A looooong time since i posted.

Christmas night, Kirstyn or Shawna (I can't remember which) got a text from cousin Amy saying that she and her family had finally arrived in CA on their way to go visit the redwoods the next morning. That, of course, got the wheels spinning in everyone's heads, so at quarter after 11, we got into the car, and drove all night to meet them and drive around with them. The last minuteness of it all posed a couple problems, one being the dogs that we were babysitting for dad. We managed to get a hold of grandma and grandpa, and they said that they could take care of them over night (dad would be back the next day). So we scrambled, and managed to deliver them by midnight. And then we were on our way. Of course, I zonked out about 30 minutes past grandma's, and it was surprisingly comfortable. We had three people squeezed into the back seat of a California Refund Value (CRV) but we made to most of it and piled on top of each other with the occasional pillow/blanket in between layers. We slept most of the way, and we arrived at Denny's in McKinleyville. After a while of sitting in the car (the reason was never made known to me). Finally, me, Shawna, and Stephanie went in for breakfast, since mom and Kirstyn were feeling sickish. We finished, and went back out to the car. Awhile later, mom got some McDonalds (and how, exactly, that helped the sick part, i don't know) and we went on our way. We drove along the coast, kinda meandering a bit, and finally met Amber and family on the side of the road a couple hours later. We spent a few minutes doing the whole huggy thing, hugging everyone that piled out of their clown car, and anyone else who crossed our path, no matter if they came from our car or not. We're kinda odd that way. Then we went and drove through the redwoods and much later, we went to the ocean and spent probably 20 minutes numbing our feet in the foot numbing water. it was a lot of fun. we finally went to the hotel and i dumped my stuff off in amber/amy/emily/sarah's room and we watched tv until the parents came to inform us that they were going to a seafood restaurant. i passed on that. logan, sarah, and shawna went to the pool a while later, and our pizza showed up a little after that. (the adults had ordered it before they left and gave emily a credit card to pay with) it turned out that the delivery guy needed an ID or something for the card. of course we didn't have one, but we wanted our pizza anyway, so we went diggin through all of our stuff and managed to come up with just enough. shawna actually had more than enough in mom's room, but as luck would have it, that was the one room we didn't have a key for. bugger. we left the next morning at about 11. we only drove for a few hours, though, before we stopped at another hotel. mom didn't feel like driving in the snow. so we watched more TV...mainly friends. and ice age. we finally got home the next day at 3ish. finally.

that was the excitement for that week. the next week, we went to san fransisco with dad, carol and the boys. we actually went to santa barbara first, for a whale watching tour. it was a lot of fun, except that we only saw 3 whales in the three hours that we were out there. bummer day. but the rest of the time, we hogged the front of the ship, and got soaked. thankfully, all my clothes were waterproof. except my shoes, but those dried out soon enough. when we were finally done with that we went to the hotel, where Steph and i realized that no one had brought shampoo or conditioner. but carol had. so we got to use a tiny bit of it. at least we got the salt water off. gross. After that i just wanted to sit around in my PJs and watch TV, but dad wanted us to go and eat. i opted for pizza delivery, but that didn't go over so well. instead, we went to this saturn restaurant. turns out that it was vegan. all over the place. seriously, in the menu, it said that they had fakin bacon, and artificial chicken. everything else was just tofu. i was scared to ask what the bacon was made of. i was definately wierded out. so i got chili free. without "meat". it was pretty tasty. their shakes were definately scoffable too. it tasted like someone had just half frozen a shaklee shakeshake. pretty darned nasty. so i gave it to maverick and he ate it right along with his.

then we went to a store (it was either that or go to a movie and not many ppl wanted to)so we stocked up on junk food. i got fruity mentos, junior mints, and a 2-liter bottle of dr. pepper. for me. i managed to drink it in about 3 days. kinda pathetic, i know. but it was good while it lasted. so because it was new year's eve, we tried to stay up until midnight. we only made it to 11, 'cause that's when the family guy marathon ended. it was cool though, because steph and i had our own room. that meant that we could stay up as late as we wanted. but of course, we had to pick that night to be tired. figures.

we left the next day for san fran. we spent the day in china town, buying fortune cookies and (in my case)purses and chopsticks. Cayman got a huge knife that shouldn't even be legal. he spent the next day testing it on (full) water bottles and a cardboard box. when he wasn't doing that, he would leave it on the floor in the family room or den or kitchen, and go off to do whatever else he does. now do ya see why it should be illegal for a kid to have that big of a knife? oyness. about half an hour after we got home, though, we left again to go see gramma who had recently been sent to the hospital because of a couple little heart attacks. we saw her for a few minutes and left again after that. seriously. an hour and a half of driving, and ten minutes to see her..but oh well. it was cool.

wednesday night gramma went into bypass surgery. of course, we went to see her. i went, armed with dvd player, many dvds, and my new chinatown purse that was loaded with notebook, pencils, candy canes and cellphone. i was set. it turned out that i actually needed all of it. by the time we got there, it was grandpa, dad and carol, mom, aunt sharon, and chantal, sierra, phoebe and trevor. kevin came a little later. we spent the five hours that gramma was in surgery watching pride and prejudice and mash. of course, startling the nurses with our large numbers was a lot of fun too. sierra and i watched the door for a while looking for cute guys...i spotted one, but he got away before i could point him out. we moved to a smaller waiting room a little later, because we were also scaring away other people who probably would've liked a seat. the second one was a bit more convienient, mostly because the plug in for my dvd player was slightly closer to the chairs. it's always a good thing. we finally left at 11:30 with sierra in tow. we watched another movie when we got home, and finally went to bed at 3ish, sometime after soemone called to tell us that grandma had gone back into surgery because of some sort of complications. we spent the day being bored. that night we stayed up until 2:30 watching movies and exclaiming about how adorable/gorgeous/hunky/cute david arquette was. he really is. we woke up with no power because of 70 mph winds. wonderful. we got so bored that we even played a game of monopoly. that is, we played until chantal got bored and layed down on the bored. that pretty much ended it. when we went to the hospital that day, we just went home with mom, in the hopes that she might have power. no such luck, but she did have hot water, a gas stove, and a huge supply of kerosene lamps and top ramen. yay. we partayed. kinda.

anyway, that's all i'm gonna type for now. 'cause i'm tired of writing. and i should probably get ready for meeting. ttfn