Post Pandemic Travel - Maui Here We Come!

WOW! 2022 already. January of 2020 Dave and I had the entire year planned out with travel. Ben had just graduated high school early in December and Dave and I were ready to go! Little did we know what was to come. 

 Life has changed in many ways these past two years, but that is not what this post is about. Every year with Hunter Douglas we have the opportunity to hit a sales goal and "win" a trip. They have different levels of trips. Over the years, we didn't care much about winning the trips because I was "that" mom who didn't want her kids staying with "sitters." As the kids have gotten older, we've taken a few of these trips as we have won them. One was a cruise to Bermuda. And one was a trip to Munich. 

 Two years ago, we said, "Let's try for Maui." It was the highest level trip. We had never tried for the highest level trip. Thing is if you don't make it, they don't let you slide down a level. You just don't take a trip. And honestly we are okay with that. BUT we made it!!!! 

 Did you know that in May of 2022, Jessica will graduate with her PhD, Joe will graduate with her Masters, and Ben will graduate with his Associates on his way to becoming an airline pilot? So what a way to celebrate their accomplishments than to invite them along with us to Maui. We are all SO excited. We leave tomorrow! 

 I woke up today to the "you can check in for your flight now" message. I go to check in and it repeatedly said (Yes I tried multiple times.) you will need to check in with the agent at the airport, we are having trouble. Just three days ago my Rheumatologist spoke to me about how I could handle "stress" better. (I was stressed? I didn't realize. That's what we call sarcasm there. Yes I was beyond stressed.) So I said, Patty, let's go to the airport. (It's only a 10 minute drive.) I went to the airport and the agent there made a phone call and said, there you go. It's all taken care of. Here are your boarding passes. Amazing! I didn't have to stress all of today and into tomorrow morning wondering if I had a seat. I just took care of it. 

 We write these blogs because we have the BEST intentions of putting together scrap books after trips, and they never get done. So this is our "diary" if you will of our family travels that we can look back upon in years to come. You are welcome to follow along if you'd like. You can even ask questions in the comment section and I'll try to answer them all. My sister just told me that Mahalo means thank you and Aloha means hello and a lot more. I've been saying Aloha all day today. lol. We have a 6:10 a.m. flight to Dallas and then Dallas to Maui. More tomorrow!

Here's whose going!!! (Plus William and Crystal).