The kids and I headed to the airport to pick up my friend, Kristen who flew from California to spend the weekend with us. I've known Kristen for about 5 years on-line (lesbian mom parenting group) but had never met her in person. From photos I've seen over the years, it was easy to pick her out of the throng of people heading to baggage claim and I'm sure it was just as easy for her to find me since I was flanked by two well-photographed children. :)
We picked up her luggage and headed for home. Once here, we got everyone settled in and fed and then Kristen and I got about the business of catching up on things. The kids seemed to take to Kristen like bees to honey so a simple conversation proved challenging. Soon enough though Dakota was home and that took a lot of the kids attention from Kristen and I as they crawled all over Dakota.
Kelton and Dakota left with Maddie (the dog) to take her to a recheck vet appointment (I never did post about how Maddie almost lost her eye when the cat, Lucy, poked her claw directly through Maddie's cornea last week. These two have never managed to find a way to get along and I think Lucy had just had enough. I can't say I blame the cat but the resulting chaos (and cost) was tremendous. Luckily, Maddie will not lose her eye but she does have a pretty good scar to learn to see around. And all of this seems to have taught Maddie nothing. She still bugs the cat. Grrrrr.) and Kaylen, Kristen and I took Jordan (other dog) on a walk.
After the walk, Kaylen entertained us by playing in the pile of leaves that I raked together for her.
From there we moved to the backyard to play in the sandbox and then Kaylen got the wild idea to play football with her new best friend, Kristen. I was all too happy to watch and take pictures. :)
Soon after, Dakota and the gang returned and Kristen and I escaped for dinner at Red Robin. :)
The next day Kristen was kind enough to help me finish painting the living room and dining room. It probably would have only taken 2.5 hours from start to finish had it not been for the helpful hands of two small children. Thankfully, they only "helped" for about 20 minutes but wow - what a 20 minutes. And then the clean up of, and from, their helping (including a trip to the tub for both kids) took about another 20. They were thrilled to help - and I was pretty happy when their helping stopped. :) It was sobering to realize how much more time it really will take to paint the rest of the interior with little ones underfoot. Ugh. (Thanks, Kristen! You really were awesome to help!)
By the time painting was done and cleaned up, Dakota was done studying so we all headed out to Azteca for lunch and then, on a whim, we headed to Multnomah Falls and hiked/walked up for a closer look. It was really cold there - and I was seriously wishing I had worn a heavier jacket.
We drove home, fed the kids (after they played another round of football with Kristen (I lost count how many times they talked her into playing over the course of the weekend)), put the living and dining rooms back into order and then tossed the kids into bed. The grown-ups savored a few hours of talking before we, too, hit the pillows.
Sunday morning Kaylen I dropped Kristen off at the airport right around 8AM. It was sad to see her go but we sure had a jam-packed good weekend. Thanks for coming up, Kristen!!! Let's do it again sometime - and next time, bring the little one - I'm sure she and Kaylen would have a blast together. :)
Sunday turned out to be a wirlwind day, too. Stay tuned for details of our trip to the theater, a park and the pumpkin patch!
5 comments:
Thank you so much for having me. I had a good time. I have to say that I look evil in that football picture, followed by the one where she's catching it. It looks like I threw it as hard as I could and knocked her over, LOL. No children were harmed in the making of that picture :)
Yes, Kristen, thank you so much! It was fun having you visit. Let's do it again sometime, and maybe we'll let you skip the painting. How do you feel about organizing garages? *grin*
I do have to make note that Casey left out one minor detail in the cat scratching the dog's eye story. The cat does constantly antagonize the dog, who is not at all viscious with the cat. Cat makes fun noises while trying to intimidate the dog; dog wants to play with the interesting squeaky toy. It's just a really unfortunate combination.
Yes - an unfortuante combination. But also to be fair to the cat...the dog *does* tend to lunge at her. I'm sure all in good fun....but not for Lucy. Someday maybe they will get along. Someday.
What a nice visit and how nice of her to be so helpful. I can tell you if I come visit - i'll watch the kiddos and do things with them but I don't paint, I don't do yardwork and I don't cook. I guess I can't expect an invite can I? Ha!
Also not meaning to overlook Maddie, glad her eye is okay and hope it somehow sinks in to leave the cat alone. Can't blame the cat though.
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