Virginia Meeting, August 2000! :)
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KYMBERLEE "Saturday was a success and lots of fun - though the day flew by on wings of its own making. Our contingent pulled into the parking lot at Locust Shade Park in Prince William County sometime after Kelly, Corey and Morgan arrived as we were just slightly after the 10 am meeting time. They were waiting in the main building but quickly came down into the parking lot. As I was getting out of the van I noticed another van start to pass the parking lot then back up and turn in. Turned out to be Julie and Riley. Next to come was Amy, John and Lauren. We were all standing around in the lot wondering where Michelle was when someone mentioned calling her. John was ready equipped with his cell phone so Kelly got Michelle's number from her car (no - we did not call Corey's dad as John suggested we do at first when reading Kelly's notes lol) and John dialed Michelle up. Got Bobby on the phone who said that Michelle had left 15 minutes prior and he'd see us at lunch. Shortly thereafter Michelle pulled up with Brandon, Kasandra, Rhiannon and Kaelan. Poor Rhiannon was a bit sleepy from napping in the car but she handled the transition to the stroller okay. At one point a police officer stopped in his patrol car and talked to us - we told him it was a real life cyberspace meeting (Amy? What were John's exact words??). Once we were all assembled - minus Jay who had disappeared with Robyn shortly after our arrival which Amy blamed on her calling him a geek though I tried to absolve her of any responsibility - we walked up the hill to the main building. Somebody needs to put in a ramp! At least the stairs were deep so our strollers handled it fairly well. Once at the top Kelly looked at her map (why is it that the out of towner is always more prepared?!) and we tried to figure out how to get to the playground. We started walking down a walk past the mini golf course - ah! there's Jay and Robyn! - but shortly turned around after given directions on how to get to the playground via another paved walkway on the other side of the mini golf course. We were told the only other way was some Pedestrian Loop that was waaaaaay long. Down the hill we walked, John walking backwards and filming our little caravan. We got to the bottom of the hill only to find ourselves in a parking lot. Okay, now where?? Kelly said that the directions she had been given were to cut through the lot and over onto the road. We did this, walked up the road (somewhat of a long hill but not bad with such awesome company) and turned off into another parking lot where - voila! - we found the playground. The big kid, aka John, promptly started playing on these flat wooden tablelike structures on springs they had there. We unpacked all the kids and settled in for a little less than 2 hours of swinging, seesawing and having lots of general fun. Everyone wondered where Robyn and Jay were but we all figured they would show up eventually. There was a shelter with some picnic tables right nearby. Some people came and set up some sort of a gathering (b'day party? there were balloons in the trees) with food and the like there. We had a somewhat difficult time keeping Lauren from running away into the fringes of trees around the playground. John was having an involved conversation on his cell phone which Lauren had to participate in. However, she ran off with the phone and ended up ditching it in the trees. Amazingly, Amy picked up the phone and the caller was still there (turned out to be their best man so I guess he was understanding). Another time she ran away with Riley in pursuit. Amy hollered after her, "LAUREN!!" in response to which we heard Riley holler, "LAUREN!!!" We were all cracking up at that. We only had one small catastrophe, when Riley had an accidental run-in with a swing causing him to eat some dirt. However, this was a good thing, for Rachel and I went with Julie and Riley to get him cleaned up. We were just about on our way out of the bathroom when - lo and behold - I heard Jay and Robyn. Turned out that they had taken the lovely Pedestrian Loop - all almost 2 miles of it with Robyn insisting on walking the whole way. Too, Jay got involved in a technical discussion with someone on a playground somewhere along the way about the difference between 95, 98 and ME. All too soon it was a few minutes after 12 and we were packing up to go back down the hill to the parking lot. Amy and I had a wonderful conversation on cloth diapers during the walk - I may convert her yet! lol Back at the parking lot we did a litle gift swap with each mom picking a number and then each SeptBaby picking a gift from our little pile in the parking lot. Julie and Riley got a mom and baby bag with bath stuff, a puzzle and a book. Kelly's Morgan got some wooden blocks. Michelle's Rhiannon got a potty training kit with a book and a sweet Precious Moments backpack. Unfortunately I did not see what Lauren got. Robyn got a set of Pooh characters dressed up like Tigger (Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Roo and Tigger) which was quite appropriate because she has been on a real Pooh kick recently. Then, sadly, Kelly and co had to go meet up with friends and relatives. So we wished them goodbye, good luck and safe travels then set sail for the Olive Garden at Potomac Mills. Lunch went well, fairly uneventful except for poor Brandon whose meal was delayed until most of us were already finished. Amy and co had to leave early to pack, organize & etc. for a trip to NC that afternoon. We were sad to see them go. It was wonderful to get to meet Bobby who informed us that Charlottesville will soon have a Home Depot (as though this household really needs another hardware superstore - lol). So that left Michelle and Julie and I (and all our little ones, of course) to head over to Potomac Mills. Getting back into the van I noticed it was 2:25. Holy mama mia - where DID the time go?! We were due to meet Jay (that's Jay's dad) at Potomac Mills at 4:00 so we were quickly running out of time. We had agreed to meet at the Information Desk but I could not remember exactly which entrance that was. We found it in short order, though, and Jay dropped Robyn, Rachel and I off. I wheeled into Potomac Mills, heading for the bench where we met back in April of 1999 when I realized I was being followed. I had apparently walked right by Julie, Michelle et al! I know I need new glasses - but still!! So we all gathered in a group and talked for a while waiting for Jay to show back up after parking the van. Michelle got the opportunity to work off her lunch chasing after Rhiannon who wanted to gleefully run around despite the mad crush of people in the mall. She did share her pretty bracelet with Robyn at one point who really enjoyed looking at it. Julie produced this neat juice box holder with Snoopy on it that she got at WalMart. Looked like it worked very nicely. After what seemed like an eternity Jay still had not shown up. I was about to the point to tell everyone to leave me and go shopping when he appeared out of a crowd of people saying that he had had to park in Bethesda Maryland. Well, actually, he had a halfway decent parking place, just on the complete other side of the mall from where we met (for those of you who do not know Potomac Mills is positively HUGE). We set off for Carters (all the way down at one end of the mall) as I needed to return some things. Along the way we dropped Julie off at Gap but she caught up with us again fairly quickly. Once in Carter's Jay said he was taking Robyn and I should meet him at Burlington to look at carseats in 15 minutes or so. I asked Michelle the time and she said it was 3:25. Wow - did the day just disappear! I picked out some pj bottoms on clearance for Robyn, Julie took Riley to be changed (stinky apparently!) but came back shortly and Michelle looked at some winter jammies for Rhiannon (pretty, she said). Rhiannon was quite the shopper, picking out some nice baby bags for Kaelan and pretty shirts for herself - making lots of work for mommy having to put them all back! lol Julie found some really nice raincoats and tried one on Riley only to have him go dashing off out of the store! Oops! ;-) No sooner did she get him back then he went dashing off in the other direction. Poor Julie!! I made a mental note of the coats and matching boots to come back to visit later. I was feeling very pressed for time as I had to meet Jay to look at carseats and then we had to meet his dad and it was less than half an hour to that meeting. So, I sadly said goodbye to Julie, Riley, Michelle and Rhiannon. Hopefully I will get to see them all again soon. Julie lives fairly close to me (an hour?) so I really ought to try to get together with her sometime soon. I did run into Julie and Riley later that evening when Jay, Jay, Robyn, Rachel and I were walking back through the mall. I had a blast and I know others did as well. We all missed Susan very much but understood how much traveling she and Elisabeth had done on Friday and would be doing on Sunday. Definitely too much to drive four hours to meet us and four hours back. However, we hold out hope that when she goes to pick Randall up in DC on September 2nd that she and Michelle and Amy (and me, if I can) will meet up. I plan to go to visit her at her mom's house during the week this week since I am less than an hour from her. Thanks to everyone for such a great time! It was wonderful to have the opportunity to meet Kelly, Corey and Morgan (especially since I personally don't plan on going to NY anytime soon), great to see Amy after being threatened with another no show due to cat shows and excellent to see Michelle and Julie and co once again.
If you made it this far - I hope you enjoyed the read! We enjoyed the fun
times! Hope to do it again sometime soon!!
It was great meeting everyone! Jay disappeared with Robyn for most of the time at the park so we didn't see much of them. Rachel is just a cutie and Kymberlee is very sweet. Michelle's oldest 2 kids were so good. Brandon was very quiet and did not like getting his picture taken. Kassandra seems great with Rhiannon. Rhiannon has the cutest blonde curls! She is such a little girl already. :-) Kaelan is a very good baby (so was Rachel) and was just babbling away in his stroller. At one point Michelle was carrying Kaelan in the backpack and picked up Rhiannon to carry her too. I said "I don't know how you do it Michelle" and she said "Get used to it!". LOL!! I looked at Morgan and told her to think again. ;-) Julie's Riley was the only toddler boy and he handled it well. He is such a cutie. Once we found the playground some people showed up and had reserved the pavilion nearby for a cookout and party. Riley started heading that way saying "fooood". It was so funny. Amy's dh, John was videotaping from the second they arrived (Kymberlee videotaped some too). Lauren is a cutie. John and Corey played with all the kids, helping them on the seesaw and just being silly. Lauren took off with Daddy's cell phone at one point and when Amy decided to chase her Lauren threw it in a pile of leaves. Riley got knocked down after stepping into the path of a fast moving swing...but he came out of it okay. I think he was going to have a bruise on his cheek. Tough little guy. :-) We had a wonderful time and I wish we had gone to lunch with everyone. We opted out since we had planned Olive Garden & then step Grandfather decided to make tons of lasagna for Corey's birthday celebration with the family. Corey and I took the time in the afternoon to go to College Park to visit a friend and traffic was awful. I was really wishing we had just stuck around for lunch! LOL :-)
Anyway....we had a wonderful time!!
Kymberlee was right...it was a success!!! I think we all had a great time. I finally got to meet Amy, John and Lauren. Amy is super nice and not at all what I expected. For some reason I thought she was the quiet, reserved type..LOLLOLLOL....NOT!!!!! She is actually quite spunky! Lauren is a cutie and quite spunky herself. I thought she would never sit still long enough for me take her picture, and you already heard about the phone incident. hehe ALL the kids were incredibly well behaved. We must really be a great bunch of parents!!! ;) I also got to meet Kelly and her crew for the first time. For those few of you who have NOT met Kelly yet, she is super nice and has a great sense of humor. I wish they wouldn't have had to leave so soon. :( Riley really took to Corey and followed him around a great deal of the time. Seems like Corey makes a friend at every get together..huh? lol Morgan was so sweet and calm. I would have never guessed her a two year old....but then she does have another month or so yet right mom? LOL Kymberlee and Michelle I have met before but it was great to see both of them again. WE didn't get to see much of Robyn but when we did see her she was just as sweet as she could be. Rachael and Kaelen were soooooo good. There was nothing but smiles from both of them...ALL DAY! Rhiannon is beautiful with her big blue eyes and head full of curls. Her temperament is similar to Riley's I think. There's just a mischievous look in her eye that I know all too well. LOL She really is stunning though as are all of Michelle's children. Oh and we met Bobby for the first time too and he was very nice...easy going, friendly type! As you know we went to the park in the morning. Kids had a blast....this mommy was too hot!!! LOL No really, I had a great time I just wish they could find a way to AC the great outdoors. By the time we left the park my hair was a disaster from the humidity. UGH!!! After the park we went to Olive Garden for lunch. Riley had his favorite ...Pizza! He was very happy! I think he drove poor Brandon nuts by poking him in the arm repeatedly with his breadstick. In fact when his sister got up to use the bathroom he wasted no time stealing her seat and let her have a turn with Riley the terrible. LOL Oh well, they survived! hehe Oh Rhiannon is so funny about keeping up with her siblings. She hollers for them all the time even if they are right there and at one point she could not see where Kaelen was and she got very stressed! LOL Rachael chowed down on some Ravioli and was so cute with a face full of cheese and she tried to suck every last drop off her little hands. What a cutie! I think Lauren and Robyn needed a couple more hours at the park because they were too antsy to sit still in their chairs. Once the food came they seemed more content though. ;) After lunch we went to my favorite place.....Potomac Mill's!!! Unfortunately Kymberlee had to meet up with Jay's dad and Michelle's clan were soon ready to hit the road so we all parted ways at about 4:00 PM. Of course I was not about to let that stop me and I continued to shop for another three hours. LOL Kymberlee mentioned the coats I was looking at in Carters...well I got it. It is the cutest Yellow rain coat and I got the matching yellow rain boots to match. It is so adorable!!!! I also picked him up a nice goose down Nautica coat for winter but I got home and it is too small. :( I think one of my friends is going to buy it off me though but I'm still depressed about him not being able to wear it. :( Michelle, I did find him an orange vest at Old Navy...YEAH!!!! I also got him an outfit with fish all over it from Children's place that I KNOW he is going to love! :) And of course I had to hit Osh Kosh...hehe Actually I bought him some stuff for next summer that was 70% off and ended up getting two complete outfits for $17. Can't beat that with a stick!!!! Anyway, I was just thrilled with my finds and I went home with that warm fuzzy feeling that only true shopaholics get after a trip to an outlet mall. LOL It was a great time!!! hopefully we will do this again sooner rather than later. " |
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Last updated August 15th, 2000
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