Road Trip!

Whew, going out of town always seems to result in several days of playing catch-up. After last weekend’s trip to see three of my Nephew’s get baptized I’m finally feeling like I’m catching up sort of…

So the weekend went down something like this. We got the truck packed Friday morning while the kids were at school and pretty much hit the road as soon as they were picked up, save for a quick stop at Little Caesars to pick up lunch/dinner. Then we drove. One of the glorious things with two potty trained kids is that we can go further between stops since they tell us when they need to go. Although Jack did try telling us he needed to pee at every single rest area…just so he could do a quick dribble in the toilet and then go check out the trucks. Caught onto that pretty fast. The weather was perfect until we hit a wall of fog around Memaloose, OR. Then there was that torrential downpour in Camas that really just says, “Welcome back to the PNW!” Fortunately that was about all the rain we got for the weekend. Not bad for April in Washington. We got in about 8:30pm on Friday then it took another hour and a half to get all the cousins settled down so they would sleep. The late night was offset by being able to sleep in on Saturday….small blessings.

By this time Emilie had discovered her cousins’ Guniea Pigs and was already begging Daddy to take one home. She got a pretty firm no, but it didn’t stop her from trying. She just wanted to love them, and cuddle them, and feed them, and carry them around, and love them some more. Perhaps in a few years if she can prove that they are more than a passing infatuation and that I’m not going to be the primary caregiver when she gets bored with them, then maybe she can have a guinea pig. Though, I’m still not entirely certain that Cosmo (the one the right- that Aunt Mandy was more than willing to give her) isn’t going to show up at our house over 4th of July. Surprise!

Since the weather was decent, and to give the poor pigs a break. We decided to hop over to the Oregon Zoo for a quick visit. We didn’t see everything by any means, we just sort of wandered and when the kids and Granny’s legs gave out we headed home. Still we got pretty lucky in that they were having an Open House for the new Elephant exhibit  that’s being built. There were crafts to make and we were allowed to walk around inside the newly expanded enclosure.

I thought it was cool learning about the new habit. A size increase from 1.5 to 6.5 acres complete with swimming pool. 24 feeding stations located around the perimeter that go off at random intervals to encourage foraging behavior, enrichment stations (culvert with trunk sized holes in the top that can be loaded with food/treats), and even a heat exchange system that warms the Elephant’s water with the energy generated when cooling the Polar bear’s water. Very educational. The boys, and Emilie, on the other hand, were more impressed with the 6 acres of SAND!!!!! Sand you could run in, roll in, and build castles in….. it was awesome! It was like being at the beach without the ocean. No fooling we had to line them up and dump sand out of their shoes when we left the exhibit.

Walking around the Zoo got everyone to bed at a decent hour in advance of Sunday’s big event…the Baptism. Kevin and I are sponsors (basically godparents) for all the boys, an first for both of us and we get it in triplicate!  All three boys did really well. Owen, who everybody worried would “freak out” actually just leaned back and closed his eyes. He looked so peaceful…of course he did have a death grip on Kevin’s tie. Noah was the nervous one. He’s not much of a water fan. Getting him into a pool take lots of encouragement, flotation devices, and an adult to hang onto and he was dubious about having the Pastor sprinkle water on him. Didn’t help me that he’s getting heavy to hold at age 4 and the font was pretty high, but we managed. Matthew was really excited to be baptized and just lay there like a limp noodle. One reaction or another all three are now Children of God!

Side note: through the service there was this little black thing up on the wall behind the altar. It was waaaayy up there and I wondered what it was for. I thought perhaps it was some sort of hook for hanging banners from, but it seemed to be a pretty inconvenient location and not even center. Afterwards I found out that the church has a problem with bats nesting behind that wall of the sanctuary. Every time they get the nest removed the bats find a way back in, and on occasion one finds a way into the building itself. Lovely…. I thought the fly issues our church had a few years ago before they resealed the outer walls was bad…but at least flies don’t carry rabies. Well, if you know anybody who needs some good Lutheran bats I know where to find some.

To summarize, it was a great trip. The weather was fantastic and the kids all got along and played till they dropped. The three boys got baptized and since Monday was a holiday for Jack’s school we had an extra day to travel. It was a fantastic trip all around