(43-294) Luis' Big Trip

In May 1994 Luis moved from Puerto Vallarta to New York, so that we could get married.  And in the seventeen years that he's been here, we've never spent more than three nights apart; until now.  We'd been married for four years, the first time that Luis went away over night without me.  And the only reason that I was amenable to it, was because he was going treasure hunting.  YES, you read that right.  I said treasure hunting.  We were at home in Puerto Vallarta, and Luis and his brother's drove out to the town where Luis was born (about three hours away), and they took Luis' metal detector so that they could look for gold that their grandfather had buried on his property a long, long, time ago.  Yep, the prospect of finding gold felt like a good enough reason to be separated for an evening.  Alas, no treasure was found that night; but one returned to me.

Two years later, Luis had to go to Northern California for his Aunt's funeral; so we apart for a couple of nights. (Two or three I think.  I can't exactly remember.)  And then of course there were the SMF trips to Laughlin and Vegas; but if I'm not mistaken, I think those were only two night stays. I've had a few nights away from home myself.  There was my 40th birthday Scraptacular weekend, CHA with Rachel for Scrapbooking from the Inside Out; as well as Rachel's 40th birthday party weekend.

Truth be told, I don't like to be away from my family.  I prefer to travel with them; but given this economy and the fact that we didn't feel safe planning a road trip to Puerto Vallarta this year; it seemed only fair that Luis should go home without us. 

I dropped Luis at the airport this morning and although I was nervous about him being gone for a week, I was sincerely happy that he was going to see his family and spend quality time with them. When I picked my kids up from school, they told me that they already missed Luis.  I assured them that they would speak to him every day, and that we would keep very busy this week so that the time would pass quickly.  Luis called tonight and spoke to everyone, even Hershey who barked when I said that Daddy was on the phone.  He sounded very happy and relaxed and he truly deserves to be. 

I hope that Luis and my in-laws have a wonderful visit, and that the kids and I aren't too stressed by his absence.  I'm going to encourage everyone (myself included), to use this week to realize how much Luis does for us and how much we love, respect and value him. 
Till next time...
Queen of EVERYTHING