Get Away

We went home for Thanksgiving. Home to San Diego. And we drove. That should preface our funny, wonderful vacation. We pulled Trey out of school two hours early to get a bit of a head start down to Albuquerque. Bill found an Air Base down there which always means cheaper hotel rates. We finally found an open gate to get into the base around midnight and as the kids slept in the car, Bill ran in to check in and get keys to this very unassuming looking military hotel. When he finally came back to the car, he told me that we had to drive to our house. Uh...the hotel is right in front of us. We weren't staying there. We were staying in a house. I'm still confused. We're paying for military lodging, right? Yes, but they've converted the older base houses into temporary lodging facilities and we'd be bunking in a two bedroom HOUSE for the night. Well, dangit, why wasn't this an option when we got to Denver??

Sure enough, the front door lock had been replaced by a card reader and we walked into a typical two bedroom 1950s military home, fully furnished, linened and stocked with dishes. It even had a full size washer and dryer. Too bad I was so tired that I didn't really care. Bill cared though. He cared enough to rebook our room for the route back.

We got on the road Saturday morning around 10 and finally arrived at my mom's just before 11pm. The 40 is a very boring drive that I'd forgotten about since we hadn't driven that route in twelve years. Even with the DVD player, the kids were bored. I was bored. Bill was bored. Our car was bored. We put "Cars" in the DVD player to compare the movie to where we were driving. Yeah, I chalk that up to being educational. I'll take what I can get.

While back home we caught up with friends that were terribly missed these last four plus months. We hit Knott's Berry Farm during their Veteran Appreciation Month (i.e. free and deeply discounted tickets...although they sure made up for it when we paid $52 for burgers and fries for a family of four--OUCH!). We hit the beach. To make it a true So Cal beach time, we went to Rubios for fish tacos, er...or Bill got the fish tacos, I got chicken, and took it to the beach to eat with the salty air complimenting our Southern California meal. The kids searched for seashells while playing in the water. It was so awesome to be home during the freakishly hot heat wave that hit. I think I finally thawed out from all of this cold Denver weather.

And then there was Thanksgiving.


For the last ten years or so we've had a tradition of having dinner at my mom's best friend's place. They've been friends since the early 60s and our families have all grown up and are growing up together albeit here and there and mostly on holidays. The other two kids who were at Thanksgiving this year are Trey and Leah's BEST FRIENDS on Thanksgiving. But only on Thanksgiving. During the rest of the year, they're remembered and are actually more like cousins, but for that one day they are the bees knees. They needed no warming up time, small talk or mindless chit chat before they all ran to the back bedroom and started to play. After about a half an hour I hear Trey cry. Not just a cry like his feelings are hurt but a hyperventilating, oh-my-Lord-I'm-going-to-die cry. Well, Trey tends to be slightly dramatic so I didn't freak out when he started. He ran out of the room holding his mouth. I deduced that he'd somehow been hit. I pulled him into the bathroom and shoved a wad of toilet paper up to his lips to get him to calm down and catch the bloody spit that was starting to accumulate. And then I saw it. Or rather, didn't see it. He'd lost a tooth. Hooray!!! The only way this kid has ever lost a tooth is if someone else extracts it. I'd been nagging him for two months to get that tooth out. Turns out, the other little lady who is just four, was involved in a three person pillow fight with Trey and she accidentally knocked it out. Now, where was the tooth?


I went back in the room to three frightened faces, explained what happened and said, "I have a game for all of you to play!! We're going to play, 'let's find Trey's tooth!'" Yay! They were excited to look for this treasure and I hadn't even offered a prize. Trey was quite the stud for earning a war wound so early in the day.

Trey's Jack-O-lantern smile

Besides three generations of family friends getting together, another great thing about this home is that they have horses. And chickens. And cats. And dogs. At one time there were ducks and a goat, but the coyotes took care of the ducks and the goat went to live with a family that didn't care that he head butt EVERYTHING. The chickens were the main attraction this year since there's a new rooster in the coop named, Favio. Favio the rooster. He's boisterous and loud and thinks pretty highly of himself. Trey got to pet Favio and try to catch the hens while in the coop with my mom's friend. As I walked twenty steps away to get a picture of Leah on Kahlua the Horse, I hear Trey crying again. What now?! Favio attacked Trey. Trey wasn't hurt, just stunned that a rooster tried to eat him.

I proclaimed it a great day for a couple of reasons. 1) To distract Trey from any more crying. 2) It WAS a pretty memorable thing. I mean, who loses a tooth AND gets attacked by poultry in one day? If he was old enough to write a "What I did on my Thanksgiving vacation" I think he'd get an A.

There are two boys at this table. Really.

Two days later, after a week of wearing flip flops and capris it was time to pack up and head back to the Rockies. As soon as that Freak Heat Wave hit, it left again and was replaced by the most torrential rain I've seen in San Diego in probably ten years. It came down in sheets. After goodbyes and a drenched Bill got in the car, we started out the driveway. With rain pouring down the windshield, Bill turned on the wipers. And then one of them came loose and flapped back and forth along the window. We pulled over immediately and my poor hubby braved the rain again to reattach it. And then it happened again. And again. And then both sides came off. It was so random and such bad timing that it was funny. I mean, it could have been sprinkling but no. The streets were starting to flood and the gutters were white and foamy with so much rain pouring into them. Bill pulled into a Wal Mart parking lot after lots of praying for no cars to come near us and Bill drove almost blindly along the drenched roads. Two new blades (even though we just replaced them two weeks ago) and two new Chargers jerseys later and we were finally on our way to New Mexico. He'd wanted to leave at 6am that morning. I told him he was smoking crack and I'd rather leave at 8. With all of the excitement, we didn't get going until 10. ::sigh::


We hit Flagstaff just around the time we needed a hit of Starbucks and pulled over. By the time our coffee was ready and it was time to get back on the road, it started to snow. A ton. It blew in horizontally, towards us. For all non-previous-snow-driving people, it was like the ride Star Tours where you hit warp speed and the stars start stringing by you. Oh yeah, who was driving at this point? Me. The non-previous-snow-driving person. We got to our hotel/house around midnight again and FINALLY made it back to our house Sunday night.


What a funny, unpredictable, wonderful Thanksgiving. Oh what will this Christmas hold? I'm almost afraid to ask.