lemonade

Well, we're finally in St. Louis. What's that you say? We left San Francisco yesterday morning at o'early thirty on a plane, how could it possibly have taken us over 30 hours to reach St. Louis? Well, let me tell you.

As mentioned, we were on a 7am flight so that we could have a stopover in Denver to give Charli some time to run around, but still make it to St. Louis in time to attend Brian's 20 year high school reunion last night. We got Charli out of bed and took her to the airport in her pajamas, and everything was fine, we got on the plane with plenty of time to spare. We had even more time to spare than we thought, because our departure was delayed due to a mechanical problem - some indicator light in the cockpit was not right. So they had to have someone come in and take things apart, and that didn't fix it, so they had to take something else apart, and that didn't fix it, so they had to take something else apart, and that finally fixed it, and then they had to put the cockpit back together and we left. That took about two hours, which was about how long our stopover in Denver was. How inconvenient.

We finally got to Denver, about 15 minutes before our next flight was to take off. Brian ran to the other gate to tell them that we had landed and were running over, while Charli and I waited for her stroller to come up. If you have not used a stroller at an airport, you take it with you to the gate, get a gate check ticket, and then leave the stroller at the end of the jetway when you board. When the plane is debarking, usually the first thing that happens is they bring the strollers up to the end of the jetway so you can pick them up on the way off the plane. Normally, the strollers show up very quickly. For some reason, on this flight, I had to wait and wait and wait. We were first off the plane because of the close flight time, but it didn't matter because I had to wait for at least 10 minutes for the stroller. Another mother and I commiserated. The strollers finally showed up, I jammed Charli in (she was not being agreeable), and we ran to the other gate, where Brian met me and said they closed the doors about 1 minute ago even though he was there waiting and they refused to open them again. Did I mention we were flying United? United SUCKS. We hypothesize that they had oversold the plane and that's why they refused to wait for us (by odd coincidence, the plane at the next gate was 4 seats oversold and they were asking for volunteers; just the same number of passengers that got left behind from our flight (we weren't the only ones)). Our rescheduled flight included yet another stopover and got us into St. Louis at 10pm; when we told them we really needed to get there as early as we could, they managed to find something that got us in at 9:30. Hooray.

Since there was no way Brian was going to get to his reunion that night, we decided to tell United to suck eggs (for the day) and to just rent a car and head up to Fort Collins to surprise my family, stay a night, and continue on the next day. Now that's what I call making lemonade out of lemons! So we did that. We went straight to my mother's office, with the brilliant plan of sending Charli by herself into my mom's cube, and just standing outside listening for the reaction. We arrived around 3:30pm and did just that. It went off without a hitch - Charli wandered into Mom's cube without us even prompting her - except that no one was there. Bummer! Turns out we had just missed her, she had left around 3. Dam! Well, I guess we'll have to surprise her at the house, if she's going to go an leave early on a Friday and all that. So we headed to the house, where there were no cars and no lights and no answer at the door. Dam! Terrible thoughts creep through my head... I hope they're not doing something stupid like camping this weekend, and leaving early to do so... Well, Kim would know, right? So I called Kim - no answer. Try again, no answer. Call Brent, no answer. Crap! What if they're ALL camping together this weekend, no doubt somewhere in the freezing cold with no cell phone reception? Idiots! I give up on the idea of a surprise and call both Dad and Mom; no answer from either of them. Dam! WE'RE the idiots! What fool would think a surprise visit is really a good idea anyway? How could you ever know that your victim is actually going to be there? I call Kim one more time, in desperation. No answer. *SIGH*

So Brian and I started thinking about our alternative plans. We know some friends down the street have keys to the house, but we were pretty sure they were out of town this weekend, and there's no one home when we stop by. We're going to have to drive back down to Denver, stay in a hotel for the night, and United is going to have the last laugh on us. What a downer. As we're still sitting in the driveway wondering if there is ANY way we can get into the house, Kim calls! She just didn't hear her phone or something! She says everyone is around for the weekend! Hooray! And then Brent calls! Neither of them know where Mom and Dad are, but Brent can come over and let us into the house! And then Dad calls! He and Mom are together in a meeting with their financial advisor! I even manage to not let on that we're sitting in his driveway! Hooray! Christmas is saved! Not that it's Christmas, but you get my point.

So Brent comes over and lets us into the house, and we hang out with Charli and wait for Mom and Dad to show up. Before long they do, and the gaping and stuttering as they come up from the garage and see Charli running around, and then us sitting on the couch, is definitely worth... well, maybe not all the distress, but definitely worth the drive. And seeing as how we had all that distress anyway, at least we got a great result. :)

We had dinner out, and then I passed out early after having stayed up all night the night before packing, as I always do. We left the next morning as planned, had an uneventful trip to St. Louis (which included a DELICIOUS caramel apple from the airport, thanks to all the food vouchers United gave us), and managed to at least make it to the second night of Brian's reunion. It was unfortunately the night of lower attendance, and was not the night that included the tour of the school, which Brian really wanted to see, but it was the night that significant others were invited, so I was happy. :)

not quite two

My parents came out to visit this weekend because next weekend (Charli's birthday) we are going to be in St. Louis for an extended Thanksgiving vacation. We had a pre-birthday celebration with Bella and Darian, the children Charli does share-care with, and their families. It was lovely.

Bella brought some flowers for Charli; they were so cute.










Nina provided face painting. The face painting is amazing for 2 reasons: 1, she's really good at it; 2, you wouldn't believe how well behaved the children are while they're getting it. They sit perfectly still, and they wait patiently, and they do whatever Nina tells them to do (close your eyes, turn this way, etc).

The children decorated their own mini-cupcakes. This was fun, but degenerated into skipping the cupcakes entirely and just eating sprinkles.



Then we sang happy birthday (in both english and german. The german version involves jam in your pants - very strange) and blew out candles.

All in all it was very relaxed, simple, and fun. I hope Charli enjoys this until she's old enough to plan her own birthdays.