A tale of clear blue skies and broken appliances

Last month Dan and I celebrated 25 years of marriage by soaking up the sun in Maui for 5 days. It was wonderful We shaved time off the beginning and the end of the trip so we could be in town for both weekends of Aubrey's play, but 5 days was still plenty of time.

It was so great to see this guy actually relaxing. He never relaxes! It was so decadent to spent hours in the shade of a palm tree on next to the beach; reading, napping, people watching, and occasionally swimming. 

We only interrupted our relaxation to consider the difficult question of what should we eat for lunch/dinner.  

We even survived the very precarious yet beautiful road to Hana (Dan was heavily medicated with motion sickness meds!)

We ate some really amazing food. And we did not skimp on calories at all. Pictured below, white chocolate macadamia nut pancakes with coconut syrup. DELICIOUS!

 And a closer view . . .

 The sunsets were fabulous.

We couldn't and wouldn't have felt so relaxed without Bailey's incredible help at home with babysitting. She took over my job for the week, keeping the house running, driving Joseph and Aubrey to lessons and appointments, and preparing food (which is no easy task in our house).

Bailey's job babysitting at home was MUCH harder than it should have been. I had everything completely planned out, with pages and pages of lists and directions. I left about a dozen lists taped all over the house. Here are the few that were remaining when we got home:
I had stocked the fridge and inside freezer with food I knew everyone would eat, and made a huge batch of a homemade soup they love.

The very day, maybe the very moment we got on a plane to Maui our fridge decided to die. And by the time we landed and could talk to the kids about it, everything perishable had spoiled.  We put out some calls to good friends who helped the kids move some food into coolers, which they kept on the back deck.


 It was actually really lucky that it was freezing cold the week we were gone, because the ice in the coolers never even melted.  

In the meantime, Bailey had to figure out how to feed everyone with very little food available. It was a supreme challenge, but she never complained. What a champ! I told her that now that she has weathered an unexpected calamity she is truly ready for college and real life, because both are full of such experiences. 

We texted and called a lot the first few days we were in Hawaii, helping Bailey coordinate a repairman visit (who told us our 7 year old fridge WASN'T repairable) and arrangements when inclement weather caused school to be delayed. But, because Bailey and the other kids were positive and upbeat about their troubles, Dan and I managed to relax and really enjoy ourselves in Hawaii.  And we paid Bailey a substantially higher babysitting rate given the unforseen circumstances!

We took a redeye home late Thursday night and arrived home by 6:20 a.m. Friday. We froze as we rode the shuttle bus to our car. The weather had dropped 30 degrees since we left, and we were still in the mode of 80 degree weather.

We made it back for the second weekend of performances of Aubrey's play - 4 over the weekend!  So we jumped right back into our fun, crazy life.

Also, when we returned we bundled up the nonfunctioning fridge and set it out to be picked up for recycling by the utility company.

Which left a big open space in our kitchen for about 5 days until we could purchase and install the new fridge.  By the time we were able to get home and then find a replacement fridge (because it turns out our 7 year old fridge was NOT repairable), we hadn't had a fridge for 9 days. 

We actually liked the increased openness in the kitchen (which has always felt a little cramped).  But we like cold food even more!

Finally we threw away everything that was spoiled and started to slowly restock our new fridge.  This is definitely the cleanest and the most empty the fridge will ever be.

And now, one more Hawaii picture, just because. Despite the challenges, it was a wonderful break and a privilege to spend time just being together.