Luke and Kiddos:
So I woke up as usual before everyone else. I checked in with work before making a quick breakfast for everyone and throwing all of the bones from last night’s chicken into the pressure cooker to make a quick bone broth. The kids got up slowly but eventually ate and got ready. After that we all took Jenny down to the car rental place. It was a quick drive, we all kissed and hugged, dropped her off and the rest of us headed back to our house here in Washington Heights. After a COVID driver’s license issue that I’m sure Jenny will talk about, the kids all generally made a mess of the house while I worked. At one point someone, I’m not sure who, came and closed the door on my bedroom where I was working. I think they didn’t want me to know what they were up to :-). About an hour before our big meal I quick strained the bones out of the bone broth, threw in lentils, rice, spices and chicken. Once that was done I added some veggies. During lunch I made up some Jello for the kids and prepped an oatmeal bread for tomorrow’s breakfast.
The kids played some more until I was done with work. Then we played ticket to ride junior and candy land. The kids all did pretty well playing the games and taking turns and being good sports, which makes me happy. After all of that, and because of my sleep apnea when I’m not in Denver, I was beat. The kids let me nap for a good 20-30 minutes before we all went to the park. We walked down to Washington park (which is about a mile away) and played at the park for about an hour and a half. I had some good parenting conversations with one of the moms at the park whose son had decided Javi was his new best friend. Javi and he played tag most of the time we were there, he would call Javi a rascal and Javi would catch him and pull him down to the ground. It was very aggressive but everyone was having a good time. Then we headed back and had a video call with Nana and Papa. The kids shared with Nana and Papa some of the things that they’ve been learning and I shared all about our book plans.
After our video chat we watched Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and then got ready for bed. After putting the kids to bed I finished that breakfast oatmeal bread and talked to Jenny before going to not sleep myself. As I’m writing this Javi tells me he also didn’t sleep most of the night. Should be a fun Saturday. In retrospect maybe running the oven for an hour when it’s already 93 degrees out wasn’t the best idea I ever had. One final note is that this AirBnB has an assortment of musical instruments, so the entire day was punctuated with drums, and harmonicas, and cymbals, etc.
Jenny:
I’ve been really excited about this weekend with my girlfriends, and was determined to make it happen. So much so that I was willing to rent a car, and drive down into Chicago to see them! If you know me, you know that I’ve never rented a car on my own before, and I rarely drive. But – it was going to be worth it! Lover dropped me off at the car rental at the airport, and I started getting my reservation. The first thing the lady said was that my license was expired! (It was, and we renewed it before this trip.) But because of COVID, my license doesn’t show as renewed, and I haven’t been issued a new license yet. The car rental lady told me to forward her a copy of the pdf available on the DMV website, and that would suffice. So, I went onto the website and CO DMV clearly states that they do not provide ANY temporary documents. Yikes! We had a funny conversation as she looked up in her official binder the state-by-state guidelines, and she said, well, it says here that they resumed issuing driver’s licenses on April 30. And I just calmly laughed and said, well, that’s clearly not true! So, in the end, I forwarded her my email confirmation of completing the transaction online at the DMV, and she sent me on my merry way. Such strange times!
I rented a little Toyota Corolla. It was roomy and new and drove well, but the cruise control was super bossy and I hated it. Plus, I couldn’t use it on the Illinois roads that constantly switched from a 45MPH speed limit, to 55MPH, to 50MPH, all interspersed with stoplights. One of the most maddening roads I’ve ever driven on!
But, it was all worth it when I got to my friend Jenna’s house! It was so good to see her and Erica, and get reacquainted with their kiddos (and meet a few of them for the first time!) We spent the afternoon at Erica’s house (I got the grand tour) while we waited for her husband to finish up work, and talked and did puzzles and talked and talked and talked. Then we packed up Jenna’s youngest, and headed back to Jenna’s house for the rest of the night and talked some more! Erica made us scallops and pasta with a brown butter sauce, and pan seared zucchini and it was all fabulous. There’s a lot to catch up on when the three of us haven’t been all together in fifteen years! We did the math, the last time was at Jenna’s wedding! I’ve seen each of them a couple of times since then, but there’s been a lot of missed years and stories and events! We talked into the night – finally going to bed around 11:30pm. It was wonderful.