Mid-Week Fun

Last week was another busy week, though it felt a bit like a lull leading in comparison to the weekend ahead, which we knew would be even busier.  So, mid-week I tried to take whatever opportunities I could to enjoy a little fun!

Jacob had lacrosse practice on Tuesday, which Craig handled, and since I didn't really have anything else going on, I offered to take Carter to a new playground.  It was at an elementary school not far from our house.  We'd driven by it one day not long ago and realized we'd never checked it out.  Their equipment looked a little different than other schools, so we thought it might be fun.  It was!

We were there for around an hour, and Carter had a blast!  He is so funny at playgrounds because he comes up with these silly back stories about what we're doing there.  He was all over the place with this one, but mostly he was a chef at a restaurant, and we had a new house (in the preschool part of the playground).  He loved the big slide...

And the zip line thing is always fun!

This is him at the "counter" where I was ordering my food...

He's so cute, isn't he?

Had to get a selfie when I was putting him up on the monkey bars!

And who knew he'd acquired some new monkey skills?  I'd tried to get him to flip up on rings at the playground we frequented during Jacob's spring lacrosse season, but he didn't quite get it.  But with the bar, suddenly he was hanging up every which way!

Believe it or not, I can still do that, too, but I wouldn't recommend it at my age!  He kept me running back and forth between apparatuses, and luckily the weather was perfect for it.  It was a pretty glorious day!  I couldn't resist taking a picture of this very tall tree with cool, peeling bark...

It had been a while since we got to do something like that, so it was fun to have that time with him (and to work on my monkey bars skills, which I'd built up in the spring, then let lapse!).

On Wednesday, my college roommate Mary was coming to town for a concert with her mom.  We planned to meet up for dinner, but I had a little secret mission to carry out beforehand.  I was originally planning on taking a half day in case she could come in earlier, but when her plans changed a bit I opted to split my half day (it was a weird week and it actually made sense to do it that way) to leave a couple hours early on both Wednesday and Friday.  So, on Wednesday, I left work and headed right downtown to the area around the Jazz Fest (where the concert was).  I went to a cafe that sells the best rice krispie treats, ones reminiscent of giant ones we had at college.  I'd long talked them up to Mary, and decided that I'd run down there and buy a couple before the Jazz Fest crowds took over.  It was a rainy day, but it was strangely fun once I was down there and walking through the rainy streets.  I had called ahead to reserve them (yep, I'm weird) and bought my two plus another for my boss.  It took some effort to stuff three giant bricks into my purse!  Because I was down there alone and had a couple minutes before my meter was up, I had to make a detour.  I was due for a visit with the Chihuly :)

I had seen a shot like this in some University photos and desperately wanted my own. 

This may be one of my favorite pictures ever, up close.  It's so vivid.  It's basically a close-up of the shot above, to deal with the brightness issue.

I'm overdue for a new profile pic, and this was my attempt!

On the way out, as I was snapping the last picture above, I started chatting with a guy who had no idea who Chihuly was.  I told him a little about him (yes, it's really glass) and ironically his daughter lives in Seattle, where Chihuly is practically everywhere.  I hope he looks into it further--it will blow his mind!

I finished off my extra couple hours alone with a bunch of quick stops to prepare for our weekend ahead--Walgreens for a ridiculous amount of beef jerky sticks (only place I can get the gluten-free kind Jacob likes), Dick's (for a new chair umbrella to block the sun, since my other one broke), and the bank (cash is helpful).  I had a lovely dinner with Mary and her mom, and then it was back to reality at home with a long to-do list!

Thursday was Craig's and my 15th wedding anniversary, which seems pretty impressive at this point and should probably be worthy of a decent celebration.  But between kids who don't make getting a babysitter an option, and urgent packing duties, and severe indecision on my part, we had to settle for takeout Chinese at 9pm after the kids were in bed.  Maybe someday.

Friday was the last working day of the fiscal year at work, so we wrapped up a busy week and a very rough year before I headed out a couple hours early to start this weekend's adventures.  Stay tuned!