This was the tough part

After a long life here it was very very sad to see our home so empty.  

Those walls contained so much laughter and amazing memories.  

Our friends, creating a family, bringing our girls home, tears of joy, tears of sadness,

 but above all else, sooo much laughter.  

 I loved that part of our lives so much and still miss it a little bit every day.

After this was on our lawn, we had to get in a couple last bits of fun with our besties!

 I will say that Marlo and Mimi miss their Auntie Annika tons!

 This was the last walk down the stairs for school!

"What do you mean, Teacher Janice is not coming with us?"

One of our favies making the girls' last day of school very very special!

And though this was sad, we will one day walk into another empty house and fill it with love, laughter and memories and find our home once again.  Oh, and we expect that ALL our Seattle lovies will come and make some new memories from time to time.  

Frat party?

Before we sold the house and left our "home", we had ourselves one humdinger of a party.  Like most of our parties, we served my famous sangria, drank too too much, got LOUD, had a great kitchen dance party, and ended the night in a human pyramid.  Alongside the regular crew, there were a couple of newbies that added their own flavor of tomfoolery... shot-gunning of beers, doing shots, eating from the sangria bowl.  Sheesh, it was like a frat gave us our going away party.
This is a "g-rated" version of that night's events.

The last
HURRAH!

Hector, with our beautiful friend Stephanie!
Who kicked cancer's ASS!!!
(Hector's not too bad to look at either!)

This is when the shenanigans started

Just look at the mischief in Bron's smile!

Our famous living room dance party!

Oh, that juice is soooo good and easy to drink then
POW!!...
drunk!

...which always ends up with us doing one of these,

and for some reason,
 thanks to Amy and P we took the tomfoolery to another level

SHOTGUN!!

YEAH! ladies RULE!
Shameful P, truly shameful!

Wait, I never got the beer open!

Do-over

Starts cute,
then falls to pieces!

Please, check out Andi in this series of pictures.
I die laughing every time!!

Oh, Melissa!

This is when the breakdancing happened
and we got, well, broken!

Please notice, I caught some good air!

From the devil!
I don't even know what I put in these...

...but from the look on Andi's face it was not good!
Thanks Seattle we love, love, love and truly miss you!

How ever did we get here?

What we have here is my best recollection of how we got to where we are.  The slideshow is probably the most effective way to get these pictures out and on this blog without losing my mind or any more readers.

We left Seattle early in the morning from Uncle Terry and Auntie Robby's, with a rain shower to bid us farewell.  So very fitting for Seattle to send us off on a gloomy note, since we were very sad to be going.  This bittersweet departure was TOUGH, for, as much as I complained about not being home with my family, we had really built a family for ourselves here, a family I was gonna miss terribly and still do!  

After leaving Washington, we encountered many adventures, as illustrated by my breathtaking sideshow.  It is not to be missed, so click on the link bellow to see it.  Some of our more memorable moments were when we drove thru the Colorado wildfires on our way to spend a great time with cousin Pat, cousin Penny and uncle Wally.  

We climbed all over the red rocks of Colorado, hit a local spray park, and had a fantastic time relocating rocks in Pat's backyard.  

After Colorado, we headed over to see some of Andi's family in Kansas City!  We were welcomed by Uncle Charles and Auntie Linda, who then became Aunt Favie. They really showed us a great time; we took a ride on their boat, had dinner on the water, and played on their beach.  We also had lunch at a restaurant that delivered our food by choo choo train, and had an amazing adventure at the zoo. 

 After we spent our time with aunt favie, we moved on to surprise our Mema.  It was great to be in cahoots with Teresa and get to just walk into Mema's  living room.  
I do love a good surprise! And what a surprise it was! 
While we were traveling I discovered that an old friend from Chicago was now living in Springfield.  What a treat to see Beth Finke and her kids. We had a great time at Mema's learning to "swim" and crawling in and out of dog doors!  While we were there the Wiersch clan added a new member, and with that our time in Springfield was up.  We were heading home... at long last.

                                           

Lets back it up!

After we packed up most of the mess (toys and toddler crap essentials)

 that usually covered every surface of our tiny home, 

we wondered 'how the h.e.doublehockeysticks are we gonna 

keep this house clean enough to show and sell'??? 

 There we were, girls napping, dogs outside barking their fool heads off 

and two moms basking in the bliss of cleanliness that had been so elusive for the past 2+ years; 

insert lightbulb over head

We need to get out of town!! 

 We decided that this would be the only possible way to sell our house,

 so we talked it over and decided that if we were gonna split we were really gonna SPLIT! 

Andi had wanted to get to Hawaii one last time so this was the perfect opportunity for that, 

plus "the girls" have not ever been on a real beach vacation as a family.  

How could this be? 

 Well, clearly we are bad parents!! 

We made arrangements for the dogs to go away for ten days!

 Sounds easy enough, but you probably haven't met our dogs... 

so after much pleading, bribing and expert canoodling we suckered  got some friends to care for them.  The only thing left to do was buy tickets and find a place to stay. 

We rented a big condo that seemed, well, too big for just "the girls" 

so Andi and I had a chat.  

I knew my parents would never go to Hawaii on their own and Val really really needed a vacation, 

and that is how the seed was planted. 

 Val agreed and we all pooled our pennies together,

 talked my mom and pops into the idea and
the de la Griswalds were off on a tropical vacation to remember.  

We  had an amazing time! The girls loved being with their Yaya, Pops and Annie Val,

 the moms loved the small amount of freedom that afforded us i.e. sunning and cocktailing. 

 It was the perfect way for us to say thanks to parents who ALWAYS put us first, who helped us out emotionally, financially, selflessly even into adulthood.  

Thank you thank you thank you Yaya and Pops! 

We love you berry berry much!

  Oh, and while we were out sunning in the tropical paradise, our house sold!  

It was not without a little drama, and I won't even go into the fact that Andi broke out in head to toe hives because of worry, because all that's important is the memories and that we 

SOLD OUR HOUSE!

Here is what the trip looked like in pictures.

Vanished

After four months away, well, here I am.

Probably writing just to get the words out without any followers left.

 I could just say sorry, but that would not really be my style, now would it.

You see, what had happened was...

...I was tucked away in rehab!  

Rehab from my life in Seattle. I missed my friends, my house, and everything that had made up my life for the past six years.  After my 30 days, I thought I was well, but I was WRONG.

 Clearly I was still interested in drowning my sorrows, so I started to have an illicit, scandalous, and very very romantic relationship with another.

 Her name is... 

Sun.

 Oh, how she shines!  

She illuminated my life and her warmth made me love her more and more each day. 

 We would spend hours together just hanging out, at the pool, eating ice cream, 

and gasp... even playing with my kids.  

If I'm gnna be honest, I'll tell you, 

I did not always wear protection, and I know,

 I know, I'm sooooo lucky I did not get burned. 

But every night she gave me the same story, 

" i have to go, i just can't stay, the time has come for me to set". 

What did she mean, I was so confused, I thought we really had something.  

Every morning she came back and we were hot and heavy again,

 but this cycle was getting old. 

 She has been a little distant these days and our affair seems to be cooling down. 

All I have left is  some tan skin and a vitamin D level like I have not seen in years!! 

I had nothing left to do but split. 

 I went back to my old life in Seattle. 

 It was so glorious to spend time in the life I used to live,

 no kids, no early mornings, no sun, cocktails anytime, and well,

 some of the best people a gal could know and love!! 

 We said we were going back for our bestie's wedding, but truly it was for a tiny little fix of Seattle loving. That is over now, and after taking a long hard look at my life I really had to get it together. 

So I got on my computer, found a job, a nanny, 

bought some clothes and shoes and am ready to go!! 

 On  Monday my "summer of love" is over and I return to reality.

 A new woman in a new career with a mission to keep up this blog.  

PEACE OUT!