The Sun is Not Shining. There is No Place to Go.

Rain has come to stay for a while which has forced me to re-think what to do with the boys. On Friday we went to Discovery Gateway. Every other Salt Lake mom seemed to have the same idea. I have never seen the place so packed. Have you ever noticed how froofy Salt Lake moms are? Elliot and Louie had obviously been there before because they had an agenda. Lots of time at the balls. Construction corner a must. I watched a little girl named Lola get her leg stuck in a tube meant for balls. All of these museum personal rushed around with their handsets saying, "Child stuck in tube." The mother was able to pull her out. Lola's brothers were named Harry and Charlie. They spoke with British accents. Their mother called them Dah-lings.

Anywho, after a morning of following both boys around Discovery Gateway, watching Louie get waaaay too wet, and watching Elliot put "Gas" in the truck for a really long time. I decided that with nap-time approaching we'd better high tail it out of there.

This is when I remembered how hard it is to have little ones. For one, I was holding Louie and walking with Elliot towards McDonald's to pick up some nuggets for the ride home, when we passed 2 security personale holding onto a cuffed homeless man who was saying, "I didn't do nothin'." Then a third security man came and decided to take the homeless man down (which I still don't understand because the man was walking with the security guards without a fight). Before I could blink they were taking down the homeless man right in my space, as in nearly tripping over Elliot to get the man against the wall. I think that security guard number three sucks a little bit. You know, take note of your surroundings before abusing the homeless man.

So we got out of that situation unscathed other than the very bad words that Elliot and Louie heard.

Then we were in the food court and Elliot and Louie wanted to ride the rides, and Elliot wanted chicken nuggets from McDonalds and green lemonade from Hot Dog On a Stick and so now there were three placed I need to be... Hmmmmm. And all I could think was germs, germs, germs. But I did it. Got the chicken nuggets and some for myself (which were disgusting) and the green lemonade and managed to carry Louie, the food, a drink, my very large bag and hold Elliot's hand down to the parking garage. My arm was burning like no other by the end of it all.

We listened to Raffi on the way home (and I listened to Raffi again the next day when I was alone in the car. I have just a little crush on Raffi.) While on our way home I thought about how hard it is to be the mom of little kids...how you start getting stir crazy and you HAVE TO GET OUT, but then getting out is hard too. But hard in a different way is better than hard in the same old way, so you do it, and then home is much better for the next few days.

After naps it was still raining. Have you ever noticed that children are nearly always happy outside? This must be true for adults too. I started trying to remember if there was ever a time that I hated my life when I was outside...never. But inside, once in a while, it is true. So because there was no sun and there was lots of rain we set up the Rokenbok. Why have I never put that up before when E & L were at my house? The boys have been in Rokenbok heaven for a day and a half. Elliot has actually left the middle of a show in order to play with it.

On Saturday I went out alone for a while and landed myself at the DI in Sugar House where I found a dining room table exactly like Tom and Louise's for twenty bucks. I bought it for my niece Lindsay, but then found she already has a table, so I thought, well, I've always wanted to turn that red room into a dining room (which could happen in say 20 years when we are rich enough to finish the basement). Which means that until then I will be storing that damn table and becoming a little closer to the hoarders you see on t.v. with piled up crap everywhere and little paths to get through it all.