On the 4th of July my husband asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday, which is the 7th of July. I told him I was thinking about going to Hawaii. He laughed and said, "I have to work", to which I replied with a sly smile, "You weren't invited". He glanced at me through another chuckle and said I should do it. That I work hard and deserve a trip. That night as we enjoyed dinner out with our friend Dean before a fireworks show, I pulled out my iPad and booked a flight leaving on my birthday. Rich called our friends Pete and Nilda to see if their spare bedroom was available - Hotel Aiea, as we call it, had a vacancy. That night Rich and I decided I should take Amanda with me just as I had done with our older girls when they were teenagers. The on,u problem was I wasn't able to Amanda on the same flight I was on, so we wound up taking separate planes over. Not too bad when you think about it... Going on vacation with your teenager but not having to listen to her teenager complaints on the flight over. We have managed to spend every hour from about 9am to 9 pm out and about discovering the island of Oahu. Amanda has been my copilot on our adventures, which means we've made about 45 u-turns getting from a-b, but each little journey took us to another place just as beautiful as the previous. I have even managed to get in a couple runs along this twisted, steep mountains.

All in all, I would say that this has been the best birthday week ever!