I'd say the Vegas trip was a complete success top to bottom.

Ok, let's talk about the best part. John and I took the laptop and Battlestar Gallactica with us on the airplane. [Spoiler Alert] As soon as we reached cruising altitude, we were flung down to New Caprica and all its struggles. We are in season 3, and the production continues to amaze me. I love the parallelism how they'll take a topic like what a wife would do for her husband, for instance, and show four different couples' approach to it. And the music so perfectly underscores the tension. Watching this show took what is usually boring dead time and transformed it. So, we were having a blast from the moment we left.

Before kids our vacations usually consisted of coming home to Seattle (hallelujah!), or soaking in museums, castles, and other sites of cultural significance. It took lots of planning and moving around. I still love museums, but this trip was about doing nothing. We never left the Strip. We just strolled around, bought frou frou drinks, gambled, watched the scantily clad dancers gyrate on top of the bar, ate out at really good restaurants, hung out in the pool in 107 degree weather, danced, and dare I say it, relaxed. Of course any off kid duty time is extraordinarily relaxing, so we were already in a win situation, but Vegas is also set up for having fun doing nothing.

In the meantime, Rose and David had a blast with Mommom. It didn't hurt that mom had a present for them every day, they got to go their favorite pizza restaurant, and they got to see Up. But they also feel very comfortable with Mom, they spent a lot of the time hanging with their favorite people, their cousins, and Mom made sure to take time off every day. Mom said there was very little fighting, and David only cried at bedtime. The last two days I called at bedtime and told him stories over the phone.

Even reentry has gone really well. The kids gave both of us big hugs, and then David tore through my back pack exclaiming at all the mundane items, "Oh look a koala bar!" David has been giving me a lot of kisses and a lot of shit. I get a lot of "no's," beating up on his sister and then complaining how mean she is, and even a temper tantrum. He just saved it all up for me.

Now the whole gang is abuzz because we are going camping on Mt. Rainer Thursday.