Killing time

I'm not gonna lie--this week has been a little rough. Part of that is because the cold I caught two weeks ago returned on Monday with a vengeance. And part of that is because Dan has had two separate out-of-town trips this week (Wed-Thurs to Colorado and the ACS meetings; yesterday and today a geology fieldtrip). I'm happy he has a chance to go do cool things (really!), but I miss him. And the kids often do better with both parents in the house.

Yesterday, I tried to distract everyone by getting out of the house. At my friend's suggestion, we tried a park hop: we went to three different parks over two hours and had a picnic lunch at the last park. It was surprisingly enjoyable, even for me (usually I find parks slightly boring since my job is mostly to make sure Oliver doesn't get stuck climbing somewhere too high for him). The weather was perfect: though it does make me nervous what it's going to look like in two months if it's this nice now.

After Oliver's nap, we drove west of town to Old Irontown, the first pioneer settlement in the area. There's not a whole lot left, but the kids were especially interested in the old beehive building where they burned wood for charcoal--and the lizards. Oliver said, "Mommy, there's another crocodile! Lizard." I thought it was funny that a) he knew what a crocodile was, b) that he thought these teeny 4 inch lizards might be one and c) that he corrected himself!

Surprisingly enough, a newer housing settlement has built up around the site--after seeing houses few and far between in the miles leading up to Old Irontown, I was shocked to see so many houses clustered around the ruins. At least it meant the road wasn't terrible.

The week itself was fairly busy too: Evelyn had practice every day this week. Andrew had Tae Kwon do on Wednesday. And classes continued as usual. My parents spent the night Wednesday, on their way to Arizona. It was fun to see them--and nice to have back-up grown-ups in the house (Andrew wouldn't have made it to his practice otherwise).

Andrew has been tearing through Harry Potter this week. Yesterday he came upstairs to talk to me, distraught. (He'd just finished book six. And yes, I know the later books are dark--possibly too dark for a nine-year-old. But we warned him and he decided to try them anyway.) And weirdly, I liked that he was so upset--it reminded me that he's still a kid and he has a good heart.

Before I sign off, here's a funny story overheard this week:

Andrew to Evelyn: "You know Katniss from the Hunger Games? Oliver isn't Katniss--he's cuteness."

(Btw--neither of them have seen or read Hunger Games.)