW because our fast passes are about to be up. You can almost hear the implied, "damn it!"). But a skiing vacation? "Great job!" "You're doing awesome!" "Way to keep those skis together!" "Go for that jump!" And adorable? Little kids in ski clothes. My only problem was the fact that mid-mountain greens included very narrow paths with very steep drop-offs. As in, off the side of a mountain. I found Hubs and I skiing WITH the 3 year-olds, trying to act like their safety net (but in reality, they were better skiers than we were. Got to love the low center of gravity and no fear!).
Perfect weather, perfect food, perfect accommodations, perfect company and it was time to go back home. At the airport, Hubs was upgraded to first class, and he kindly tried to get me moved to the window seat. In the exit row. But in the process of doing this, the gate attendant somehow deleted the entire reservation. Except me. So I'm in the exit row, window, Hubs gets moved up to first class, and as an apology, they move the other two couples to bulkhead. AND, somehow, I get to board AFTER the stand-by people. I shuffle to my seat to find that I am sitting next to the tallest man alive who is taking up all of my arm rest, and because I'm on the exit row, I don't have an arm rest on the left, just a lump of padding on the door that leads to the wing. I'd lean on it, but the door has a giant crack in it that looks to be held together with clear nail polish.
There was free in-flight tv which seemed to work on every head rest except for mine. So I pulled out the nook, but the battery was dead. Thank goodness Aunt Becky sent me a real book, so I had something to do on the way home.
So while skiing was FANTASTIC, as far as honeymoons go, I'm hoping third time's a charm!
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