Seth’s Perspective
“Izzy, you already packed one princess outfit. You can’t fit anymore in the suitcase” I argued with the three year old.
“I need two” she said back.
“One. That’s all you get. Pick one” I said frustrated. She was NOT happy, but she chose one.
“Ali, stop takin’ everything out of my suitcase” I heard Freddy scold in frustration from their bedroom across the hall. “DAAAAAAAAD! ALI KEEPS TAKIN’ STUFF OUTTA MY SUITCASE!”
I went into the boy’s room to see Ali unpacking as Freddy tried diligently to pack. He just stood by the suitcase with that damn pacifier in his mouth pulling Freddy’s clothes out piece by piece as Freddy put them in and watching as they fell to the floor… he was having a great time. He was so damn cute; I couldn’t wait for my Phoenix family to meet him, and see how much Freddy and Izzy had grown. But in the meantime, he was driving Freddy nuts! “C’mon, bud” I said as I scooped up our littlest man, “You can help Daddy Sach pack.” Then I brought him to the bedroom where Zach was packing our suitcase and plopped him on the bed. “Ali’s driving Freddy nuts, can he help you?”
“Sure. I don’t know how the hell we’re going to carry all this crap!” Zach said in frustration. “I’m packing all our stuff in one suitcase, but each kid will have their own, and a car seat, and we got the stroller, and Ali’s diaper bag, our computer bags… that’s like a dozen bulk things to carry. Shit we’re gonna need a plane to ourselves.”
“I’m gonna call the car rental place and see if we can rent seats like Gina suggested, that’ll help. And Kev says they have a double stroller we can use. I’ll give him a call too” I said trying to cut down our luggage.
“Hopefully it’s not too late to get car seats for the kids.”
“You watch him, I’ll make the calls while I finish helping Izzy pack” I said.
“How much time we got? Like 20 minutes?” Zach asked, I nodded… it was Pizza Night at BroMax, then we were taking off for Phoenix early the next morning.
I left Ali with Zach and went back to help Izzy. When I got to her room, I found Freddy had already taken over. “Daddy Zeff said only one princess dress. You need room for bathing suits, and shorts n’ stuff too so you can wear em’ like when we go to the zoo.”
“I wear dis” Izzy said as she showed off the princess dress she was wearing to do her packing.
“UGH! No, you can’t dress like a princess all the time!” Freddy said rolling his eyes and trying to close her suitcase.
“You got this?” I asked my eldest with a proud smile.
“Yeah” he said frustrated but in control. So, I went downstairs and called the car rental place, It took some maneuvering, but I upgraded to a minivan with two child seats and two boosters. Then I called Kev and asked if we could still borrow the double stroller, he had already dropped it off at Brad and Scotty’s just in case we needed it. We talked for a little bit, they were all excited to see the kids, including Teddy, and of course they were excited to meet Ali. While we were talking, I was getting even more excited for our vacation, I missed my family… and god I needed a break, we all did.
“C’mon gang” I yelled up the steps. “Pizza time!” In less than a minute, Freddy came bounding down the steps, followed by Zach with Ali in his arms, and Izzy was cautiously toddling behind them. We pulled on our coats, piled into the Atlas, and headed down the road to BroMax Farm… ALL of us, including Petunia who was going to head home with Uncle Eli and Aunt Riley to start her own vacation from us. When we got there, Izzy headed over to Uncle Brody and Maggie and sat next to them to help with the babies, Freddy found Teddy and they ran up to his room to play, and Ali and Petunia found Uncle Eli and attached themselves to him.
Zach and I sat and talked to Max. He gave me an envelope with a copy of Teddy’s birth certificate, a notarized consent form for Teddy to travel with us, sand some cash to cover his meals and whatever else. “Thank you, guys, for taking him, he’s so excited to get away from us… hopefully he won’t get too homesick.”
“We’ll just facetime y’all if he does” I said before changing the subject. “So do you think we’ve seen the last of the “evil” Shadow Wolf?” Using air quotes around ‘evil’.
Max scoffed, “I’m sure he’ll be back, but I think we deterred him for now. Don’t worry about it, Rodney, BA, Ricky, and me can handle it if he shows up while you’re gone… okay, well BA can handle it” he laughed.
“Don’t forget, we filed the restraining order so if he does show up, they can throw his ass in jail” Zach reminded.
“B has a copy of it too” I added.
“Speaking of BA, Where is the slugger tonight?” I asked.
“She and Daddy are playin’ Poker with Officer Booth and his wife” Brody said from a few feet away. “They used to always play cards on Friday nights until we all started gettin’ together for pizza. So, I guess the silver linin’ of all this crap is that Daddy and BA got reunited with some old friends” Brody chuckled.
For the rest of the night, we all talked and laughed about everything, the kids, the twins adoption, Ali Sr.’s visit, the run in with Shadow Wolf (again, we hailed BA as a legend), held babies, played with the kids, ate pizza, and drank beer. Then we made plans for Easter… we would be back on the Saturday before and Max and Brody wanted to do a repeat of last year’s Easter Egg hunt (with a return of the Eli-Bunny) and invite The Villagers again. Kelly and Nathan would be here too… Kelly would LOVE it!
We had the best damn friends in the world, and that night I went home with a giant damn smile on my face in appreciation of that fact. We put the kids to bed, then we went through our travel checklist for the umpteenth time and got all the suitcases, bags, etc. lined up by the front door so we could easily load the Atlas in the morning. Izzy and Ali passed out as soon as their heads hit the pillow, but Freddy was too excited to sleep. Eventually he fell asleep in our bed between us. The second my alarm went off in the morning, Freddy sat straight up and yelled in his sweet little voice, “It’s a’cation day!” He jumped out of bed and ran to wake his brother and sister, while Zach and I just laid in bed laughing at his exuberance. It was about 5:30AM and the house was already awake and loud. Within minutes all three kids found their way into our bed. They were all up, excited and ready to go. Even Ali had excitement in his beautiful brown when he asked, “Airplane?” Ali was our little observer. He just kind of watched and took it all in. He probably understood more than we gave him credit for.
“Yeah, we’re gonna fly on an airplane” I said with a smile as he touched my face with his tiny hand and looked into my eyes. “We have to get up, eat breakfast, and everybody gets a bath…” I said.
Zach chirped in, “then we go to the airport and fly to a’cation!”
“YAY!!!” Freddy cheered first, the other two followed his lead.
Then Izzy asked “Is Asso thao?”
“Yup, Asher’s there and he knows we’re coming, we’re going visit him, Trever, and Alejandro while we’re there.” I answered.
“I like Twevo. Who Allie-Ho?” she asked. I explained who he was, all she heard was Asher’s friend, that was good enough for her. She was so excited to see everyone. Well, breakfast and baths were surprisingly easy… well except for Izzy throwing a small tantrum and insisting on wearing her Belle dress for the trip. Ugh, it wasn’t worth the fight so I gave in then the princess Izzy-Belle and the rest of us loaded the SUV and headed to BroMax to pick up our final passenger. Teddy was sitting on the porch with his suitcase patiently waiting, Zach tooted the horn as we drove up the driveway.
Teddy ran into the house yelling, “They’re here!! They’re here!!” Max and Brody came out to the porch, each holding a baby.
“What do y’all tell Uncle Zach and Uncle Seth?” Brody asked his son.
“Thank you for letting me come with you on a’cation. I promise to be good” Teddy said, he was so cute (A’cation was pretty much the word we were all using now).
“We’re excited you’re coming with us” Zach said with excitement in his voice.
“And you’re ALWAYS good when your with us, that’s why we invite you everywhere” I said, only half joking. He was a good kid. Max and Brody said some final words to their son, he kissed his dads and his sisters goodbye, then I asked, “Whose ready for a’cation?!” and got four loud, excited “ME”’s in return. With that we were off to the airport. We parked, found a luggage cart, and the six of us made our way through the small airport to the check-in counter where Zach unloaded most of our crap, we decided to carry just the diaper bag and computer bags onboard so we could move better through the airports with four flipping kids! Then we went through security where Zach pulled out birth certificates for the kids, and notarized consent forms for Ali and Teddy as he politely proved to TSA that all four kids were legally in our care. We walked through the small airport with Ali and Izzy both insisting on walking, and Freddy and Teddy running ahead to check out the planes on the tarmac through the giant windows of every gate we passed.
I remembered our first trip Phoenix when everything was so new and amazing to Freddy who had seen very little of the world outside of his mildewy home. Now I watched as he shared that world with his best friend and the excitement flowed from him into Teddy. So much had changed in a year. We waited at the gate until it was time to board our flight. Izzy introduced herself to anyone who would listen, while the two older boys marveled at the pilots and attendants in uniform walking past… they waved at every one of them and got smiles and waves in return (it became a game… who could get the most waves). Ali, well, he toddled around smiling at people and making folks days. One woman came up to us and said, “your children are so well behaved. You and your wives must be so proud.” I was just going to let that go, we got a lot of those kind of comments. But Zach decided to poke the bear.
“No wives just two husbands” he said with a brilliant smile.
“And you have FOUR?!” she asked.
“Three” Zach explained. “That one belongs to our friends across the street, they just adopted newborn twin girls and we thought Teddy could use a break.”
The woman looked stunned. She was silent for a moment before she spoke, “so two gay couples with three kids each?” she asked. Zach nodded. “Well, I can’t wait to tell my son about this when I get to Arizona” she barked… an odd answer I thought. “If you can handle three, there’s no excuse why he and his husband haven’t given me any grand babies yet!” Zach and I both laughed at her response. She ended up sitting with us and talking until we boarded the plane. She even held Ali for a little bit (he was obsessed with her glasses).
Finally, we boarded the plane and were greeted by two cute, 30-something, obviously gay flight attendants. They quickly put two and two together and our little gay family was the center of attention. “Phillip, we have royalty on board” said Jared the flight attendant.
Phillip looked over at us and screeched, “Princess Belle, welcome aboard,” and then the two bowed to Izzy-Belle making her feel like the most important girl in the world and putting a smile on her beautiful face the was so wide it went all the way into her curly hair.
We moved to our seats, I sat in the aisle seat with Ali in the middle seat and Izzy at the window. Zach sat across the aisle with Teddy taking the window seat (at Freddy’s insistence since he’d been on a plane before), and Freddy in the middle. We were all buckled in and the plane started taxiing, the engines blared as we picked up speed and lifted off the runway… that’s when it happened. Our sweet, quiet Ali lost it. Oh my god, that poor little man started crying and reached over for me. We were both buckled in and all I could do is turn and strain to hug him. The entire plane was shooting daggers at us with their eyes… I was the guy with the screaming baby. Izzy reached over from the other side “It okay baby” she said patting him on the shoulder and kissing his tear-soaked cheek. Then she totally diverted his attention, “look, look” she said tapping him on the shoulder with one hand and pointing out the window with the other. “We flying!” she said. Ali strained to look out the window, his older sister’s diversion worked. His cries turned to post-cry sniffles as he took in the sights while his big sister held his tiny hand and made life okay again. On the other side of the aisle Freddy and Teddy were ooing and ahing as they looked out the window. Zach and I looked at each other and chuckled quietly at the childlike awe of life that surrounded us.
Once the captain announced that we were in the air and it was safe to walk around, the two flight attendants came over with pretzels and juice boxes before they started their service. Phillip quietly asked if the kids could have cookies and then handed them each a tiny bag of chocolate chip cookies… Phillip was a hero in the eyes of Izzy and Ali. The kids busied themselves on the flight with whatever they could, Izzy listened to my 90’s play list and sat quietly singing “Walking On Sunshine” to herself as she stuck window-clings to the little portal (thanks to Gina for that idea). I read Ali stories, the older boys and Zach played games on the iPad. At one point my two little ones fell asleep and Jared the flight attendant came over and snuck Freddy and Teddy into the cockpit. They came back pinned with wings and so excited about growing up to be “airplane drivers.” The flight went by fairly event free (thank god), and when it was over the flight attendants bid us adieu with a final bow to the princess as we deplaned.
Sky Harbor Airport was a whole other adventure as all the kids marveled at the people-mover sidewalks and escalators. When we got to baggage, we were shocked to find Brad, Scotty, Brooklyn, and Maddy standing there holding homemade signs welcoming us “home.” To my surprise, Izzy was the one who recognized them from the escalator and started waving and yelling to her cousin “BWOOK! BWOOK, I HEO!” The four waved back as the two kids ran to the bottom of the escalator to meet us. The cousins were reunited for the first time since Thanksgiving. Ali (who was in my arms) just looked around in wonder taking it all in.
Brad met me at the bottom of the escalator and came up to us, “Ali, I’m Uncle Brad” and he held out his arms to hold Ali, but Ali played shy and buried his face in my shoulder. “He’s lucky I take rejection well” Brad joked. We all caught up with each other as we made our way to baggage claim. Damn, it was good to see my brother. “Hey, Kevin and Randy are having a big thing at their place tomorrow night so you can see everyone, I hope you didn’t have plans.”
“None” I replied. “I want to see Asher, Trev, and Alejandro while I’m here, other than that, throw me a drink and plant my ass by the pool.”
“Brian met with Ash earlier this week and invited him tomorrow, so they may be there.”
“Good. Two birds with one stone. And Izzy will be happy” I said. Brad looked at me with a questioning look. “Oh, Asso is her best friend” he laughed at that response. The guys helped us get our luggage, our rental, and then we followed them home. When we got to their house, Brad unloaded Ali from the minivan (which FYI was exactly like Max and Brody’s, so Teddy had to call and tell them). Ali held out his arms for Brad, Brad lifted him up, gave him a kiss on the cheek and welcomed him… that was all Ali needed. He was attached to Brad for the rest of the day. Our first day of vacation was hectic with four kids on an airplane, but it ended with burgers and hotdogs on the grill, hanging out in the pool, and then sitting and catching up around the glowing chiminea with a cocktail after the kids were settled in bed and fast asleep.
“You guys had a long day; you should kick your vacation off at The Resort” Scotty said.
“Ha, I wish” I said and took a sip of my 7 and 7.
“Do it” Brad said. “We got the kids.”
Then Scotty picked up his phone and made a call. He got up and walked out in the yard to talk, then came back to where we were. “I just booked you guys a couple massage; you got a half hour to get there.”
“How the hell did you book us a couples massage this late on a Saturday night?” Zach asked.
“Scotty runs that joint. You know that” Brad said. “Now go. Relax! You just flew a couple of thousand miles with four kids.” Zach and I both pretended to protest for a while, but we knew opportunities where someone else was willing to take all the kids so we could go relax were rare. After a few minutes, we got in the TT and headed to The Resort.
Zach’s Perspective
It felt good to be behind the wheel of the old TT and driving through the chilled desert night with the top down like old times. This was the place where I first discovered that there was more to being gay than just sex. I came here with Seth for our first Thanksgiving together and met a gay community that welcomed me without judgment or question. They were a real community. It was here that I first believed that I could be whatever I wanted to be, and that included husband and father, even if I was gay. This place was special to me.
The little six speed turbo purred into the parking lot of The Resort. We had spent the day traveling with four… FOUR freaking kids, so Brad and Scotty wanted to give us a break and sent us off to The Resort for a couple’s massage. I felt a little guilty leaving the kids… but by the time we checked-in at the front desk and stripped naked in the massage room, I was over it.
Seth and I lay side by side on our bellies, ‘buck nekkid’ (as Brodes would say), with our heads turned so we were facing each other as we inhaled the familiar scent of the BroMax Candles. We were lying on separate tables, holding hands as the two hot masseurs rubbed our travel-weary bodies with skill. The two muscled men (whose names we didn’t even know) worked in sync as they stood at the head of the tables, their linen-clan crotches almost pushing against the tops of our heads while their warm, oily hands soothed our aching bodies… they were both truly masters of their craft. They inched their way from our shoulders, down towards our buttocks smoothing out the kinks and pushing out the stress along the way. They reached our asses at the same time, I grinned at Seth who wasn’t quite sure how to react. It was an odd, but hot feeling staring at my husband while two strangers massaged our asses. Once Seth saw the grin on my face, he grinned back and gave my hand a squeeze. I had seen that grin a lot over the years, that’s the look Seth gave me when he was about to give in to the moment. After spending a little time on our asses, the two men moved to the foot of the tables and started massaging our feet, damn it felt so good after a day of running through airports. They moved their way up our legs massaging deeply and rubbing away the pain, up our inner thighs where they lightly grazed our warm, low hanging sacs of man marbles. I opened my eyes to see Seth’s reaction. His eyes were wide open and I can only describe his expression as one of surprise with a hint of concern maybe? I grinned again, he took a deep breath and returned my grin squeezing my hand again.
The men clasped their hands together in a prayer formation and made their way up our butt cracks, grazing the most intimate opening of our bodies as they did. I could feel my manhood stir underneath, and the look on Seth’s face told me he was feeling the same. With a small tap to my ass cheek the masseur said, “Alright time to flip,” Seth’s masseur followed suit and we both reluctantly turned. I looked over at my husband and down his perfect body to see that I wasn’t the only one with a semi. Seth turned beet red, I just giggled a little, and the two pros’ seemed unfazed as they worked our bodies with their magic hands. They remained professional ignoring the two hot, semi-hard slabs of meat resting on our thighs and worked their way around them… it clearly wasn’t the first time they’d dealt with that. Hell, it probably wasn’t even the first time they’d dealt with it that night.
After a full hour of sensual touch, the two muscled men thanked us, and said goodnight, leaving us two piles of relaxed flesh just lying there looking at each other with grins on our faces. Eventually, we wrapped our towels around us, went through the reception room to thank our masseurs (I also put a big tip on our tab for them), then headed to the pool. We found a couple of lounge chairs, lost our towels, and plopped our naked bodies down Seth brought a book to read but fell asleep after about a minute… the poor guy was wiped out. The Village and the kids were keeping him hopping.
I just lie there naked with my hands behind my head and my junk hanging out enjoying the scenery when I saw a little show happening in the hot tub across the pool. The dim lights and steam from the hot tub impeded my view, but I could make out what was going on. There were three guys, all younger than us going at it. The biggest guy (in every way) was sitting on the edge of the tub while the other two gave him head. I couldn’t make out a lot of detail, but the bigger guy was a bit darker than the other two and he was hard as a rock. I watched as the (very white) littlest guy sucked on his big balls, and the… well medium guy deepthroated his cock like a champ. I couldn’t help but get hard while I watched the free show unfolding before me. Um. DAMN! I did my best to fight the urge to stroke myself in public while my husband slept by my side but the three hot young guys didn’t make it easy.
Seth, who was snoring at one point, woke up and saw my gaze affixed to the spectacle across the pool. “What are you looking at?” He asked as he followed my gaze.
“Free Sex show” I whispered with a giggle. Seth watched with me for a little while until the littlest guy hopped out of the hot tub and stood next to the big guy who started to suck his smallish cock.
“Holy fuck” Seth said in a whispered shout, “That’s Asher!” he scoped out the other two guys and added, “and Trevor, and Alejandro.” Okay. So, I admit, I didn’t see that coming.
To be continued…
