Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Visiting with Friends

Suddenly, I realized this past week, Summer was 3/4 over, and it felt like we hadn't done anything. 


 But we have.  We had Jacob.  And in the last week, I've finally started feeling like getting out and about.  This last weekend, however, I finally felt like getting out to play with friends.  Friday night, Chris had his long anticipated slumber party with Emily.  They even got some sleep!  Saturday morning we had swim class, and then went our separate ways for a while.  Until we heard they were in town, so after dinner we met up for dessert with the Julius family at Orange Leaf.  It's Sam's favorite dessert, and though he didn't eat his dinner, he did go poop in the potty, so we let him get his own very small amount.  Then he ended up eating most of Christopher's too...maybe we should make them share.  It's funny, now whenever we go anywhere with them, we're a party of 10. Yipes. 6 kids whenever we go anywhere is just Wild!  


Speaking of Wild, Sunday we took the boys up to visit Amy P.  We haven't been up to see her since..since, well, November before I got sick.  I was worried about traveling with 3 sweetboys, but they all did great.  I was so proud, we only had to stop and tend to Jake once on the way up, and Sam was clean and dry the whole trip.  The boys were so thrilled to see their new house at Camp.  It has many bedrooms and loads of great hiding places,  in which Christopher and Sam were just too happy to play.  We took the kids to the Camp Tecumseh Fort Discovery playground, where the kids played on the fort, dug through a tunnel, and road log horses while Eric cooked some brats, dogs and cheeseburgers.  It was a great spread.  Even though we had some technical difficulties, the grub was good.   


 The kids were content to watch some tv for a break before lunch.  They were so quiet I was worried, but then this was what I found...for a moment they were all getting along.  


After lunch, we played with their sprinkler.  Sam hates getting his head and face wet, but he managed to, his favorite game was getting a cupful of water from the sprinkler and trying to throw it.  


After cleaning up, drying off, and some playtime, it was decided we "needed" to run for treats.  On our way, the girls found a group of campers by Irving the Indian, and ran up to say hi, the boys went with them, like they'd been at camp all their lives.  I can't wait for them to attend.  


We went to the Trading Post for ice cream treats, which was too fun, and I kind of fell in love with all the other Camp Tecumseh goodies for sale.  Good thing I'm on utter shopping restriction, or it could have gotten a little crazy.  But the kids took care of plenty of crazy for me, after getting all sugared up it was clear that it was time to hit the road before the sugar crash.  


On our way back to Amy's to pack up and head home, this dragonfly let me get Really Close.  
Very cool.  
It's apparently, an immature male Common Whitetail Dragonfly.  

It was a great trip north, but I had the worst drive back.  The boys were actually fine.  Jacob had fallen asleep once the car got moving, and really that's his thing, as long as the car keeps moving, he's fine back there.  But when we stop, all bets are off.  So imagine our distress, when about 10 miles from our highway exit, there's a flashing sign telling us that 7 miles away the highway is closed down for an accident.  We begin to pass an exit, for two tiny towns that are still far enough north of us that I didn't know the way home yet.  Just after the exit ramp, traffic stops.  It took us 20 minutes to go under the bridge.  Have I ever mentioned that Jacob hates being in his bucket seat when the car isn't moving?  He tends to scream.  He was screaming under the bridge.  We were going maybe 2 miles an hour, and I was shrieking over all the kids, Get Jake out of his Bucket and give him to me!  Eric wouldn't.  All illegal to have a baby out on a highway...even if the traffic isn't moving.  Suddenly (well, not really suddenly) up ahead a giant suburban goes up the exit ramp in reverse.  Eric plots on his phone to see if exiting at this bob's road country exit could actually get us home.  And Thank the Lord, you can't get lost in Indiana, he found a way.  So as we approached  the exit ramp, I turned on it, and drove up backwards.  I figured going up in reverse would be more dangerous than just going forward with my hazards on.  No one in their right mind was coming down that ramp, from up top you could see that traffic was stopped forever.  And I knew there weren't any police.   But Jacob stopped screaming as soon as we got on the top of the ramp.  I'm a better safer driver if no one is screaming at me too.   And even now, writing it down does not accurately describe the fear and insanity of Me driving up an exit ramp.  Oh it was so scary! I'll do a lot of slightly illegal things, but I don't break break major safety traffic laws.  I've rolled through stop signs, I've gone a few miles over the speed limits, but I've never driven against the grain.  People that do that are just Asking for trouble.  And yet there I was, driving up the exit ramp out in the country.  Scariest thing ever.  I still shook like a leaf for an hour or two afterwards.
When my father in law graciously offered to take us out for dinner when we got home, I ordered a very large rum with a side of rum tropical drink that took the edge off, and there was no more driving for the rest of the night.  I am so Lucky, So Blessed.

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