Back To Reality

We have returned from our lovely 4-day weekend adventure, Yia Yia has safely returned home, and we are back in the swing of everyday life.

Our weekend was awesome and relaxing. We enjoyed a live comedy show where we consumed more alcohol that evening than we had probably consumed in 2007. This just means is that we shared a few large drinks and felt it. The comics were hilarious and the last one was clearly high. Just after he started Carie and I discussed that he had to have been high and then it wasn't long before he commented on it. I think his show could have been better if he weren't high and drunk, but to each his own. The downside was that we smelled like a smoke stack when we left. They allowed smoking in the bar area where we all had to gather for the general admission seating but then they didn't allow smoking in the theatre. It was too late by then; we had already soaked in a fair amount of smoke.

We also enjoyed several movies over the course of the weekend. We actually went to the movies at the theatre and watched three great movies ranging from chick flicks (27 Dresses – awesome!) where you knew how it was all going to turn out to the more intense Drama/Suspense type (Michael Clayton – also awesome!) where I was lost for a good part of the movie. Those darn flashbacks! There was a fourth one (Great Debaters) we were going to see but the timing didn't work out. We enjoyed many awesome meals at restaurants that we don't tend to go to as a family; either because we don't have them locally or they just aren't part of our routine. We enjoyed sharing entrees and occasionally enjoying an appetizer. Mostly we enjoyed eating very tasty meals and having great adult dinner conversations.

The weekend was also filled with shopping, both window shopping and some serious shopping. We both managed to come home with a fair amount of new clothing and shoes. We knew before we left that we wanted to visit a particular shoe store since we had been there before and had great success and fun to boot. Carie scored a couple pair of boots, really cool sexy boots. I was able to find some much needed work shoes and casual shoes hoping to make my work shoes last a bit longer. We scored some amazing deals all around and it felt good to add some new items to our wardrobe. On our way home we also stopped and picked up some potentially cool fireworks. We've never been big into buying them and we didn't go crazy crazy on this trip, but I think we have some really cool and colorful fireworks for our 4th of July celebration. The deal is that Missouri sells fireworks that are “illegal” to us Nebraskan’s. :)

We checked in daily with home to see how things were going at home. Clearly they went well as not one of the kids really wanted to talk to us all weekend. If they did agree to talk to us it was very brief. They had better and more important things to do! It was really awesome to know that they were having such a great time. That made it easier for us to enjoy our time away.

They all were thrilled to see us return Monday evening. Abby (and potentially everyone) really wanted to go out to dinner Monday and so we agreed. They had such a great weekend and deserved that little treat. Of course Abby chose McD's and they enjoyed it greatly. But before we could leave for dinner they were highly anticipating PRESENTS. It didn't take Spencer 30 seconds within our arrival to ask if we brought him presents. Of course we did! It wasn't anything really exciting. Oddly throughout our shopping excursions we never really came across anything really cool and great for the kids. But they each enjoyed the couple of little things we got for them and the book that they get to share.

I ended up taking Tuesday off as well as we thought Spencer wouldn't be a happy camper if I left him yet another day. So I hung out at home with everyone. Carie and Yia Yia went up to school to have lunch with the girls and got to check out "indoor recess". The girls got to show Yia Yia their classrooms and their tables. It was a very special treat for them!

Tuesday evening we had Carie's family up for dinner to celebrate her brother's birthday (which was Sunday) while their mom was still in town. It was nice to get everyone together before her mom left.

Wednesday morning it was time to return to our routines. I took Carie's mom to the airport and then headed off to work while Carie got the 4 kids off to their respective schools. We are all tired and ready for some more down time.

Tonight marks the last of the swimming lessons for this session. The girls’ are signed up for the next session that begins next week. As of now Spencer isn’t enrolled because they don’t have enough kids to hold a class. I’m hoping that will change but it doesn’t look promising. I suppose if he passes this level we could more easily find a class for the next session, but I’m not thinking that will happen. Even if he does, I’d really prefer that he experience the preschool level again. I guess we’ll see!