When Dad's away . . .

I take the kids to my parents'.

Dan spent the week in Chicago learning all kinds of interesting ways to revamp the department's chemistry labs, so the kids and I spent the week playing up north.

I think we had fun--mostly. We saw all the local cousins except for two (sorry Jared!), went to the splash pad, the swimming pool, Winco, Target (all the stores we don't have here), the newly opened Bean Museum (which was fantastic), and more. Evelyn especially loved the apex predator exhibit, which featured a pack of wolves attacking some bison, because, well, wolves. One of her two new obsessions.

The swimming pool was . . . interesting. The kids love to swim, including Oliver, but it's hard for me to take them on my own because they're at such different stages. Andrew can pretty much do his own thing, but Evelyn has to stay close by. And Oliver is fearless. It terrifies me, honestly. I thought since we were at a swimming pool with a splash pad for little kids (the water is only about a foot and a half at the deepest), it would be fine. I'd forgotten Oliver's habit (and Dan reminds me, the habit of both our older kids) to walk into chest deep water and then sit down, where, of course, the water comes up to his eyeballs and he can't stand up because he's in water and can't get leverage. So, yeah, keeping him from drowning was a full time occupation at the pool. Luckily for me, he gets cold easily--so 45 minutes later we were out of there, since his lips were nearly purple.

Not so luckily, I was supposed to meet a friend there. I never saw her, so I assumed she'd changed her mind (she wasn't definite), only to find the next day that she *had* been there, just in another part of the pool complex (it has an outdoor and indoor pool).

My personal favorite thing (besides shopping with my  mom) was getting to see some new and old friends while I was in town. Usually we're just in for a weekend and barely have time to see family, so with a longer visit I was able to have decadent desserts with some high school friends at the aptly named Chocolate, and meet up with a couple of my friends from Segullah. I'm not always the world's best friend--I don't keep in touch with people as well as I should be and sometimes I get sucked into my own little world--so I'm incredibly grateful for the ones who do put up with me!

On Friday, we went to the zoo with Sarah. It was crazy--I don't think I've ever been there when it was so crowded. But the kids seemed to enjoy it. Evelyn got drenched at the splash pad part, Oliver crowed at the animals and practiced growling at the bears, and Andrew . . . well, Andrew got lost, which was actually terrifying. Apparently, when we went to view the sea lions and polar bear, Andrew went one direction and the rest of us went the other. I assumed he was ahead of us, as he had been most of the visit, and it wasn't until I went ahead to look for him that I realized he wasn't ahead of us: he was missing. And he'd forgotten one of the rules we discussed about being lost--stay in one place. But he did remember the second part, about finding an authority figure to help you, because when I finally did find him he was talking to one of the zoo workers and he was on the verge of tears. When he saw me, he started crying, and any residual anger I had melted away. Sometimes he talks so grown up that I forget he's really still a little boy.

I have some pictures, but the camera cord has been misplaced so I'll have to post those later.

And of course, since it is Father's Day, I have to say how grateful I am for my own father, who always believed in me, and for Dan, who is the best father I could have hoped for. And for Robert, who's teaching my kids to love fishing.

After missing Dan for a week, I appreciate him even more.

The kids filled out interviews in Primary today about their dad. Here are their answers.

Evelyn

My dad's name is Dan. He is 34 years old, 32 feet tall, and he weighs 391 pounds (all of the 3s are backwards). His favorite food is fish. My dad is really good at Lagoo progats (lego projects?). He loves to golf. My favorite thing to do with my dad is kamp. I'm just like my dad because I have same hair. What I love most about my dad is he loves to play with lagos with me. It makes dad happy when I  (left blank).

Andrew

My dad's name is Daniel. He is  37 years old, 6.2 ft tall, and he weighs 215 pounds. His favorite food is jalapeno filled with cheese. My dad is really good at play the video games . He loves to golf. My favorite thing to do with my dad is play games. I'm just like my dad because I have boy genes. What I love most about my dad is he is nice. It makes dad happy when I don't scream.

So there you have it. Everything about Dan. I'm glad to know that Andrew inherited his "boy genes."