Spring Break, Part 2

One of the best parts of Spring Break was staying up late and sleeping in late.  I only set my alarm clock a couple of times during the week and it was magnificent.  Even better was that I had no guilt at all about it.  Zero.

So here’s the rundown of the first part of our week.

On Monday we headed to Get Air trampoline park where we jumped for 2 hours!  It was a long time and I was feeling pretty tired by the end.  Johnny was particularly violent during our dodge ball sessions and managed to pelt multiple people in the face.  Including me, you jerk.  The man nearly dislocated his wife’s jaw with a foam ball.  How does that happen?  He maintains that all of his direct hits were accidental and he wasn’t aiming for heads and faces.  He’s a pretty terrible shot if he was aiming for anything below the neck.  I exclusively went for groin shots and exclusively never hit any targets.  Except for one kid who kept following me around like he was starving and I had a pork chop tied to my back.  I don’t know who he was but I did manage to hit him a few times. Gently, of course.  I’m not a monster.  Or a good shot.

After we were sufficiently pooped, we went for a walk across the river to ride the carousel.  Since Michael was at work, I had to be Eva’s accompaniment on the spinning circle of death.  I focused myself and only became slightly dizzy.  It was a triumph for me.

The next day was dedicated to hiking at Silver Falls.  The weather was perfect and it was nice to feel the sun on my anemic skin.  Eva was a trooper except for the moments when she wasn’t.  We had to stop at every bench so Eva could rest and eat her trail mix.  It would have been faster to carry her, but I refused because I’m terribly rude.  Kate was kind enough to plop Eva up on her shoulders for the last mile of the trail.  What a good cousin.

I love Jackson’s face in this picture.   He looks like someone just hit him in the groin with a dodge ball.

Kate and Britta split off with me to the shorter loop while the others went ahead to the loop that was twice as long.  With all of our trail mix stops, we only made it to the picnic area 15 minutes ahead of Cam’s group.  We were definitely slow and steady on that one.

Our picnic spot became exceptionally rousing when the kids found Easter eggs hidden in trees that hadn’t been discovered on Easter.  This seems like a marvelous discovery except that they were actual hard-boiled eggs.  Hard-boiled eggs that had been roasting in the sun for three days.  Johnny was not deterred by the disgustingness of this and began his own search party for more eggs.  He successfully unearthed a surplus of eggs and intended to include the tasty treats in our picnic lunch.  Take a stab at how his wife reacted to this proposal.  The words “diarrhea” and “gas” and “intestinal distress” danced around the conversation many times.  (He only ate one egg.  I think.  I wasn’t keeping track.)

Diarrhea or not, the next day was zoo day!  The zoo was full to capacity but it was still a fun day.  The sun was blazing hot and I scarfed a bag of chips and cinnamon-bun-flavored Oreos so it was a good day for me.  I failed to take any pictures because it was Wednesday already and my laziness had revved up.  Sorry.  (But really I’m not.)

 

We enjoyed the sunny day at the zoo, especially the pooping elephants.  Eva exclaimed, “What a mess!”  She was right.  But the real fun came when we were stuck in traffic for an hour on the interstate.  Some dopes had an accident and the rest of us enjoyed the aftershock.  I love sitting motionless on the freeway when I’m tired and thirsty.  It ranks right up there with my love for asparagus ice cream.

We rounded out the evening with the older kids taking a trip to the temple while Spencer, Eva, and I went home to make dinner.  Then we stayed up late eating popcorn and watching Captain Phillips.  It’s a fine choice for a movie right before bedtime.  Nothing soothes me to sleep faster than Somali pirate movies.

I was sad that Wednesday had arrived so rapidly and I began to feel anxious that everyone would be leaving me soon.  We had a few more days of fun to look forward to so that helped to still my thoughts.  The most exciting day was awaiting us on Friday.

I’ll tell you all about it next time!