Sunday, July 20, 2014

Holliday

 206/366

Nope, not the Madonna song.  Last Wednesday was supposed to be pretty low key.  But then I remembered, I had signed the boys up for Vacation Reading School.  Brown and CPCC were working together for a reading group that met from 10-12 on Wednesdays in July.  Chris did it last year and loved it.  Both boys were just as excited to go this year, only this week was the first, and likely only time they were going to be able to participate.  Well, after I dropped them off, another friend of mine posted on FB that she was going to be at Holliday Park at 12:30.  Hmm... if I packed a lunch, we could totally do that.  Chris and Max hadn't seen each other all summer.  I had seen the bebe in months..in fact, she's 1 and moving like Jake.  So I decided to go.  I had a great surprise for the boys when I picked them up.  

We were going to the Park.  We had a little picnic lunch, and the boys played.   The big boys were having a great time.

Honestly, they were so happy to see each other, they didn't stop moving to do things like Eat.   So the pic is blurry, they were so crazy happy to see each other, they were solid blurs.  And the littles just kind of took things in,  they let the mamas get a bit caught up.  


After our lunch, we packed up and walked the kids over to the playground.  I just love this view of the big kids taking the team effort to push little Meg. 


I spy with my little eye - 2 monkeys climbing! 


The littles both were pretty content, as long as we plied them with puffs, they both really like to snack on puffs.  


We found a giant marble ball rolling on a cushion of water.  
It was really cool, and all the kids wanted to play with it. 


I was talking to the gals, and I heard a funny noise, when I came around the other side, there were the boys, all putting their nose to the stone...literally.  Too bad they don't do it figuratively too.  Although, it kind of ooked me out that they were putting their faces in random water.  


The littles were much more reasonable. ;) 


A close up of the water and the marble.  
Check me out, looking all artsy.  


Beautiful Globe Thistles. 
I love this blue violet puffball flower.  


After wandering for a while we went into the Nature Center.  It reminded me of the Field Museum with a bunch of rather distracting stuffed animals...not the good kind.  The kids thought it was cool.  Then there were some outfits to dress up and play with, and they were ooking me out too.  Chris dressed up as a cardinal and was flying around madly.  Nancy dragged us off to the nature library - of course, and suddenly the boys became calm in the quiet, and the big ones were reading.  The moms talked, and the littles read, it was really nice.  And...there some birdfeeders to gawk at.


No seriously, some days I think I'm an 80 year old in a 39 year old body.  
I am happy to sit and watch birds, drink my tea, and I don't want any new fangled fancy phones. 


I mean check this out - the hummingbird Stopped!  
I wish I'd had the beast with me, but all I had was my point and shoot camera.  
Hummingbirds never sit still. 

After leaving the library, the boys started to rev up a little bit again, and we found a great grassy knoll for them to roll down.  Neither of my boys knew how to roll down a hill.  Li and I were pros at that, we used to do it all the time.  The boys needed more practice.  Luckily, Max was there to help them out.  It was a good laugh.



While standing around laughing at the boys, I started getting eaten alive (ah nature), I started to get nibbled, and threw some LLP (because that's all I had) on me and the boys, to save them from being eaten.  It worked.  I should carry more oils around with me.  Turns out some Peace and Calming would have been very beneficial.

Because after we arrived at the car - this is what we found.  My front passenger window was shattered.


We thought it had exploded outward from heat, but later we realized that my brown Coach purse was missing. Stolen.  All they got was the purse, I had my real purse on me, that was my old purse from back in the days before I carried everything in a diaperbag.  Since Sam potty trained I've been carrying a 31 purse, and I had that with me.  All that was in the old bag was a wallet (coach that my Mom had got me back in the days b.c. before Chris), some old makeup when I was in a pinch and needed it while I drove, ibuprofen and tylenol. Still uncool.  They didn't get much.  Still they messed up my car good.  There was glass in the back, I found a hunk in Sam's carseat!  


It was everywhere. 
And I started to lose it.  
But my friend Jen was calm.  She started picking up hunks, pushing hunks out the window to the ground, so it wouldn't fall into the car, cleaning out the crap.  She was a rock star!  So cool under pressure.  I dealt with the kids, who were observing and edgy until Nancy had the brilliant idea to put them in her car and make them watch Star Wars.  Worked brilliantly.  I made phone calls.  There was No One around that offered to help. No police, nobody.  I Thank God I had my friends with me.  Initially I was terrified to drive it, I didn't want broken glass shredding up my Precious Cargo, so I called AAA for a tow truck.  Then I called Eric.  He came running, well, running as much as a man working half an hour away can do.  


So my friend Jen continued to be rather a badass,  ever calm, she knew just what to do.  While I was bordering a freakout, she started picking up glass.  We didn't want some kid to get themselves cut on it.  And when Eric arrived, he didn't want to pay to tow it, he thought we could drive it.  He and Jen concocted a scheme to cover the window with a plastic trashbag, which she sweetly ran home for a broom and trashbags, so we could clean up.  I talked to the police, state farm, police again once we realized the purse was stolen.  And we cancelled the tow.  Luckily, our insurance has been just wonderful about the whole thing.   


Miraculously, Jen and Eric rigged the door with duct tape and a trashbag to make it driveable.  God Bless these friends, I don't know what I would have done without them, and their mad quick thinking skills. Now it looked about as trashy as it could be, so it was actually hysterical.  And that laughter was Just what I needed.  Nancy was the bravest of them all, volunteering to drive all 5 kids back to our house in the 'Burg.  God Bless her!  And I drove Eric's car. And he drove mine. We made quite the interesting caravan.  But we all got home safe and sound, and then I broke out the limoncello...before the kids were even in bed.  

I needed an entirely different kind of holiday.  And I won't be going to that park again for a fat long time.  

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