The Future Of Us

Rain day

"Daddy, when it stop raining?" Cat asks Brad who's holing her looking out the window

"It's supposed to rain all day. Sorry, princess, but there's things we can do inside." he brings her over to the table with the rest of us "There's movies, your toys, other games, you can draw or make up games with El."

"I play blocks!" she goes over to her toys "You play too?"

He sits down with her "For a little. What do you want to build?"

"A really big castle!!" she gives him blocks and walks over to El "You play?"

El gets up "Yeah."

I take a few pictures then start talking to John and Shannon "When are we leaving tomorrow?"

"I was thinking right after breakfast." John looks at the time "if it's the same as today we'll beat most of the bad traffic."

"I think that's a good idea." Shannon takes our plates "Are we splitting the driving the same as last time?"

"That worked out good so we probably should." I help her clean up "I'll make breakfast since I'll be up with Ally."

"How early does she normally get up?" John asks

"Too early." I laugh "Normally between 5 and 6. She sleeps basically through the night though."

"El would get up at 7 and I thought that was crazy." John gets a drink "I guess we were lucky."

"Yeah, you definitely were. Cat was a little better but she still doesn't always sleep through the night. Sometimes she will and other times we just put her in bed with us."

"We used to do that but El would kick us all night." Shannon finishes the dishes "I eventually just told her she can't sleep with us anymore and it took a little but it worked."

I sit back at the table "She isn't too bad with kicking, but she spreads out over the whole middle part of the bed." I hear Ally cry and get up to get her "I'll be back."

I get her out of her crib, change and dress her, then take her back out to everyone and sit where Brad, Cat and El are playing blocks "What are you building?"

"A house!" Cat gives me blocks "You help?"

"Yep." I give Ally one to hold "Who's house is it?"

"Mine and El's and Ally's."

"Awe, you're all going to live together." I help them build for a little "This is a big house."

"It's a mansion." El says "We can all live in it."

"I helped build a mansion. That's one thing I didn't think I would ever say." Brad laughs and looks at me "See, I am good at something."

I lean into him "You're good at more than one thing, but don't feel too proud of yourself."

Cat walks over and sits on Brads lap "Daddy a mansion builder."

"That's right, princess." he hugs her "Make sure you tell mommy I can do lots of different things."

"I will." she goes back to building.

"El, are you okay? You're really quiet." I ask

"Yeah, I'm fine." she helps Cat "Just a little tired."

Shannon walks over "Do you want to sleep a little?"

She gets up "Yeah, for a little." She gets up and goes to the bedroom for a nap as Cat jumps up and follows her.

"Where are you going Cat?" Brad asks her as he walks behind them.

"I sleep too." She jumps on her bed, pulling the covers up.

"Okay." He says and walks back out to join the rest of us, leaving the girls to sleep.

All of us adults sit around the outdoor table talking about the week we have had.

"I love how close this has made us. Especially El and Cate!" I admit, slouching into Brad as he wraps his arms around me.

"I know. We should meet up and do things more often, if we can." Brad agrees.

"We really should." Shannon replies with a smile. "Maybe we will do something else when we get home."

"Hey, what time are we leaving tomorrow?" I spin round on Brad's lap to look at him.

"Erm, a little after lunch? Maybe later." He answers my question, looking over to the others for confirmation.

"Yeah, sounds good." John nods his head.

"Okay, should we start packing our things now. You know, whist the girls are all asleep." Shannon suggests.

"That's not such a bad idea. We'll go do ours and Ally's now. We can do Cate's and El's after they wake up, so we don't disturb them." Brad and I stand up.

"Okay, we'll go do ours. We can go out for dinner after, when the girls are up." John and Shannon head for their room.

Brad grabs some of our suitcases whilst I go to our bedroom and start pulling our clothes and other belongings onto the bed, ready to be packed.

After about a half hour, we're done and go back to the kitchen, only to see Catie and El drawing at the table. I take this as sign to go pack whilst they're busy. It only takes me a little while so I'm back downstairs by the time the girls finish drawing.

When I get back down, John and Shannon are pulling their bags to the front door next to ours.

"Do you want to go out to dinner now?" I ask as I walk into the kitchen to see all of us there.

"Yeah, sure. Lets go." Brad walks over, bouncing Ally on his hip, and gives me a quick peck before handing our beautiful baby daughter over to me.

From there, we all run to the car, in attempt at staying as dry as possible since the rain has started again. We all pile into the cars and head off to the restaurant for our last meal of the day.