Happy Friday friends,

Last week you may recall me saying some people watch soap operas and some make them, let me explain. My life is pretty predictable with my work calendar, writing, meditation, and exercise. It’s peaceful and serene however with 4 kids, 6 parents 85-95, a dog and 2 cats, and a full workload it keeps things interesting. And I’m not gonna lie when I get a hit about something it, I trust it for better or worse.

I hope all of you Dad’s had a great Father’s Day and spent sometime honoring your Dad. We usually have all of the 3 generations over to our house and celebrate but this year was our babies 30th birthday and she had big plans and wanted all of us to go to Cancun, Mexico. Cabo is only 2 hours from us so we all were rooting for that but with her being on the East Coast and traveling so much she wouldn’t hear of it since she would have to go a lot further and after all, it was her birthday.

She must have looked at 200 sites and places and I just waited to hear how it would shake out (I’ve been down that path before…. smarter this year). There were calls, zooms sibling sessions, father daughter chats and a I just sat on the sidelines skeptical of leaving my hovel. After feeling so lousy for 4 weeks from the 2nd jab, I was reticent about being on a plane and going to another country where numbers were still spiking; even though I was vaccinated.

After 5 months of research and chatting, she came up with The Dominican Republic. Air fares were outrageous and the bantering went on and on and then she went radio silent. We tried to call her to sort through things but she wouldn’t call us back so my husband and I decided we weren’t going to go because who knew how it would go. It would be a sibling affair.

2 weeks before the sibs started talking again and hashing it out and finally came up with an All Inclusive trip to Cancun Mexico with airfare included.

Perfect! Non refundable tickets were bought, the decorations were underway with narnical at the helm with her Cricket, one daughter ordering a few things online and our son agreeing to go if they paid for some of his trip since he’s job hunting at the moment.

Everyone was packing and madly working like Santa’s Elves both at work and prepping for the trip. Tensions were high with lots to do but everyone was glad to finally have a plan.

I was getting up at the crack of dawn trying trap 4 unfixed cats and 4 kittens in the neighborhood before work and I don’t know how to trap cats. Then I took them to get fixed and picked them up after to recover, but that’s a story for another time. What was I thinking?….. a good question….but I wanted to help my neighbor relocate the ferals to her new digs and stop the multiplying of the kittens and have fewer coyotes in our yard; that’s what.

I started feeling back to my old self again and I said “Let’s go” and surprise her”. We rounded up our free miles and booked the hotel for 3 nights and now I was busy trying to reschedule clients and find animal sitters.

Last Saturday before the trip all hell broke loose when our birthday girl found out her passport had expired. You can only imagine the pandemonium around here, with everyone calling the airlines, each other etc. DETAILS, DETAILS!!!!!! 🤣🤣🤣

My husband and I decided to cancel our trip…. we tried but this was ridiculous.

Tensions were high and stress was mounting for everyone and the soon-to-be 30 birthday girl was going crazy trying to figure out how to get her passport expedited which you probably know is near impossible in Covid. She was up all hours of the night and finally found the one appointment in the country in Vermont and flew out the next day, running to catch the bus through a thundershower, traipsing through the mud holding hands with her b.f. The bus was no picnic with people yelling and talking to themselves etc. 4 hours later she somehow managed to get her passport expedited.

So the trip was back on and the elves were back at work.

We looked at rebooking but it would have been 3,000 dollars so quickly vetoed that plan.

We had 2 different Father’s Day celebrations for my husband with the kids before they left and we were going to try to take our Dad’s to our lake house and at 87 and 95, 3 hours away and both of them up and down to the bathroom all night it wasn’t sounding too great.

It turns out my FIL fell asleep in his chair and fell out and broke his collar bone. What more could go wrong. Don’t ask and I’m not going to go into it now as it’s almost unbelievable to me.

Soooooooo, the show must go on and they’re off to the friendly skies for the first time in a year and a half except the birthday girl in the Big Apple who visiting us twice.

But we’re NOT going to go but my husband is searching for flights because it’s Father’s day too and he’s sick of sharing me with all of the cats so we belabored it to death…. I mean this is our “baby” and we’ve been with all of the other kids for their 30th.

But seriously, this is ridiculous, we have no sitters now, we’re cat-sitting our daughter’s kitten, I have clients to see but it’s Father’s Day SOOOOO……anything for “my kids'”… (husband 🤣 too)

This place has 10 restaurants and we called each one to see if they had a reservation but sure enough, they DID NOT. So we walk to each one and can’t find them anywhere. All of a sudden a group chat came in about the restaurant they were going to and Bingo, we high-tailed it over there and asked for this private wine room and hid under the table. 30 minutes later…………

SURPRISE….. SURPRISE….. SURPRISE❣️❣️❣️

And a happy surprise at that. Most people said they probably won’t want to see you and whoever knows for sure. With all inclusive, they sure didn’t need us to pay the bills. My son and one daughter kept begging us to come said “We need you to keep the partying down”… LOL!!! That worked out well. Right!

We all had a blast…….

But the biggest fun was had by the Birthday Girl turning 30❣️

Happy 30th Birthday Bryana

Look out world I’m here so step aside 

I’m gonna give you a run for your money 

I’m not gonna lie

and believe you me you did and still do

Last but not least, I’ll take the lead 

From my big sister and put the others in there place

So I don’t get misplaced, 

no not me I’m in charge 

And I’m gonna live large

There was no waiting around not even for the midwife

9 hours later 30 years ago today you did it your way

It was a theatrical experience, lights camera action with me directing 

And dad running around heating blankets, setting up the video etc like a 

Chicken with his head cut off 

Some things never change

and this was the start of having every boy alive 

Wrapped around your finger and succumbing to your every whim

And to be fair, how could they resist  

With a full head of hair a bright beautiful smile 

and a twinkle in your eye. 

Those smiling eyes and beautiful grin

sparkly eyes became your nick name.  

You were adorable, a pistol and loved life from the very start and had

A built in playground with your siblings, and your BFFs

You were born to break the rules and us to enforce them 

And definitely spent some time grounded from sneaking out,

Boys with escapades and dad chasing them out. 

And speaking of crushing it

You crush everything you do from that the fast ball and a drop ball

or setting to spike 

All while being the star of the show

From California, Texas and New York the world is your oyster

And Quancast your pawn

The luckiest Cats; Tyson. Quinn and baby Louie ( her boyfriend… we call him her cat)

Killing it at Quancast 

wheeling and dealing 

Charming, determined and loving life 

The Queen of inconvenience 

To busy to pick up the phone or register her car 

Somehow gets the only apt in the country 

To renew and party in Mexico

Happy 30th Bronto, Brana, Brantavalo, 

Who steals the show on Fathers Day 

And everyones heart you touch

You still have the radiant untouchable radiance

And sparkly eyes

We will always love you!

We had an amazing time and I got to hang alone in the gym, dance of course, write a little and explore in my own peaceful way……and loved the critters off our deck and not our backyard and not worry about my animals getting eaten.

The animals all survived thanks to Hunter’s sister’s parents who took care of everyone❣️

And thanks to Narnia for all of the work in making this happen and the Birthday girl of course.

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Thanks so much for stopping in and celebrating with us today…. lots of photos….. lots of fun…… and soon you will be heading out as well. In the meantime take care and enjoy the small moments and PREPARE for the bigger ones on your list. Key word…. PREPARE. Life is meant to be shared so enjoy and pop out of your bubble from time to time when it’s safe to do so. Remember life is not always predictable, orchestrated as planned or perfect so drop your expectations and go with the flow. Also, Happy Father’s Day to my Dad who I brought dinner to the night before we left. I Love you Dad❣️

FYI: I generally try to post at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Coast Time but I had so much trouble with uploading photos, block and spacing 😡 if it weren’t from a little help from my son, I’d have never been able to send it out. Thanks Sonny Boy❣️

Blessings

💖

Cindy