nurse camp 2014 {lincoln rock}.

This camping gig started five years ago.
I had a two year old at the time.

We were a group of 7.
I slept in my mom's Element.

I didn't really like camping.

But I really liked Fiona.
And she invited me.

So I went.

Now we're a group of 29.

I still don't really like camping.

But I still really like Fiona.

A lot.
And I really like the people she invites.
A lot.
These are my peeps.

The people I work next to all day, text all night, and make plans with on the weekends.

These are the people I seek out as my TPN checkers, my drip co-signers, and my narcotic wasters.

These are the people that I want to have my back in a CODE purple.
(Parents are nuts).

These are the people that would collaborate with me
in a CODE pink.
(sometimes those pairs just really suck).

These are the people I get lost with running to a CODE blue.
(where's Ocean?)

These are the people I sweat profusely next to in a CODE green.
(what's the code dose of Epi again?  1:10,000?).

These are the people I trick into helping me with a CODE brown.
(you're welcome for all the practice with the occupied beds).
And after the amount of Fireball Whiskey we drank during the week...these are the people that helped officially declare our campsite a CODE orange.
(something to do with the Anti-Freeze in the whiskey).
I guess they're just kind of my...CODE everything.

an athlete...she's not.

She sure dresses for the part.

And that's about where it ends.

But pal...you look awesome.

the queen is here. the queen is here.

The Queen and King of England arrived!

Kind of.

Basically, they are royalty...but really only in our family.

Basically, they're from Europe...so England is close enough.

And basically my mom curtsied to them for two weeks straight...so there's that.

Here's the story.

 When I was 8 or 9 my parents had an exchange student from Italy stay with us for a few months during the summer.  

(They always did weird stuff like that...having strangers stay with us...it was annoying).

But this stranger, Elena, who wasn't even 18 yet, we fell in love with.

Like major, head over heals, lurve.

She was fabulous, and adorable, and charming, and loving, and exactly like the child they never had...but always wanted.

(only because they really couldn't communicate with her, and she really couldn't ask for anything, or complain).

And we all sobbed when she left.

And then she came back again with her best friend.

And again with her brother.

And again with her boyfriend.

And then my folks went to visit her.

(only after my dad took Italian at a community college).

And then Kip went to visit her.

And this time she came back again with her entire family.

It was so much fun!

Hads and Martina (her daughter) hit it off...even though they had no idea what the other one was saying.

And Carson was head over heels for Mateo (her son) and Mossimo (her husband).

And my parents were thrilled to have their 'favorite' daughter back.

It was a whirlwind two and a half weeks of everything Seattle and everything family and everything happy.

And we'll need another three to five years to recover.

Ciao.

A little BBQ to welcome them 'home'.

And then Kip punched me in the gut...

go seattle. go mariners. go sun.

Then a day in the sun...in Seattle...at Safeco field.

The perfect threesome.