Blogorado 2011

 I think it will be easiest to do this through pictures. The weekend started out with Jack and me arriving at the airport to meet Oak. I refrained from tackling her to the ground at our first real life embrace. She held Jack and we brainstormed ways to surprise our next arrival, Kelly. We considered several options: hide and then jump out and grab her, once we saw her start asking everyone else around her if they are Kelly, pretend we don't know her....in the end we just stood there with Oak pretending she was holding a sign.

Oak and Jack, he appreciates ladies who wear scarves

Jack likes to eat people....he's a Zombaby

After Kelly arrived we went to lunch. Then it was time to pick up the Scooby Van and tackle several activities at once. Oak and Kelly returned to the airport to meet BU and I took Jack to Pippa's house. Amanda was a tad delayed, so it worked out for Oak, Kelly and BU to pick me up at the house before we returned to the airport to meet Amanda. Amanda shot out of the arrival area like a bat out of hell and Kelly was the only one who had time to recognize her. So after chasing her to baggage claim, we were finally all together! Then it was time to get on the road.

Oak is already a soccer mom

After a two hour drive in complete silence, having no fun at all *wink at josey* we arrived at the house. Josey was there waiting for us and....hey I just realized she was supposed to have freshly baked cookies waiting for us! WTF Josey? We piled into the house with our stuff and promptly started making a grocery list. It just warms my heart to be around fellow-list-makers.

Oak, Josey and Amanda

Oh I almost forgot, the first stop for those of us who are lactating was a pump-fest. Let me tell you, it was super nice having company while pumping, but my boobs did not respond too well to solely pumping. Basically I pump 4 times a week (I am down to once a day at work and I don't pump on Friday because I leave early). So going from 4 times a week to 4 times a day....yeah clog-city. My right boob was so backed up that it made me laugh each time I saw myself nekid. Righty was like a fake boob and Seabiscuit (aka lefty) was like a floppy empty sock.

Post grocery store, the group sits down, eats tacos, and has our first of many long convo's

Amanda is probably one of the strongest people I know, and the other ladies agree. Not only did she fly out to Colorado two days after getting a BFN from a round of IVF, but she was extremely positive, happy and appeared to have a good time with all of us. I think we were all so careful at first. Not sure how she would feel watching us sit around like dairy cows, or mention our babies. But first thing she said to me at the airport was 'where's Jack?'.

We ate breakfast

We drank mimosas and chatted some more

I remembered we were in the mountains and should take some pictures of the view.

Josey was our go to FB update person.

We thought we'd go "downtown" and check out all Breckenridge had to offer. The fall leaves were nice enough to stick around for us.  

We popped in and out of the really cute shops and talked about how we are all hoping to someday be filthy rich and be able to drop a couple hundred on a sweater without feeling guilt.

I was there too!

With this crowd there was definitely shoe browsing.

Back home for a chick flick, naps, and more chatting. The house was perfect for us, one giant open room where we could all hang out together.

We "dressed up" and went out to dinner. Thank god we all agreed that "dressing up" involved jeans, t-shirts and a pair of heels. My kind of ladies for sure. Of course whilst out at dinner, things started to get interesting. Oak just got a BFP on baby number 2, who I of course have named Natalie, and when we hit the restaurant she was feeling nauseous. Thus our first convo with the waiter went something like this:

Oak: do you have some bread

Waiter: yeah bread comes with all our meals

Oak: *annoyed face*

Josey & Natalie: can you bring us some now, she's feeling nauseous, she's pregnant

Waiter: sure

45 bazillion minutes later he drops off some bread. Sorry kid, your table is full of ladies who need immediate results. Oak ajourned to barf in the bathroom and we all sat around and discussed how much we hated that feeling.

Needless to say, our evening "out" ended with us back at the house, putting the preggos to bed and then getting our drink on. Amanda was HILARIOUS! as her little self polished off half a bottle of wine with BU. She told us all about poutine and loudly praised all things canadian....that syrup in the cupboard is shit! That's not real syrup...you get the idea.

Saturday morning was spent with mimosas in the hot tub.....well Amanda was too hungover for hot tubbing or mimosas, but she stood outside and chatted with us.

We gathered outside to head to the outlet shops. Oak armed with ginger ale and saltines. This was just before we realized that the ground was covered in feces....I said dog, Oak joked that there was probably a dude out there taking a dump at night. Ewww, but hilarious at the same time.

Amanda rocking her hangover shades and leaning up against the Scooby van

Alway starting a fight.

Our modeling sesh

Mkay so, I was driving home and got a tit bit distracted, so we ended up exiting at the "scenic area", but we decided to capitalize on this mishap and take a group photo.....I totally subconsciously meant to do that.

After a two hour skype-fest with E we cooked dinner and did some more chatting.

Before we knew it, it was Sunday morning and time to head home. It was such a wonderful weekend. We fell into a comfortable friendship with everyone it was like we had known eachother for 15 years. There weren't awkward silences or group polarizations as I had feared. It was just....well... like that was how it was supposed to be. Tears were shed, laughs were unstoppable and we found ourselves ready to plan the next get together. I returned home to this little face.

I hadn't realized how much I had missed him until I swept him up into my arms and couldn't stand the thought of putting him back down. It takes some serious good times to keep me that willing to stay away from this little man. I returned to a happy and appreciative husband, who proceeded to sweep me off my feet by saying how glad he was I had a good time and that I really deserved it. Swoon!