Welcome back for our final installment of Breezy Goes North!! Can I get an AMEN?? If you missed parts 1 & 2, go check them out, I'll wait.
We left off with way too many adult beverages being consumed, leading to waking up with another slight hangover. This was the day we would head 3.5 hours back to Portland for another date night and a day of bumming around Portland before I had to head back to Sac.
After we got our bearings and got ready and packed, we hit the road. At this point there was no worry about filling another 3.5 hours of time with conversation because we felt like we had known each other for our entire lifetimes. We got checked into our fantasy suite room at the Marriott and hit up the concierge lounge for some apps to go with the cocktails we brought for the room. After more deep conversations, this time about religion, we headed out for a lovely dinner at Varitable Quandary, or VQ.
The view from our room
Hot date
Veal. NOM.
That girl loves her some duck farts
After dinner we headed back to the hotel bar for some more drinks and conversation.
And then this happened...
Raven joined Vine, so we had the waitress take a video of us taking more duck fart shots. Little did I know what Raven had planned. The timing of the video could not have been more perfect. I laugh so hard whenever I watch it. Simply amazing.
The next day we dragged our haggard asses out of bed and got read for our day of bumming around Portland. We had lunch at this amazing cafe and then walked from one end of town to the other in search of Voodoo Donuts. And donuts we did find.
She didn't understand why I wanted to take a pic of this with all of the amazing sights in Portland
After we returned from our trip to the donut shop, reality started sinking in that we only had a couple of hours left before my departure. We made our way back to the airport where we exchanged a magical hug and promises that it wouldn't be too long before we saw each other again. Since crying makes Ravey-poo uncomfortable, I waited until she was out of sight to shed a tear or two. It was so hard to leave this person I felt had become such a huge part of my life in such a short period of time.
As I relayed this story to my sister the other day, I told her "If I weren't married and this had been someone of the opposite sex, I would probably consider relocating my life to Tri-Cities." LOL! I have read about other bloggers' experiences with meeting each other, but never really understood what they felt until I experienced it for myself. I would love nothing more than to be just a short drive from Raven so we could share a cup of coffee or a cocktail on a regular basis. JB and I are going to try our hardest to make it back there for the boat races this summer, and supposedly Raven and Rob will be heading my way to visit a new baby in the family. All I know is our next meeting can't happen soon enough!
Day 2 (read day 1 here) in the Tri-Cities was nothing short of domestic bliss with these folks, minus Rob cuz he was fishing...
The guest room at the Smith Manor consists of a bed in a loft nook just outside of the bedroom doors of Raven's two angel babies. Even sleeping with my earplugs in, I was awakened by the shrill screams from Coltie in the middle of the night. Raven had warned me that if anyone woke up crying in the middle of the night, she would be there to take care of it, so not to worry. It still scared the shit out of me.
I awoke in the morning to Gunner hopping up on the bed asking me who I was. I informed him that I was a friend of his mother's and that he should go see her with any questions. I promptly dozed off, only to be interrupted a short while later by the same adorable child, this time in a towel, asking me to get up and come play race cars with him. How could I resist.
I headed downstairs to find Raven passed out in her bed with Coltie sitting next to her watching cartoons. She informed me that Colt had thrown up in his crib in the middle of the night and proceeded to puke a few more times in her bed after she brought him downstairs. Poor guy. He seemed to be fine that morning though, so all was well. As soon as she introduced me to him, he promptly climbed out of the bed and into my lap. Both kids took to me immediately, actually. It was pretty adorable.
We took Gunner to school and then headed back home for a couple of hours to have breakfast and coffee, before returning to pick him up.
After we picked up G-Man, we ran a couple of errands, like returning a chicken costume to the party rental store, and dropping off a puke-covered duvet at the dry cleaners.
When we got back to the house, Raven showed me how to bring the garbage can up from the curb, lazy-chick style:
I knew I only had a small window of time to get my fitness on before we started our day drinking, so I showed the boys how to work it out.
Once I got my workout out of the way, we put the boys down for their naps and I experienced some Dr. Phil with a cocktail, Raven-style.
Dude's in-laws tried to straight up kill him in their garage. That shit cray!
After a couple of hours of lounging, we decided to get off our asses and start getting ready. Raven was taking me to the country club for dinner, so I had to look legit. After the boys woke up from their nap, Mama Piper came over to get the boys so we could have date night. We enjoyed dinner at the country club, where Ravey-Poo photo lurked me in the bathroom.
Dinner was followed by a drink or two at a local bar. Pretty sure it was college night. The drinks were weak and the crowd was young, so we took our bad selves home to continue the party our way.
The rest of the night got a little fuzzy, but I think there was more trashy television and deep conversations before crashing out for the night.
Saturday we woke up slightly hungover. We stopped by her sister's house to drop something off and see Poppy, the most perfect little baby you will ever see.
We met Mama Piper to pick up the boys and then headed to the grocery store to stock up on stuff to make wraps and pizza, plus we were out of booze. The kids were running crazy through the store and my blood pressure was through the roof by the time we got out of there. I honestly don't know how she does it. It was pretty close to nap time, we hadn't eaten yet, and there may have been a minor meltdown in the parking lot...
We got home and I promptly made wraps and adult beverages while Raven put the boys down for their naps.
I have been obsessed with these things since I left Kennewick and have eaten my weight in them. So goooooooooood.
After naptime there was more playing, Pocoyo, screaming, crying for no reason, looking through photo album after photo album of Raven's ridiculous photo shoots (girl loves a camera...), jumping on the trampoline, taking a tour of their yacht boat, playing with the puppy, consuming cocktails (adults only), and bath time (kids only) before bedtime.
Once we put the kids to bed, Raven made me one of her famous veggie pizzas on the traeger.
Raven assumed her position in her chair, with her computer, and the puppy by her side while we drank, watched more amazing television, continued to pause the TV to have in-depth conversations about society, politics, relationships, blogging, etc., and stuff our faces with pizza until bedtime.
Like I said, domestic bliss!
Check back later this week for my final recap...our overnight in the fantasy suite Portland!
Yes, I still call him Daddy. And yes, today he turns 60! We had a partay for him on Saturday night. Friends and family were in abundance for a NASCAR-themed event.
Photo-collages at parties are the best! I never realized how much I looked like my dad until I go older and someone pointed it out with a picture from my college graduation party. Looking at these old pics of him, I see it even more. That top right pic, the glamour shot? My favorite picture of my father that has ever been taken. He's so blue steel in that picture. I tell so many people about that picture and I am so glad it's still around in all its glory.
Me and the birthday boy!
Some of the spread
His cake
Drinking out of the water bottle? What's next, college?
Opening gifts
Thanking Monkey for his gift
Just some random people that don't know each other...J/K - siblings!!
Happy Birthday Song!
The Many...
Faces Of...
Monkey!!
Don't mind my chins...
Dad and his daughters
Dad and Seesters...missing Lauren this time
Another one with his sissies.
Happy birthday dad! I can't believe you are the big 6-0!! Here's to many, many more birthdays ahead! I love you!!
I am fully aware that this post is long overdue. I figured I owed it to everyone to get this one out there first and then I can do a catch-up post for all of the other happenings in my life.
In order to keep this from being the longest post in the history of blogger, I am splitting up my visit into a few different blogs. But first, a disclaimer.
More than a year ago I found Raven's blog through a couple of other blogs that I follow. I have to be honest, at first I wasn't hooked. A mommy blogger that I probably didn't have anything in common with? No thanks. But, one day I read a guest post she did on another blog and I thought she was pretty funny, so I added her to my reader and gave it a shot. A couple of months later, I added her on FB, and one day I decided to say hi via chat. I didn't even introduce myself, I just jumped right into a conversation like we were already friends. Weird? Maybe. But who cares?
She had just posted the blog about her mom cutting her precious child's hair while she was away on a vacation with her husband so I just asked her if she had a heart attack when the pic came through on her phone. I won her over with my humor and wit. A few hundred messages later, and we exchanged phone numbers. A few million messages, texts, and face time phone calls later, I purchased a plane ticket to go spend 4 days with her in Tri-Cities, Washington...
I never mentioned it on here before I left because I knew I would get some flack from my family and friends, especially those that don't blog. People who don't blog never understand. People who date online understand a little bit more. I liken it to a pen-pal. We all had those when we were little, whether they were in other states or other countries. The internet just makes things easier. If you think about it, when you very first meet someone, you don't know them at all. You don't know anything about them. Maybe you meet through mutual friends, but how well does your mutual friend know them? I mean, it's not like I went to visit her a week or two after "meeting her". It was a year-long courtship. JB thought it was weird at first, but every night he saw me giggling and texting and would say, "How's Raven?" and would sometimes get jealous that I was texting her all night instead of hanging out with him. He trusted my judgement and knew that if I thought it was fine, it was fine.
Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, let's get down to business...
I think both of us were excited, but a little nervous to meet each other. I mean, what if she wasn't as awesome as I thought she was in text? When texting her about picking me up at the airport, I kept asking her if she was working on my billboard. I wanted something sparkly and bright that screamed my name at the airport so I would know where to find her. Her response? "Oh, you just wait..." I definitely didn't expect this:
As soon as I came down the escalator and saw the back of a chicken suit, I knew it was her. She was mad that I knew, but come on, who else would be cuckoo enough to wear a chicken suit at the airport? Besides that, I didn't see her anywhere and I knew she had been there for a while. When I walked up to her, there were people asking her to take her picture. She was pointing a camera at me like a freaking stalker, but wouldn't say anything. She wouldn't take off her chicken head until I threatened to hug her if she didn't reveal herself.
Since my free Southwest flight didn't fly into the airport closest to her house, I flew into Portland and we had a 3.5 hour drive to get through before we could even socially lubricate ourselves with a drink. The time seemed to fly by and before I knew it, we were at her sprawling mansion house with a drink in our hands.
We had to take G-Man to school in the morning, so after saying hello to her handsome husband, Rob, and having a drink, we called it a night.
Check back on Wednesday for my recap of domestic life in Kennewick...
