Longer version of the last two weeks.
With more details and new & improved information!
Just kidding. Feeling a little silly, still more tired than I thought I was.
Anyway. I'm gonna put it back here cause I don't know how long it's going to get.
Hm. Ok, so starting from my last pre-trip post. I ended up working and then coming home and crashing for a little while. Went to Logan to do last minute Christmas shopping with Darrell, drank a Rock Star on the way. Holy cow, that stuff is great. I was AWAKE. Very painfully and gigglingly awake. But we had fun finding stuff for the girls.
Sat the 23rd I worked on cleaning the house as I knew darn well I was going to have a houseful of people for New Years and would have to get it done before I left. Sun was Christmas Eve, Darrell came up after work and had dinner with us and after the kids went to bed I wrapped presents for like....3 hours or some such, while watching A Christmas Carol (w/Patrick Stewart) as well as The Nutcracker (Baryshnikov!) and a Brian Setzer Orchestra Christmas show which was REALLY nifty. Went to bed way too damn late.
Christmas Day started not-so-bright and VERY early. Like Ehreni woke up at 3:30 and woke her SISTERS. I heard a noise and sat up in bed and peeked out my door to see that the living room lights were all on. I step out to the hallway, noone in the living room, turn and see all three girls standing in the bathroom with those "Oh, shit, mom caught us!" faces. Sent 'em back to bed. Ehreni was up again at 5. And at 6. At which point I pleaded with her "1 more hour, PLEASE!" I think she read or something in bed for an hour. At 7 I hear "mom, you better wake up, here I come to jump on you!" She didn't actually jump, but yeah. Day was begun. Girls had a great time opening presents...as witness....
Our tree! With overflowing bookshelves behind.
Cookie!
Makeup! Gods, I wish she would quit growing. Sorta.
Tony Hawk! That face was an honest to goodness shriek.
We love Christmas!
My personal Christmas loot...
Shakespeare and cds from queen_lily_rose and her darling poelaramont
Gothic Beauty subscription from militarychef
BPAL imps from purpletophat
Cash from my dad
earrings from one sis
"Hair of the Frog" by Three Weird Sisters (cd) and "Winds of Change" by Mercedes Lackey (book) from my mom
Cards from numerous friends/relatives
So I was expecting John sometime around 10 p.m. on Christmas Day...and at 9:30 my phone rang. John, telling me that the friend that was bringing him down had gotten a flat partway there and was there any way I could come get him? Sure. So instead of going to bed, at 10:30 I headed for Pocatello. Got a little lost as he'd been given bad directions and passed them on to me. However, I did find him and we got back to Preston around....1? Something like that. Slept and the next morning packed up mine and the girls things for our trip. Left the house at not quite noon, stopped at the courthouse to file the last of my divorce papers. Was told that the judge would be in that Friday (the 29th) and while I have to doublecheck, I'm assuming that happened and hence it was finalized that day. Headed for Portland.
Stopped in Twin Falls, ID, for lunch and paused at a scenic overlook on the outskirts of town. Snake River Gorge. Oh. My. God. Check it out.
And here's a shot that shows the town on the other side of the gorge.
The rest of the drive was long but not unpleasant, very dark after a bit so while I got glimpses of the beauty I couldn't really appreciate it. Already mentioned the one travail of the trip, the running out of gas thing. Rain into some serious rain and some occasional fog. Annoying but not too awful, really.
Next day took the light rail into downtown after John got off of work. Powell's. I have already had my raptures over that. But I did the touristy thing....
After Powell's we went to Izzy's for dinner. Buffet and YUMMY. Applewood smoked ribs and cedar plank salmon. It was tasty.
Thur the 28th I stopped at the cemetery as mentioned. Took a couple of pictures, one of the Korean Vet Memorial and one of Mt. Hood. Managed to almost intrude upon what I am sure was a military funeral....people with flags, both American and Marine, plus several men in uniform and a piper in full kit warming up his bagpipes. So yeah, reverse was my friend and I backed off. Did get held up by the funeral procession as I got to the bottom of the hill that the cemetery is on. Anyway, the pictures
Friday, drove out to Seaside as previously mentioned...so here's *those* pictures.
Sunset!
John and the girls headed toward the waters edge
Dana checking out a seashell.
Ehreni and Micaela chasing some seagulls. Brave girls, those were damn big birds.
More ocean waves.
I had to beg them to stand still long enough to get this shot.
A seal in the aquarium.
The Lewis and Clark statue. Lousy shot, it was dark out.
Anyway, the next morning Ehreni was feeling lousy so we didn't go to OMSI. Just basically hung out at John's house waiting for her to feel better. Decided not to leave at noon as originally planned as she was still throwing up. Figured on having dinner and getting to sleep early and leaving by 6 the next morning. She finally felt better so we went mini-golfing which was fun but quickly degenerated into complete and utter chaos. Of an entertaining kind. Well, except for having to keep taking Micaela's putter away before she beaned someone in the head. She could NOT seem to keep it down! Back to the house for tacos and bed. When the alarm went off at 4:30 I about had to pull my fingers out of the ceiling. Yuck.
Up and packed and rolled out about quarter to 6. Again with a long but not unpleasant drive, hit some fog but otherwise the weather was lovely. Got back to my house about 6:30 p.m.. Darrell was already here, along with his two siblings, which was planned. He and John hit it off even better than I'd hoped and the evening went swimmingly. Zonked out rather quickly after midnight. Happy 2007!!!
Got up about 8 on New Years Day (who does that??? lol) to take John and Jason to SLC for a noon flight. Dropped them. Have decided that I hate the airport as I have to keep taking him there. Anyway, stopped to see Flora and Aggie on my way home, got some details about our Arizona/Estrella trip in 6 weeks. Stopped again in Logan to find stuff for my spooky_mail swap. Got back around 3, tried to stay awake and couldn't, took about an hour nap on the couch. Well, nap isn't a strong enough word. More like I was dead for an hour. Fortunately, Darrell was still here with the girls and Ehreni made tuna sandwiches for dinner, yum!
Today was back into the swing of school and stuff and damn but I've had a long night of dealing with homework and tired children and such. They're SUPPOSED to be sleeping even now but I think that they are SO tired that they kind of can't. They're all talking and bitching and complaining that they can't sleep. So yay.
Back to work for me tomorrow.....and only 6 weeks till I see John again.
There you go!
Just kidding. Feeling a little silly, still more tired than I thought I was.
Anyway. I'm gonna put it back here cause I don't know how long it's going to get.
Hm. Ok, so starting from my last pre-trip post. I ended up working and then coming home and crashing for a little while. Went to Logan to do last minute Christmas shopping with Darrell, drank a Rock Star on the way. Holy cow, that stuff is great. I was AWAKE. Very painfully and gigglingly awake. But we had fun finding stuff for the girls.
Sat the 23rd I worked on cleaning the house as I knew darn well I was going to have a houseful of people for New Years and would have to get it done before I left. Sun was Christmas Eve, Darrell came up after work and had dinner with us and after the kids went to bed I wrapped presents for like....3 hours or some such, while watching A Christmas Carol (w/Patrick Stewart) as well as The Nutcracker (Baryshnikov!) and a Brian Setzer Orchestra Christmas show which was REALLY nifty. Went to bed way too damn late.
Christmas Day started not-so-bright and VERY early. Like Ehreni woke up at 3:30 and woke her SISTERS. I heard a noise and sat up in bed and peeked out my door to see that the living room lights were all on. I step out to the hallway, noone in the living room, turn and see all three girls standing in the bathroom with those "Oh, shit, mom caught us!" faces. Sent 'em back to bed. Ehreni was up again at 5. And at 6. At which point I pleaded with her "1 more hour, PLEASE!" I think she read or something in bed for an hour. At 7 I hear "mom, you better wake up, here I come to jump on you!" She didn't actually jump, but yeah. Day was begun. Girls had a great time opening presents...as witness....
Our tree! With overflowing bookshelves behind.
Cookie!
Makeup! Gods, I wish she would quit growing. Sorta.
Tony Hawk! That face was an honest to goodness shriek.
We love Christmas!
My personal Christmas loot...
Shakespeare and cds from queen_lily_rose and her darling poelaramont
Gothic Beauty subscription from militarychef
BPAL imps from purpletophat
Cash from my dad
earrings from one sis
"Hair of the Frog" by Three Weird Sisters (cd) and "Winds of Change" by Mercedes Lackey (book) from my mom
Cards from numerous friends/relatives
So I was expecting John sometime around 10 p.m. on Christmas Day...and at 9:30 my phone rang. John, telling me that the friend that was bringing him down had gotten a flat partway there and was there any way I could come get him? Sure. So instead of going to bed, at 10:30 I headed for Pocatello. Got a little lost as he'd been given bad directions and passed them on to me. However, I did find him and we got back to Preston around....1? Something like that. Slept and the next morning packed up mine and the girls things for our trip. Left the house at not quite noon, stopped at the courthouse to file the last of my divorce papers. Was told that the judge would be in that Friday (the 29th) and while I have to doublecheck, I'm assuming that happened and hence it was finalized that day. Headed for Portland.
Stopped in Twin Falls, ID, for lunch and paused at a scenic overlook on the outskirts of town. Snake River Gorge. Oh. My. God. Check it out.
And here's a shot that shows the town on the other side of the gorge.
The rest of the drive was long but not unpleasant, very dark after a bit so while I got glimpses of the beauty I couldn't really appreciate it. Already mentioned the one travail of the trip, the running out of gas thing. Rain into some serious rain and some occasional fog. Annoying but not too awful, really.
Next day took the light rail into downtown after John got off of work. Powell's. I have already had my raptures over that. But I did the touristy thing....
After Powell's we went to Izzy's for dinner. Buffet and YUMMY. Applewood smoked ribs and cedar plank salmon. It was tasty.
Thur the 28th I stopped at the cemetery as mentioned. Took a couple of pictures, one of the Korean Vet Memorial and one of Mt. Hood. Managed to almost intrude upon what I am sure was a military funeral....people with flags, both American and Marine, plus several men in uniform and a piper in full kit warming up his bagpipes. So yeah, reverse was my friend and I backed off. Did get held up by the funeral procession as I got to the bottom of the hill that the cemetery is on. Anyway, the pictures
Friday, drove out to Seaside as previously mentioned...so here's *those* pictures.
Sunset!
John and the girls headed toward the waters edge
Dana checking out a seashell.
Ehreni and Micaela chasing some seagulls. Brave girls, those were damn big birds.
More ocean waves.
I had to beg them to stand still long enough to get this shot.
A seal in the aquarium.
The Lewis and Clark statue. Lousy shot, it was dark out.
Anyway, the next morning Ehreni was feeling lousy so we didn't go to OMSI. Just basically hung out at John's house waiting for her to feel better. Decided not to leave at noon as originally planned as she was still throwing up. Figured on having dinner and getting to sleep early and leaving by 6 the next morning. She finally felt better so we went mini-golfing which was fun but quickly degenerated into complete and utter chaos. Of an entertaining kind. Well, except for having to keep taking Micaela's putter away before she beaned someone in the head. She could NOT seem to keep it down! Back to the house for tacos and bed. When the alarm went off at 4:30 I about had to pull my fingers out of the ceiling. Yuck.
Up and packed and rolled out about quarter to 6. Again with a long but not unpleasant drive, hit some fog but otherwise the weather was lovely. Got back to my house about 6:30 p.m.. Darrell was already here, along with his two siblings, which was planned. He and John hit it off even better than I'd hoped and the evening went swimmingly. Zonked out rather quickly after midnight. Happy 2007!!!
Got up about 8 on New Years Day (who does that??? lol) to take John and Jason to SLC for a noon flight. Dropped them. Have decided that I hate the airport as I have to keep taking him there. Anyway, stopped to see Flora and Aggie on my way home, got some details about our Arizona/Estrella trip in 6 weeks. Stopped again in Logan to find stuff for my spooky_mail swap. Got back around 3, tried to stay awake and couldn't, took about an hour nap on the couch. Well, nap isn't a strong enough word. More like I was dead for an hour. Fortunately, Darrell was still here with the girls and Ehreni made tuna sandwiches for dinner, yum!
Today was back into the swing of school and stuff and damn but I've had a long night of dealing with homework and tired children and such. They're SUPPOSED to be sleeping even now but I think that they are SO tired that they kind of can't. They're all talking and bitching and complaining that they can't sleep. So yay.
Back to work for me tomorrow.....and only 6 weeks till I see John again.
There you go!