We got back at around 5 p.m. yesterday after an almost 2 week vacation to see my sister Laurie in Virginia and my mom and John in North Carolina. I calculated a total of 24 hours of driving with 3 kids by myself!!!
I'll back up a little. About a month ago I broke my pinkie toe on my right foot while chasing Luke. I caught it on the kitchen doorframe. My body went one way and my toe went the other way. I went to the ER and the x-ray confirmed that it was broken. The Doc taped it up and sent me on my way. Several friends (thank you Cori) recommended that I see an orthopedic surgeon because the toe can heal funny (not funny ha-ha, but funny strange). So, I went to see Dr. Gilligan (don't let the name fool you. He is pretty cute, and he used to be on staff for the Red Sox!) He was excellent! They x-rayed my foot and when they pulled it - ouch! - and taped it together, the bones would slide off each other and wouldn't stay. He recommended surgery, so the next week I had that done. I was gonzo (they put me out) and Dr. Gilley put a temporary pin through my toe and toe bones to keep them in place. I had a post-op shoe and crutches....oh and of course Percocet. I only used the Percs for 2 days and the crutches for about that amount of time too. But, I couldn't get the toe wet. Showers were interesting, but I was really bummed because I wanted to go in the pool and mom and John's!!
We left for Laurie's Tuesday, July 14th. We had a great time hanging out. Laurie is working, so during the day it was me and 5 kids! Laurie hosted an Uppercase Living party for me with some of her friends on Thursday. Sunday, my kids and I left for NC, about a 4 hour drive. Mom hosted a party for me on Sunday afternoon - yes, I guess this was a WORKING vacation for me. It was really nice to get to meet a lot of their friends from the church. The party was very nice. Monday evening my Aunt Gayle arrived from San Francisco and Laurie's girls came down from Virginia. Gayle hadn't seen the kids in a year, so she was having fun chasing them around. Tuesday Brad, Holly and kids came so all in all there were 15 people in mom and Johns house! Lord help us! It was hectic, crazy, loud, but we were together! The kids had a blast in the pool and playing together! Laurie was able to come down Thursday night for a few days - yea!! We had a really great time, great company, great conversations and great food of course!! Thank you!
So, now we're back to reality. It is nice to be home, but it sure is wonderful to be with family. We were only missing Michael in that crowd, and he was missed!
Because I can only post 5 pictures at a time on this, here is the link from our trip:
