The Comicon and our first weekend back

Thursday I got up bright and early to head out to San Diego for Comicon with Jason, Toby and Tony. We wanted to leave by 6am to beat the traffic. That's funny to write now that I've survived the whole ordeal we had. For some dumb reason, the 3 boys didn't get home from the preview night of the Con until 2am Wed., so needless to say, they were all pretty tired to start off. We were doing pretty well on the 5 freeway when all of a sudden it came to a complete stop. We soon found out there was an overturned big rig that had exploded just a few miles out of our reach. Those few miles ended up taking us about 3 hours to cross. So what should have been a 2-2 1/2 hour drive turned into a 5+hour drive. It got the point where I'd start cheering when we'd move .1 miles. Yeah, how pathetic. My last day in CA and I'm stuck in traffic. Perfect. This was all to remind me how much I hate CA traffic. At least I wasn't by myself and had friends to chat with in the car. By the time we got to the vicinity we needed to be in, we were all exhausted (oh except for Toby who pretty much slept the whole ride down there), thirsty, hungry, and in desperate need of a bathroom. Thank goodness I didn't get any coffee that morning or I would have been hurtin'. Once we got to the convention center area, we then drove around for another 45 min. looking for a place to park. Downtown San Diego seriously needs more parking lots and structures. It was ridiculous how packed the area was. People were even parking illegally and just taking tickets instead of dealing with finding open spaces. Tony ended up parking on bum row, which kinda worried me, but I think he was just to the point of wanting out of his car. We ended up grabbing lunch and getting our bathroom breaks before we headed into Comicon. Once inside, we were swarmed by the masses of fanboys. I love going mainly to people watch, but I think this time after our long ass drive I was just more irritated by the crazies than I was amused. At least I got to see Gris Grimly, one of my favorite illustrators. I got Inara her first signed Grimly book, so that was cool. Jason got an illustration done by one of his faves, so the torturous drive ended up being worth it for him. We walked the floor of the convention and looked at some stuff here and there, but again we were all so tired, that I don't think any of us really wanted to stay that long. I've never made it to any of the lectures/presentations, but I heard that people camped out overnight for the Heroes screening and panel, and there's no way in hell I'll do those kind of things any more, so I think my days of seeing the cool ones are long gone. The one celebrity sighting I had was the actor who played The Greatest American Hero. Overall, the day was good because I got to hang out with friends, but it, unfortunately, didn't end up like we had hoped.

Friday morning Shawn, Inara and I headed back home. It's never going to be easy leaving my parents, but I am grateful that I got to spend nearly 3 weeks with them. Honestly, the best part of the trip was seeing my dad play with Inara. I can't get over how many times he fed her. The images of my dad running upstairs to get her when she'd wake from her nap and him hopping around to get her to laugh are priceless. Thank you Mom and Pop for spoiling us while we were there and I can't wait for you guys to make it out here in Sept. Pop, I'm holding you to it, so no flaking allowed.

The airport experience wasn't half as bad as mine was coming out here, as I figured it wouldn't since Shawn was with me to help with baby girl. She did pretty well on the plane, and Shawn got to hold the squirmy wormy most of the flight because I'm evil like that. Ha ha. We lucked out in that nobody sat next to us, so we had extra room for Inara to move around. Shawn even sat her in the window seat and buckled her up. She seemed to like looking out the window and having a seat to herself. She even took a nap on Shawn's lap, which was too cute. Maybe I won't give up flying with a baby quite yet.

Saturday was Avery's 3rd birthday, so Kristi had invited some friends over for cake and ice cream. Inara took a couple little naps, and Shawn and I walked around pretty tired most of the day. It was fun to get back home. We got a big greeting from Avery, who said several times how much she missed us. Ahh. I really missed "the cloud" (our nickname for our bed). There's nothing like sleeping in your own bed, especially after being away for 2 1/2 weeks. However, Saturday night I had the hardest time sleeping. Now that vacation is over, it's time to get back to the real world, which means my brain is running 50 million miles a minute with everything going on. I finally got out of bed and played on the computer for awhile. Hey, it gave me time to catch up on people's blogs at least. I think I finally fell asleep around 2am. Yeah, thank goodness I got tons of sleep at my parents' house that I didn't feel that groggy in the morning.

Sunday, Shawn, Inara and I ventured out to go fridge shopping. We hit 3 stores and found a couple we like. I just have to re-measure the fridge area and the walk way to make sure there's enough room for the door to open if we get a 25 cu. foot fridge. Otherwise, we have to get a counter-depth one, and they are more expensive, even though they are smaller. Go figure. Pretty much all that I could think about yesterday was the house. Today is our closing day and everything is a go for 4pm. There is so much to think about though and, of course, so much we want to do for the house. Shawn was even shopping online with me last night for a new bedding set for the guest bedroom. That just shows you how excited he is for the house too! He even pointed out a couple he had already found online. How cute is that? We can't stop talking about the house and are besides ourselves. I cannot wait for the U-Haul to get here Aug. 9. Hooray! Today is such a monumental day in our lives. It is scary to be taking such a huge leap into adulthood that's for sure, but it's worth it all knowing that we are providing Inara with a house, our whole purpose for moving to CO. Yes, we did it! Actually, Shawn did it because he's the one signing his life away. He said he was going to package up his arm and leg and kidney before we head out to the title office. Oh, he's so silly. Well, I better go start doing my hand exercises so I'm ready to sign all those bazillion pages.