Summer Road Trip Soundtrack

Nearly 2 weeks ago, as we embarked on our most recent road trip to lovely Pensacola Beach, there was a moment. A moment when my heart was charmed. A moment when I fell further into love with the man who sat beside me. A moment in which I was keenly aware of his sweet love for me. I'll get to that moment in a minute. First the background.

Before our 12-hour road odyssey can even begin, there exists the ritual of the frantic organizing and packing and the loading of the minivan. Let me be clear (do I sound presidently?): the frantic part of this equation is me. I accuse no other parties of being frantic. They are not. It's me. I simply become overwhelmed with the magnitude of what must be accomplished in order for us to leave our house. Mostly the tasks are small, but they just never end. It does me in. Every. Single. Time.

In the midst of my frantic packing chores, I decided that what I needed was some music. Something peppy and energetic and uplifting. So I went to the computer, pulled up Pandora, clicked on my ABBA station (yes, I have an ABBA station), and set the volume on high.

You can dance, You can jive, Having the time of your life....
See that girl, Watch that scene....

I then set about my tasks with renewed vitality, singing and um, jiving about the house. (Which scene promises to be a favorite emotionally scarring memory of my children one day.)

Now back to the moment. The car has been packed, the house is secured, the kids are buckled, the cat has been unceremoniously deposited at the kennel. We're heading down Manchaca (for you non-Austinites, that street is pronounced 'man-chack' - just go with it) and I am sorely missing my 70's disco music. I look at my husband and wistfully say, I wish we could listen to ABBA in the car.

Which is his cue. He slyly leans forward, hits the power button on the CD player, and the opening strains of "Dancing Queen" pour through the speakers.

I love that man. He had burned me a CD while I was in freak mode. The man loves me.

Driving out of Austin has never been so fun. But by the time we hit "Fernando" the kids were pretty much done. I was subjected to pathetic whimpers of How long is this CD? and Are we going to listen to ABBA the whole way? wafting forward from the back of the van. I didn't care. On I sang...

If you change your mind, I'm the first in line, Honey I'm still free, Take a chance on me....

Well, wouldn't you know it, by the end of the trip, as we rolled back through Texas, the following question was posed by my son, the heretofore most vocal opponent of ABBA in the van, Hey, can we listen to some ABBA? The girl chimed in, Yeah, yeah! Mamma Mia! Mamma Mia!

Ah, converts.

You can take the boy out of the gym...

.... but you cannot take the gymnast out of the boy.

Haiku fun

A few weeks ago, my son excitedly related to me his idea for a new game. I encouraged him to write down his ideas and create the rules so we could play it. For your family's game night pleasure, I proudly present to you:

"Quicku"

(If any Parker Bros. reps are trolling the internet for new game ideas, we do expect to see some royalty checks when you roll this one out.)

The basic rules are as follows. The game consists of 10 rounds. In each round, a subject card is drawn. (We made our own subject cards, including the following subjects: gum, noodles, soccer, pizza, a rainforest, birthdays, a purse, vegetables, gymnastics, etc.) Each player then has 90 seconds to write a haiku about that subject. Players start with 100 points. You lose 10 points if you fail to complete your haiku, or if your haiku does not follow the proper format. (The scoring needs a little tweaking, and I think some sort of creativity bonus needs to be added in, but for that each round would require an objective judge. I expect you folks from Parker Bros. to iron out all those details.) At the end of the game, whoever has the most points wins.

We actually played the game to test it out. We had fun! Here are a few of our haikus.

Chewing gum is fun
Blowing bubbles is crazy
Gum sticks to your shoes

Pizza is tasty
I like good pepperoni
There are healthy herbs

Made out of leather
Women wear purses a lot
Men do not wear them

Cheese and mushrooms, yum
Dripping, cheesy pizza slice
Wow, I'm getting fat

We love Wii

Ladies and gentleman, the Wii has arrived. And just whose Wii is it? The children's Wii? No, no, no. It is ours. Said Wii was purchased with anniversary cash (thanks Mom & Dad!). It is ours! OURS! We may occasionally allow the cute little people in the house to play it.

Truthfully, though, I imagined the Wii would be ours primarily in name, the kids' in action. But as it turns out, we really like the Wii. As a gift it ranks way up there with the trampoline we got my husband for his birthday one year. After the kids go to bed, we fire that thing up! I can just picture them, tucked snug into their little beds at 8:30, listening to their parents playing the Wii, filled with all kinds of jealously. Poor kids - it's not even dark out at 8:30 in the summer.

My favorite game so far - table tennis. It is, in fact, one of the very first things I did this morning. Sleep til 9:30 (not the norm, but I had a crazy week and my husband had mercy on me), eat a little cereal, play a little ping pong. My daughter was watching me. In the course of play, as I put the hurt on one of my challengers, I did take a moment to explain to her that we only talk smack to our simulated opponents; if we were playing a real game against real people, we would be most respectful, exercising our good sportsmanship. (Yes, top-notch parenting while wildly swinging a remote around my living room. It's impressive.)

The husband's favorite game - golf. Of course. Why does golf bore me so? The upside of Wii golf, though: my husband isn't gone all weekend getting sunburned and I get to chat with him while he tries to make a putt for birdie (is that a thing?) He loves that. I mean, doesn't every man think to himself, Man, golf would be so much more awesome if only I could bring my wife along with me and we could chat about her day and the kids and what we need from the store and which bills are due.... Oh ... they don't? Oh.

If only we had a second Wii remote, we could really heat things up and I could practice good sportsmanship. And I haven't forgotten the original dream: the Wii Dance Dance Revolution. But I only plan to play that one when my kids have their friends over.

Memorial Day Weekend in Pictures

We don't do much, we don't get out much most of the year. (It's hot here, you know.) But on Memorial Day weekend, somehow we find a way to pull out all the stops and go for broke. I don't know why it happens that way. It just happens, thanks to friends that help jump start us into action. Thanks, friends. We love you.

On Sunday evening (on the recommendation of 2 sets of friends) we went to the Zilker Hillside Theater to see a production of DREAM! A Midsummer Night's Dream with a 1960's Music Beat. It was hot - the weather, I mean. So very hot. We have a suggestion for the people that put on these summer programs: How about Winter Shakespeare in the Park? We would totally go for that. Summer heat + lots of people committed to keeping Austin weird + all of their dogs = Not as much fun as it could be. Just a suggestion. Winter. I have a coat. It would be awesome. In spite the heat, though, we really did have an awesome time. Next year, we plan to hit the April shows.

My kiddos, aren't they sweet? They only complained a little. Only fidgeted a lot. In the end, they were enchanted. There were fairies. And 60's music.

The kids got to meet the fairies at intermission. Can you say, HIGHLIGHT? This is Emma with Mustardseed (I think.)

Jared with Puck, a very mischievous fairy.

On Monday, we went with some friends to Bull Creek (our first time after many, many years in Austin.) There is no better way to beat the heat than to have your ten little piggies submerged in cool flowing water. Ahhhh.

My son, so serious, about to slide down the slippery rock 'slide.' From his expression, you'd think he was about to go for the gold.

Tadpole fishing. Good times.

Not my kid, our friends' kid. He doesn't know it, but I love him. He used to think I was okay, when he was four. Now, he's not sure he knows me. Oh, to be 8 again, carefree, and bask in the creek bed!

Not my baby - our friends' baby (the cutest baby EVER!) When Titus helped her go back to her mother, a child who was playing nearby told him, "Someone's stealing your baby!"

This face, this sweet, adorable face, pretty much sums up Memorial Day weekend 2010.

Can I get a LOL?

Everyone thinks their kid is the best. You know you do. Everyone secretly ('cause let's be honest, it would be obnoxious to flaunt it) believes that their kid is the cutest baby. The smartest kid in the class. The most talented kid on the team. The most beautiful child EVER.

Well, mine is the funniest. There. I said it. You'll have to take my word for it, though, as most of her witticisms do not translate into the written word. Plus, well, humor is highly subjective. But whatever - my kid is funny.

Take for example, the other night at the dinner table. We (and by 'we' I mean the children who eat at 5 times the speed of sound) had completed the main portion of our meal, which is the cue for one of the kids to ask a specific question. This night Emma did the honors.

Emma: What can we have for dessert?

Daddy: You can have some nice, fresh air!

Emma: Can we have some fruit with our fresh air?

The girl does not miss a beat. And the deadpan expression is simply not conveyable. Are there any open mic nights for 8-year-olds?

Daddy material

We have some friends who have the cutest baby EVER. Although, she's not much of a baby anymore, streaking pell-mell into toddlerhood. My son, who has a soft spot for babies (much like his father before him), got to spend some time playing with the cutest baby EVER this past weekend. He shared with me afterward how he walked her around the playground, holding her little hand, making sure she didn't fall. He told how, when her adventurous nature led her to imitate some of his prowess on the playground equipment, he helped her to climb and how he held her tightly so she wouldn't slip and hurt herself.

This child is constantly inquiring as to when he will be old enough to babysit. This child has often spoken wistfully about the things he will do with his own children ... someday.

Yesterday, we happened to meet these friends in the gym parking lot and the cutest baby EVER was strapped snugly into her carseat in the back. My son asked if she was in the van, and could he please see her. The mother obligingly rolled down the window and allowed my son to greet and fawn over the cutest baby EVER for a couple of minutes. As I was concerned about the traffic flow in the parking lot, I finally said to him, Okay, enough - time to get going.

My son thanked the mother, and as we walked away he mentioned how happy he was that he got to see her and then added, in all seriousness, "It's an honor."

Young ladies, he'll graduate from college in 2021.