Monday, July 06, 2009

Mini Road Trip

The kids and I drove 65 miles on an errand today. That's about 170 miles round-trip. The kids did really well. I did let them watch the Curious George movie on the way down.

We met up with some really nice people, dropped off and sold some furniture, and had ice cream at Fenton's. Yes, that place from Up. I've been going there with my family and friends since the 1970s. James and his sister shared a huge scoop of vanilla. After a few bites, James was more interested in feeding myself and a friend of mine who'd come with us to the ice creamery. This was before he found the hand crank in the table umbrella's pole. Luckily, the way he was spinning the handle did nothing to the umbrella. I love places that think about the fact that kids will be sitting in their restaurant.

After that, we visited a former work place of mine. It had been a couple of years since they'd seen the kids, and they were very friendly and asked lots of questions about how James was doing. In contrast to the family gatherings this weekend, the kids were relaxed and chatted naturally with everyone right from the start. I don't know, maybe it was that special Fenton's ice cream? ;-)

One smart fellow gave the kids one ballon each. It became the favourite thing for the next 4 hours. These were simple rubber balloons that had not even been blown up. James asked for a RED one, and then asked me to blow it up for him. "Puts air in, Mommy?" was how he put it. He then proceeded to play volleyball all over the department, getting several people to play with him.

My daughter used her pink one to hold air, which she would then release to either make disgusting (therefore funny) noises or blow air on (1) her face or (2) her brother's legs. This held entertained kids for over two hours. I have never heard them both laugh so hard all through a car trip like that. I am so glad they like car trips!

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