Thailand - the perfect vacation

Okay, so I realize that by titling this post "the perfect vacation," I'm giving myself some pressure here. But really, it was amazing.
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First of all, I think our experience would've been pretty different if we weren't living where we live already. As in, I suppose if we had come straight from the States, Thailand might have seemed a little dirty and unsafe. But compared to here, it was great! And I mean, objectively, it's not very dirty or unsafe. It just occurred to me that perspective makes a big difference. Even M at one point in a restaurant looked at me and said, "Why is Thailand so clean and fancy?" The waiter did seem to stand a little taller when he overheard that.
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Secondly, I have never taken a vacation like this. We stayed in a resort (that's a first for me), spent eight nights in the same place (another first) and laid either on the beach or by the pool literally every day (again a first). M stammered back at us after a couple days in our hotel, "You mean we're staying here the whole time?!" I actually came back home feeling refreshed and ready for the fall semseter! I have never come back from a trip and not felt like I needed another holiday to recover.
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So, given those two background points, I think I can say that it was the perfect vacation for us! The kids swam every single day, I started and finished FOUR BOOKS and took naps in the sun, we ate seafood at every meal, our hotel windows overlooked a desktop-wallpaper-worthy beach, the kids played with their grandparents in every spare moment. Oh yeah, and it was E's birthday!
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Next week, I'll give you more details about the trip, but for now you just have to konw that it was exactly what we were hoping for from a vacation this year!