Blended Spring Break

We did it!  We blended Spring Break for the first time EVER!

Die hard readers might remember last year I did Spring Break by myself and 2 years ago I went on Spring Break with my friend’s HUSBAND when she got sick.   That was awkward to say the least.

Spring Break 2015 is over but it was so much fun.

 

 

 

Al and his 16 y.o daughter, Cookie (made up name), arrived last Sunday which was his 50th birthday.  I had cooked and made a nice dinner and cake and we invited my parents to come celebrate.  It was very good.  He loved his birthday lasagna and handled turning 50 with much more grace than I did  which wasn’t much of an achievement actually since I acted like a huge whiny baby. 

 

 

 

The next morning we packed all 4 kids into my mom’s SUV (since we couldn’t fit in my car and she graciously loaned it to us) and headed South to New Orleans.  I have determined that nothing helps people get to know each other faster than a road trip.  We made it down fine and the kids were all happy and laughing, singing in the car.  Al and I kept looking over at each other and smirking at our good luck. 

Like, of course we knew it would be this easy.

We found our hotel and the 6 of us stuffed ourselves into one room at the Embassy Suites.  It was fab and worked great.  We walked around the French Quarter and ate too much, shopped without buying and generally had a great few days.  On Wednesday, we made the trek back home after Al and The Boy spent the morning in the WW II museum while the girls shopped (again not buying.  Sucks to be poor.) 

Home again home again jiggity jig.  There were some highlights of the trip though.  Al took Cookie and The Boy on a college tour of Tulane.  She loved it, but The Boy, not so much.  He thinks New Orleans is too hot.   He is just like me, hates to be hot.  Another highlight was visiting the Voodoo shops in the French Quarter, the girls loved it.

 

 

 

I think perhaps my favorite memory though was driving through Jackson, MS when Uptown Funk came on the radio and being stuck in traffic and all 6 of us car dancing and singing at the top of our lungs,  “JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI!”   Good times.

They just left today which may be the longest Al and I have ever spent together.  I miss him already.  There were a few downsides though;  for instance it is expensive to feed 4 kids, 3 of them teenagers.  They were like vultures on food.  Also, they were LOUD.  They were having a great time and we were grateful but dang, they were loud.   There was also a serious

lack. of. sex.

 

Or I should say very, very little and not near enough of any of these:

 

Because, although we made several dates to meet up during the middle of the night when all of those kids were asleep, the bottom line is we are 50 and value our sleep.  So, all good intentions aside, we would sleep right through the night. 

The only night that we slept next to each other (clothed to the gills), was our second night in New Orleans in a room shared with 4 kids.  We were both fully clothed but snuggled in.  Unfortunately, Merlot woke me at 4 am burning up with fever.  I had to get up from my comfy spot next to Al and swap beds with his daughter so I could sleep next to Merlot.  I did wake him up though and show him I was changing with Cookie so that he didn’t confuse her with me and try to spoon.  That could have been embarrassing and traumatizing for everybody.  

 

 

 

It was all good.  Al’s son and his girlfriend came up on Friday night for dinner and so we had 5/6 kids and it was total chaos.  We made tacos because it was the cheapest thing we could think of.  We finished up the week with friends at a Mexican restaurant celebrating Al’s birthday again.  He got a big Sombrero, a Tequila shot and a birthday song sung by the wait staff.  It was awesome and not at all embarrassing for him. 

 I hate Stanley but more on that later.