THE Vacation Part 2: The Venetian

Time to get SWANKY!

The kids were in awe at the size of the hotel we were staying at. I was a little stunned myself! It was beautiful and impressive. It was huge and daunting! Pack 2 kids AND all your bags through a casino and maze of show rooms, etc. until you should find room number 10-111....GOOD LUCK!

When we found the room, Ryan texted to see what we thought. He knew we would be suprised.

And suprised we were!

This suite was SWEET!

From the beautiful queen beds and the seperate living roomish area.

To the deep set tubbed bathroom complete with phone & flat screen TV by the vanity...just for fun.

This room was huge! First thing Jake spotted....the $9 boxes of M&M's. Keep your grubby's off, I say. There is NO way I am paying $9 for a few M&Ms. He was offended at my lack of adventure. My wallet was grateful for limitations.

When Ryan's meetings were done we headed out to venture through this hotel of ours. We had heard rumor that there was an indoor canal, complete with gondoliers, somewhere on floor 2. We had to see it to believe it.

The details that they put into these hotels are stunning. The ceiling painted like a beautiful blue sky and lit to make it that much more believable was enough to drop a jaw or two, but the gondoliers beautiful singing voice echoing all around was almost too much! It was really quite something. We had to keep reminding ourselves that we were INSIDE a hotel! Not somewhere in Venice.

This room made that reality a little harder to believe. Shops everywhere. "Street" performances from some of the Phantom of the Opera actors, the canal running under a bridge, the buildings with high end stores inside and the sky made it that much harder to believe. It was really something!

Tuesday night we made a trip to Dan Norris' office to have him make a sleep appliance for Ryan...cause that is what he does, and he is DARN good at it.

Then, on Wednesday morning, it was time to spring a BIG OLE suprise on the kids. They were unexcited about the idea of heading home later that morning. Little did they know, we were actually headed in the opposite direction. We woke early to send Ryan off to work and found a gift to the kids on the coffee table in the room.

Jake was barely awake. Mal was just excited to still be in the hotel. Ryan sat down with the kids and started to read them the letter that came with their gift.

Dear Jakob & Mallory,

This is a special present for you guys to enjoy with Mom & Dad. I let them know that this is what I wanted them to get for you, from me. This is special and important to me. I want to thank you so much for taking such good care of me while I was with you. There were a lot of fun things you didn’t get to do because my body wasn’t able to do them. However, you never complained. You would rather have me with you than those things anyway. I felt so loved. Thank you so much!

Now I want to give you a special gift. I want you two to have so much fun in this life! I want you to enjoy doing fun and adventurous things with Mom & Dad. I am excited because now I finally get to be a part of those things! I will be with you the whole time! I can’t wait to watch you get excited, laugh and have so much fun!

I want you to both know that I am happy. I am working hard for our Father in Heaven. There is a lot to be done here and I love the work I am doing. I also want you to know that Heavenly Father gave me a special mission. That mission is to watch over and help you two through this life. I am around you all of the time. It makes me so happy when I see you hug each other and play together. You are both so special to me. Very Special! You are why I came and stayed on Earth longer. You made my life so happy. Remember that I am close to you whenever you need me. Heavenly Father and Jesus love you so much and they want me to make sure you always remember that.

Now go and have fun together! I love to watch you have fun. I can’t wait to watch you guys enjoy it! Be happy! Enjoy doing fun things with Mom & Dad. They love you so much! I love you both more than anything!

Love,

Dawson

Jake would spend the next 30 minutes working through a bit of heartache that had been with him for a while, but left undealt with. It is part of the grieving process and we were grateful to see the wall come down. When the reality of it all set in...Oh, he was EXCITED! We all were!

Here is what accompanied the letter.....

1 or 2 days in Universal Studios

A bit of time playing on the beach in California.....

1 day in Sea World.....

1 day in the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park....

And 3 days in Disneyland!

We weren't heading home at all! In just a few hours, when Dads meetings were done, we were going to make the short drive to California and stay in a hotel for at least 8 MORE nights and play like crazy for about 9-10 days!

We couldn't wait to get on the road!