Good morning, blog readers. I’m running on fumes this week, but thankfully I’m reunited with the most important people in the world (in no particular order) – Alanna, Logan and Abby. I flew out of Ecuador last Friday at midnight, arrived in Miami in the wee hours, had a lovely layover, got to Charlotte around 1pm and then Hickory where the family was staying with my favorite big sister Angie at about 3:30pm Friday afternoon. And it was all worth it. Honestly, there is no better feeling of seeing your son screaming your name and running to hug you as soon as you get out of the car. Alanna waited patiently while Logan go all his Daddy love in, then she planted a well-deserved kiss on me. Next was Abby. I was a little worried about her. I hadn’t seen her since a week after she was born. Would she remember me? Would she cry when I held her? I have no idea if she remembered me or not, but she gave me the biggest, toothless smile I have every seen when I held her and I knew then and there that all was right in the world. Well, except for the U.S. government, but I digress.
The weekend in the States went by so quickly thanks to me cramming in every single possible thing a person could do in those few hours of time. Friday night, Angie babysat the kids for us while Alanna and I had a quick date. Outback was my choice for dinner. Its not Alanna’s most favorite, but she understands I needed a nice big prime rib and some aussie cheese fries to get me moving through the weekend. We did some quick shopping for items that we needed to take back with us at Target, then headed home, packed a little and then I was in bed at midnight. And then up at 6am. My 20 year high school reunion was Saturday night, but some of my closest dude friends weren’t going to make it. We had originally planned to play a backyard football game, like we did for the 10 year reunion, but between all our other commitments and the main fact we didn’t want to break our old, brittle bones, we ditched the game and just met at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. It was great seeing the fellas. We razz on each other so much, but these are the guys that have been with me since grade school. Although I don’t see them as nearly as much as I would like, and rarely ever all together in one room, I love these dudes like my family and I’m so proud we stay in touch.
I quickly drove back to Hickory after breakfast, ran a few more errands and got a haircut at Sportclips. Mmm… hot towel and scalp massage. Can’t beat that for $23. My parents drove up to Hickory to have lunch with us. We had Bojangles. So good going in, not the best going out, but I love the stuff and obviously can’t get it in Ecuador. I spent some quality time with the family, letting my parents hold Abby and talk to Logan, and then it was time to head out to the reunion in Concord. We left a little early so we could hopefully avoid the race traffic around Charlotte Motor Speedway (it was race weekend, which meant a bagillion extra people around my hometown) and also to see about getting Alanna’s iphone fixed which Logan had dropped in the toilet a month earlier. Quick plug for –
Charlotte iPhone Repair. Lot’s of places won’t even touch water damaged phones. Alex, the owner was able to get it working perfectly in about 15 minutes. If you have ANY problems with your iphones, go see this guy.
Well Abby decided to mess up her outfit by blowing out her diaper (you get the picture) and in the rush we didn’t bring a change of clothes with her from Hickory for her. So before the reunion, we had to take a detour to Walmart and grab something quick and cute for her to wear. And yes, I did bring a baby to a reunion. We were those people. Abby is just not good with the bottle yet and much prefers the real thing from mommy. We finally got to the reunion right on time. It was a blast to see my old classmates, some who I haven’t seen in almost 20 years. It was a TERRIBLE turnout, and I would I have loved to see more people, but the ones who were there made it fun and memorable. We’re planning on doing another one for 25 years, so hopefully more people will show up – especially all of you that live 15 minutes away and didn’t really have anything else on your plate that night.
We got back to Hickory around 11:30 Saturday night, finished last minute packing and went to bed…. to get back up at 5:00 so we could drive to Charlotte airport. We said our goodbyes to Angie, hopped in the rental van (with one last Sundrop in tow) and made it to the airport on time and without incident. Well, Logan had to pee once, but that’s to be expected.
Airlines usually allow 2 checked bags for free on international flights. But I guess they can just change their policies at anytime, without telling anyone, even if you’ve already booked your tickets AND have written proof you should get 2 free checked bags. So, we found out that we had to pay and extra $270 at check in. That was lovely way to start our trip back to Ecuador. Oh… American Airlines was the airline we used so feel free to hate on them in whatever way you can. The rest of the trip actually went pretty well. For the most part, Logan and Abby were little angels on both the flights and we even got compliments from other passengers on how well our kids behaved on the plane. This was Alanna’s biggest worry I believe, so the kids being good really helped keep her calm. Did I mention she gets a little nervous on travel days? We got into Ecuador around 7pm on Sunday night and after a little hassle about one of our bags at customs, we made it outside unmolested and the director of our school was even there to pick us up. Some way or another we crammed our umpteen pieces of luggage into his SUV, sat on top of each other and made it to Tumbaco around 9:00. Alanna loves the new place, and Logan loves his new Spiderman themed room. And Abby, well she loves Mommy’s milk I guess.
We’re slowly settling in this week. I’m back to work of course and Alanna is unpacking and decorating. All of us took a trip to the grocery store last night. Not the best plan, but I wanted to get them out of the apartment. Overall though, we’re doing well and are very happy to have each other again. And I brought back GTA V which should keep entertain me for a fee months! Adios!
