One Wild Day

First of all, check out these pictures:




Ugh, aren't we just so cute that you want to throw up? Smiling and hugging and wearing color-coordinated outfits, all wrapped up in wildflower goodness? Uh-huh. Here's the true story of The Day of The Wildflowers (I'm lifting the following story from an email I already sent because I don't think I can relive it all by writing about it one more time):

"The wildflowers have been outstanding this spring, following a couple really rotten years, so I did lots of web-based research and found a great drive for us to do together. We set aside a promising Saturday at least a month in advance, because our Saturdays fill up like crazy, as I am sure yours do, too. I looked forward to it for weeks and when the day came... I set off with such a good attitude. An hour out we stopped at our favorite bakery for cookies, then pressed on to "The Willow City Loop", which was really, really beautiful. Bluebonnets all over the place, and even some very picturesque longhorns grazing in a field. ("Look at the beautiful flowers! Oooh, don't they smell nice? Oh, Nat, look at the cows!") Ella was bored the whole time, and highly vocal about it. Natalie was ultra-grumpy, and threw fits every time we stopped the car and got out because she wanted to sit in the front seat and "drive" the car. After a couple hours of this, all I wanted was a family picture so we could prove we'd been there. We found a likely spot, with a little bald patch in the midst of the flowers, good for sitting. I sat, Greg brought me Natalie, and she she arched her back and threw her head straight into my nose. Yeah, it's all fun and games until Mom gets hit in the nose. We did take a picture, finally, and luckily I was wearing sunglasses so you couldn't see the tears streaming down. Then, as we were shoving children into the car, I heard Greg say, "Don't step on the flowers!" I turned and saw a kid just stomping the heck out of a patch of bluebonnets by the road. His mother immediately whipped around and yelled, "Don't tell my child what to do!" which sparked a big long argument. Meanwhile, I had detected that Natalie's diaper was full to overflowing and had to change her on the trunk of the car while Redneck Mama continued yelling and Greg defended his (shaky) ground."

"Then we went home. Oh, wait, we also stopped at some port-a-potties and after getting Ella settled in one ("Don't touch that, and EW, don't touch THAT") I opened the door to the neighboring one and there was a man inside, LUCKILY facing away from me, who bellowed in a very shocked way. Um, hello? That's what the lock on the door is for. I got back in the car, told my family that I was DONE making fun for them, and sulked all the way home."

I have since recovered and once again found myself on the "Let's Have Some Family Fun" bandwagon last weekend when we drove up to Austin to see Ralph (Of the Disney-affiliated "Ralph's World"--ever heard of him?) in concert. More on that to come. I'll just say that as no noses were nearly broken, I called it a success.