Getting Out of Town

Another week has flown right by......before I know it, summer will be over and the kids will be back at school. *sigh*

The girls and I had a lovely Girl's Day Out at the Mall on Tuesday with our friends. Lunch, shopping for summer outfits, and retracing our steps twice for lost baby sandals. It was fun to see my girls get to do girlie things that they usually do not get to enjoy in a house full of boys. Trying on clothes in the dressing rooms was apparently super fun, because that was the highlight of each store visit.

We made it to the community pool once this week for open swim practice. Unfortunately, we went so late in the day, that there were only 35 minutes left to swim before evening classes started. Bummer. The kids played hard, and Melissa and Crispy spent their time under water, enjoying their new abilities. When our time was up, the lifeguards must have taken pity on our large crew of little people, because they offered to let us move over to the lap pool for another 30 minutes. While too deep for Laura and Tubby, the other kids had fun floating in the deeper waters. The two little ones were allowed to play on the handicap accessible ramp leading into the pool. Tubby is a water maniac. He has no fear as he scoot "runs" on his butt, down the ramp until the water level is at mid chest, then stands up and keeps going while hanging onto the rail. Getting facefuls of water does not stop him. Once he recovers from the coughing spell, he just keeps "running". This boy is going to give me a heart attack at the cabin in August.

Thursday evening, Bob and I were granted the rare occasion to get away WITHOUT any kids. That's right, none of them. Not even Tubby and his cute little face. Grandma ? came over to watch the kids so that we could go to Alex's parade in Brooklyn Park. It was great to be able to focus on the shows and not have to constantly be attending to the whining from all of the little people. Certainly not the best neighborhood, as we parked our truck and walked past what looked like gangs of kids and many a police officer, to find the perfect spot for parade viewing. We found our spot across from the "magic J" and smack in the middle of the cable tv set up. It was perfect for viewing the marching band shows. Waconia was AWESOME tonight. Their show even made the lippy teenagers next to us shut up and look on silently in awe. Our band drew about 400 people from the crowd who continued to follow them down the street, cheering them to the end. It was pretty cool to see. Bonus for me: I ran into the wonderful nurse who took care of me while I was in the hospital for two months before Laura was born. She laughed when I told her about Laura's stubborn, fiery personality. Gotta love it, that's what God gave her to be the survivor she is!

Firday found me scrambling around the house packing three of us for going up north to a weekend full of band parades, three of them for a weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's, doing laundry for Alex's next week trip to Seattle, and making sure there was enough food and other essential items at home for the 3 that were remaining at home over the weekend, plus our teenage guest. The baby has been in a strange mood over the past few days where he just whines and whines every time that I walk away from him. This made for constant crying as I went up and down the stairs, packing our bags. On top of that, my neighbor REALLY wanted me to skate a game that evening in the cities. Stressed out would be putting my morning mildly.

Having planned on leaving at lunchtime to visit with our buddies in their new house, we finally pulled out of the driveway at 2:30. (Thank you, Grandma for showing up at 11 so that I could take a shower!) Having packed all of my hockey things in the truck just in case I changed my mind and found myself with enough time to play tonight, we had to make a pit stop in Chan to get my very dull skates sharpened. The guy was in no hurry whatsoever, so our 5 minute detour turned into a 30 minute delay. Ugh.

After what seemed like a marathon task, we pulled into the driveway of our friends' gorgeous new house. Being on kid number seven, they certainly deserve the bigger space, large kitchen, and walk in pantry. The house is very well built, and very functional for a large family (as ours is NOT). The girls played dress up and Polly Pockets, while the boys....hmm....I am not really sure what they did. A lot of running around and screaming, I think. The thunder rolled and the darkness of the storm clouds grew virtually unnoticed to us as we played and explored. We look forward to many more visits this summer in the new fun space.

After such a hectic day, I opted out on hockey. I really needed some time to STOP running. We headed over to my parents for dinner.....the kids were bouncing out of the truck for their weekend sleepover. So very exciting for my trio of good little kids. After dinner, we treated ourselves to a trip to Cold Stone where we had only been once since moving from the cities. It was a wonderful, yummy treat, that even Tubby enjoyed some of. Following that, we walked over to "the big box store" to get some summer pj's for the girls.....they put on a lovely fashion show for us in the hallway before bed. Such a lovely summer's evening after such a stormy afternoon which had matched our crazy morning!