{sleeping with the sharks}

We made it to Minnesota and back this weekend. It was one heck of a LONG drive, but it was SO well worth it! 5.5 hours of driving each way! We survived though and even Ayden didn't whine too much about the long drive. I thought the drive coming home was a lot worse than the drive out there though. We ended up taking Jay's truck out there because I didn't quite trust my car yet. (To be honest, even though I am back to driving my car to work every day, I still get nervous driving it and it will take me some time to feel completely comfortable with it again.) I know that it cost us more in gas to drive Jay's truck, but it was surprisingly less than I thought it was going to be which made me happy. I drove almost all of the way out there... when I stopped driving we maybe had a 30-45 minute drive left and that is only because I didn't want to drive in the city.

We stopped at a gas station to switch drivers and to meet up with Jay's friend who lives in Minnesota, JT. JT was giving us two window air conditioners that his parents no longer used for us to use at our house. Our new house does not have air conditioning and it has been MEGA hot these last few days! We put one in our room and we are going to put the other one in Ayden's room and use them mainly for sleeping at night because that is when the heat bothers everyone the most.

So, we got the air conditioners and then followed JT to the Mall of America. It was nice to see him again and I know that even though Jay won't admit it outloud, he enjoys seeing JT in the flesh every now and then too! They talk a TON on the phone all of the time, but it does suck when you don't get to see your friends in person! Anyways, we didn't need to check in for the Sleeping with the Sharks until 6:45pm and we made it to the mall shortly after 4pm. We walked around for a while and just hung out. It was nice.

When we were bringing out stuff into the mall and Ayden's buddy, Shane, saw him, his face just lit up and he ran over to him to give him a hug. It was SO cute! Shane's mom told me that on Ayden's last day of school that Shane tried to be brave, but when he got home after school that day that he just broke down in tears and missed his buddy Ayden. Break my heart! Those two were pretty inseparable the entire time that we were there and it was too cute! It seemed like utter chaos during times with all of the kids and what not, but it well pretty well.

We got a tour of the facility and even got some behind the scenes looks at different things. My favorite part was the shark tunnel. I literally could have spent the entire time in there watching the sharks and the sea turtles and what not, SO COOL! Ayden elected to sleep in the tunnel with the rest of the kids and the majority of the adults. Jay and I decided to sleep by the jellyfish because it was cheaper. Little did Jay know that when he picked the spot by the jellyfish that he did with our sleep mats that he picked one right next to a jellyfish tube that had the light on ALL night long and we are not talking a little dim light, we are talking bright. Ugh much! Not to mention that sleeping on an inch or two of foam really isn't the most comfortable thing and then add other people in the room and no white noise app on my phone... I slept like crap, haha! It maybe wouldn't have been so bad had it been darker and had I had a white noise app on my phone. I had an app for that awhile ago, but for some reason or another I had deleted it and let me tell you, you don't get cellphone reception in the basement of the Mall of America... which meant no downloading a new white noise app. Oh and I forgot to tell you about the lovely 'tidal pool' that we were close too as well that made this loud annoying noise just about every minute! I think I finally fell asleep sometime after 2am and we were awake by 7am... fun times! Haha! We left the Mall of America shortly after 9am and were home by about 2:30pm at which time Jay left to go to some family gathering and Ayden and I stayed home.

I elected to stay home because I was bone tired and because honestly, I just wanted to be alone and not around people anymore. I slept on and off on the couch for a few hours while Ayden played with his toys.

I think I am back up and running at full capacity now, not as tired anymore. I was not so secretly happy that it was storming out yesterday morning because I really wasn't in the mood to get up for my 5:30am boot camp class. Oops, haha! Next week though!

My online summer class started yesterday and it looks like a lot of online participation is in store. Boo! I am so not in school mode right now, not at all! Working all week long definitely takes its toll on me as I've written before and honestly, it gives me a whole new level of respect for those who do hold full time jobs and families because it requires a whole new level of balance that I haven't had to worry about in the last seven years. Everyone has always told me how proud they are of me for continuing on with school while having a child so young. I never knew any other way. Not going to college was never an option for me. Not graduating from college was never an option either. It was something that I always knew I would complete. So, even if other consider it hard work, I just did it, I didn't have a choice. I made it work. Now I have a new level of appreciation for what my mom went through when she was getting her degree while working full time and raising three kids! Wowers! All that said though, I still want more children. And like I had mentioned in a previous post, maybe at some point Jay and I will be financially stable enough for me to work the hours I would like to and maybe not. I thoroughly enjoy my time at clinic, but I also enjoyed the last couple of weeks of being able to leave clinic at clinic and coming home and just worrying about family time. Now I need to fit back in school time as well. Only for the next year though... actually, less than a year!

I will post some pictures from our fun trip soon!

CIAO! LOVE ME!