Crazy Weekend. . . .

The last week or so has been pretty crazy for us.  I worked (really) late for a couple of nights, then Gary had some work stuff come up that meant he needed to work over the weekend.  He was worrying about how to spend time with me and the kids and get everything done – so Saturday morning, on the spur of the moment, I just told him that I’d pack up the car and we’d head to my parents’ house for the weekend so he could do whatever needed to be done without us there.  I called my dad who told us to head on up there, and by 10:00 a.m. I had showered, fed everyone breakfast, packed for me and the four kids, loaded up the car, and we were on our way. 

We had a couple of delays on the road.  The first was my coffee.  Although I love nothing more than a Starbucks nonfat mocha with toffee nut, it costs an arm and a leg.  So, I save Starbucks for special occasions and try to pick up a McDonald’s nonfat caramel mocha instead.  It’s not quite as good, but for the cheaper price, I’m okay with it.  The problem is that the McDonald’s mochas aren’t very consistent – sometimes you get a good one and sometimes you don’t.  I got a bad one and decided there was no way I could drive for 2 hours without a decent cup of coffee, so I stopped at another McDonald’s and got a good one.  The kids were almost manic with the delay, but it was necessary.

The next delay was some traffic – a bridge is being worked on so we had to get into one lane and we barely moved for a few miles.  Henry was hollering from the back, “Mama!  What are we going to do about this traffic?!!  Mom.  Mom!!  Call Papa and ask him what to do about this traffic!”  Rosemary was wailing about how she wanted to see Papa, and I kept reassuring her that we would get there.  I can’t remember what was going on with Piper, but it was something similar.  After I tried to respond to their concerns – and they were still crazy -- I just turned up the radio and told them that I couldn’t hear them.  Sometimes you’ve just got to do whatever gets you through.

We got to my mom and dad’s house and had a huge home-cooked lunch, then the kids played outside riding bicycles and such for a while.  I had already decided to just skip naps, so after that we put the kids in swimsuits and headed out to the pool.  Rosemary is still completely fearless, and jumped off the diving board over and over again.

Piper is not so brave.  Uncle Zac had a ball with her.  Here he is about to duck under the water. . . .

. . . and here he is flying up out of the water yelling like a siren . . .

. . . Piper finally reacted . . .

. . . still reacting . . .

. . . and then it’s all funny! 

It was hilarious. Zac did that to her a couple of times, and it surprised her just as much each time. You’d think that she’d have picked up on what was going on at some point, but not our Piper.

More to come later. . . .