California Baby

One of my best friends got married on June 1st in California (Congrats Halee and Edward!).  I was lucky enough to be able to attend and make a family vacation out of it.  It worked out PERFECT for timing as my mom only had one week off between High School teaching ending and her starting a summer college class.  Norman and I recently bought a Honda Odyssey and we decided to load up the van and all go on a family trip and go to the wedding and then spend a week in San Diego.  Can I just say we were soooo excited!?!?!?  My parent's hadn't been on a real vacation for a VERY long time and I couldn't wait to take the kids to the zoo and Sea World.  I was even more excited because we would have 4 adults with 2 kids and this could actually be a vacation.  Things were humming along and we were getting ready to go when my dad's knee started really hurting.  It was so bad he could hardly walk.  Knowing my dad and how he just pushes through the pain it says a lot that he couldn't hardly walk on it.  He called for a Dr's appointment and went in first thing Tuesday (Monday was memorial day, we were planning on leaving Thursday afternoon, staying in Mesquite, then getting to Los Angeles on Friday).  The Dr wasn't sure what was wrong, but he knew something was pretty bad.  My dad had a scope scheduled at Huntsman on Wed, so Thurs morning was the MRI and then the soonest the Dr could see him after the MRI was Friday...the day AFTER we were supposed to leave.  We were also worried because he could hardly walk and we weren't sure if he would need surgery.  Can we just say it was STRESSFUL!?!?!? 

Thursday Norman and I loaded up the kids and took off.  We were praying something would happen and my dad would be ok to come and we could fly them out to meet up with us.  The drive actually went really well.  We hooked up a 2 screen dvd player so each of the kids had something to watch (Matt's still rear facing, so he needed his own).  All I can say is THANK GOODNESS FOR ELMO's WORLD!!!  Phew! We were able to stop and see Dave and Mona and their new premie baby Mary in Vegas.   She is SOOOO tiny and cute!  I was glad we got to stop and  say hi on our way through.  We didn't plan our timing the very best as we pulled into the LA valley about 5 PM on a Friday.  Traffic was WRETCHED, I was tired and yah...ready to be out of the van.  We made it though!! Yay!!  AND the even better news was my dad was put in a totally straight brace and given the ok to come.  His knee was so bad it needed to heal before surgery.  We scheduled the flight for the next morning.  They were scheduled to arrive at 12:30 and the wedding was at 2 and the drive was supposed to only be about an hour, so we were fairly confident we could pick them up at the airport and make it back to the wedding in time.  I can say that I've driven in downtown LA traffic and even made it through LAX.  Meg was SOOO excited to see gimpy grandpa and a white sweaty grandma!  When they went to go to the bathroom Megan screamed and cried and thought they were leaving and had to follow Grandma...poor Grandma!!  My mom had gotten SOOOO sick on the plane.  I felt horrible!  She made it though...thank goodness!!!  We buzzed out of the airport as fast as we came in and off we went (in more wretched LA traffic) to the wedding.  Things were so crazy and unknown that I just went to the wedding alone (the original plan was to have Norman come with me).  The wedding was beautiful!  I felt bad because I was a bit preoccupied with the events that had transpired the couple of days before (sorry Halee).  I primarily went for the wedding and then was so flustered over everything with dad being hurt, mom being motion sick, LAX, and traffic that I didn't calm down and just enjoy the moment.  I was worried about my parents as my dad's leg was gimpy and the Dr was really worried about blood clots on the flight and my mom was really white and sick from the plane ride.  They made it though and we were grateful to have a nice relaxed evening....everyone touch their toes!