You might remember (or not, I swore I wrote a post about this but maybe I never did), but right before I got my diagnosis I'd booked a family trip to visit my parents in California. It was also my 20th High School reunion. That was painful to write. Anyway, we postponed the trip because I was going to be right in the middle of my chemo treatments. We finally got our re-do.
We left on Wednesday, April 30 and flew on Virgin Airlines. I'm not a fan of the airport but Virgin made it as pleasant as possible. The flight was an eventful as it can be with a 4- and a 2-year old trapped in a flying box for 6 hours. Overall, it could have been worse, but we were "that family" a few times. The upside is the flight attendants soothed us with free alcohol so that helped. A lot. Plus I was able to watch TV off and on--I got my Bravo reality show fix and it was delightful.
Overall, the week was great and went by too fast--the girls got a ton of time with my parents, I got to visit old haunts and see old friends. Aaron and I even got to escape to wine country for a few days.
The visit didn't start off hitch-free. We stayed in a hotel so we could have a place to decompress at the end of the day. When we checked in, they told me they didn't have a room with double beds because there had been some "incidents" and not all of the double bed rooms were available. I was soooo tempted to ask what they meant by "incidents", but I figured ignorance was bliss in this case. So I pleasantly (because I am nothing if not pleasant...ha! that's a joke, I wasn't very pleasant) asked them how they were going to solve this problem, because this was a problem. They offered me a room with a King-size bed. Um, one bed for 2 adults and 2 kids? That's not going to work. They could offer me a free room in addition to the room with the King bed. Are the rooms adjoining? No? Well that doesn't help us either. But I took the free room (which we never stepped foot in) and we all cozied up in the King size bed. I was next to Belle, so that was a little better for Aaron, who was next to Addie and who is a kicker, flailer and head-butter.
The girls woke up at 5:30 the next morning. I got them and me ready as quickly as possible. While I was in the shower, Addie started crying. What now? Oh...she'd taken off her diaper and pooped. On the floor. Now we were that family again. We hosed Addie off, cleaned off the poop and I took them out to breakfast so Aaron could get a little sleep. We left a path of destruction at breakfast and killed time until Target finally opened. Addie pooped again (why does this child poop so much?) so we went to a Safeway to buy diapers (because of course had I brought any with me on our morning adventure? Of course not). Throughout the Safeway visit I'm trying to control my wild children. You might not realize this, but I am attempting to raise children that are well-behaved (at least in public). The cashier told me to relax. If I wasn't so desperate for diapers and if I'd known where another store was, I hesitate to think about what I would have said or done to that cashier. Instead I gritted my teeth, paid and left.
So, Target. My mom had sworn up and down that we didn't need to bring any clothes for the girls--she had it covered. Great! Except for the fact that when we got there it was in the 90s and she had flannel PJs for the girls. And all of the daytime outfits were pants and long-sleeves. Not a skirt or dress or a pair of shorts to be seen. Oh well, eventually it would warm up in New England (right?), so we could use it then.
The girls ended up staying with my folks every night after that first night. I was a little worried about the girls wearing out their welcome before Aaron and I headed out to Wine Country, but my folks and the girls all had a blast. We saw old friends, spent time with my folks and saw a ton of other people that I hadn't seen in ages. On Sunday and Monday Aaron and I escaped to Wine Country. It was really nice to get away. Sadly, one of our cats died while we were gone. But that's a whole other story entirely...
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