Today

I went to Vegas today, with three children in tow. We went to the Dr's office, Costco, and Target. They were excited to go because they knew the day held a stop at McDonald's. I was excited to go because it was a getting-out day with three of my favorite people in the whole world. We sang the ducky song, and the speckled frog song, to entertain ourselves on the way there, and Gary kept tabs on the cars and motorcycles that passed, or were passed by, us, and kept an eye out for the up-down-up-down of McDonald's, who also has a farm. In and out at the Dr, and even though it was my Dr, Gary still asked, "No shots, right?" Through the drive-through at McD's, to eat in the parking lot at Costco. I'm not sure Sage ate much, but she was excited about her Barbie Mermaid, and had some of my water. Then into Costco. I love those carts. They are big enough for three kids to ride, with room leftover for stuff. My list wasn't long, so I took time to browse. I ended up with swimming goggles, a bathing suit for Sage with a built-in diaper (?!), and a book for me called, "Jane Austin Ruined My Life." I hope it's good. On to Target. I had a more substantial list here, which included letting G and S spend their $10 gift cards from Christmas. The other three girls had spent theirs already, and I will think about the baby's later. They browsed the doller aisle, chosing a stretchy spider and scorpion putty, (S and G, respectively), and then added sharks and pet shop puppies(G and S, respectively). Watching the picking-out process was priceless. Sage wanted everything Gary wanted. Mostly dinosaurs. When I told them something was more than they could afford, they were happy to keep looking. The rest of the list was run-of-the-mill, except for Gary's hat. You know I've been wanting one to keep the sun off of his scars while they heal. The first hats we found were ladies hats, but we found a fedora with a red and blue band that won his devotion. We found more hats later, smaller, with frogs, or sail boats, but he was dedicated to his fedora. He is camping with his father right now, or I would take a picture and post it. He is very adorable, and it shades his face quite nicely.

Home, James, home. The baby only cried half the way there, and then everyone fell asleep to IZ Kamakawiwo'ole and his ukalele. Everyone but me, of course. We arrived in time to pack up Samuel and Gary and send them with Chad to the Father and Sons camp-out at the reservoir. Sage and I played fetch with her new puppies to distract her from not getting to go with the boys. Lex left for a slumber party. Then, the rest of us partied with pizza and a movie. I put the kids to bed, practiced my guitar, and scared away Lexi and her slumber-party cohorts with the flip of the porch light switch. Now I am looking forward to snuggeling into bed with my new book. Days like this are perfect. Days like this are rare. Days like this need to be written down.