Good Times

The drive to Washington only took us about 2 days. The views were fabulous and I am happy we made it relatively stress free. The boys were amazingly well behaved too. We drove a tad in Arizona and quite a bit in Utah and Idaho. Both of which had beautiful landscapes. Oregon was mostly nice but I have a bit of an aversion to Eastern Oregon and Easter Washington so was beyond happy when I started seeing green trees and lush grass again. We have enjoyed the time we have been spending with family and will start venturing out earlier in the week. Our 4th was lots of fun. We went down to Ruston Way in Tacoma for the Freedom Fair and then had a BBQ with J's family and let off a few fireworks.

Chasing rainbows in Utah. Twin Falls, ID viewpoint.

Road Trip

We are headed on a rather LONG road trip which will be full of adventure and excitement. Oh and stress cause thats how we/I roll. Google Maps estimates our travels to consist of about 2800 miles but of course that doesnt include gas and bathroom breaks. The trip there is less than half those miles and the trip home will include an estimated 4 days of camping in various locations. Oh yeah, this is the classic Lampoons holiday.

I was explaining to Q-tip that he will be traveling through 6 different states. Thats quite the accomplishment for his first US road trip. Send us good thoughts because mother nature is really testing my limits. Timing is EVERYTHING I tell you.

3...2...1...PANIC

Oh how I loath that pre-holiday panic. The feeling that there is too much to do and not enough time or organization to ever get it done. The exhaustion you get from just thinking about what needs to be done but the lack of energy to do any of it. Why is the preparation for a get away so insane?

We have not left our new home for longer than a few hours so just the thought of what to do is overwhelming. There is outside prep, inside prep and of course bags to be packed. Thankfully with our one female chicken now safely being watched by "chicken man" I no longer have that worry but believe it or not I am still worried about her. Dude why am I so concerned about EVERYTHING? Every now and again I even get the panicky feeling about our goldfish as if I should even worry. I will put a vacation feeder block into their tank and hope for the best cause honestly they are just gold fish. So non challant, I am such a horrible person.

I keep checking the weather to see how it might be because honestly it is not going to be anything like we have acclimated ourselves to. Should I pack shorts? Should I pack pants? Shoes or sandals? I don't even know because lets be honest, to everyone there it is hot but to us it is normal aka our house temperature at best.

The thought of driving to see family versus flying is a rather odd concept and I am finding it hard to wrap my head around. Q-tip is excited to see family that he hasn't seen in 4 years. Animal hasn't met anyone so I am interested in seeing how he reacts. I have a distinct feeling he will be shy for all of 5 minutes, cause that's how he rolls. Butter them up a bit with his wild n' wispy hair and bashfulness so that he can let the wild out and shock the crud out of them. He isn't nick named Animal for nothing.

I will most likely leave the actual packing for the night before although with J inquiring about my help in driving I may want to have them done a bit before so that I get a decent nights sleep. In theory obviously because I will be even more stressed as the days count down.

Here's to being a woman and worrying about EVERYTHING.

Its Been A While

Last week we were able to meet up with another friend on holiday in Vegas (we've seen more people in the last 6 months than we saw the whole 8 years we lived in Europe?!). It has been years since Ive seen "Kitty" and this was my first opportunity to meet her husband. We met up with them at their hotel, Bally's, and strolled around. We love exploring casinos on the strip and Bally's is connected to the Paris hotel which I have been wanting to check out for a while now.

Direction signs in french...yeah I was feeling some Europe nostalgia.

A huge fountain under the middle of the Eiffel Tower...walking around this casino that gave you an illusion of being outside was intriguing. I didn't exactly feel like I was outside per say but I did enjoy it none the less.

Animal was all about the water features. We had to stop at just about every fountain so that he could check them out. He even threw in a few pennies.



Sometimes it is hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that everyone I grew up with are now adults just like me. Wowa...adults?! Really? Lets just say I have known this girl since she was a wee lassie and her brother was still in diapers (he's only a couple years younger than us).


I would love to return someday to actually travel up the Eiffel Tower, the view must be amazing.
Whats Paris without a burlesque girl? They have a show obviously but unlike the Moulin Rouge the age requirement is 18 at least so Q-tip will just have to wait until hes older to get a look at this show. I do slightly regret canceling our Moulin Rouge trip, what the heck was I thinking...the US baffles me.

Harder Than I Thought

Yesterday I gave our last 3 chickens to the man who took the 3 male cochins home. My initial intention was to simply give him the 2 male silkies but I had brought up the idea of him also taking the female so that she wouldn't be lonely. He didn't seem keen on this idea at first but after putting the two males into the wee carrier he brought to transport them the female started making a horrible sound and wandering around aimlessly. She almost sounded like she was honking like a goose. It was very loud, she sounded miserable. I explained to "chicken man" (we'll call him "chicken man" because honestly what else could I call him) that she had never made such a sound before and he said that she was calling her brothers back. In the end he took all 3 silkies to his home to reunite with the 3 cochins.

So now we are chicken-less and our back garden is very lonely. This is sad but not the end of our chicken adventures. When his current batch of chicks are old enough to be distinguished between male and female we will pick up our little silkie along with 1 or 2 wee pullets. I am a bit disappointed to know that we will miss out on our silkies first egg laying and that if she is allowed to nest she may produce chicks but its all for the greater good. Right?

None of our chicks were named so the boys only say that we have no more baby chick chicks. I am trying to reassure them that we will have girl chickens soon enough, just not today. I plan on taking the boys out to "chicken man's" farm very soon to check on our little silkie and to say hi to all those roosters we gave away.