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.