I'm back

Thank you, all you faithful blog readers, for encouraging me to pick up the pen, er, keyboard again. I have been uninspired to write about daily life after returning from an exciting trip to Hawaii. Winter here seems so blah. We visited Hawaii to watch Martin's "little" brother Nick play in the Hula Bowl. Though the West team lost, he played great and we had a really fun trip preceding. We stayed at the Ihalani Marriot which couldn't have been more beautiful. It had 2 lagoons in the outside courtyard, one with hammerhead sharks and one with manta rays and beautiful tropical fish (free aquarium!) We swam and snorkeled with big sea turtles, and went out to the North Shore for Matsumoto's shave ice, to see the giant winter waves, and to have a real Hawaiian BBQ with Martin's Uncle Bill. The kids swam and played and I think we've really turned a corner. I can stop dreading vacations with them, they are now pretty fun to travel with. So sad, but the highlight of my trip was an encounter with Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed at the breakfast buffet. It was like meeting a combination of Bill Cosby and some mythical creature. They just embody everything about the 70's to me. I couldn't have been more excited if a unicorn hopping a rainbow had walked up to the fruit bar. They were so cordial about taking a picture with them, and when we saw Kevin Sorbo with his kids at the Manta ray lagoon, it was kind of a let down. Hercules ain't got nothing on the Demon!