So, after some time recouping from our travels, we had a family get-together on the 4th of July. We took the opportunity to throw our parents a 'surprise', belated, joint, milestone birthday. After some arguing and getting on each others nerves, it was a success and everyone seemed to have a good time. We made some decorations for the party, but I'm pretty sure all of our pictures were on our dad's camera. However, I know we have a picture of the invitations we sent out:
Hopefully I'll be able to put up some of the pictures of the decorations (because that IS one of the reasons we decided to have the get together!) We were also able to meet our littlest cousin, who is absolutely the cutest! (Not the best picture of any of us, but you could just eat him up! Even though he was about to cry!) He has the biggest eyes and you can't help but smile!
We spent one afternoon with our aunt and mom. We started the outing with a delicious lunch and spent quite a bit of time taking pictures (a handful of which were approved). After lunch, we went for a stroll along the beach:
I must say, it looks surprisingly nice in the picture. We'll leave it at that! After walking and gossiping about boys, we went on a little sight-seeing "tour" as Mom and Aunt drove around their hometown. It was an extremely nice day (except for the stagnant beach smell).
We were also able to spend some time catching up with our friends, which is always fun. We also went up to Vermont to visit the Twin, and spent the morning blueberry picking with two of her little ones (so adorable!) The little boy kept eating his berries, and those that he didn't eat, he kept sharing with everyone. It was so much fun. Seeing our family and friends were the highlights of the trip. We did get some nice color, which is always appreciated! It's all gone now, but it was nice when it lasted! All in all, it was a nice, relaxing week or so!
The hardest part was the time change. It was kind of hard to wait until a reasonable time to messages to our West-Coasters, but it was a nice surprise the morning of our flight back to have an early morning/late night conversation with Boy! The only thing we were hoping for was that the flight back to Seattle was nothing like the one home. We kept checking the weather, to make sure everything looked good to go. It did!
We left for the airport at 4:00ish, and had no trouble in Connecticut, except for a little construction traffic. Once we got to New York, the story was a little different. At one point, we got stuck in traffic, but couldn't figure out why. Turns out, all of the signs that show the height of bridges are there for a reason. Some idiot (sorry...) decided to take his box truck and try to fit it under the bridge. It didn't work for him. Although, now it might fit. There was also one wrong turn, but that was because the road construction was not marked very well. After some choice words, we were back on the road and the only other problem we faced was all the traffic at the airport. Everyone impatiently trying to merge into one lane.
After our quick goodbyes, we got into the airport and into the (much longer, but quickly-moving) security line. I got stopped after the metal detector/body scanner and the lady goes, "Ma'am, I need to check your head". Well, I don't know how much you can really hide in a head of braided hair, but I'm pretty sure it was my glasses that set it off. Or, at least I hope so. While we were waiting for our flight to board, we were sitting near a group of three ladies and a boy who were clearly Lawng-EYElanders. Not the quiet ones, but those that talk at a loud volume constantly. We looked over to one another and both pretty much said, "As long as we're not near them". We finally board and we have the two aisle seats. Robyn's seat is next to an older lady who kept to herself. I find myself next to a little boy, maybe four years old. Pretty sure you can tell where this story is going. And who should come ten minutes later? The group of ladies who were near us. Great. Before the plane took off, he tried to fall asleep and kept kicking me. Once he decided he wasn't going to be comfortable, he started watching a tv show on the screen. But his sound wasn't working. And he didn't like the headphones. And he couldn't hear it. Once the show was playing, he was quiet and no problems. Once each episode ended, he spent five minutes yelling at his dad because it wasn't automatically going to where he wanted. But then he'd be quiet again. This went on for the entire trip. Oh, except for the 5 minutes they were in line for the bathroom. That was so quiet time, as well. Until they came back and the kid's tooth was loose and there was blood and tears everywhere. I kept scooting over towards the aisle so I'd be away from him. I did feel bad for his dad, though. He wasn't very happy with him and it was a long flight for both of them.
We finally landed on time without any problems! It was nice to be back on the West Coast (I'd say 'home', but I know how much Mom and Dad don't like it when we call Washington 'home'...) We made it back to our apartment at like 11:00am with no problems and fell asleep for the rest of the day!
The next few days were spent catching up on some things we started before we left. There has been quite a bit of classroom decorating, some favor making, some cleaning, and a lot of relaxing! Hopefully we'll have another project to share with you tomorrow! There's one that is just about done (only two months late) that is so cute and I wish I could keep it for myself!
Have a great night!
