A wonderful vacation

Well, we're finally back from Hawaii! It was truly lovely, although I have to admit that I'm glad to be back home - I missed Morgan terribly! We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, which was truly amazing. The room was beautiful, and it looked right out over the harbor! There was even a rainbow on our second day there!

We got to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center, which was really quite fascinating. As the website states : "Many South Pacific nations are represented at the Polynesian Cultural Center, where recreated villages, exhibits and hands-on activities highlight eight of them: Samoa, Aotearoa (Maori New Zealand), Fiji, Hawaii, Marquesas, Tahiti, Tonga and Rapa Nui (Easter Island)."

In fact we learned that in the New Zealand, or Aotearoa culture, there is a carved wooden weapon known as a patu, used in hand to hand combat. The patu is basically a wooden paddle, as seen here:

The performers did a warrior dance with them, and I have to tell you, shirtless men waving paddles wasn't a bad show! Even the carvings of Aotearoa gods feature the patu!

When I found a patu for sale in the gift area, I fell in love with it! At $59.99, it was a little steep for a souvenir, but it was beautiful, and Nick insisted I get it. Anyway, when will I ever have another chance to buy an authentic Aotearoan paddle? We haven't had a chance to try it out yet as we didn't want to raise any eyebrows at the hotel and we've been pretty well crashed since we got home - 10 hours on a plane will do that to you!

Anyway, it's great to be home - now I just have to get rid of this jet lag!

Not much happening...

Hmm, not much going on here, just felt like posting. We're getting awfully close to Hawaii, just 3 more weeks of work! Plus I have President's Day off, so only 14 more actual work days! Yay! We're doing our income taxes this week, and we should get enough back to have money to go on as well as pay off a few bills and set Morgan up for the week. She's staying with my parents, but other family members are going to take her out for some fun stuff in the evenings to give my mom a break. We're going to do a Build A Bear gift card, an adopt a baby doll day, a Dollar Tree shopping spree ($20 goes a long way at the dollar store when you're seven), and maybe a few other things. This will be the longest she's ever been away from us, and I want to keep her distracted. Plus, since we'll be having such a great time, it seems only fair to give her a big week too.

Everything has been booked, just about all that's left is getting our tax return and packing. I do need to go to the book store. It will be a long plane ride, and I'll definitely need something to read. I'm actually pretty nervous - we've never taken a trip this far, and I'm afraid I'm going to miss Morgan terribly!

Anyway, that's about all that's going on here, just getting through the rest of winter and on to warmer days. Hope everything is going well for you guys!

The babysitter has been arranged, the swimsuits have been purchased, the plane tickets and hotel room booked, and it's only.......



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