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When I was growing up, my mom’s parents took lots of trips with their friends. They always took thousands of pictures of the trip, and we were always subjected to looking at the entire photo album before being released to go do whatever it was we were waiting to do (usually go swimming, or just go upstairs to the “playroom” and not be around adults). It wasn’t until I got older and more appreciative of the vacations that I started asking questions about who they went with and why. Sometimes it was just the two of them, but often their trips included my grandma’s sister and her husband, or another couple that they were close friends with. I remember thinking as a teenager that I hoped to have friends like that someday.
Thankfully, I have them now.
Last year 6 of us went to Pittsburgh for 5 days and had an amazing time. We toured Heinz Field, drove into Canton to see the Football Hall of Fame, and capped off an amazing weekend with a Steelers vs. Vikings game (Steelers won, of course, and now I can say I’ve seen Brett Favre in action). It was the best vacation I’d ever been on, and the main reason was because of the people we went with. Since we got back we’ve been talking about doing another trip, and I’m SO happy to say we’ve got our destination.
Jamaica.
Next year is Jamey & Jeff’s 10th anniversary, and the 4 of us are going to Jamaica to celebrate. It’ll also be Donald’s birthday while we’re there, as well as the 3 year anniversary of us dating, so we’ll have loads to celebrate. I could not be more excited. The reservation was made this morning, and now there’s no turning back!
303 days!
This.
This is Jaxson, the cutest toddler I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. He is my unofficial nephew, and I love him to pieces.
He belongs to Jason and Kathy, Donald’s sister. He’s also the first baby I’ve ever seen or held on the day of their birth. (Also, he was 11 lbs 4 ozs at birth, so he’s by far the heaviest baby I’ve ever held.) He, as well as his family, spent the week at the river with us, and he was so much fun to watch. Last year he was only 3 months old, so he did a lot of laying around staring at us. This year he was off and running at every opportunity.
He’s almost 16 months old, and he eats constantly. I’ve never seen a kid eat as much as he does. He knows the sign for “more” and can say it more clearly than any other word in his arsenal. When he gets going, he sounds a little like the seagulls in Finding Nemo. If you try to put the food away, he’ll walk over to your cooler and open it for you, and ask for more.
If I could pick what my future kids would be like, I’d want them to be exactly like Jaxson. Blond hair, big bright blue eyes, chubby cheeks, and completely laid back. He doesn’t get upset at all. The only time I’ve seen him cry was when he’s tired, and even that was unimpressive.
Our vacation was fabulous, largely in part to the simple pleasure of watching this little wonder. It’s hard to worry about anything when this is what you see:
*All photographs courtesy of Jason Ginger
Some weeks just suck. Nothing goes the way you plan, life kicks you in the shin, and simple things just get you down. But it’s those weeks that make you appreciate the better ones.
This has been a great one.
Saturday, Donald and I had a barbecue at our house with our friends and family. It was the first time our parents had met each other, and I was nervous. As it turned out, I had nothing to be nervous about. Everyone appeared to have a great time, the burgers and hot dogs were delicious (even the first round of hot dogs that Donald sorta burned because he got distracted), and several livers were further damaged by copious amounts of alcohol. The last guest left at 2am, after many hours of Beans being played in the backyard.
(Let me take this moment to abandon all modesty and point out that I am the reigning queen of Beans. Donald and I beat Pitter and Jen 4 games in a row, and then Jen and I beat Donald and Pitter 2 out of 3 games. For the math challenged, that means my team won 6 of 7 games. I’m posting this here for historical purposes, because it’s not likely to ever happen again, and dammit I want it noted that it happened at least once.)
(Also, my apologies to my neighbors for the noise level until 2am. They were drunk, and I can only muzzle them so much.)
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Monday was Donald’s birthday, and many of our friends joined us at Claim Jumper for happy hour (which ended up being a happy 4 hours for us, and likely a LONG 4 hours for our server). I don’t think there’s been a time when we’ve all come together that I haven’t end up laughing to tears at one point or another. Monday was no exception. The first time was thanks to JAMEY (who would like to be mentioned in this blog so she can be famous. Here you go, Jamey. Now you’re famous among the 6 people who read it. Congrats!) who made a joke that whizzed right over my head and literally took me a full minute to figure out. Of course, once I got it I laughed. But man, did I feel dumb for a moment. We spent what felt like forever just hanging out, and once again I was reminded of what great friends I have.
Thanks to JAMEY (look Jamey! Twice!), Jeff, Jaden, Joshua, Jen K., Jen S., Katie, Owen, Vinne, Kaleena, Jason, Kathy, Bryana, Kyla, Byron, Johnny, and Sheri for coming by to celebrate. I know Donald had a great time and loved that you could all be there.
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Last night I went with a group of friends to see the 1am showing of Eclipse. No, I’m not a Twi-hard. I would have been completely content seeing it today, tomorrow, or even on DVD in a few months. But it sounded like fun, so I decided to take advantage of my open schedule and hang out with the ladies. We made plans to meet at the nearby restaurant/pub first, but that turned out to be a bust. Not one of us knew that the Irish pub turned into a 18+ dance club on Tuesday nights. Since we had 4 kids with us (two 13, and two 12), we had to find another plan. We ended up sitting in the theater for over an hour before the movie started. That wasn’t bad since I’d seen a line around the building at a different theater at 2pm! There’s no movie on the planet that I’d wait 10+ hours in line for. There’s pretty much nothing I’d wait in line that long for. The previews started at 1, and I was happy to see the trailer for the last Harry Potter movies. Eclipse finally started 2o minutes later, and I really enjoyed it. I mean, Taylor Lautner’s abs alone were worth going for, as evidenced by the theater-wide female gasp when he appeared on the screen. (I was right there with them, for the record.) I thought the movie was a little slow, but certainly better than New Moon. I think the people I went with (Jamey! Kathy! Tawny!) made the evening worth the staying up late, coming home at 3:45am, and not being able to fall asleep until after 5. Thanks for the fun, ladies!
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Friday we head for the river for a full week of laying around doing absolutely nothing. It’s my favorite week of the year, and I am chomping at the bit to get going. I plan on reading a lot of books, spending a lot of time in the sun, and hanging out with my peoples. When we get back, I will be rested, tanned, and ready to bust my ass to find a new job. I’m going to stop dwelling on all the “we’ve decided on someone else” phone calls, and start focusing on how to make myself an irresistible candidate. Because I am, dammit.
Last Thursday morning we piled into the car and headed off to the Colorado River for the first trip of the season. The river is one of my favorite places to be, and I had been looking forward to this trip for a long time. Normally we’re on the California side at Big River staying in a 5th wheel, but for this trip we tent camped up on the Arizona side at Buckskin Mountain State Park.
 I am not a fan of tent camping. I’m a bit of a princess in this aspect. But this was not the tent camping I expected. There were clean restrooms and showers close to the site, electrical hookups in every cabana (which is a little like a carport with some shelves for your stuff), and running water easily accessible. Everyone brought air mattresses, and Kathy & JG brought a mini-fridge for food, so it’s not like we were roughing it.
By mid-afternoon we were all unpacked, had the tents and canopies set up, and were ready to relax and hang out. We drove into Parker for a delicious dinner at El Sarape, one of the only Mexican restaurants I actually like eating at. The food is always good, but the service is usually terrible. Thankfully, it was a Thursday night on a quiet weekend, so we had no problems with the service at all. The food was good, as usual, and the company was great. We spent the rest of the night hanging out and chatting before going to bed.
Due to the sun, and the loudmouth birds nearby, we were awake by 7am on Friday morning. Those of you who know me well know that this is not my best time of day. I was cranky and tired, but I think I hid it well. We lazed around for part of the morning, and then packed the coolers and headed out to the boats. At this point there were 12 people in our group, and 4 boats. This was more than a little amusing to me. It worked out well that we had extra boats, however, as Jen and Red’s boat had some problems and had to be brought back and tied up. We drove up to Parker Dam and floated most of the way down river. We eventually ended up at the south dam where we anchored and hung out for a few hours. I’d never seen this part of the river before, as there’s a dam in between Big River and Parker Strip, and we’re usually south of it. Parker Strip is really busy and crowded, and kind of made me miss the (relative) quiet of Big River. We did have fun hanging out there, however. My friends are quite entertaining when they’re drunk. When we got back, we took turns playing Beans (just a simple bean bag toss game, that everyone is quite competitive about) and then settled down to eat dinner. Kathy & JG had purchased a brand new barbecue just for this trip, and on the drive there it managed to jump out of the back of the truck, missing both the truck and the boat they towed behind them, without making a sound. I still contend that a band of Fast & the Furious type barbecue thieves drove up next to them, lifted out the barbecue and drove off without notice. Sadly, I think the gust of wind theory is more likely. So they bought another barbecue and we all shared it for dinner. The food was delicious (it’s amazing how tasty a barbecued burger can be when you’re outdoors) and we spent the rest of the night just sitting around the fire pit making s’mores and waiting for the rest of our friends to arrive. (It took them 6 hours to make a 3 hour trip.) They finally arrived at around 1am, and I went to bed, though a bunch of them stayed up and were loud for a while longer.
Saturday was much like Friday. We were up at the crack of dawn (in my world) and drove down river to one of the many food places that you can dock your boat at. We had a nice breakfast and then went back to camp to pack the coolers for another day on the river. I discovered I failed Sunscreen 101 on Friday, when I saw that my foot had visible finger marks on it where I had put the sunscreen. Apparently I forgot to rub it in. I also missed a stripe on my inner arm, so that was a lovely shade of pink as well. I rock. I made sure to fix those lovely mistakes on Saturday, and ended the weekend with a light tan (which for my fair skin, was exactly what I wanted). The water was colder than I liked, so I spent much of the time alternating between sitting on the boat getting fried, and standing in the water trying not to shiver. When we got back to camp Saturday night, we barbecued steaks and chicken for dinner (and by “we” I mean everyone else did. Donald was tired and went to bed before we had dinner, so I just ate some of the chicken and salad that Kathy put in front of me). We passed the rest of the night around the fire pit, watching Claudia create a huge fire.
Sunday morning came early again, and most everyone was gone by 9. It seemed like such a waste of a day to me, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. Donald and I stayed to help Kathy & JG pull their boat out of the water, and the 4 of us left Buckskin around 11. We all had a really great weekend, and I’m looking forward to spending many more weekends at the river this summer.
Big thanks to Kathy & JG for letting everyone hang out on their boat all weekend, for feeding me on Saturday night, and for just being great friends. You guys are awesome!
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