Back to School Ice Cream Social

My son had his meet & greet at his new middle school yesterday evening. It was an ice cream social. His dad took him because for the past week, I've been laid up with the flu. But I did want to find out how things had gone at the function so I asked, "Did you meet your teacher?"

"No, Mom." He sounded a little affronted by the idea to me.

"You mean she wasn't there?" I was a little confused.

"She was there."

"Well, why didn't you meet her?"

"No, I met her mom. You said, 'Did you eat your teacher?' I didn't eat her."

Oh. Yeah. Clearly, my bad.

2007 Summer Vacation

WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' PLANNING

About 2 weeks ago, the day before we departed, my husband announced that we were all going on a family vacation road trip, to visit his sister and her family up in Canada. To say that they live out in the middle of nowhere would be unfair. Because they are so far on the edge of nowhere, people at the border crossing didn't know where we were headed. It is an uncomfortable feeling to have the border crossing agent ask where you're going and for him to say, "Where is that?" I was worried the full body cavity search was on its way because he thought we were making up the name of the town. It is McClennan, Alberta. Way, way, (and yes, one more) way north of Edmonton. We made a couple of fun stops before we made it there, and at one point, the bickering level in the car between the two older kids was so bad, the threat of nothing to eat but peanut butter sandwiches for the rest of the trip was made. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We started out our journey, after a day of furious packing, locking up and oodles of laundry, by going to REI. We needed a luggage rack for the van because with the kids and a 5-day cooler, our van felt like the inside of a package filled with styrofoam peanuts. I didn't think we'd get hurt, but we had very little wiggle room. We bought a Yakima rack from a sales associate who looked strangely like the guy who played Robin on Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. So we will refer to him as Robin. Anyway, Robin met us in the bowels of REI to install the luggage case to our roof rack. He and my husband did a great job. They loaded up the case with the camping gear. Robin explained how to open and how to lock the beast. We waved goodbye to REI's Boy Wonder and were on our way to Idaho -- Silverwood Theme Park.

SLEEPING IN IDAHO

We arrived at the Sleep Inn about a 25 minute ride to the theme park. The kids had fallen asleep by then but perked up considerably when they saw that there was a pool and hot tub in the hotel. We were told by the gal at check in that as of that morning, the park had a line of cars several miles long outside of the parking entrance at opening, so we might have to go early. I cannot fully explain the sheer horror I felt at that announcement. We live in a sleepy small(ish) town and when a few cars are backed up on the main road, I get a little anxious.

I woke up at 6:30am. We hadn't arrived until 11pm the previous evening, but there I was at 6:30am. I quietly got dressed and went downstairs to see if they had the other great thing my kids love about hotels -- the waffle iron. And they did. All was right with the world. When the kids did wake up, there was much joy and dancing because the waffle iron was there. Okay, maybe no joy and dancing, but they were happy.

We hit the road a good half hour before the park's opening and managed to get there just before opening. We were let in and went on the log ride (which my husband managed to rig to spray extra water on us), repeatedly on the elephant ride (which looked suspiciously like Dumbo but as it isn't a Disney park they were just elephants) and also on an airplane ride. There were things for the 2 year old to do and a great time was had by all. There is a big sign before you enter the park that says that you may not bring outside food and drink into the park. I think that is pretty standard. Supposedly, "you'll love ours!" the sign also reads. Well, the first day, feeling a little poor, we went to the parking lot and raided our cooler. I love our cooler. It really does work and the ice stays frozen. But while we were out there, I said to my husband, "Why don't we put the camp chairs in the roof box? The kids feet are crowded by them." My husband saw merit in my suggestion and opened the box, just like Robin showed him how to do, tested the lock, just like Robin said, and the kids legs could dangle in the car once again.

We went back to the park and more fun was had by all. The last ride of the day was a family rafting ride. It was great, but managed to get us wet all the way down our pants, and the girl who was riding with us had her siblings waiting for her by the "pay $0.25 for extra water hosing of the passengers" so we were thoroughly drenched.

WHERE'S BATMAN WHEN YOU NEED HIM

We decided to get dinner at a nearby restaurant, instead of trying the delicious fried food at the park. So we loaded up in the van and off we were. The first sign that something was wrong was a strange flapping noise that lasted about 10 seconds and then was gone. When my husband looked in the rear view mirror, he saw the top of the roof rack flying off to the side of the road. Thankfully the flapping sound wasn't followed by the sound of squealing brakes and crushing metal. I have to say that the people of Idaho who were following us that day were amazing folks. A total of 5 cars stopped to help us. 3 had pulled over to the side of the road and gave us the stuff sacks and sleeping bags that they had collected. Only one sleeping bag was not recovered. A marine and his wife stopped to stay with me and our gear while my husband took the van and looked for the missing gear. Someone had said we lost a tent, but that turned out to be an erroneous report. What had happened was the front passenger side latch had failed. This created enough of a gap, that air blew under the lid an ultimately opened it. The bags had been flying out for a couple of miles so people were alerted to our problem and stayed well away from us. THANK GOD NOBODY WAS HURT. We were shaken and ultimately didn't return to the park that evening. We did, however, have the BEST Mexican food we'd ever had at CAFE CHULO. We went back to the hotel and swam in the pool there. Exhausted and grateful, we returned to our room. More to come.