Who's at the door?

The best part about going away for a few days -- outside, of course, from the chance to sleep in as late as we want -- is coming home to see Jack.

From the time the plane wheels hit the ground, I get impatient. The plane can't taxi fast enough, the 27 rows in front of me take forever to get their asses off the plane, the baggage takes forever and a day to come off the conveyer, the taxi picks the slowest lane on the freeway.

By the time I am walking up the stairs, I am so excited to see him I practically pull the handle off the door.

Sunday when Josh and I returned from our mini-vacation in Seattle and Whistler, Jack was standing just inside the door when we opened it. We barged in and had huge smiles on our faces and said "Hi Buddy!"

He looked at me, blinked as if to say, "Are my eyes deceiving me?" and then kept looking from me to Josh back to me and back to Josh. Finally he broke into a huge grin and lunged toward us.

For once, though, it wasn't Mommy who got the first hug. He wanted Daddy. Daddy got the first hugs and the first pats and only when he was satisfied with that, did he reach for Mommy.

And that's fine. It's nice for Daddy to get some props too. And then he attached himself to my body all day on Monday and I knew we were all good.

What was not all good was my vacation experience.

It started off with me arriving three hours late in Seattle. On Valentine's Day. But that was fine. I was on vaca -- I was going with the flow.

Then, the next morning, I spent four hours of my vacation working. Which is always good times. But again, wasn't letting it cramp my style. We still left for Whistler on time.

Friday, we finally get up on the mountain after boot issues and binding issues and whatnot on my part. On my second run, my board stopped on a turn and my ankle didn't.

For those of you keeping score at home...

Canadian mountain: 1
Amy: 0
Ankle sprains: 1
Number of hours spent snowboarding before injury: 2
Pair of crutches in service: 1
Number of dollars spent in Canadian health care system: 675

Not one of my finer moments. But trying to look on the bright side, because I had to see a doctor, we were able to get our money back for both days of lift tickets. And we got to sleep in instead of getting up early to hit the slopes. And we hung out in our plush suite a little longer. And we missed driving back in the snow in traffic.

So, at least there were some redeeming qualities in our trip. And in the end, we got to come home to a smiling Jack. And that's what I was looking forward to.