going to raleigh, leaving raleigh, chloe's first day in CA

i went to raleigh over the weekend to pick up her highness, chloe, and to have jensgiving dinner (for explanation please click here). since i was in town for just a little over 48 hours, we had to pack it all in. saturday was a blur. that day went something like this:

9:39am
Land at RDU. Aaron picks me up.

10:45am - 6:00pm
get to the house, say hello to the kids, say hello to gordon, leave the kids with gordon, go see high school musical 3 with some of the kids, sleep through half the movie, meet gordon and the kids and leigh at steak and shake, deal with a very rude waitress, shake down 4 kids who are trying to sneak their spit ball shooters past their mother, get back to the house, go grocery shopping with leigh for jensgiving groceries, go back home.

6:00pm - bedtime
cook in the kitchen, sneak cookie dough out of the kitchen, play call of duty

everyone cooking



makenna helping to make the crab dip



aaron doing dishes



ok so SOME of us were working in the kitchen ... others .. not so much




after the cooking, i remember sitting in a recliner and being in mid conversation with gordon as we were watching rush hour 3 or maybe it was gladiator and falling asleep. i was exhausted.

sunday was a little less taxing.

we pretty much just ate all day.

we got up and went to church, then went to lunch at an italian restaurant, went home, played some call of duty, then went and got some ice cream.



oh, it only gets better from here.

after ice cream, we go BACK into the kitchen to cook and hang out some more

gordon showing me how he uses a big boy cup now



this is NOT a picture of nicole yelling at aaron



goofing around - we're looking in different directions because we had 3 cameras taking a picture






the hard work continues





then we do the responsible adult thing and make sure that Gabby gets fed first



DELICIOUS!



then we finish up with our food

final touches on the ham





also delicious!



we sit down to eat AGAIN



after dinner aaron pretended to get a phone call. i say pretend because every single person he knows was already sitting at that dinner table with him!



then we go back into the living room and watch the greatest movie of our generation.

speed.

oh keanu, you are brilliant.

after speed, we eat some cheesecake and freshly baked chocolate chip cookes, watch a shortened version of braveheart (thanks to gordon) and once again go to bed.

whew. just one day left.

monday, we wake up and of course ... we go to eat.

on our way





braeden just LOVES applebees.



and gabby just LOVES french fries.



girl pose!



yeah i told these 2 to get together so i could take their picture and aaron yells "girl pose!" and that's what i got.

classic.

after applebees we played singstar and american idol for .. oh i don't know .. about 3 hours and then it was time for me to pack up my stuff and go to the airport.

my very special carry on baggage:



chloe did very good on the plane. she barked as we walked into the airport but that was it. she stayed in her bag and was quiet for both of our flights.

we didn't make it back to my apartment until really late so she didn't get her first look until the next day. but once she did, she was just a ball of energy running around everywhere.

well, almost everywhere.



i know you can't see them but those are steps.

i have two little steps in my apartment that separate my living room from my kitchen and dining room. chloe can't go up or down these steps. she can go down them if she gets a running start but she can't figure out how to get up them. she just ran around while i got ready for work.

then before going into work we hit the park that's right beside my office building



she then went into the office with me.



she was very nervous but i took her monkey and she mauled it while i worked



and then she'd sit on my lap while i watched tv ... er i mean did my work.



after work we came home and relaxed.

i carved a pumpkin.



and she laid in her bed playing with her pumpkin ball



my pumpkin ended up being way cooler than hers



i am obviously a very busy woman.

The Monster Mash

on wednesday i had another work party to attend. i completely forgot my camera so i stole some pictures from one of my friends because it was AMAZING!!

one of the managers and his talent threw a big halloween party. it was called "Wintner's Nightmare Bash" and it was themed with all the Tim Burton characters.

i won't lie. Paul Wintner definitely knows how to throw a party. he had hired professionals to walk around. to name a few, there was batman, the joker, jack skeleton, willy wonka and even edward scissorhands.



this guy was amazing. he NEVER broke character. he even had the voice down. he and i had a special love affair throughout the night. every time i'd turn around there was edward waiting to cut my hair for me.

he had life sized replicas from "the nightmare before christmas"





costumes of course were optional so that meant that i did not dress up. i actually had to go right from work as it was in hollywood and i didn't want to get caught in a big line to get in.



that's aric, me, jody, and annika. and looking at this picture just made me realize how short i am.

another great night in my mildly fancy life.

My Disney Vacation ..

we did other fun things besides going to the parks. . . .

for instance, after we'd spend all day at the park, gordon and i would head down for adult time at the pool. we were fortunate because according to the posted sign, the pool closed at midnight. however, according to the concierge, the pool was open 24 hours as long as you "don't cause a ruckus".

gordon and i cause a ruckus?



never.



guess who else snuck out one night to enjoy adult swim?



gotcha!




we had fun while eating ...

our waitress was very good at one restaurant. gordon wanted water so she more than obliged.

look at him go!



still going ...



gone!

what a man :)



gabby looking fierce at the table.



we had fun with the camera at the Maya Grill





we had breakfast with a chipmunk



we even had fun while waiting to eat. bryce and braedon are showing me the houses they built for us all. i will say while my house was not the biggest one, it was better than gordon's, he got that tiny little thing in the bottom right hand corner.



we even had fun in the hallways!

our room was being cleaned and bryce and bretton had some energy brewing which was looking like it was going to turn ugly, so nicole just said "go at it"

may i present to you, KID FIGHTS:





braedon wanted to get in with the big boys, but we made him wait for his turn with makenna.



and believe me, when nicole called him to his corner, he was more than ready



that's him doing keanu ala "the matrix"

unfortunately, makenna pretty much dominated the round.





then, they all called out gordon.

yeah, he was ready too.



at first gordon was holding his own.







then we had a brief intermission:



yes, bretton was showing us some of his best dance moves.

then it was back to the action.

the break must have pumped the kids up because ...



they started to seriously put the hurt on gordon. notice nicole in the background taking pictures. no concern there.

i even tried to jump in and help gordon. i took it easy and chose braedon.



the fighting then turned into acrobatics. gordon started spinning the kids.






and that concludes fun in the hallway.

we had fun at the lodge.

bryce and bretton got charactures done:



this is gabby waiting for her brothers pictures to be done.



and gordon and i had fun at pleasure island. we went twice.



gordon showing me how to do the scottish shuffle.



he has moves that i've never seen before!



oh trust me, it gets better.



one night while we were down there, we found this irish pub ..



we were lucky. U2 was performing!



ok, so it was a U2 tribute band but i swear if you squinted and listened only halfway it was as if bono and the edge were right in front of us.

gordon even made some new american friends downtown.



i swear that boy will talk to ANYONE.
those are lego people.

we all had a great time. gordon left at the crack of dawn on the last day so the greene's and i went to eat at macaroni grill (YUM!) before they took me to the airport.

so nicole and i took one last photo



we look tired. awesome, but tired.

i'm already resting up for Disney 2010!