The best way to recover- take vacation with family!

The best way to recover from surgery is to take a week long vacation with extended family... lots of extra hands, lots of helpers, not so much cleaning or food prep, lots of relaxation- perfect for getting rid of the shakes and recovery!

The funny part of our trip was the beginning and the end... thank goodness the in-between was enjoyable and fairly uneventful (minus a daily 3-year old tantrum). To start, we headed off early, just as we were getting onto the I-5 on-ramp in the city on our way to Trader Joe's Kent got pulled over for barely doing a CA stop through a red light to turn right... DAMN! $125 reminder to come to a complete stop- but who comes to a complete stop in the city? I want to know! Oh well, on with the trip.... wanted to go the scenic route up Hwy 2 after stopping and running errands on the way out... beautiful drive... really lovely.... until just as we came up to Skykomish Kent watched a 2" rock come billowing out of the back of a rock truck and smash into the lower part of our windshield- it was a crashing noise or a blowout tire sound... luckily it didn't go through though and isn't in our line of vision- albeit about a foot circumference! Down at least another $500- bringing our trip total to somewhere around $625 and we're only an hour in! Then we really had fun- stopped in Leavenworth to run errands, do lunch.... headed onto Cashmere to go to the Aplets and Cotlets ffree factory tour- should have gotten a picture of all of us in our hairnets- the kids LOVED the free samples and surprisingly LOVED the tour too! Headed north to Chelan and got the call from the in-laws that they were running about an hour behind us.... we were able to stop at the Vin du Lac Winery in Chelan- beautiful setting... so relaxing.... perfect 30 minute stop right before we met them to put the boat in the water. Are you ready? Things come in threes we think... as Kent was struggling with his dad to release the boat from the trailer while it was in teh water he thought his glasses might fall into the lake, so he threw them behind himself into the boat... then when he was done hanging over the side, he turned and C-R-U-N-C-H.... you got it- completely smashed out the lenses and crushed the frame. Cha-ching.... I think that will be about another $200 or so.... bringing our pre-trip total to well over $825! We still haven't gotten to the house! Geez! Anyway, the bad luck ended there! Thank Goodness!!!!

During the trip we had lots of fun- Blake loved the water, Chloe loves the water and the lake, I stayed covered up and Kent entertained a lot of kids! If you look close, Kent is in "Bertha" (the boating intertube) with an oar and Blake is in front of him with a giant water gun... Chloe is holding onto the boat float (which is perfectly placed, right out front from our vacation house).

We all had a lovely time! Thank you Hoepfinger family for all the great fun!!!!

On the trip home we went the long way down through Wenatchee, East to Quincy, over to a fabulous winery- Cave B Winery (wow!!!! what an amazing place), then to Ellensburg to meet up with Kent's college buddy Tom (who moved out there last fall). Spent a few hours.... loaded back up, hit light traffic, managed to get the 6:20 ferry after arriving at 5:55 (what luck!). We really thought things were turning around for our travel home... made it home and upon unloading the trunk the fabulous bottle of wine that we bought at the fabulous winery Cave B... came smashing to the ground- no more fabulous Cabernet! Oh well.... we're hoping that this time it doesn't need to come in 3's to have the bad luck go away!