Dad's Spring Break: Day 1 of 7

The girls left to enjoy Spring Break in Arizona with the In-Laws.

This is the diary of my 7 days anxiously awaiting their return.

Day 1 Saturday
1:30pm: Vacation begins as I drop the three party animals off at the airport... kisses & hugs to all of them. They are flying direct to Las Vegas (I've always wanted to go to Vegas) and then flying onward to Phoenix.

I start my vacation rigging up the ipod to play on the stereo before making my way toward Harstene Island to see my folks (and return their pressure washer). Found myself stuck in traffic but received some excellent advice from a few Harstene Islanders to detour around the delay. Thanks Noni!

3:08pm Receive phone call from Tanya to let me know they just boarded the plane and all is going well.

3:25pm Arrive at Harstene to socialize.

4:15pm Depart Harstene to go party at Aunt Rachel's house in Tacoma.

5:52pm Receive email from Tanya: "I am about to puke"

5:54pm Arrive at Rachel's house and meet all of Steve's friends and all of Rachel's friends. Rachel shows off her garden and her sump pump.

5:59pm Receive email from Tanya (or more likely sent by Mikayla): "we r in las vegas now"

8:30pm Depart Rachel's and head home to take care of the dogs.

10:15pm Arrive home, unload the car, search the house for any dog potty accidents (none found!), medicate dogs and take the dogs out to pee. The dogs keep running around looking for T & the kids. They don't believe I'm the only one home.

11:15pm Somebody peed on the carpet. It wasn't me. Back outside.

1:00am Everybody back outside... pre-bed potty break. Set up dog/baby gate to keep dogs in bedroom with me all night.

1:15am Scrappy dog continues to chase white dog and cat around the bedroom. Go looking for small dog crate from garage. Just in case things don't calm down.

1:25am Things don't calm down. The cat keeps returning to antagonize the dog. Scrappy dog is plucking away at bedspring coils under the bed, recreating the SpongeBob theme song. Get up to look for the second dog crate.

1:35am Continue to coax Scrappy out from under the bed.

1:40am Two dogs in crates. One smug looking cat on the bed. Two dogs whining. Me wishing we had a fenced yard.

2:15am One whining dog. Me wishing airlines hosted a "Dogs Fly Free" promotion.

5:00am Dog Alarm Clock goes off when newspaper gets delivered. Everybody out to pee... in the rain. Get on internet to check weather forecast for hike that starts in about four hours. Get distracted and start this blog entry.

5:30am Trapped both dogs upstairs instead of just confining them to the bedroom, hoping for another two hours of sleep. Looks like it's going to be a short and wet (but dog-free) hike day.

6:10am It's not working.

9:15am Depart for hike with the Mount Baker Club to Goose Rock at Deception Pass State Park. Hey! The rain stopped! :)

~E