A Break

Jeff and I took a much needed vacay from the kids last week. Chris (Jeff's brother) and Sheri had found an amazing deal at our favorite Canyon Villas in Scottsdale and invited us to tag along. It didn't take much convincing. We left Friday morning, and thanks to four lovely ladies, we had our kids taken care of until Tuesday night.

What a fantastic treat! We basically could do anything we wanted, whenever we wanted. And that's exactly what we did. We spent the first two nights with 259; first with couples, and then with families. We had a LOT of laughs (and a few squeezes too) and the boys even performed a little "concert" of sorts and McKane and Emily's brand new gorgeous home. How long had it been since we heard the rap at the end of "Jericho" or "Kiss the Girl?" For a 259 groupie such as myself, it brought back a lot of memories. And I sure love those guys and the awesome ladies they talked into marrying them (sadly, I have no pictures. I couldn't find my phone when it was time to go, so I didn't have it for the whole weekend).

We also ate a lot of yummy food (had a delicious dinner on Sunday at Porter and Lana's house) and went to three different movies. We hung out in the hot tub, went to bed whenever we wanted and slept through the night in silence. Amazing!

The rest of our time we basically spent at Last Chance (the Nordstrom clearance/return center, where everything has one final chance to be purchased). It's like a Nordstrom yard sale. A lot of the stuff you find is brand new, but other stuff is used and not in great condition. And you really have to be willing to put in the time to find the deals. It also helps to have Chris and Sheri there, because they actually know what brands are expensive and helped us find them. Jeff and I have no clue.

We also spent a lot of our time at Zupas, enjoying the Mango Berry Salad. Zupas was right by Last Chance, which made it easy for us to shop for a few hours, go eat lunch close by and then go to a movie or whatever else we wanted. Seriously, it was so relaxing.

Here's a look at most of our haul (this was Monday night, before we scored a bunch of stuff on Tuesday, mostly for Jeff). 7 for all Mankind jeans (apparently that's good), Citizens of Humanity jeans (also good I hear), Pumas, Nikes, Asics, Skechers, Toms, Nordstrom boots...yeah, we scored. 

And here's Jeff showing off his North Face jacket and Nike Frees, which we picked up on Tuesday morning. The Nike duffel bag he is standing on was also a Last Chance purchase, desperately needed so we could take all of our stuff home on the plane. We stuffed it full! 

It was a perfect vacation. We had no cares, and the days flew by. But of course, we had to come home eventually to see what had become of our little ones. And, poor babysitter, they had endured a trial. Bex, our new pup, had somehow gotten to the only binkies Carter had left and chewed the nipples clean off. And so Carter had been something of a beast when it came time to sleep. 

We had been telling him that when he turns three (Jan 29) he will be giving up his binkies. Frankly, I didn't want to deal with it until then. He is going to be moving into a new bedroom and I thought we should wait until after the holidays at least until we went through the torture of binky-detox. But Bex made the decision for us. Now is the time to give up the binkies.

And it has been miserable for all of us. Not only has Carter basically refused taking naps, but he throws a complete fit when it's time for bed. If I had a binky, I promise I would have given him one several times. The worst, though, was at 12:30 am this morning. He woke up in hysterics, crying for his binky. I went and reminded him that we didn't have any more and he threw the biggest fit I have ever seen from him. He laid on the floor, kicking and screaming so much that I thought for sure this morning he would be hoarse. It was awful. And it went on for over an hour. I would lock him in his room (so that he couldn't stand outside our door screaming) and he'd start banging and kicking the door. Then Jeff or I would have to threaten him with a spanking if he continued that behavior. He would scream that he didn't want to go to bed, we'd put him back in bed, and the cycle would start again.

After about 30 minutes of this, the dog woke up and she wasn't happy at all. She started barking louder than Carter was crying. And the two of them continued to duel for another 30 minutes (could have been longer, but I put earplugs in at 1:30). Welcome home mom and dad. Welcome to your nightmare.