Last week on Thursday we picked my girl up from the airport. We saw her face to face for the first time in 2 years. I counted down the days, then hours, then minutes til her arrival. I schemed up a vacation agenda that of course had more action than hours in the day. So we got her from the airport, grabbed our half of a smoked turkey at Gartner's in Portland, ate some Burgerville goodness for lunch...with peppermint chocolate shakes of course & headed for Redmond.
We were scheduled for 3 nights in Redmond. Coming in Thursday night, leaving Sunday morning. I brought the girls' stockings & our new Christmas jammies. This is a tradition. They know we will have coordinating jammies every year. So we got in Thursday night, opened up the presents, got in our cozy new jammies, relaxed & watched movies. Oh & attempted to do our holiday nail art which we found on Google images & Pintrest. We also threw my agenda out the window & decided to just RELAX!!!
Friday morning we woke up to SNOW!!! Apparently so did most of Oregon so we would have had it at home, but Redmond snow is better than Astoria snow so I'm glad we were there. Ky woke up at 7 or something awful like that. She had the good sense not to wake me until about 10. Even at 10 I was so sleepy it took me a minute to get my bearings & realize that we were on vacation in Redmond! Hallelujah!! After a big breakfast...at 2pm, we did a tiny amount of sledding then ventured to Bend for a trip to Bath & Body Works (3 wick candles were on sale OK! 2 for $22 & then I had a coupon for a free one if we spent $20 so 3 for $22!!) and some delicious BBQ at Baldy's. We also did some parking lot "skating", Tay kissed a buffalo in the Old Mill District, the girls picked icicles off random people's cars. Yes I was mortified, but that didn't stop them! They live to terrify me...
Saturday we had a much needed lazy day. Our big adventure was to Starbucks & the grocery store...we couldn't have turkey without cranberry sauce & Tay was on the fast track to earn her Starbucks gold card. That is a very high privilege! Never fear. SHE GOT IT! Then we had to start earning mine, still working on it. I think our Starbucks trips were the biggest expenditure on this trip.
Back to terrifying me....Sunday, after yet another "separate transactions please" trip to Starbucks, we decided to make the most of this snow on our final day in Redmond. Oh yeah, we decided to stay Sunday as well for two reasons: 1. We needed another day of snow & lounging. 2. We thought it would warm up & our drive home would be safer. You know, like 98% option 1 & 2% option 2...
The girls walked on the ice on the pond by the resort restaurants & store. The pond with the signs that said "Please stay out of the pond." Then they posed on the ice because they assured me the sign was a liar & it was not thin ice. Next at the fountain where we turned to go to our house, Tay was very fond of this fountain & thought she needed to see how it was doing with the below zero temperatures, so the girls went out on the ice again. They were well aware of my fear that they would end up in the freezing cold 
water with an instant case of hypothermia, but this did not slow them down. I mean they'd already walked into one pond advertising thin ice, survived to tell about it, then ripped some giant icicles off of a bush outside the store...I was sure we would be asked never to return to Eagle Crest. Thankfully we were not. After surviving all this fun, we went night sledding on the golf course. Turns out after some legwork on all our parts, the best hill was the one in
our backyard. The girls had to take a break at the 10th hole before we could walk back to the house. They also took a step into a sandtrap. Couldn't tell the snow was waist deep there until they were in snow up to their waists!!! It was -3 outside while we enjoyed sledding on the golf course...at about 5:30pm. Thanks to my mama we had all the snow gear we needed & were toasty warm. Actually they were sweating & wanted the windows rolled down so they could hang out in the below zero air while we drove in search of bigger hills on the golf course. We found none that didn't end in trees or water. So to Starbucks we went. I needed to get a move on if I wanted to earn my gold card & we needed the caffeine boost to get everything packed for our 8am departure Monday morning. We left at 8:45am because I overslept...because I was up til 2:30 packing the car... We didn't want to come home. It was so pretty all covered in white, but we had a Christmas tree to get still & lights to put on the house. Tay still needed to eat at Urban Cafe & Fultano's before she could go back to Cali. We had to return to Astoria for at least a night...we came home for 2 nights. We did 
stop along the way...halfway between the equator & the North Pole. Seemed fitting on our Christmas vacation! Kylie didn't think so when I flipped a U turn (we love those) to take the pic. But Tay & I had majority vote, that happens a lot, so she got out & took our picture grumbling all the while. There was also a trip to Vancouver Mall & Cinetopia for Frozen in 3D! Yep we needed more snow in our lives. We made it safely home. My new studless snow tires really rocked. I asked the girls if they felt their lives were in danger at all during the 4 days of driving on packed snow & ice covered roads. The answer was "NOPE!" Woohoo! I still drove very carefully. I had precious cargo. Home to Astoria & the closer we got, the faster I heard the minutes tick by. It was like in Redmond time stood still for us. We relaxed, slept in, ate breakfast in the afternoon & had not a care in the world. I knew it couldn't last forever, but I sure wanted it to. We came home. Time started to fast forward. Tay took me to Urban Cafe for dinner while Ky babysat. Ky got another snow day so we got our tree & decorated it. For the first time ever all I did was the lights, garland & tree topper. The girls did all the rest. We ordered Fultano's & convinced my new super hero (who will remain anonymous because you don't go around revealing super heroes' identities) to come over & climb the steep ladder to hang our outside lights. Our Christmas Vacation checklist was complete. 
This morning I awoke before dawn, got the call that there was a 2 hour delay for Astoria schools. told the girls to sleep another hour so we would have better roads, got another call...make that a 3 hour delay. Ky is going to the airport with us. Hit Warrenton Starbucks to get 7 more stars...yep, 7 separate transactions. It makes me very nervous, but apparently we are not the only people behaving like assholes so whatev's. Drove to Portland to have lunch with Tay's dad. Took the girls downtown for a little shopping, then Starbucks & to the airport. Here's where things get ugly.
Now we know Alaska has a strict 40 minute cut-off. If you're not checked in 40 minutes before your plane is scheduled to take off they will not let you even attempt to brave security & get to your gate. Yep the combination of rush hour traffic & 2 agents working the entire Alaska desk meant that when we finally got to the counter there were 30-35 minutes before take off & they would not let her on that flight. Her dad had to bail us out by purchasing a ticket from Southwest to get her home tonight. There were tears...more than the anticipated goodbye tears. She made it home, about 4 hours later than planned, but she is safely home in Cali. I did my best not to cry. I hate crying. I especially hate crying in public. The most hated crying for me however is crying in front of Ky. I don't want to make her sad too.
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| Ooooh look...a frozen fountain & more icicles!!!! |
I will miss my girl. I'm so proud of the woman she is becoming. I love that she calls Ky out on silly things & that Ky doesn't get all bent out of shape over it. We laughed so hard during this trip. I wish I had both my girls all the time. The combination makes the world a better place. I can't believe how grown up they are. They still have lots of life ahead of them, more growing to do, but they have both changed so much in the past 5 years & I'm so overjoyed to see the ladies they are becoming. (Not the most lady-like of all ladies, but as Tay says "just be yourself...if they don't like it too bad!') We decided that this should be our new Christmas tradition. Another reason that she is my oldest daughter...she loves Christmas like I love Christmas. So from now on she'll need to be here the week after Black Friday (she works retail so no vacationing that day) to get the tree, play in the snow & get our house ready for the Christmas season! I really can't think of a better way to start out the month of December than with snow, decorating & my two absolutely gorgeous girls! And Christmas movies...we watched every one that we own this week!!!
Tay enjoys abbreviating every word. Please don't be angry or too annoyed when you hear me speaking Tay. If you see me looking a little sad, maybe throw out some Tay for me. Here are a few to get you started: perf = perfect Fult's = Fultano's amaz = amazing (duh) gorge = gorgeous
And if you really want to help...SING! My girls were singing & dancing all week long. Especially Tay who knows every word to every song, even the Christmas ones. If it's instrumental she fills in the words.
LOVE THEM!!!!!!
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