Trippin' With My Sistah

So I told you that I would blog about my trip with Christina and her birthday celebration. Truth is, she did a totally awesome job -- with great pictures -- on her blog. So I will refer you to her blog post, and I will fill in around it with tidbits that stick out in my mind. So, if you want to read her version and see the pictures, click here.

I spent the night at Christina's house on the 14th. We ate some dinner and played some dominoes, and watched some Scrubs and ate some popcorn. Now, thanks to Julie, I am hooked on Mexican Train, although I haven't played it since October. I own it, though. I plan to play it again in the future. Well, for Christmas, I got Nick a nice game set that had like 10 games in it. The box was wood, and it looked really nice. Well, it turns out they have these puny little dominoes. Seriously. You can see them in the pictures on Christina's blog. They are probably a third of the size of a regular domino in all dimensions (length, width, etc). So it was hard to "wash" them, as Nick and Christina refer to it (this means mixing them up or shuffling them). But anyway, Christina and Nick taught me how to play dominoes the way they play. It was fun. At one point I almost "stole Nick's points," but since I didn't use the appropriate dominoes lingo (which would have been "mug you thirty"), we let it slide. But they did make fun of me for yelling out, "I steal your points!" Emily went down to bed around 7:30. Desiree was down by 9. But by 11, Emily was talking in the crib, so Christina went and got her after about 15 minutes of this, so that she wouldn't wake up Desiree. So, Emily got to enjoy popcorn with us, which is what two of the pictures are. We had to bite off the parts that have the seed husks or whatever they are called, because we don't figure it's particularly easy for her little body to tolerate them. And so she would follow my hand that had a piece of popcorn in it with her mouth open -- like a little bird. She was very excited when she'd finally get to eat a soft piece. After we were done with the popcorn, she sat with me and pointed at my pajama pants, that have cats and crescent moons on them. She pointed to a cat on my pants, and so I said, "Meow." And I did that a couple more times, and then she started trying to copy what I was saying. It was so cute. She is growing up fast.

The next morning the four of us girls (me, Christina, Desiree, and Emily) got up and on the road by 9. We headed to La Push. It wasn't a bad drive, all in all. I just get impatient. Christina explained the story of our "stowaway" bug, and how we didn't really like it. The girls did marvelously well. They are really good travelers. Desiree is such a good big sister. She entertains Emily (who seriously has the most hilarious furrowed brow expression ever -- hence Christina's link to Pinky and the Brain). Desiree was also in charge of our map. We had the writeen directions, but we also had an overall map. We didn't really need the map, so when Desiree asked if she could be in charge of the map, we were happy to comply. She's such a sweet girl, always wanting to help.

We got to La Push around noon. There were a lot of people there! Probably there for the same reason we were -- because of New Moon. I know.... We are dorks. But, since I won't be able to be in Dothan for the New Moon party, this is the least I can do. So after a few pictures (is that coastline not just gorgeous? Reminds me so much of The Goonies!!!), Christina and I climbed our way down to the water -- where, it turned out, the tide was coming in -- and I collected La Push sand for my Alabamian friends. (And hopefully this wasn't supposed to be a surprise, since I just ruined it for any of them that read my blog...). And then we set our cameras up on timer, and ran to take pictures at the ocean's edge. And we got our feet soaked for our efforts! It was actually quite funny. In one picture, I'm holding Desiree, who is looking down at the water to make sure it doesn't come up and wet her. Too funny! What a great memory. So then we slogged back to the car and headed back up the road to find some lunch. Christina mentioned we stopped for lunch at a place with a Twilight menu. Yeah, basically you just pay for the experience. The people of La Push and Forks are no dummies. They are cashing in on this money-maker. But it was fun and worth it, since this was all about Christina's birthday. We did jaunt into Forks for a little pit-stop at a store there. By this time, though, I was exhausted. And I knew I had a full week ahead of me. So we decided to call it a day and head back. The girls both fell asleep on the way back, which was good, since I know they were tired. Meanwhile Christina and I laughed and joked in the front to help the trip go by faster. We were tired too. Very tired. We did stop in Port Angeles to get some ice cream sundaes, since I told Desiree we would. Emily enjoyed her bites. We wondered if babies get brain freezes? Emily was about done with the trip when we only had an hour left, so we had to entertain her quite a bit that last hour. But even then, she wasn't a screamer, so that was good. And again, Desiree was the helpful big sister who gave Emily all the things she wanted -- that were within Desiree's reach, at least. I dropped Christina and the girls off at home, helped them get inside, and played a game of Princess Dominoes with Desiree. And then I headed home. And I slept really really well that night :).

So, that's my story.