Vacation - Part 1

The first part of our vacation was spent in Phoenix. This was Alex's first flight and he was so worried the airline would loose our luggage and he tried desperately to fit everything into a carry-on, but no luck. I swear the kid is a sixty year old man trapped in a little boys’ body. Really…what eight-year old worries about his luggage getting lost. He watch very closely as our luggage entered the security check point and after we passed through security, he patiently watched as the luggage was loaded.


One of his many wonderful attributes, Alex has the ability to start a conversation with almost anyone and everyone. I sometimes think he’s destined for a career in politics because he connects with people without great effort. The woman in the seat next to us was no exception to Alex's charm. She was kind and amused Alex by being so intrigued in his stories of the community center, baseball, his dog Chewy…you name it, Alex was an open book. The landing was a little jerky and Alex threw me under the bus once again. He looked at the woman in the seat next to us and calmly said “well, it’s still not as bad as my moms’ stops in the car”. She thought it was cute and even rewarded him by buying him a bag of M&M’s. Like the kid needed anymore rewards for throwing me under the bus.



I was really nervous about this part of the trip. Alex was meeting Michael – the guy I’ve dated for two years. I didn’t know how Alex would react and my stomach was doing somersaults throughout the flight thinking about this step in our relationship. The last thing Alex really needs is another guy being a disappointment so I've really kept him very separate from my dating life. Alex was very well behaved and made me very proud as I knew he would. I was never worried about how he would behave, I'm just worried about Michael bailing and having to explain to Alex (again) that he won't be seeing or hearing from Michael again. The first night was a little difficult as Alex started crying because “chewy was all alone”. Chewy was not alone, he was with a family in Sioux Falls, but Alex was upset. Michael is very busy and doesn’t eat at home often, so he stepped out to get groceries while Alex and I settled into our rooms. I tucked Alex into bed and scratched his back to calm him down – soon, I was out as well. Michael returned to find both Alex and myself snoring in the bedroom. What a nice way for me to show how much I missed Michael, huh.

Alex and I spent the entire afternoon at the pool on Wednesday. It was about 110 degrees during the daytime, so the pool was really the only thing one could enjoy that day. Later that evening, we went out for supper and then saw the new Transformers movie which is dumb dumb dumb. I don’t know what Alex’s intention was, but he insisted to sit between Michael and me. I wondered if it was a territorial thing – this is MY mom and she’ll sit here and Michael…you’ll sit here. Alex and Michael really got along great which was a relief.





Alex was snoring within a few minutes after we returned to Michael’s house leaving Michael and I to spend a little alone time. I’m still smitten over this guy. He took the Thursday off from work to see us off. I was driving his car to Anaheim and then back to South Dakota and we were starting this little adventure the next day….which I will write about tomorrow.