Did I lose all of my readers?

I know that I haven't blogged in forever and I am sorry. Is anyone still reading?

I had two people just today get on to me for never posting the results of my biopsy. I just felt so dumb for ever posting about it in the first place that I decided not to do another whole post for what was a very expected outcome. The final report showed that there was no malignancy! (And came from the right tissue this time!!) I was not surprised to hear that, but I was still a little relieved to know that it was not anything to worry about. I will go back in 6 months to re-evaluate it, but that is pretty standard.

The holidays were a whirlwind of traveling and seemed to pass by quickly. We are home now though and settled back into our routine.

Our families were very understanding this year and respected our decision to go away for the holidays. We weren't quite sure where we wanted to go, but we just knew that being here in this empty house yet another year would be too hard. Well, I should say it was too hard for me. But, thankfully I have an amazing husband who was willing to sacrifice any of his own plans to whisk me away on a vacation. With as busy as he has been the last few weeks, it was also a great opportunity to spend some time and just enjoy being together.

We decided that since there was no specific place that we wanted to go, we would just be flexible and see what deals we could find as the week approached. We didn't even book our trip until just days before we left. We considered everywhere from Mexico, to California, to the Carolinas. But we ultimately decided to go to this hotel in Half Moon Bay, CA. It was absolutely as beautiful as the pictures online.

We decided to fly out of DFW because when we came back we stayed with our friends, Luke and Katie in Dallas. That way, the boys could ride to Shreveport for the aTm game together, while Katie, Emily and I hung out and had some girl time. Anyway, of course it has to snow that day. In typical Woolley fashion, our flight was delayed because our plane could not land in Dallas. The hotel in CA was paid for and non-refundable, so getting stuck in Dallas was going to be really crummy. It was truly a miracle when they announced that they found another plane and we were going to get to leave! After a few hours delay and some major de-icing, we were one of the last planes to leave before they closed down DFW for the rest of the day. We were so relieved to get in the air and shocked at our luck. Rusty said, "See, this trip is already starting off good. We are going to have a great time and it is going to all go our way this time."

Famous last words.

I will spare you the details, but every single thing seemed to go wrong after that. Some were very minor things, some were major things, but they all continued to pile up on each other and try to steal the joy of our trip. The hotel was beautiful, the scenery was breathtaking and the service was wonderful. We were together and we were healthy, so we tried to concentrate on all of those good things instead of worrying about all of the inconveniences.

One of the worst things that happened though was the first morning that we were there. Sometimes, when we are on vacation, I will ride in the cart while Rusty plays golf. I love to take pictures of the landscape while he plays. (Oh yeah, and spend time with my husband.) Rusty had a tee time and I wasn't going to go with him because I only brought jeans and we didn't think that I could wear those on the course. Before he walked out the door, he decided to call and check and he found out that I could ride after all. But, if I was going to go, I needed to go right then. So, I put on my shoes, threw my cameras in my purse and grabbed a bottle of water, which I also threw in my purse.

See where this is going yet?

When we got downstairs, I reached in my bag and felt wet. Really wet. I pulled everything out and dumped the water out of my purse. The whole bottle of water that my cameras had been floating in. My beloved camera. Even my back up point and shoot. I could have just thrown up right there on the nice valet man.

We rode around in the cart and I tried to air everything out, but neither camera would turn on. So, here we are driving a cart through a gorgeous golf course that sits on a cliff with breathtaking views of the coastline and the ocean and I couldn't take one picture. It was torture.

I tried to explain it to Rusty like this: Imagine that you go to Pebble Beach to play golf. You traveled all the way there, paid the green fee, went to all the trouble of traveling with your golf clubs. Then, when you get there, you are standing on the first tee box and all of your clubs break in half. You can't play. Even worse, you have to walk 18 holes and watch someone else play. My point was taken and he began to understand my pain.

So, I spent the whole trip just trying to enjoy the beautiful landscapes and try to etch them into my memory. The good news is that I had recently forced Rusty to carry a camera in his golf bag, so we did have one very archaic camera to work with. Also, we did get the point and shoot to start working and we were able to get a few more shots. I wasn't sure if they would turn out, but at least it was something. That is, until I left the point and shoot in the rental car when we returned to the airport.
After some very unnecessary, but unstoppable tears, the very nice Hertz man had someone drive the camera back to me. I have never been so thankful.

So, the short story made very long (sorry about that) is that in the end, it really was a beautiful vacation and I am so happy that we were able to get away together for a few days. Even if I wasn't able to document it the way that I would have liked.

The good news: When we came home, we tried my camera again and it seems to be working again!!!!!!! I was going to be so upset if we had to spend the money to replace it just because I made one careless mistake. Rusty said that it would have been one very expensive bottle of water!

This was the view out our window:

The view from the beach:

I had my very first wine tasting at the Thomas Fogarty Vineyard:

And my first In and Out burger:

(It was a good burger, but I gotta say that I don't understand what all the hype is about. It wasn't that good.)

We stopped to see the Golden Gate bridge on our way to the airport, but I was just annoyed by all the tourists that had nice, big cameras.

We flew back to Dallas and Rusty went to the bowl game in Shreveport. We drove home the next day and celebrated Christmas and Rusty's bday with his family.

Then, we went to Atlanta and rang in the new year with my family.

 

2010 seems to be starting off better already! I feel like great things are going to happen this year and am excited to see what is in store for us!