Johnny and Alyssa

I'm not sure when I became such a chicken about doing things that are different or spontaneous.  I think age has made me less adventurous.  

It was a difficult thing to prepare to leave my kids for FOUR WHOLE DAYS!  These guys are busy!  On most days, I start early and stay in almost constant motion throughout the day.  It's hard to delegate all of that to someone else.  Originally we had asked the Grs to come out and stay with the kids so that we could go on this trip, but some family emergencies came up right before Thanksgiving, so they had to cancel.  We considered asking a few people to stay with them, but none of them felt right.  We thought about farming them all out, but that didn't quite work either.  And that would have been like another vacation all over again if we were all gone for yet another week.  (I had visions of laundry piles taking over the entire house.)  

But then, one of us thought of our friends' son and his super cute new wife.  I think I've mentioned about 1000 times how MUCH we LOVE the Rodriguez family.  They really should have their own picture and caption on the sidebar of this blog because I write about them so much.  We sent Johnny and Alyssa an email and made the offer sound so awesome that we knew they wouldn't be able to refuse living in our house for a week and babysitting our kids.  We were so relieved when they said yes.  I think that was the final thing I needed to fall into place to be able to completely throw myself into the idea of leaving all of my responsibilities for a week.  

They came over the Monday night before we left to get the "scoop" on the house, kids, routine, etc.  And then I made a million lists, pre-cooked a couple of dinners, stocked the pantry, and started packing.  On Tuesday morning, right after they all left for school, the Scout Master and I happily boarded a plane for Phoenix.

Here's the first text I got as we landed...

And then I texted later at bedtime and got this...

And four days later, this is what we got when we texted and told them we were on our way home...

There is absolutely nothing more comforting than knowing your kids are not only safe, but also happy.  We have been on trips before when all we got were texts and phone calls asking when we were coming home.  That was definitely NOT the case this time.  The kids all loved Johnny and Alyssa instantly, and even better...they loved EACH OTHER more while Johnny and Alyssa were here.  And apparently the adoration was mutual, because this is the letter the kids found after they they left...

The Scout Master was so happy that he's already cooking up another trip for February.  We'll see if I'm any more adventurous at 43 than I am at 42.