Lee Family Adventures: Albequerque

Two weeks ago I had a wonderful but hard visit on the phone with my best friend from Jr. High and decided that I needed to go for a visit. On a very impromptu moment, I bought plane tickets to go to Albuquerque to visit. I am so very very glad that I did.

My flight left on Dec. 7th at 6:45 am....this meant that I had to be up at 4 am to get ready and get to the airport. It also meant that Kenny had to get up with me. In reality, he got up and then woke me up. I really don't do mornings well. That might even be an understatement. Either way, we made it to the airport and Kenny went to work and took a nap on one of the couches before he had to open the shop.

I couldn't help myself, I had to be a nerd and take a picture from the plane. This is the sun coming up Friday morning. It was beautiful....until it blinded me :)

Let me add here that I have only flown one other time and that was 18 years ago. I have never flown on my own nor have I ever had to change planes. I did both in one weekend. I flew from Salt Lake to Las Vegas on a very crowded flight. Enjoyed a one hour "layover" if you can count it as a layover when it is only an hour long. Once I landed in Albuquerque it was so wonderful to see Nikki. She took me to lunch and it was so good. The best Mexican food I think I've ever had! I have a sneaky suspicion that she did that to soften the blow that I would have to be up at 4 am again the next morning.

Here is how the rest of the weekend went:

After our relaxing lunch we began the marathon that is called Nikki's life. We picked up her oldest kids and dropped off my luggage, picked up their lunch for them to take to work with them. Dropped one off and then picked up one daughter from High School, picked up another daughter from Jr. High, dropped her son off at work, picked up youngest daughter at her Elementary School. Ran home to pick up a few things for cheer practice and headed to practice that went from 5 pm to 7:30 pm. We ran during that time to pick up her other daughter from basketball practice and then went back to finish watching cheer practice. After a couple quick stops we got home and Nikki made dinner for us. How amazing is that?! We ate at about 9:30 and finally settled down around 11. Nikki still had to pick up one daughter from work at midnight.

Saturday started at 4 am...I pressed snooze, so I started at 4:30, we had to be at the gym by 5:30. Domoneque did her 2 sisters hair for their cheer competition and once we were all ready (of course they were waiting on me, I was the slowest) we went back over to the gym for hair, make up, and another quick practice. We left the gym at 7:30 to head downtown to the convention center so that we could get in as quick as possible when the doors opened at 8.

Here we are at the convention center waiting to get in:

Me, Domoneque, MyKayla, Nikki

I had to get a picture of the two amazing stars of the day: Kaija and Natalya

This part is when both Kaija and Natalya were competing...Natalya is the one lifted right before being thrown into the air on the right. I am still in awe at what both of these girls can do!

Natalya is on two teams and this is when she competed the second time. I watched her stretch and practice several times over 3 days but am still in awe at all she can do. This is her "pulling a bow"....yes, that is her foot over her head while lifted up by those girls. She would say, "I'm scared" while she was practicing and then she would go out and do this like it was nothing. So brave!!! Both her and Kaija are amazing and strong. Not just physically but mentally (performing in front of all those people) and spiritually.

The strength and love that I saw in Nikki's family was inspiring. They all work so hard to work together and her children show such selfless love toward each other. There were so many stories shared and acts that I saw over the weekend that show how they all love each other. I am so impressed with all of them!!

Once we were done with the competition, one team got first place the other team got third, we headed home and most of us got to take a nap. When I woke up Nikki had dinner done and we all sat down to enjoy her wonderful cooking. We had time to sit back and spend the evening talking and laughing and sharing stories. It was so much fun and relaxing. I was serenaded by Nikki and Domoneque, they sang a song about how elephants have wrinkles. It was hilarious. Soon Natalya joined in and every time she said a place that an elephant had wrinkles she wiggled her eyebrows. It was so cute. I shared many stories about my boys and family and now Nikki's family has some new fun sayings from our family (none of the bad ones, I promise). We stayed up until one in the morning laughing so hard. Kenny said that they may not let me back.

Sunday we got up and got ready for another busy morning. I had asked Domoneque to do my hair and she agreed. I was so excited I never get to have my hair done and spending a weekend with all girls and one who can do some amazing braids, I had to ask. I had fun watching her plan with her mom what she would do with my hair. She did an amazing job, as you can see!

I loved my braided headband so much that I left it in to see if I could still wear it on Monday. It worked!!! I got to show off my hair to everyone I saw on Monday. I'm sure if any of you saw me more than once you were very tired of hearing about not only my weekend but of my hair. I'm kind of a nerd that way but I loved my hair!

Natalya had tumbling practice on Sunday afternoon, so we stopped by a store for me so I could get some things that I needed and then we went to Popeye's for lunch. I had never eaten there before. Silly thing to get excited about but it was one more first to add to my list.

While at tumbling practice I was finally able to get a picture of me and Nikki together. Here we are, the whole reason for me to jump on a plane (4 times). Some time together with a dear friend.