Returning to the scene

We just returned from a week in Destin...and when I say "we"...I mean the immediate 5 families on my mother's side. Yes, as you can imagine, the wait staff loved to see us coming in the door (especially with 3 small children). But I never blog about where I am when I am not at home (because my dad and my husband are apparently limitless in their paranoia...oddly, they don't seem all that concerned when I'm a sitting duck at home, just waiting for someone to bust in and attack me in my owl pj's). Anyway, 4 families stayed in the Banana Cabana (more on that little "gem" of a house later) and the other stayed in the Edgewater condos. Something happens when you combine 2 boys and 1 girl, all between the ages of 4 and 7...absolute and catastrophic mayhem, which my husband instigates constantly (unless of course he has to spend the night with the 3 of them and then he wants to draw and read...instead of knocking the holy living hell out of each other with couch cushions. But I'm pretty sure my cousins will be calling my husband "Puddin' Tane"-from the first night's fiasco-for the rest of his life).

I say that we were "returning to the scene" because Destin was the destination for our Mother-Daughter trip in July. And for me, it was difficult to go back. That trip simply exuded baby. "Oh my pants won't even zip!" and off we went to drop a couple hundred dollars at Motherhood Maternity. "Oh baby needs some clothes!" and in came my cousins with bags from Gymboree. "Oh where are we going for dinner tonight? I've already had my week's ration of seafood" and off we went in search of pasta. Mom and I sat on the couch with the fetal heartbeat doppler and listened to baby's heartbeat (or at least we thought it was...come to find out we were actually listening to mine. Good news: I have the steadiest heartbeat I've ever heard). So to come back just 3 months later, and just a month after losing Shep, it was bittersweet. Neal and I had the only bedroom with a balcony. When I heard we had a balcony and ocean views, I anticipated margaritas and a book as I watched the sun set over the ocean. I thought about running through the house announcing "party on the Miller patio!" and pouring sangria for any member of the family who dared the climb to our 3rd floor roost. But when I walked out on that first night and was greeted by the glow of the Silver Sands Outlet Mall (and in my mind the neon lights of Motherhood Maternity), I sat down in the adirondack chair and cried. And that was the last time we used the balcony. I thought about asking if anyone wanted to trade, but I thought "this too will pass." But it never did...although good thing we didn't trade with my cousin as she woke up with a face full of shower water from the 3rd floor bathroom. I will take a luminous outlet mall over dreams of wetting the bed any day.

But we had a good week...I had a good week. Yes, I got sad but then I opened a bottle of pinot. Sometimes I would think back but then I opened a bottle of moscato...or a Corona...or a bottle of chardonnay. And although it sounds like I need an intervention, when in a tough spot, it never hurts to lubricate the situation a little with grapes and barley. We went boating and laid in the sun and ate fantastic seafood. We played Wii bowling and ran next to the beach and shopped until my mastercard let out a heavy sigh and then collapsed. It was a good week. And the next several blog posts will be dedicated to last week, seeing as I could not post them while we were there, as much as I wanted to. So, crack open a Corona, play a little Let's Get Drunk and Screw and sprinkle some brown sugar between your toes. Off to the Sunshine State we go....