Mimipalooza begins

First and foremost, my heart aches for everyone affected by the school shooting in Newtown, CT. I hugged my babies tight tonight and let them stall a little more at bedtime. We laughed and played without concern that we were up way past bedtime. I can't help but think of all the families who have been shattered today. I hardly even know what to pray for...it is just so big. But I will try.

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I decided to do something that would make me happy, and reviving my blog is something that will make me just a little happier. 

Abbey, I am so glad your friend had this same problem with photos and found a way to work around it. I added another email address as an administrator, and I was able to upload photos. Hooray! 

At first I was going to blog about the entire Mimipalooza in just one post, but that was too daunting. So I will split it up into manageable chunks. 

The official start of Mimipalooza for me personally was when Mikey called me around 5:00 in the morning to tell me that he couldn't find his wallet. And his flight was leaving in about two hours. That sure jolted me awake in a flash! Thank goodness I knew exactly where his passport was, and it had not expired! We were also thankful that we had some cash stashed away in the house. All of that stress led to him running late for his flight. (cough...that could be because he doesn't leave enough wiggle room in case something weird happens...cough) He was further foiled by the shuttle bus driver who insisted on waiting and waiting in the lot instead of just taking him to the terminal. He was ten minutes past the cut-off to check his bag in. To say he was irritated with the shuttle bus driver and the agent at the desk is an understatement. The agent made him get on another flight (and check his bag to that flight). When he got to the gate, they let him on his original flight. Whew! That meant he should make his connection in Newark. Or so we thought. 

Newark was a disaster. They were canceling flights right and left. The official reason was said to be weather, but it turns out that United didn't have enough flight crews. Mikey was missing his rides with other family members to Old Lyme. We would have to drive four-ish hours to go get him in Newark. My mom came up with the idea for him to take a train. It sounded good in theory, so we went that route. Except remember - Mikey's checked bag was on a different flight. His bag was arriving later than his train would leave. We figured they would just send his bag to the house since SO many flights were being canceled. Mikey had a heck of a time figuring out how to get on a train in Newark. That was stressful for him because he was running short on time, and it was stressful for me because I in fact had no idea how to help, but he kept asking. Oh, and when he made it off the tram at the train station and had to buy a ticket, the guy gave him all sorts of grief because they aren't supposed to accept cash at that station. He told Mikey to make sure he will never do that again. OK, buddy. He will make sure that when he is taking a train from Newark to Old Saybrook, he will not have forgotten his wallet at the office. 

As he is riding on the train, I am trying to keep the boys entertained (while it's raining) by myself, as well as calling United's awesome customer service department to get his bag routed to the house. I could barely understand the representative, who was clearly not within US borders. I don't mind call centers being elsewhere, but I sure would like to speak with someone who has at least average English skills. Anyway, he told me in no uncertain terms that they would not just send Mikey's bag to us because it was Mikey's choice to make other arrangements. We could pay a shipping company to bring it to us, but that would be COD, and we would have no clue how much it would cost. Yikes. Or we could go pick it up in Newark (no thank you!). Or we could try to have it routed to Providence or Hartford, but that could take a week. They had no way of knowing how long it would take. 

Steam was coming out of my ears. We had this day all figured out, and the rest of the family had no trouble getting into town. To reward your eyes for reading that much, here is a look at what we did while we waited to sort all of Mikey's stuff out:

CC's exercise area is fun! They had lots to do. Only one hand got smushed when the boys started letting the hand weights slide across the (very slow-moving) treadmill. Yep, it was my fault for letting them play on that. Fun but probably a bit too dangerous. 

OK, back to it. Mikey was on the train. No bag would be coming anytime soon. We had family portraits scheduled for the next day. I would go pick him up at the train station, then we would shop for some necessities. I knew what train he was on, so I drove to the train station and called right after his train was supposed to have arrived. Ha, not so much. It was running very late. For some reason, Mikey and I had particularly dreadful cell service while he was on the train. I nearly lost it, and then I called Uncle Bobby in the hopes that he would save my sanity. I knew he was about to pick Katie up from the train station. I figured they would probably have to wait a bit for Mikey, but they are nice people, and they did just that. :) I spent some time at Old Navy (good therapy for me), drove back, and Mikey was at the house when I got back. Ahhhhhh all is well. He called customer service about his bag again, and because all flights were canceled for the rest of that day (whew - we lucked out on that one!), they said they would deliver his bag to the house. 

Ryan is not afraid to get down and dirty with a cupcake.

Some of my best memories of Connecticut trips are made in the back yard. Having our entire boisterous bunch out there was a lot of fun. 

All eyes on William

Lots and lots of laughter erupts when this crew gets together. 

The whole family approves of Bella. 

William's safe place from Bubba is inside his big basketball contraption. It's nice because he can escape from either end if Bubba comes sniffing around. Bubba is slow, so William can scoot away in time. 

Cousins!  

I am certain that this laughter is due to some serious Bubba slobber being slung around.

Let the party prep begin! We moved the party to the garage due to the the threat of bad weather.  

Annie did a great job with the balloons... 

...until the "kids" got their hands on some helium. 

Aunt Lisa called Uncle Bobby and pretended to be their car rental rep from the day before. I don't know if he laughed, but she sure thought she was funny! 

Reliving the glory days when I worked at a party store. I have made more than my fair share of balloon bouquets. 

Mimi requested lobster for the big party. This guy came and did the whole thing himself. Here you can see the seaweed that is covering the lobster and mussels. He tucked that material around the big pile o'stuff and lit the fire underneath. 

Sweet Katie and Annie! 

The boys woke up from naps and were very intrigued by the whole situation. 

Just hanging out and watching our food cook. 

It all had a smoky flavor. I wonder why? 

That outdoor couch is the best. 

Hot, hot, hot. 

Those two blondies have a special bond. 

This is truly one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip. We were all eating clam chowder. William ate a bowl full of oyster crackers. Look at his face here! He has his bowl covered so Mac and Uncle Michael don't steal any of his crackers. It was too funny. 

William wanted a better view of the food being cooked.  

Dinner is served! 

Table #2

All the cool kids sat here.  

William had no interest in eating lobster, but he loved playing with the claw.

This one makes me happy! You can't tell that Ryan was just SCREAMING because the party hat he (briefly) had on was cutting into his skin big time. And William was taking his green party hat and smacking me with it. It was one of those things that should have made me mad, but it was so darn funny I couldn't help but crack up.  

With much help from family, I made a slide show of Mimi's life. We projected it on the garage wall. 

I actually love that the party ended up in the garage. It felt a lot more intimate than if we were scattered around in the back. 

Aunt Sallie can't even get a word out she is laughing so hard. Her helium-enhanced laugh is only slightly higher than normal. :)

Love these kooky people I am fortunate enough to call family!

We made Olympics-watching into an Olympic sport. If you ever need to plan a summer family gathering, I do recommend doing it during the summer Olympics whenever possible. I am not a huge Olympics person, but it sure was fun to watch (and let's be honest here - make fun of just about everyone) with the family.  

We were all very serious about swimming. Aunt Sallie has Annie by the foot here!