Flemsta.09

Flemmy came to visit me, you gize.

And she brought her 4 adorable kids along with her. She drove all day on Tuesday to get here after having work meetings all day on Monday in Napa. She then drove home on Saturday only to get on a plane for Grand Rapids Sunday morning for some other work related junk. She is truly amazing in her capacity to be so busy, travel to visit so many and raise such fun and nice kids along the way.

I did yell "YOUR JOB IS KILLING US!" a few times though.

This would mainly be when a middle-of-the-day conference call would interrupt some super important plans of going to a museum or sitting and chatting.

We did eventually make it to a museum, conference calls or not. Oh wait, Flem was on a conference call AT the museum. Thaaaat's right... I had forgotten how we worked that out. Standsmom had met us there though, so I wasn't completely left alone with SEVEN kids. Instead, Stands and I were left alone with TEN kids. Good times. Enjoyable even.

In all fairness Flem did hang up on her conference call after a while and we all then proceeded to enjoy the experience together.

It is called the Wildlife Experience and, true to its name, they had a hedgehog there. Wildlife indeed. It was the creepiest thing ever and now Flem is considering getting one for a pet. It would jump a little everytime someone touched it (see the two pics of Flem above) as a scare tactic. It totally worked. Freaked me out.

We now interrupt this recap with my favorite pics of widdle Meggie.

Oh my gosh....that baby....those cheeks....the cuddling. I couldn't stop kissing her or squeezing her thighs. She wuved me too. Like, big time wuv.

Her favorite activity to do when no one was watching was to empty the silverware out of the dishwasher. She did this at least once a day, usually twice.




Now, back to the events.

We had a bit of a sad thing happen where we packed up all the kids, double buckled them into the minivan (cuz we didn't want to have to take two cars) and drove them out to this really nice outdoor mall for them to run through these fun squirting fountains. We even had gotten their swimming suits on which is more than I can say for the last time we went there. Once we got there, however, we discovered that the fountains were off and they were having some lame outdoor concert there. How did they not send me an email or something to tell me this? Jerks.

So by this point, the kids are hot & getting cranky. Flem & I had to think fast. We stopped by a Target (after a failed attempt in a WalShizz) and bought an inflatable pool. Yup. We white-trashed it up. It was awesome. Put it in the front yard and everything.




It was actually quite deep and enjoyable. The kids kept busy with it for a couple of hours and really, that was well worth $30. Oh, and Flem finished up The Girl Who Could Fly, this month's SRBC selection.

Contrary to what that pic of Bridget indicates up there, she did have a fun time in the WT pool. It does look like she is saying "I am so sick of all these boys" though. She was the one I was most worried about. I figured the boys would hang with Casey (and boy did they), Beebs and Gilly would be BFFs and, of course, Meggerz would be mine so that left Bridget. I had picked up a little jewelry making kit and she made all kinds of fun things for everyone. I hope it helped her enjoy herself a little.



I'm guessing that if Flem and I had been sitting in the dorms circa 1993, and someone would have walked in and shown us these pictures of Gillian and Beebs and said "This is your future" we would have a) been totally freaked out and then b) bawled our eyes out for at least 20 minutes. I mean, right? So friggin cute. Almost painfully cute. Do you think we would have had a hard time figuring out whose daughter was whose? Me either. I'm glad someone didn't do that though. Cuz then I would have stopped saying my joke that I was so fond of that year about how I wasn't gonna let my kids play with the "Casey kids" when we grew up. You know, cuz Flem is basically a hippie.



And then this one... the girlies all tucked in my bed watching a little High School Musical. It truly doesn't get any better than that.




Dear Flem,

Thank you so much for taking the time to come and visit Denver suburbia this summer. I know you hate suburbia so I know it was a huge sacrifice. I loved how well our kids got along together and that Beebs cried when you were leaving. She keeps asking if you are coming back "tomorrow." ::sigh:: If only...dang your job all to heck!
My favorite times were our semi-late night chats (I only say semi cuz you would zonk out at midnight everynight), catching up on all the So You Think You Can Dance episodes and puttering around the kitchen together. I adore your kids and could have had you here another couple of weeks without blinking an eye. This visit was much too short. Let's remember that for next time, mmkay?

Me love you long time,

Landee