First of all, the flight was a nightmare party. :) Stephen's dad let us mooch some flyer mile points to fly us all there for free on Thursday. The only catch was that the only time we could leave that day was at 7PM...with a layover in Denver. Hey - it's surprising what we people will put ourselves through for free, and still come out on top! :) We got to the airport to find it was delayed (the omen that things weren't going to somehow go magically smooth like we had hoped). Luckily it was only about 40 minutes late. Steve was catching up on some of his fatherly duties after being a bit MIA before he took Boards. ;)
We got on the plane and got in the comfy spot in the back where luckily our assigned seats were with a few extra not used. (We got to bum the extra seat for Ruby). Really my plan was to strap her in the carseat we brought all along and have Ross sit on our laps (since he's way better at sitting there than she is - seriously - that girl is BUSY little bee). Anyway - we stretched out, and tried to relax. Ruby did great for the hour flight to Denver. Ross had a hard time having to be strapped in his own seat during take off and landing when he wanted Dad to hold him. Otherwise - we did pretty well.
The plan landed, we jumped off (as fast as you can when you sit in the very back), and booked it to our next flight (that was actually held for us...only us who was left to board). Of COURSE it was packed, of COURSE our seats were in the very back so we got to do the walk of shame holding everyone's flight up, and of COURSE our kids were freaking out because it was already an hour past their bed time. Good times. We were split up actually and I was going to be sitting with the kids next to this night, gigantically athletic guy. I sweetly requested with my Ruby doing everything she could to dive bomb out of my arms that he might want to switch with my husband across the aisle for his own sanity. Thankfully he complied. We then resigned to our lot in life at that moment: attempting to calm exhausted, grumpy, they-only-fall-asleep-in-their-beds children. Ruby had only had one nap that day, yet somehow managed to stay awake all the way till midnight right when we were descending into Portland (of COURSE). Ross had of course taken NO nap that day (telling him we were going on an airplane when he woke up came back to bite me...big time). He took a turn in the car seat and totally fell asleep, but woke up a bit later and was pretty grumpy. Anyway - long story short. We made it...barely.
Our wonderful friends, the Jaggis, not only let us stay with them, they came and got us at the airport. It was SUCH a relief. Ruby fell asleep on the way home and didn't even stir when she was changed into pjs, and put in bed. Ross kept telling me on the way to their house that he was going to play with Jack when he got there, and when we'd tell him Jack was probably asleep. He'd tell me with some exasperation, "No, mom, Jack's not asleep. We will play!" He also crashed hard when we finally settled in. Ruby somehow sensed how tired I was and decided to wake up hysterical about two minutes after I laid down to go to sleep. We tried EVERYTHING with zero success, and finally laid her back down and hung out on the stairs while she went back to sleep.
The next morning we met at Roger's Park with all our dear friends in Oregon. It was SO MUCH FUN. I can't emphasize that enough. It was a breath of fresh air to feel all the crazy chaotic fun going on with all our kids running around and all of us women chatting up a storm while trying to persuade children to stop for two seconds to eat some lunch. I felt like I had to scan the two playgrounds about every two minutes to keep track of my children. Mostly because Ruby is a wanderer. She will go anywhere and pretty much with anyone. It freaks me out when we are out in public, because she has also gotten fast - she's a runner.
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| Some of the gang taking over swings! (Kendra and Parker, Hayley swinging her two daughters, Brooklyn and Aubrey, Mandy holding Dawson (Kim's son), Amy holding Cora, Jenning pushing his and Mandy's son Henry, and Nate in the back pushing his and Amy's daughter Lydia with Steve Jaggi covered up, and Stephen poking his head out. :) |
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| Paige - a heart throb of Ross's. She was a little shy that morning with everyone around. I can never get over how adorable she is! |
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| Our chatting circle. Marci, Hayley, Brooklyn, Aubrey, Mandy, Ayla, Michelle, and Jessica at the top. :) |
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| Ayla is another ADORABLE girl. :) |
There was a merry-go-round Ruby pulled herself up on while I was at the swings with Ross. I was fine with the idea until a random boy ran over and started pushing it around. Ruby of course has no idea how to hold on, and promptly was whipped off before I can even utter a word to the boy about not pushing the merry-go-round with babies on it. She cried pretty hard for about 10 minutes but no bumps or bruises. And then spent the rest of the time trying to get BACK on the merry-go-round. This girl is crazy.
Ross was SO excited to play with all his old friends. I couldn't even get a decent picture because they were constantly running everywhere. It was fabulous. An absolutely fabulous morning. I had watched my friend, Kim's, kids while she went to their graduation luncheon. It was a bit tricky, Wesley and Dawson were great, it was my kids running around everywhere else that made it tricky. Also - I had the help of just about everybody. I'm not sure how four kids will pan out someday in the department of my sanity. :) At least they won't be the ages, 3, 3, 16 months and 7 months. :)
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| Davin, Ross, and Wesley too busy to stop. |
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| Davin was at least compliant :) |
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| Jack and Ross (they were constantly attempting to share Lightning McQueen at his house, Buzz, and Woody. :) ) They had so much fun together! |
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| Davin, Brooklyn and Wes |
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| Ross trying to help Davin up. Davin telling Ross he's okay. :) |
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| Naomi and Caleb up top with Ross and Davin climbing :) |
During kids nap times, I went to the best, pretty gross, thrifting place, the BINS! I got to go with my fabulous friends, Kim, Amy, and Michelle. We had a great system down sorting and came away with some decent stuff. Somehow I ALWAYS end up with the most - Stephen loves that let me tell you. ;)
That night our families had driven, and each took one of our children for the night while Steve and I went to Portland for his graduation dinner (well appetizers and drinks - which meant water for us). ;) It was so fun seeing all his friends. All the girls in his class are so incredibly sweet. They all know me even though we've only met a few times over the last three years and are so fun to chat with. Same with a good handful of his professors. They are so fun to talk to and spoke SO highly of Stephen, the ones I chatted with. We ate, talked, listened to a few speeches which were great, and watched their Christmas PT music videos which were hilarious. It was such a fun night!
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| I have to gloat about my dress. I LOVE IT. Seriously. You should ask me the story sometime of getting it, but I LOVE it. :) |
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| Stephen's graduating class. Yay! |
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| Me, Steve, one of his close friends from the program, Sam and his wife Yi. |
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| Jennifer, Kelsey, and Steve |
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| Courtney, Steve, Ellen, and Jacki |
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| Steve and Kristen |
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| Steve, Monica and Ryland |
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| Steve with Dr. Medeiros |
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| Dr. Orada, Steve, and Dr. Bush |
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| Betsy, Dr. Sanders (who glowed over what an incredible lab dissector he was in the anatomy lab), Steve, and another close PT classmate, Mike. |
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| Stephen, Zach, and Nathan. |
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| Nicole, Perry, Me and Steve. They had a baby too (Tate) during PT school which made Nicole and I totally bond in the lets talk being a mom with babies. LOVED these people. |
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| Steve with his close friend Emily. She is so sweet. Ruby LOVES the hippo she gave her for the amazing baby shower Steve's class threw me. |
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