Quincy Vacation, Part Deux and other things

I was right to have high hopes that the remainder of our vacation would be better.  The day after visiting Grant's Farm, we played at a playground near Nikki's house and in the afternoon, while Adam took his nap, Nikki and I took Max and Ryann to the local theater (I've never seen such a tiny theater before!) to see Toy Story 3.  Max was frightened by some of the more intense scenes but both kids loved the movie and Nikki and I guffawed and cried.  The next day, Bryan's parents volunteered to babysit the kids in the evening so that Nikki, Bryan, Stu, and I could go have dinner together at O'Griff's pub, a cute little Irish pub in town and a recent filming site for some new vampire movie!  Nikki and I each had a margarita and then split the bottle of free champagne she and Bryan had a coupon for since their third wedding anniversary is fast approaching.  I learned a lesson from this: I have developed a bit of a tolerance for alcohol.  I had a very pleasant buzz and Nikki was hilariously, slightly drunk.  On our way home, she pointed out a group of young people on bikes and suggested they were a gang.  When we asked why she thought that she sputtered, "Well, look at all the members!"  That might have been a "you had to be there moment" but we were all busting a gut in the van together.  Nikki was scared to go in the house lest her in-laws realize she was intoxicated.  It was all very humorous for me.  Just today, I received an e-mail from Nikki's mother-in-law (or "MIL" as I call them) thanking us for the opportunity to watch our kids and congratulating us on our diligent parenting as our children's good manners exemplified the good parenting we've been doing!  What a compliment!  On Monday, we took the kids to downtown Quincy to play in the public fountains in the little park in the center of the city.  It was amazingly fun.  We had been intending to stay overnight Monday and leave Tuesday morning but both Stu and I were dreading the drive back so much, we decided to leave Monday afternoon and just get it over with.  After the first night in Quincy, I moved Rags' kennel into our room (which was quite cramped with a double bed, two cots, a pack and play, and dog kennel all crammed in there) and he slept like an angel the next two nights.  He also traveled like an angel all the way home.  Yet I still planned to get rid of him since that's what I'd decided in Quincy.  I was sick with anxiety and sadness over it (and actually felt that way most of our vacation, successfully turning a potentially wonderful vacation into only a pretty good one) but followed through and posted an ad on craigslist.com.  Literally within moments, I had scores of e-mails rolling in with people interested in adopting my adorable puppy.  After fielding e-mails all day and explaining to people what an amazing dog this was and what I expected from his adoptive family, I started to doubt my decision to adopt Rags out.  Additionally, he must have known that he was in deep doo-doo because his behavior has been stellar.  Eventually, I decided I just couldn't do it.  I couldn't raise this sweet dog from a baby and then just dump him when he didn't end up being as intelligent as I'd hoped.  As of today, he hasn't had an accident in the house since June 30th!  I am hoping against hope that this means he is now housetrained but I still don't trust him 100% and am constantly monitoring him as he wanders the house.  We continued to have a busy and big week in our little life as Adam underwent surgery on Thursday morning to probe his too-narrow tear ducts (many babies are born with this affliction but soon outgrow it, unfortunately Adam never did).  He did amazingly well and we are hoping that the surgery was a success.  Today I was noticing that his right eye still seems teary but we're monitoring for now, hoping that the ducts are swollen from the surgery yesterday and things will right themselves after a few days.  Also on Thursday, my best-cousin, practically-like-a-sister, Brittany was induced to have her second baby.  A little boy this time.  She already has a 10-year-old daughter, Tiana.  Britt had asked me to be a psuedo-doula for her and I couldn't wait.  Super-Husband came to the rescue when I fretted that we were responsible not only for taking our own kids to t-ball that night but a teammate, too.  He insisted that I stay at the hospital waiting for the baby to arrive since I'd been awaiting this moment for months and that he would handle t-ball.  I am so glad he told me to stay.  I've never been present at anyone else's birth but my own babies' and what an amazing, blessed, miracle it is.  Little Riley William was born last night at 8:09 p.m. weighing in at a healthy 8 pounds, 13 ounces.  He is absolutely beautiful with a thatch of his dad's dark, black hair.  His adoring sister informed me today that she was holding him and he lifted his head right up!

Enjoy some pictures from our pretty darn good vacation: