*sniffles*

So. This weekend.

Saturday saw me and the boy getting up bright and early to go and have breakfast with Gramma and Papa before he, gramma and I headed off to Anchorage. Much fun was had (after much grumbling about the hour – it’s not MY fault he’d been up since 4am all too excited to sleep!) and we hit the road at about 9am, after a stop for coffee. The boy settled into the back seat with my portable dvd player, and gramma and I chit-chatted all the way up. It was a beautiful drive, clear roads, pretty skies, and two VERY excited kiddos. (…The Boy and Gramma, of course!)

Once in Anchorage, we were nice, and took the boy to Carl’s Jr. for lunch, though we kept threatening him with Chinese. hee.

He gave the burger a smile and thumbs up and agreed that waiting until the one down here opens is gonna drive him insane! Fortunately they should be opening in a couple weeks.

Then we went to the Sears Mall, and checked out Gramma’s Pictures which were chosen to hang in the display for the Fur Rondevous Amature Photography Contest Winners. She keeps trying to say “well, they hung almost all of them! It’s no big deal.” But um. The DIDN’T hang ALL of them, so it IS a VERY big deal! Thus, we of course took pictures of her next to her pictures:

All three there next to her on the first picture, and the bottom one on the second picture are Gramma’s shots. Excellent nana!

We walked around some more, got some pictures, then went to check into the hotel before deciding what we were gonna eat for dinner. We finally chose the Outback Steak House, and man – there is nothing wrong with bloomin onions as big as your head, and margaurita’s served in beer glasses! That’s class man, total class! And of course, the cutie waiter didn’t hurt things either. hee. I didn’t get his picture, but the boy was positive he looked like someone we’d seen on TV. Though I’m not quite sure who.

Back to the hotel where we let Nana watch Evolution, since she’d never seen it and me and the boy can quote most of it and giggle hysterically at it – which of course had her just shaking her head at us by the end. Heh. Then we had to turn off the tv, and the lights, and force that boy to SLEEP. He was QUITE tired, and we had to be up very early and to the airport by 6:30am.

Which is where we discover that Nana and Momma have similar obsessive/compulsive things when it comes to time. She is ALWAYS early. Always. Everywhere. It’s so annoying. She set the room alarm, and set up a wakeup call, and made sure her watch alarm was set, and happily went to sleep, only to get up a full hour before any alarm went off.

My compulsive abilities aren’t QUITE the same, because I am always RIGHT on time or a few minutes late. Because of that, when it comes to something IMPORTANT to my kids, I obsessively check the alarms and make sure they’re ready to go off, haven’t gone off already, are set correctly, are loud enough, etc. Because I don’t wanna be the mom who’s kid misses the field trip since she couldn’t manage to get outa bed early enough. Heh. So, I set the phone alarm, and the boy’s watch, and tripple checked the others. Including the wakeup call after nana went to sleep.
Yes. for those counting. Thats FIVE ALARMS/Wakeup calls.
And then I woke up 15 minutes before any of them went off. *chuckles*

So we let them all go off and wake up the boy, got them both showered and packed and off to the airport. Where we were, of course, early. So it was coffee and muffins from Starbucks, and we settled in to wait before checkin. Everything went smoothly, he met the rest of his class when they arrived, and then as we were almost to the security gate he realized he forgot his headphones and I didnt ahve enough time to get to the car and back with them. That was kinda the big realization that I wasn’t going with him, I think, and we had a moment of tears from the boy, and big ole hugs from me, and a promise from gramma to get him a pair somewhere along the way.

So, though it KILLED ME, I allowed my baby boy, my first born, go through that security gate (withhisgramma) and take off for Washington DC without me. For the first time ever, a big BIG trip, without momma. *SOB*

Then, when I couldn’t see him anymore, I walked (ALONE!) to the (grammas) car, and sat there for a bit and sniffled a little, and then barely resisted the need to give the one finger salute to the guy impatiently gesturing for me to pull OUT of the close to the door parking spot already – if he wanted to park there he should have been there at 5:45am like us! –
then went to Gwinnies for breakfast, and headed out of town.

Into Whiteout. Just like last weekend. Fortunately, it didn’t last the whole way this time, and the drive was almost uneventful, until just about a half hour before home, a small herd of Caribou (which I’ve also eaten, Kristy!) crossed the road in front of us.

They stood still (sorta, not really, just barely) for a quick picture, then I was off for home.

Where my babyboy was not. *sniffles*

They called when they arrived at their hotel in Washington DC, sounding absolutely exhausted. They’ll be having a fantastic time hitting all the hotspots, including a Washington/Boston pro ball game, and though I won’t be there for it, Gramma promised to make his birthday on Friday something special. (I did send a gift with her, though!)

I’m sure they’re having a WONDERFUL time.

Is it wrong that I want them to come home already?
No?
Good.

Heh.