M.E. Weekend

I was away in Chicago for Thanksgiving weekend (Murray and the girls stayed with his parents). I've been part of an email group for triplet moms since I was pregnant. Not only does everyone in the group have a similar family situation to mine, everyone's kids are the SAME age. All babies were born between June-Dec 2004 (OK so a 6 mth difference for some but verrrrrrry close!) We've been chatting and emailing & sharing stories, challenges & successes and family photos for years. This year we decided to arrange a Mothers Escape (M.E.) Weekend and went to Chicago.

Originally there were 12 of us planning to meet, 3 who lived locally & 9 flying/driving in. Then we had 6 last minute situations that prevented half the people from coming. Although the reunion (so to speak) was much smaller than planned, we still had a blast. I met up with one of the moms at the airport. We'd never met in person or even spoken on the phone before. I wasn't sure how things would go initially. Would it be awkward? It's one thing to spill your guts by email, quite another to look them straight in the eye! I needn't have been concerned, Kara found me & walked up with a casual "Hey Kelly!" and that was that. My online friend immediately became my IRL friend. Everyone was the same way. I remember one mom even commenting "you know, we never really introduced ourselves!" Everybody just started chatting & it was so comfortable & relaxed & fun.

We all went out for supper to a nice steak place on Friday night, then back to the hotel to hang out in the hot tub for awhile. I'd woken up verrrrrrrry early, too excited to sleep before my flight & by the time we got out of the hot tub, I'd been up for over 20 hours & couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. I fell asleep in the room while everyone was talking & didn't hear a thing til morning.

Good thing I got a good night's sleep, there was ALOT of shopping to do. I don't they'd ever seen anyone on such a mission. Little do they know that although we went from 10am til about 6pm (I did allow an hour or so for a lunch break), I could have kept on going for several more hours!!!!!! I couldn't get over the deals I kept finding! New Nikes: $50 (here $150), Children's Place Outfits $15 (here $25). Even the $4 hair elastics at the grocery store looked good to me. Plus, NO CONVERSION!!!!!! The dollar's at par (or thereabouts) so what you see is what you pay! Normally I'm adding in 10-15% for the currency exchange but not this time. I was in a total frenzy for shopping. LOL I'll have to add an extra day to my trip next time so I don't waste their weekend at the mall. : )))

Saturday evening was even more fun. One of the locals cooked dinner for us (her husband is also in the group) and we spent several hours with her family in her home. A very relaxing & fun evening. We played several different games on the Wii game station/console/thingy and she fed us like there was no tomorrow (she'd also cooked for 12 though). We were very well looked after to say the least!!!!

Sunday came all too soon and after breakfast it was time to pack up & head to the airport. OR SO I THOUGHT! After I got dropped off & checked in for my flight, I found out there was a 2 hour delay & I'd already arrived 2 hours early and then had 4 hours to kill. I could have gone to another mall!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (just kidding Kara!)

I had so much fun with these girls! We laughed & laughed over each other's stories and got to know each other even better than before. I hope we do it again next year & that even more people make it.