I'm playing catch up with these blogs - I've got LOADS to tell you and tons of pics to show so forgive me as I get caught up again!!
About 26 days before Nauna was set to arrive I got tired of having to RE-count how many days were left until she comes…SO the kids and I made a countdown chain out of construction paper. You know what I’m talking about; you made them for Christmas as garland for the tree or just as decorations. Anyway, before we made this chain I wrote on each strip of paper a number counting down to Nauna’s HERE! We taped the very long chain by our calendar and each day before she came Ella and Keegan took turns tearing away one link at a time to see how many days left…then we stuck that number up on the fridge to help remind us…life got very unruly when day 3 hit…the kids just were so excited…wait…and mom was SO excited we could hardly focus on staying busy not thinking about it!!
It was finally here, the day of her arrival, Wednesday, June 1st…the kids were up and dressed at about 6:45 a.m. OH, no they didn’t…Mommy saw her clock and jumped out of bed and I told them to get back into their beds; read some books, rest, or fall back asleep cause I wasn’t having that!! This mom doesn’t get out of bed until 7…not a MINUTE earlier and normally no one gets up until about 7:30-8 a.m. but knowing that mom didn’t come until about bedtime I wasn’t about to start this day that early! Ha!! Mean mom, I know! Believe it or not but all 3 kids fell back asleep until about 8:15!! YEAH for that mean mom!! So we got through breakfast jumping and running and screaming for joy that Nauna was finally coming!! It’s about 10:15 and Ella says, “Ok Mom, let’s have lunch and go on over to my gymnastics class, then Keegan can have his make-up gymnastics class and we can go get Nauna!!” I laughed and explained to her that we can’t rush through our actives today…that won’t make the day go by any faster…and if we do we’ll find ourselves sitting in a corner picking our nose waiting for the time to pass by REAL slowly!! We had plenty to do to get ready for Nauna that will pass the time quickly! We headed to the library to exchange our books then headed home for lunch…time really was flying cause then it really was time to take off for the gymnastics classes, once we got home we set up Nauna’s twin airbed and I had to LOCK the kids’ door do no one could go in…I made that bed a good 3 times Grissom Unmade that bed every time that little stinker! Each time he’d say, oh, no!! like it happened on its own right in front of his eyes and he couldn’t do anything to stop it! Ella’s coloring pictures for the door and for her pillow…Keegan’s busy watching Bear (Man vs. Wild). Before we knew it we had eaten dinner and it was time to pick her up! I decided it would be easiest if the kids just had their jammies on ready for bed so we didn’t have to go through that circus when we got home and we could visit with her for a few seconds before bed.
Ok so Grissom had said NOTHING about Nauna this whole waiting time. Everyday we’d talk about how many more days until Nauna comes and he never acknowledged her…until we got about 1 mile from the airport. Out of the blue he yells at the top of his lungs with his hands cupped around his mouth, “We coming Nauna!! WE get’chu!!” It was cute.
We get to the airport and it’s a dinky little thing…they had one waiting area for all arriving flights so I sat there while my kids in their jammies RAN around in circles. I have to give them credit cause they started the first 6 minutes sitting down we had a huge clock in front of us and I told the kids we have 8 minutes until her flight landed and told them what to look for on that clock…Ella sat and stared until her eyes watered. I’m sure she was thinking it would light on fire if she stared hard enough. That time came and passed we sat in the airport for a nice 25 minutes before she got there. But it was worth it they gave everyone there a great show! We’ve never received so many comments on their cute jammies! Nauna was bombarded with love and excitement the entire car ride home (all 8 minutes) was nonstop chatting from the back. My ears were ringing! We got mom upstairs and she’s looking around and says, “Well, this place isn’t that bad…ummm, where do you think I should put my suitcase? Is there any place it will fit?” Cause I’m serious when I tell you that there was NOT space in the kids room for her bed and luggage…so it’s out on our coffee table pushed up against the wall in the family room! It took forever to get the kids to calm down enough to fall asleep but once they did it only took seconds for their eyes to shut! I was SO glad…SO glad to have my mom here! But I have to tell you I REALLY felt bad when she laid down in that silly twin air mattress because that thing swallowed her up from all sides! She claims she slept ok, but I wasn’t convinced. We added air in the morning!!
The next morning we got all packed up and ready. About 10 we picked up our rental car. It was SO nice cause Mom and I drove that while my amazing hubby drove the van with the kids in it!! I know what you’re thinking…why did they have to rent a car? Well, mostly because we didn’t have enough space to carry all of us once we got dad (we left one of our captain seats at home) so this was easiest and mom and I loved it cause we got to spend time together. We headed to L.A. for our DL trip!! The kids had NO clue we told them that we were meeting Paw-Paw at this far away airport to visit with him at a hotel (cause he could only come for the weekend). It seemed to have taken forever, but the kids did fabulous and Mark and I didn’t even think twice about the length. We got to the hotel long enough to order dinner for the kids then mom and I took off to pick dad up at the airport.
Now let me step back and tell you about this rental car…they tried to give us this enormous bus/car like thing. I was scared to drive it…it totally reminded me of an old person’s car…No offense old’er’ people! So they gave us this classic red Chevy HHR…it looks just like a PT cruiser. I loved it…until I started trying to look out the front windshield. The rearview mirror was SO large that I had to bend down just to see the whole picture…I felt very close to mom (which compared to my minivan I was TOO close) but what cracked me up the most was my side window…we stopped at Starbucks to start off our trip the right way and I was concerned about getting my coffee to fit through the window…I decided to order a grande (medium) so we didn’t have to tip it to get it through this window…I’m serious…but mom found that incredibly funny! I guess you had to be there. Anyway this car was…felt small I’m just too used to driving my big’ol mamma van! So we are headed to L.A. with the quest of the D.L. (Los Angeles to hit Disney Land!!) the kids were completely clueless. Mom and I had a great time together catching up and laughing…the kind of bonding that you just can’t make happen…so much talking that I put mom to sleep! Oh, how she missed me! HA! Love you mom!!
What a time we had getting to the airport thru L.A. traffic! We felt overwhelmed and a little nervous about not knowing the area so instead of trying to circle this ginoramus place until it was time to pick dad up we decided it best to park and walk in…when we got to a good spot to yell and jump up and down when we see him so now it was time to wait. As we waited in the designated waiting space (we had a line on the floor that we were told not to pass – I assume we would have been ambushed by the army if we did so we were not about to test those waters) then all off a sudden we were taken by this guy who obviously felt he was too good to stay behind the line. His apparent pride fullness got irritating very quick…my sarcasm started to surface. When I tell you he wouldn’t even stand still pacing and blatantly crossing over way too far passed the line I started to get nervous thinking this guy was obviously a terrorist. Even the flight people who worked there had to keep telling him to stand back behind the line! Mom and I were making light of it but I was mentally preparing to jump him and TAKE HIM DOWN to save the world! All of a sudden he disappeared and within the next second there stood a new guy too big for me to take down, but this guy was holding a camera and jumped right in front of us but he had the decency to follow the rules and stay behind the line. It hit me when I realized he was taking tons of pictures that he must be paparazzi and that means there must be someone special…so I looked and there we saw this cutie little lady headed down stairs…I knew immediately it had to be my best girlfriend, Meg Ryan!! “AAAh, Beautiful!!” She was cute as could be! I knew if those silly guys hadn’t been there she probably would have noticed me and we would have chatted for awhile, but I knew she needed to get out of there and fast so I wasn’t offended, next time Meg!! But this explained that completely nervous guy who wouldn’t obey the rules!!
We got a hold of dad and took him back to the hotel. I can’t even begin to tell you how wonderful of a feel that was to have BOTH my parents in a car alone with just me! It was SO good to see and hug them! I didn’t realize how much I missed them until they were right there with me. Meanwhile, Mark manned the kids taking them swimming then getting them into bed: after seeing this picture you might think we’d already been to Disney! But at this point they don’t even know we are going!! Mom and Dad are going to tell them FIRST thing in the morning!! I'm not sure who's more excited...mom and dad or Mark and me (Mark's never been either!!).
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