The past week or so has been, for the most part, very good. The bad was my Nana going into the hospital, but she's out and back in the Virginia now. Here are a few of the reasons that I'm in a very good mood at the moment.
I passed the bar. Whew, there's a load off! Holy crap, I'm licensed in two states. *squee*
My Mom came to visit and stayed with us for a few days. She spent the days with my Nana while Rob and I got tons of errands done, but we did get to hang out with her in the evenings and she's always fun to be around. I don't think I'm ever as happy as I am when I'm hanging out with her.
I got to spend the weekend with my Dad. Even now that I'm living close to him, I still don't see him all that much. So when I do, I cherish that time.

The weekend in Michigan was fantastic. However, getting out there (for both cars involved) didn't go all that smoothly and by the time we got there Rob and I were singing the "Holiday Road" theme from National Lampoons Vacation.

Our car was Rob's Camry (there's no way we were taking my car on a long drive with worries of it dying on us at some point in the trip). It contained Rob, Gabriel, and me. Dad said they would be getting to their Michigan place around 4:30 pm. Mapquest said that it would be a four hour trip and we didn't want to risk getting there before they did, so we left at 1pm figuring that we would arrive there around 5pm. We didn't know, until that morning, that Michigan was an hour ahead. Oops. We also didn't know that traffic on the 94 around the Chicago area is just as bad as the traffic was in LA. It took us an hour to go 14 miles. Our drive there was 6 hours long. *thud* At one point I needed an emergency bathroom stop in some ghetto area. I had to go so bad that I used a ghetto ass gas station bathroom. I'm probably diseased now. During the drive Gabriel went between sleeping and getting fussy. I don't blame him being fussy, by the time we got there I had blisters on my butt from sitting for so long. But, compared to what my Dad's car went through, that was nothing.

My Dad's car was his Jaguar. It contained my Dad, his wife Cheryl, and Cheryl's granddaughter London. She's four and a half and they were watching her while her Mom's in Europe and she really wanted to meet Gabriel. Their car had a flat. They called for someone to fix it and it didn't take too long, but they had a ton of stuff in the trunk which my Dad needed to get in and out on a busy highway. I think Cheryl and London learned some choice new words. They were then on their way again and around the Indiana/Michigan border got ANOTHER flat tire. Two flats in one day! The rode on the rim to make it to the Michigan welcome center and called to be towed. Two and a half hours later the guy tows them. Luckily, he was willing to give them all a lift to the house. The car won't be ready until the middle of next week because my Dad has some super spiffy tires on it that places don't keep in stock.

We ended up getting to the house before they did. While we were driving along we couldn't see street addresses, but we knew which house it was because it was HUGE and gorgeous. It was nice outside so we chilled out for a little bit and they arrived about 5 or 10 minutes after we got there. We went in, said hi to everyone, and got settled in.

They took our car out to go and grab dinner from an Italian place (amazing pizza) while Rob, Gabriel, and I chilled out. Oh my god, London has to be one of the cutest little girls I have ever seen! She and Gabriel got along so well and we're pretty sure he's got a crush on her (she's blonde, go figure). At one point she was hopping all over the house and Gabriel followed her all over. He even offered her one of his favorite stuffies. She's now referring to him as her brother. Cheryl tried to tell her it didn't work that way, but she was having none of it. I love kids at that age and I can't wait until Gabriel is 4! And playing with both London and Gabriel this weekend is really making Rob and I consider having another one down the road. We'll discuss things and see how we are financially and how my health is when Gabriel is about 3 or so.

Later that night we put on The Backyardigans for Gabriel and London loved it as well. My Dad marvelled at the show and also has no idea what the hell Uniqua is.

Saturday we all packed into Rob's car and headed to a local restaurant for lunch. It was a small place with amazing food. Super yummy. We checked out a store nearby and then headed back to the house.

The afternoon was so nice. Gabriel, Rob, and London spent some time in the pool. Gabriel hated it. When everyone was out Cheryl noticed that there was a small baby turtle in the pool, so she fished it out. London freaked. She was out of the pool, cold, and wet and wanted to go back inside the house. However, turtles can walk and she was scared she might run into it on the way there. So, I offered to do turtle patrol and make sure there were no turtles around. She followed behind me and when we got into the house she asked me to go to her room with her because the turtle might be in there. Once I assured her that I didn't find any turtles, we got her dried off and into warm clothes.

After everyone was out of the pool, my Dad, Rob, Gabriel, and I hung out in one of their rooms. We just chilled out and talked. It was nice. Eventually we headed outside to meet up with Cheryl and London. They had built a fire in a portable fire pit, but we were only out there for a few minutes. My Dad didn't like the smoke out there. As my Dad headed back inside because of the smoke, Rob suddenly realized where I get some of my quirks from.

We toyed with the idea of going out on their boat on the lake, but we didn't end up doing it.

That night Cheryl cooked some really good stuffed pasta shells and Dad cooked out steaks for dinner. We found out that Gabriel loves YoBaby yogurt with Cheerios mixed into it.

After dinner, Rob and I headed upstairs with the kids and watched The Backyardigans and The Wonder Pets DVDs that we had brought with us. It's a good thing that both London and Gabriel like those shows. We had a lot of fun and London kept hiding and we pretended to have no idea where she was and when she popped out we would be scared. She wanted to be a ghost like on one of the episodes of The Backyardigans.

Eventually my Dad came up to join us while Cheryl was getting ready for bed. He was shocked at The Wonder Pets and he said it looks like someone who was on a lot of drugs decided to make a kids TV show out of their dreams. He's probably right.

All in all, we had a great time. There were only two problems. Rob and I had to keep an eye on Gabriel at all times. Nothing was baby proofed and so we couldn't turn away for a second. Also, Gabriel did not like sleeping in the port-a-crib (it's the same style we had for him when he was little) and kept freaking out whenever we put him in it. I think it's because he was in a new place. So, we let him sleep in bed with us. That worked out great. He slept super well and through the night when he was in bed with us. Unfortunately, he's a bed hog and so Rob and I had very little room.

Sunday morning we got ready to head out. We played with Gabriel and London and marvelled at how well the two of them got along. We had breakfast and headed out around 1pm. We had a great weekend and I told my Dad I'd like to see them again soon. I hope we do, I don't get to see him a lot and would like to see him more.

The drive home was decent this time. My Dad gave us the advice of not taking the 94 through the city. He told us to take the 294 through the suburbs and bypass the city completely. This worked out well and we made it back to our area in a little over four hours. They were getting picked up by someone who works in my Dad's firm (I got a call from him later this evening to let us know they made it back fine).

My Dad seemed to love Gabriel and I was impressed at how good he was around London and Gabriel. He's a lot better with kids now. He told us Gabriel was incredible and amazingly cute. *beams*

When we got back to our area we made a brief stop at the store (Gabriel needed milk) and then headed back home. We were both exhausted and decided to spend the night in the house after we unpacked. I did up the guest sheets and towels from when my Mom was here and we watched some TV. We got to watch both Blade 3 and Resident Evil 2 on television. Yeah, they were cut, but Gabriel didn't freak out. Yay! When the movies were over with I bathed Gabriel.

Hrm, I wonder if my car will start tomorrow. I drove it on Thursday, but wasn't able to drive it this weekend at all. I'll try it tomorrow. I hope it starts, but kind of doubt that it will.

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