(Ava's first flight ever to Seattle, Age 4. My first flight was to Seattle, Age 20)
(Doug and Ava in Seattle. SHE LOVES THAT DOUG DOUG!!)
With nothing else to do til morning, we headed off to the hotel to catch some sleep. Later, around 8am, my sister contacted the airlines to see if the luggage showed up...only to be told they could not locate her luggage on the worldwide luggage finder. They took her number and told her they would contact her if anything came up. Well, the cruise left the docks at 5pm...things aren't looking so good.
We catch our bus to the cruise terminal at 11am, and then Becky calls the airlines again because she is, of course, frantic to have her luggage. Same story. So basically, the only clothes my sister has to wear are jeans, a t shirt, shoes, and whatever she has beneath those clothes. UH oh... The airlines tell her she has $25 a day (with a limit of I think $250) to spend until the luggage is found. What the heck can $25 a day buy you when you need clothes for 10 days? UGHH
SO, LUCKILY, the cruise terminal is located within a few blocks from what has to be Canada's most expensive shopping mall. Becky, Doug and I head off to get her clothes. We spot an American Eagle, so off she goes to spend about $300 for a few shirts, a hoodie--because HELLO, we are going to ALASKA--a pair of jeans..and I head off to find her some underwear. I spot a Sears and think, cheaper than VS right, so I go spend about $80 on those necessities. All the while I am thinking, why can't WalMart be next to the cruise terminal??
We finish shopping for clothes and head to the CVS type store to get her toiletries. While standing on the toothpaste aisle her phone rings--THEY FOUND HER LUGGAGE and was heading to the cruise terminal!! You should have seen her dance! If only they could have found it a few hours before we spent $400 dollars; we didn't have time to return any of it. We race to the cruise ship, because now it is 4:15 and decide the first thing we are doing when we check in is get a DRINK!!
BTW, Vancouver is BEAUTIFUL!!
Next came all of her stuffed animals. If you ever think your kid has the most stuffed animals, come to my house. I think WE have the most stuffed animals, and for some reason, people keep buying them for her.
And of course we can't forget hippo! Silly Momma!
Next was where she keeps all her money!
And her very own junk drawer. This drawer is off limits to mom and dad. She is allowed to keep anything she wants in this drawer with the exception of food and live pets. She let me glimpse inside, and I can tell you her drawer contains all of her cds, some hotwheels cars, stupid party gift bag crap that I WANT TO THROW AWAY, and misc items that go to her kitchen.
And her make up kit...the one thing I about killed my mom for. BUT, since my mom also introduced us to the Avon roll on paint, I let her slide. :)
Off to the office where she points out the digital arts studio. It's pretty cool and lets her have computer time.
In the kitchen she points out her massive jar of Smarties. She gets one treat every day after school. She also wanted me to photograph the gummy bears and marshmellows that are her snacks on the weekends, but that would have made me publish the clutterness that is my pantry right now.
And finally, she brought me to the front door, where I had my outside flip flops. She loves putting these on and hiding when she knows I'm about to go outside and get the mail. One day I spent 15 minutes looking for these shoes and couldn't find them anywhere. Why I looked 15 minutes I don't know, but later I realized Ava had them on while she was playing in the backyard. She told me she didn't have special outside only shoes. I think that was just her ploy to get some new flip flops.
