Finally! The summer has officially started. I’m not going to pretend I wasn’t bitter that Zak got a two week plus head start on the summer adventure. It wasn’t easy being home, dealing with all the kid stuff and end of the year school stuff. It would have been a bit easier if we hadn’t had a gas leak, a bad plumber situation, and a broken washing machine. (Note to all plumbers who may read this: Don’t be condescending just because your customer is a woman. There is no need to roll your eyes and call her “miss” just because she questioned you. And when she’s right, and you’re wrong, own it.)
The girls have spent the past few days squeezing in all the time possible with their friends as I got us and the house ready for the summer. As prepared as I thought we were, we had two panicky situations this morning. We had one suitcase to check and knowing the 50 pound weight limit, I weighed it yesterday and it came in at 42 pounds and we only had our toiletries to add. We tossed them in and reweighed. 56.9 pounds. Shoot. I don’t know how much skin, hair, and face products Ellie could squeeze in little bags, but they must have been heavy. We started shifting things around and eventually got it down to 49.5 pounds. The other near catastrophe was Ellie lost her glasses. Gone. Couldn’t find them anywhere. Searched high and low. The basement, her room, both bathrooms, the car. Nowhere. We arrived at the solution to bring an old pair with an old prescription and have another lecture about responsibility when she casually mentioned that she had found them in her desk drawer. Right where she keeps them.
We hitched a ride with the Escalady to O’Hare and had an easy flight to Denver and an even easier flight to Durango. But then we landed. You may have read in Zak’s post that my biggest fear was that he wasn’t going to pick us up at the airport. I had this image of him redecorating COhome with empty whiskey bottles and enjoying the bachelor life a little too much. He kept reassuring me throughout the past two weeks that he would be there. Then this exchange happened:
Yeah. So. That was a choice he made. You know, to not be there when we arrived. My first reaction was to download Tinder, hop the next flight back to Chicago, and tell the girls they’d be spending this week with dad and every other one with me. We followed him on Google Maps as he appeared to stop at Denny’s (new girlfriend?) and the Cowboy Church (confessing sins?).
Have to admit that we were all a little shocked when he texted that he was in the parking lot. We reunited after a looooong two plus weeks and hit up Ska Brewery for good eats and good brews. Heading to COhome now and my fingers are crossed there are no Knob Creek bottles being used as decorations.
There are two important facts to record here for posterity. First, the flight was 15 minutes early. Second, that my timing was perfect, as Zoe stated I pulled up right as you all walked outside.