Minnesota

I packed Kamryn's little camera because I didn't want to worry about my nice camera traveling. But, I didn't even end up pulling out her camera once and I have absolutely no pictures to show for our little week away sans kids. Boo!

Here are my pictures in words...

-On Monday, I met my parents half way and dropped the kids off with them for the week.

-We had no kids on Monday evening, so we decided to sneak in a date and went and watched the new X-men movie.

-We wake super early, drive to our destination which is an hour and a half away. Then we catch a flight. Most of the day was spent traveling, which is exhausting if you ask me.

-I'm not a fan of flying, especially without my kids. You don't recover from a plane crash, you die. I'm not sure if I'd be as scared if I had my kids with me, we'd at least all die together. So, Jeff and I had a total of 4 take-off's, 4 landings and 1 case of terrible turbulence when landing in Colorado (thinner air, I think). I squeezed the life out of Jeff's hand.

-To me actions speak louder than words... My hubby carried every piece of carry-on/luggage for me and even gave up the window seat for me each time, even when he had to sit by the cleavage baring grandma! ;)

-On our flights we read books, watched movies and competed in sudoku. It was so nice just to be with him.

-Jeff is a pro at traveling and when the car rental tried selling us on some upgrades, he asked the price difference which they said was only like $8, he turned them down and when we got the receipt we saw that they tried to sneak one by us or they can't do math worth beans because the price difference was more like $25 (a day). So, I was happy to have saved his company money but we ended up driving a dinky little Prius the whole time!

-They have 2 exits at the car rental place. One door, you wait in an air conditioned room, get a free beverage, have the car brought to you, luggage loaded and door opened and waiting for you. Since we declined the upgrades, we got the other door...

-We get on the road which has multiple arrows and exits and freeway/highway numbers and Jeff tells me I need to navigate. He's printed off like 50 different pages with directions to everywhere we need to go and needless to say...I lost my navigational privileges temporarily.

-Car rentals do have upgrades like GPS.

-We get to the Hay Expo and it is 106 degrees with the wind blowing like crazy!!! They needed us to set up our booth, but yeah right...it'd just melt or blow over. So, we set some things up and leave the rest for the next day. The show looks so small compared to the last one I went to.

-Subway for dinner.

-Check into hotel #1.

-Then we went to the Mall of America and walked around the mile long levels. It was HUGE! But, kind of disappointing...

-I've wanted to go to an H&M store for quite the long time. I built up this excitement for it and when I entered it was like my dream shattered. All the clothes were to small and not very modest. Dang it...I was going to buy my birthday there.

-My husband was so patient while I shopped. And, I did end up finding me a couple of things.

-Hot tub with hubby without worrying about kids drowning...awesome!!

-Sleeping in a king sized bed without kids makes me feel so alone, doubt I'll ever own one.

-Showering without hearing A. Pounding on the door. B. Screaming. C. Tattling. It's a luxury I miss.

-We get to the show early and set everything up...it is caked in dirt. Jeff hangs around for a bit, but as soon as the show starts he's off.

-He see's me off and on through out the day, but mostly he's out taking pictures of the demonstrations and contacting clients. Leaves me to the fun stuff...sitting and waiting for people to pass by and talk to.

-Had one dude that lingered longer and his topic of choice was Dr. Kevorkian and different ways people die while farming. He suggests we have a column in the magazine about farm deaths...

-Day 1 of the show is done. I did my best, but only ended up with a dozen or so referrals...boo!

-Ran errands to Walmart (can I not escape that place!) for a card reader so Jeff can do more work.

-I'm not complaining, but my hubby does not quit working!!! Even when we were away from the show he's talking about needing to contact this client, needing to respond to this email etc., I'm just grateful he's so driven!

-Day 2 of the show which happens to be my 35th birthday. Man, I feel so old. Jeff comments that I look miserable. I kinda want to strike up conversations with these old farmers that leads to me saying "oh yeah, today's my birthday" just so I can hear it and feel like it's actually my birthday, but I resist, suck it up and remind myself of how blessed I am.

-Rib sandwiches at the show=AWESOME!

-Got a call from my parents to inform me that London has potty trained Sullivan. It's a miracle. (side note...he likes using potties everywhere else but home, so we are still working on it)

-That night, birthday dinner is at Culver's. I've been hearing Jeff talk about this place for years and had to try it out myself. I liked it a lot, but nothing beats Jeff's BBQ!!!

-That concludes the Hay Expo and birthday celebrations.

-On Friday we wake early, head to the airport for the flight home. Again...4 take-off's and 4 landings, a sore hand on Jeff's part, 3 hour lay over in Denver, hour and a half drive home and then we hoped into bed and slept off everything.

-On Saturday morning we travel the 2 hours to go pick up the kids. I look forward to that sweet reunion...kids jumping in my arms and crying because they missed me sooo much.

-London is very excited to see me. Kamryn could care less, she's taking advantage of playing with her cousins because she knows it is going to end soon. Sullivan, my baby boy, jumped up into his Daddy's arms and wouldn't be passed to me, wouldn't be set down, just held on to his Dad until he fell asleep. It was sweet, broke my heart that he didn't want me, but so good to see how much of a Daddy's boy he really is. 1 out of 3...I'll take it.

-We end the day with a celebration of my Mom's 60th birthday. Their was much laughter, lots of tears (on my part especially) and good conversation all around. My Mom is one amazing person!