Is that thing Real?

Yesterday was Courtnie Farnes wedding. As I was driving to work in a hard rain I felt really sorry for her but she had Tony Corbell as her photographer so she was lucky. He took them down to Balboa Park and got some beautiful pictures. Balboa Park has miles of covered walk ways with pillars, balconies and all kinds of cool places where you can take pictures. Since Alycia was already in St George for Christmas with her in-laws and Jamie was there with her family, the two of them came down for the wedding (and for a visit with us). Since they were here, Stephani Bradshaw joined them and they had a big sleep over last night. They were watching chick flicks all night so I hit the sack around midnight and left the rest of the family partying (except for Sarah who always goes to bed early). Somewhere around 2:00 AM the phone rang. As I slowly returned to reality I heard a bunch yelling, laughing and screaming out in the hallway. I vaguely wondered what was going on but I figured since Lisa was up she would get the phone and I went back to sleep. Well the phone kept ringing so I eventually answered it. It was Lisa calling me from downstairs.

Apparently the girls decided it was finally time to go to bed and Alycia ran up the stairs first. Stephani came next but as she was walking up the stairs she saw this big snake on the stairs. He is so big that he is stretched out across several steps. Alycia had ran right past him. Steffani figures it must be a fake rubber snake but since it looks so real to her she calmly calls out to Alycia, "Alycia, there's a snake on your stairs". Then she says, "Is that thing real?" At first Alycia can't imagine that it is Tom because she had noticed before that the bowling ball was still sitting on top of the aquarium. When she takes a look and see's that it really is Tom then it was chaos and that is the commotion that I heard. Lisa, Jamie and Stephanie are trapped downstairs and they are not about to come near the snake so Lisa calls me to return him to his home and make sure he never gets out again. Alycia meanwhile wakes Sarah up and by the time I return to consciousness and get dressed Sarah already has returned Tom to his warm and comfortable home. I check to make sure the lid is secure and go to bed. The girls on the other hand were so hyper that I don't think they got to sleep for another hour or two.

The best we can figure, Sarah put the lid back on the cage when we fed him last and I seem to remember that one corner wasn't completely in place. At the time I figured that with the bowling ball sitting on the lid he would never get out. Tom is apparently much stronger than he used to be.