Heidi Chronicles

Aaron has an amazing group of friends from high school.  After their last reunion, Neal started a group,  for everyone to keep in touch.  He called it Slutmonkey…because it was funny.

At that time, only the actual people who went to high school were in the group.  But that sucked because I wanted to know what was going on.  I lobbied heavily for entry into the elite group.  Eventually all spouses/spouses-to-be were added to the group, and we too became part of the troop.  Then we started having babies, and they became mini monkeys.  And now it’s turned into a couple of barrels of fun.  (Bad, I know.)

Anyway, one of the girls organized a trip to California and managed to plan it around our trip back so that we could attend.

Everything went well after Aaron’s mom caught us on the way to the airport and brought us Stinky Pinky and Milo.  It didn’t really matter since we took off late thanks to the fires, but we did eventually get there to meet Neal and Ang in San Fran, and then drove to our destination thanks to Susie and the US map that Aaron worked his ass of to get.

The trip was a little rough since we were still jet lagged and I was a bitch thanks to poor eating habits, but it was great to spend a relaxing long weekend with everyone.  Here are some of the highlights.

The Group

I guess Michelle must have taken this picture.  (I was at the house making my children nap.)  From the very back on the left side:  Megan and Barret, Chris, Aaron, Wade and Ruby.  From the back on the right side:  John, Jessica, and Baby Boy TBD, Marnie, Lora and Declan’s back, Wade, Ang and Olivia.

Front(ish) Row:  Elena, Aaron, Liam, and Heidi, John (head coming out of my shoulder), Jessica, and Baby Boy In Utero, Neal, Ang, and Olivia, Declan, Marnie.  Back Row:  Ruby (head coming out of John’s head, Wade, and Michelle, Lora and Chris (they go with Declan)

The Adults

A much better picture of Megan and Barret – and Declan’s butt.

John, Jessica, and Boy In Belly

Marnie

Neal and Ang

Heidi and Aaron

Chris and Lora

Michelle and Wade

The Kids

Ruby

Declan

Olivia

Liam

Elena

The Activities

Happy Birthday Liam and Ruby

Yes, that’s a kabab skewer.

Liam doesn’t know how to pucker to blow.  He curls his lips around his teeth instead, which does nothing for the projection of air in a directed manner.  I blew out the candle.

Enjoyed eating the “birthday,” as Liam calls the cake.

Rubes was one worn out puppy.  She ate cake the day after. (Don’t worry…she wasn’t alone.  Michelle, Lora, and I think Megan, helped her out.)

Picture Pages with Camera Shy Liam.

That’s “Mushul” in the drawing. (I think that’s how he spelled it.  It was something like that, anyway.)

Lots of eating

and hanging out on the deck.

And sometimes eating things that should never be eaten, such as an oreo/cheese/salsa sandwich.

Not impressed.

Playing in the house

Girl Stuff

(“OMG, your pashmina is to die for. Are you going to wear it to the formal ping pong party this evening?  *giggling* Oh, how posh!”)

Wearing the same clothes day after day because Mom is an idiot and didn’t pack warm enough clothes.

Learning to swear.

Relaxing

Visiting Wineries

with the experts.

(I stayed home and made the kids sleep…and maybe beat Zelda – because I rock.)

Ultimate Ping Pong Challenge

Drinking lots of water.

We left before most of the others because we had to get back to Dorothy Land.  Yes, that’s our sweet, sweet minivan.

The drive was nice and relaxing.  It’s been sunny every time I’ve ever seen the Golden Gate Bridge, so this was a first.

We made a stop in Marin County to see the Frank Lloyd Wright government building.

It was fascinating.

And then we almost missed our flight home.

This is starting to sound like a habit, no?

We did learn our lesson though, Elena is a force not to be reckoned with when it comes down to sharing a seat.  The child will not be a lap baby on my lap ever again.

Wednesday

We started out our trip with an 8 a.m. dental appointment for Liam and me.  It was the first time he was going to actually have work done and I was really afraid that he’d be wigged out by the noise and wouldn’t let them do anything.

How wrong I was.

He was amazing.  They cleaned and polished his teeth without incident…while he watched Spongebob.  Dude.  How cool is it to have television right in front of your face when you’re in an unpleasant situation?

We spent the rest of the day with Gabe and Sadie.

Then we had a birthday party for the kids and Aaron, so we got to see everyone in the extended family as well.  (It’s a good thing L didn’t have any cavities.)

Thanks for all the goodies, everyone!

After we got the kids in bed, Aaron and I headed over to see Neal and Ang’s new house (along with them, Olivia, Bill and Christy).  It was so wonderful to see my peeps.  We just sat around and talked and laughed.  I think that’s what I miss most about these guys…they can make me laugh.  Hard!  And when I laugh hard I do the silent laugh and it hurts my stomach muscles, so that counts as exercise.  It’s the best.  

Thursday

We headed out to Jenny’s to celebrate birthdays again!

Got to see our buds

Nate,

Ethan,

Lauren

and Jules.

The kids had a good time,

but I think the three of us girls enjoyed it more!

Jenny baked a beach ball cake and we just celebrated everyone’s birthday together.

Everyone did really well…until Elena lost it.

This is her new thing now.  She cries with her eyes closed, stops, looks to make sure you’re watching, then cries again.  Poor dear.

As always, it was wonderful to see my girls…and next time I see Rachel, she’s going to have a baby!  Holy CATS!

This evening we were supposed to have dinner with some friends, but they had to cancel, so we stayed home and dined with the fam.  Mmmm…pizza.

We made it and we’re fine, even though it was a bit of a mess thanks to the airline.

We did great getting ourselves ready and it was a quick trip to the airport for some unknown reason.  We hung out at the Red Carpet Club and bribed the children with food and television until it was time to head to our gate.

We already knew that United is changing terminals at Heathrow on July 4. They’re in terminal 3 now, but when we get back, they’ll be in terminal 1.  I guess with the disaster that terminal 5 was when it opened, they decided it would be good to do a few test runs lest they lose everyone’s baggage and are unable to locate it due to their computers all rolling back to 1800 or something *waving hands up by head* cuh-ray-zee *done with the crazy waving* on the 4th.

So, they bussed us from terminal 3 to terminal 1 where we checked in at the gate and boarded the plane.  (They did give us a box of Godiva chocolates for all of our trouble.)

The flight itself was pretty typical and the kids did great fortunately.  But we missed our flight out of Chicago because United took forever to get us our luggage.

It was pathetic.  We spent a good chunk of time in the Red Carpet Club annoying the staff and eating chocolate…until they realized our plight.  Then they brought out the goodies for the kids and gave us an entire bag of Kit Kats.  Just what I need.  Liam also had a lovely screaming fit in the bathroom because the toilet scared him.  Nice.

We also sat in the airport with a bunch of irritated business travelers and other parents trying to entertain their irritated children, and tried to keep the kids busy.  We eventually got on the 2.45 flight, that finally left at 8.40. Fortunately everyone slept and I had some peace.

We’re in KC until Friday and then we’re headed to CA for the weekend.  Looking forward to seeing everyone!

Saturday

I spent most of the day packing, though I did find time to cut my hair since we went out to dinner with Aaron’s friend, Hans, and his girlfriend, Ana.  We met them at a pub and went to a pretty decent place for dinner. Unfortunately the name escapes me.

The kids were ok today.  Elena is into screaming that everything is “hers”  and it makes Liam SO mad.  It’s really frustrating.  Anyway, it was nice to leave them with the sitter, who called during dinner and wanted to know where the ironing board was so she could iron Aaron’s shirts.  Is she a gem, or what??

Sunday

I packed

And packed.

And packed.

Oh, and I ignored the children.

Monday

Finished packing and ignoring the children and took the dogs to Jenn’s.  Thank goodness they are going to take them for us.  I worry about Murphy at a kennel. I’m pretty sure he’d bark until he died – probably due to someone shooting him.

Today we spent most of the day with Avery and Jack.  This morning we went to a park where our children proceeded to freak out the other children by pretending that they were Baby Jaguar. (Mrow MROW)  This afternoon, we went over to their place to pass the time after I went to the dr. office to pick up my prescription.

I am about ready to shoot my doctor.  You know how Hugh Grant kind of has that nervous befuddled charm about him?  (And he’s hot?)  Well, my doctor is like that – without the charm (or the looks).  He just bumbles around nervously trying to figure out whether or not we need to change my medication.

Well, today he thought he needed to see me before I got a refill.

Excuse me?  It’s Friday and I’m leaving on Tuesday for three weeks.  Sorry Uncharming, Not Cute Hugh…it’s not going to happen.

They said they’d have my prescription ready on Monday.  I was a little concerned because sometimes the pharmacy doesn’t have it and they have to order it.  However, I need not have worried.  This evening while digging through medicines to pack for the kids, I found a whole box of Zoloft in my cupboard.  It’s enough to get me through the trip – thank goodness.

Soooo….let’s just go ahead and gloss over the fact that I lost my medication, since it is the one thing in my life keeping me sane.  I am a little busy though, in my defense.   And I did find it, so it wasn’t really lost as much as misplaced or forgotten, right? Is that worse?

On a completely unrelated note, is it wrong that my fingers tried to reach for the “c” instead of the “s” when spelling “defense,” or is that just considered assimilation?