Weekend away…

We went away for a long weekend road trip to get together with some friends.  One of them had a lakehouse in Northern California, which I swear I could have lived on her deck forever.  It was absolutely beautiful.

It was such a nice weekend away.  The internet didn’t work that well, and it was actually refreshing not being “connected” all the time.  The kids had plenty of new and old friends to play with, and I enjoyed being able to just relax and chat outside of the stress of everything going on.   “Decompressing” was the best term I could use for that time.  And it just reaffirmed how awesome these friends are.

On the way to the lake house, we stopped in Reno to see some friends.  I was able to meet and spend time with Addi and Cassi for the first time in person, and OMG, I just couldn’t stop loving on them.   Being able to sit down with Chris Hempel, someone who I have talked to on the phone and emailed with more times than I could count ~ finally spending time face to face, and it was if that meeting in person was just a technicality.

On the way home from the lake house, we stopped in Virginia City, NV, and took a tractor tour of the city.  It was a lot of fun seeing the old ghost town and mining town, and the kids were fascinated!   We also stopped for dinner at the Mizpah Hotel in Tonopah ~ but we didn’t see any ghosts, kids were bummed!

We should have known the weekend went too well because we were reminded about 35 miles outside of Vegas at 12:30 am in the desert.   Front tire blowout.    Daddy had to take everything out of the back of our minivan only to find out that our spare was actually under Ethan’s seat.   So picture will you, pitch black desert highway, a car or truck whizzing by every so often, and a minivan pulled over with its entire contents stuffed with suitcases, coolers, books (thanks Mindy!), etc.  Fortunately, AAA made it out there in about an hour and had us back on the road.

We got home at 3 am on Tuesday morning.   We are STILL recuperating 🙂

This trip came at the perfect time.  The stress from our upcoming event in SIX days and then the anxiety about Hannah’s birthday coming up … it was really getting to me.

I realize now that whatever happens at the event, if something goes wrong or gets chaotic, it will be what it is.  We are preparing like crazy and have SO many people spreading the word that I hope it is a success.  But I can’t stress about the turnout or how it will end up because the most important thing about the event is being able to then focus on what I really want to do – helping families.   So whatever we raise at the event will be more than we had before the event, and every dollar will go to doing what our passion is leading us to.

As for Hannah’s birthday, I am still very anxious about it.  It is almost as if I don’t want it to pass because I’m not ready for that milestone to hit.   All I know is that in the morning, Daddy, the kids and I are going to the cemetery and bringing her balloons.  I need some time for her before we head off to The District to prepare for the night’s event.