Ethan's Visit - Part II

After our horrendously long drive back from Monterey, I wasn't sure if the kids would get up for church in the morning. Not likely, they were all up by 8 a.m. I had hoped for a leisurely morning, until I heard Maegan yell to Carl while I was in the shower, "Hey, Carl, do you have an fire extinguisher?" Huh? What's going on out there? When I came out of shower, the stench of burning plastic was almost unbearable. Apparently some little fingers turned on all the elements and the ice cream pail, lid, and a plastic dish all met their slow death upon the stove...their remains oozing all over the elements. What a mess. Well, we'd just have to clean it up later.

I didn't think that Maegan would stay home breathing in the carcinogenic air, but I didn't think she would come to church with us, she hasn't in the past. Well, she surprised me and asked what time was church. I sheepishly said, in 15 minutes, and she told me that she could shower fast. So off we went to church, with 3 minutes to spare. Maegan was glad she could drop Ethan off in the S.S. class with Joel and Kezia (Carl was the helper that day) and followed me into the sanctuary. She enjoyed the music, but the sermon, well, not even I was that impressed. Oh well. Church isn't perfect and the possibility or hope of perfection isn't why I go.

After church, we walked home and then started the clean up process in the kitchen. It took about 45 minutes to chip away the melted plastic from each of the coils on the stove and to wipe away the extinguisher residue from the walls and counter. Then I made the Thai vegetable rolls, while Maegan made her lemon grass and coconut soup. By 1:30 we were all sitting outside eating a lovely lunch. That afternoon we had quiet time and I think that evening we watched a movie, the first that we have rented since living in Fresno.

The next day at 10:30 a.m. we packed the kids up and headed to the zoo. The park was quite busy because it was spring break, but the kids had a great time. We stopped about 12:30 and had a picnic lunch and basked in the warm sunshine. By 2:30 the two younger children were tired and the older two were getting cranky, so we decided to head home. Joel and Kezia had a nap on my bed, but Asha learned how to stand up in her crib that day and chose to sit-stand-sit-stand-yell-sit-stand-holler all afternoon. Ethan decided that he wasn't going to sleep either. Arg!

At 4:00, I finished my torte and then packed up the kids for homegroup. Maegan decided to stay home with Ethan and head to bed early that night.

The next day Joel and Kezia went to school and Maegan and I drove to a little tea shop in the Tower District. We bought some loose tea and enjoyed a drink and some Red Bean Steamed Rice buns before heading back to our place to pick up the kids from school. Maegan did a bit of laundry and I made the preparations for Mexican tacos. I was quite proud of how they turned out. We turned in early that night, but only after we packed our overnight bags, again.

Yes, we were headed out to San Francisco to take Ethan and Maegan back to the airport. They weren't leaving until Thursday morning, but we decided to check out Pier 39 on Wednesday afternoon. We had a nice time there and even bought a few things. From there we went to a Spanish Tapas Restaurant on 22nd between Mission and Valencia. It was highly recommended by Kezia's preschool teacher who used to live in San Fran. The food was great, but I think the kids were exhausted. Kezia fell off her chair twice and Joel refused to eat anything because he said he was too tired. Well, just great for you, but what do you expect after 21 days of company? I think the kids hit "the wall". Once we got back to the hotel, Maegan and I dumped all the kids into the same bed and had plans to sit in the bathroom and visit. But Asha decided to do her sit-stand-and-holler routine, and it was 9:45 before she was whisked off to dreamland. By then Maegan and I were too tired, and just ended up going to sleep. How wonderful it was not to be kicked in the middle of the night by my bedmate!

Thursday morning came too quickly. We had breakfast in the hotel from the cooler I packed the morning before. By the time we got all the kids ready and fed, it was after 9 a.m. and we needed to get Ethan and Maegan to the airport. She insisted that I just drop her off and not try and lug three kids into the airport with her. I'm glad that she did, because I was dreading the idea of hauling three tired and cranky kids through the airport, plus I wasn't keen on hunting for parking. We exchanged hugs and kisses and waved goodbye before the airport guys blew their whistles and chased us away from the loading zone. As we drove away, Kezia started to cry and whimper that Ethan was going away. I told her that in a few short weeks we'd see them again in B.C. on our way back to Winnipeg. That made her feel a bit better.

The drive home was quiet for us all. I breathed a sigh of relief that the visit went fairly well and that all the plans went off without a hitch (well except for the drive back from Monterey). I was looking forward to having our life of monotony back. I was looking forward to being bored in the afternoons. I was looking forward to lounging in my pajamas until 11 a.m. and not going anywhere for 3 days straight. And I was looking forward to eating junky fast food, just once though. Oh, it's been ages since we've eaten that crap.

We've had a good time with all of our company, but man, it's good just to be, just the five of us.

p.s. on a totally different topic, Carl in FINISHING his thesis draft tonight!