Wednesday, May 13th-

 

Rushed around all morning, picked up Rich from work, and drove to LAX to see Jeff who was on a 9 hour layover on his way to Australia. I haven't seen him in almost a year, which is WAY too long, so it was awesome to just get to hug him and laugh and hug him and talk and hug him and talk about porn and hug him and make jokes that make Rich uncomfortable and hug him. We browsed Borders and ran into a bear...

We headed back to LAX to drop him off and ran into Mariah Carey being papparazied... LAME! When I got home, I did laundry and passed out.

 

Thursday, May 14th-

 

Drove Rich to work and then came home and packed for our trip and did more laundry and rushed around some more and then picked up the kids early from school, picked Rich up from work, drove through a McDonalds and hit the 5 heading north. Stopped in Valencia for a bathroom and some Jamba Juice. Saw a lame billboard in Bakersfield. Rich paid for some Big Daddy Beef Stick in Fresno while we watched some dude get arrested. Got to Tony's house and picked him up and went and had thai food at his favorite place in town, Sam's Cafe. We went grocery shopping for Yosemite, met up with my other brother, Jeff, and his wife, Maria. Packed a cooler and drove to the Yosemite Rustic Bug Lodge...

 

Friday, May 15th-

 

Got up early, showered, fed the kids. Made 14 sandwiches and packed a cooler. Made the kids shower, dunked them in sunscreen and then realized we have no cell service and so it would be impossible to tell Tony and his friends where to meet us at the Bug Lodge so we stood out on the road and waited for them to drive by so we could flag them down. Here is a picture of that:

 

We hiked around Yosemite and got attacked by bugs so we stopped for bug repellent at the Village Store. Dunked everyone in that and then saw some waterfalls. Had some lunch, fed a chipmunk a piece of crust and then Aaron yelled at me. Got on a bus to Vernal Falls where we hiked up 1.5 miles. Jeff said it was a pretty flat hike... compared to the Grand Canyon! Tony and Annemarie and Tony's friends took off while the rest of us stayed at the 'we're not 20 years old anymore' pace. We kept asking Matty if he needed a break and he would say, "Yeah, can we rest a minute?" and we would all say, "OKAY!" (thank goodness) Yosemite Pictures What goes up, must come down again... 1.5 miles. We drove to Glacier Point Lookout and saw what we had just seen all day, but from the top and it was BEAUTIFUL! Drove back to the Bug Lodge, made dinner for 11 people, got the kids showered, took a shower and didn't move until the net morning.

 

Saturday, May 16th-

 

Got up early, showered, packed, got the kids dressed and fed and in the car. Drove back to Merced for Tony's graduation. Got to his house and met up with my sister and her boyfriend. Got to meet Tony's best friend, Mike (who is awesome, I'll explain later). Got our parking passes and tickets and drove to the community college. Got on the shuttle busses and rode over to the University. Went and found some food, saw the snipers on the roof top.

Went through security and the metal detectors, twice. Michelle Obama agreed to be the key-note speaker at the graduation after receiving this video

and over 900 Valentine cards and letters from the students, so that's why there was all the extra craziness. They made me apply the sunscreen to Matthew or I couldn't bring it in with me. We found our seats and applied MORE sunscreen.

Matthew was close to being delerious in the heat so Rich took him to sit under a tree in the shade.

It was SO hot... like I'm from California, and I know hot... and this was HOT!

 

This is her speech... Part One Part Two Part Three Part three is the best in my opinion, but it was a good speech.

 

Met Tony's girlfriend, Jolie, who prior to this point, I had only spoken to in an emergency type manner after Lacrosse injuries. We went to dinner at BJ's Brewery in Fresno where Tony admitted he had been lying to us all, and was, in fact, going to law school in Sacramento at the University of the Pacific. CONGRATULATIONS!!

 

Sunday, May 17th-

 

Woke up in another strange bed, got a massage that my body was VERY appreciative of after the hiking in Yosemite. I can't remember now if I am or am not supposed to tell you that I had sex on our 16 year anniversary in a hotel bathroom, bent over the counter cause our kids were in the next room... Took a shower, went to eat, brought Tony and his girlfriend some burgers, and then packed up all his stuff so he could move home for the summer. While we were working on that, Matthew was playing pool with Tony's friend, Mike, for $1. This guy was... amamzing. Matthew had SUCH a great time and Mike kept missing on purppose or telling Matty to take another shot cause that one didn't count. He was setting the balls up so Matty could make it in over and over again till it actually happened. In the end, when Matty 'won' and Mike told him to take the $1, then Matty tried to give him a chance to win it back! So he had to lose some more... it was pretty awesome to watch.

 

I drove my car with Matty and a bunch of Tony's stuff in it while Rich drove Tony's truck with the furniture in it, and Tony rode his motorcycle 300 miles home in 106 degree heat. Arrived home at 8pm where a bunch of 20 year old boys showed up to help unpack everything and I got the the kids ready for bed before passing out myself.

 

Wednesday, May 20th-

 

STILL doing laundry...

 

Hugs,

Viv