A whole week...

Well, I survived. I was away from my babies for a whole week, and contrary to my prediction, I did NOT have any mental breakdowns :)

I left Wednesday, October 6th for my friend Kristin's wedding in Portland, Oregon. Kristin and I have been best friends since fifth grade, and I had the honor to be her matron of honor! I was excited to get to Portland a few days before the wedding (which was on Sunday, 10/10/10) to visit with Kristin and help with some last-minute wedding errands. I had an absolute blast! John Michael came in on Saturday evening, just in time for the rehearsal dinner. I think having him there definitely eased my homesickness! It also helped that we were busy, busy, busy and stayed that way all day Sunday! Our days included a walk around Kristin & Clint's adorable neighborhood, a trip to Ikea, a long afternoon at the tattoo shop (yes, seriously; no, I didn't get one), yummy meals out and playtime with Clint's sister Jamie and his best friend Mike (and Jamie's boyfriend Joseph).

The wedding was absolutely perfect. Kristin was even more beautiful than normal, and Clint (her new husband) was just as handsome. What a perfect pair! I hadn't met Clint before my visit but was pleasantly surprised to discover that they are just as great together as I had imagined from our phone and email conversations :)

Sadly, I had to leave the reception early to catch a redeye flight. Those were my only sad tears of the entire trip! It was so hard to leave Kristin, knowing it'll be at least a few months before I see her again! Boo. Just keep reminding myself how much fun we had and how we'll pick up right where we left off, as we always do.

Anyway, John Michael took me to the airport for my flight to New Orleans for a work conference. I had the genius idea of flying out at 11:35 p.m. (the latest flight I could get and still get to NO at a time early enough to not miss a large part of my conference), thinking that I would sleep at least a good portion of the first leg of the trip, which was 3 hours and 45 minutes. WRONG! I did not sleep a single wink! I had a very nice, but rather large man sitting next to me who was able to fall asleep; in fact, he fell asleep so deeply that he was "all up in my business," as Addie would say. Anyway, I landed in Houston at 5:15 CST and *think* that I slept about 30 minutes to an hour before my next flight (which was also sleepless). I arrived in New Orleans at 8:45ish a.m. CST and headed straight to the conference. To say I was exhausted would be an understatement, but somehow I plugged through! My boss Shauna was there and we even got to do a little sightseeing (and beignet-eating) that afternoon before meeting up with some other Tennessee city attorney friends for dinner. I ended up staying awake until 10:15! WOW! I never would've thought!

Tuesday was another full conference day (the conference was GREAT, by the way) and I flew out Wednesday afternoon. Although I didn't have the expected homesickness meltdowns (thank you, Skype!), I have never been so excited to get home! I think it's safe to say that the kiddos were pretty pumped, too - especially Addie!

So where were the babies when John Michael was in Portland? They had an adventuresome weekend! They spent Friday evening with Mimi and PawPaw due to JM's early flight time; Saturday afternoon and evening were spent with Lynn, Kris, Holland and Quinn, and Sunday afternoon and evening were Nana & Papa's! It sounds like they all had a blast and we are SO blessed to have such loving family and friends to help us out!

Okay, right now you're going to have to forgive the lack of pictures. I'm going to have to swipe some off of others' Facebook pages. But soon, I promise! Here's one of my favorites though :)