Well, I actually survived our trip. For a moment there I wasn’t sure I was going to. And that was when we had only been driving for about two hours on the way to Erie. There is far too much that went on this past week for me to write a blow-by-blow account, but as the week went along I had these moments when I thought, “I have to remember that. That should go into a blog post.” And so I shall now attempt to remember the bulk of these moments.
First, I have to believe now that the children think we adults have this massive interest in garbage. When we first got in the van Crystal told the children to be very careful to pass all of their garbage forward so that we could make sure it got thrown out. To their credit the children were very careful to obey. They would pass forward any stray bit of garbage that came their way with a cheery, “Here Titi Gaby, garbage!” and I would say Thank You and put the garbage in the bag. I would almost laugh sometimes because it was as if they were giving me a gift. It was like that on the way there and more so on the way back.
We stayed the week at my sister Adiel’s house. She and her family live in the house I have spent most of my life in. I was glad to find that staying there wasn’t half as weird as I thought it would be. This was the third time I’ve stayed in the house since it became theirs and it looks different enough inside that I don’t feel like I’m back in my childhood home, but the outside is still very much the same. I walked up the front stairs in my barefeet and felt safe. It felt right on my feet. This was how stairs and sidewalk were supposed to feel. In some backwater part of my head I filed that feeling under the title “Home”.
I think it was on Friday that Adiel mentioned how surprised she was that her house didn’t explode from the combined cuteness of Lily, Malachi, Noah and Justice. Each child is adorable on his own, but when you put them together the cuteness ratio just goes through the roof. Lily, who’s about three, kept running up to me with her curly hair bouncing, pointing at Justice and saying “He’s so cute! So cute!” Noah and Malachi, who’s about two, would stand next to each other and have two year old conversations. Noah would say, “Tigger!” and Malachi would respond “Yeah.” Then they would both nod sagely. At some point on Monday they were both outside and they went to where a pinata had been hung Saturday and Malachi pointed and said, “Up dere.” and Noah looked and said, “Yeah.” And then Monday evening I came into the backporch to find Noah organizing a jailbreak. He was outside holding the door open for Malachi. Malachi was halfway out the door sucking on his thumb when I showed up and dragged them both inside. After breakfast one day Justice was roaming around the living room and he pulled himself up on a stool. When Malachi tried to climb on the stool Adiel told him to be careful because the baby was there. About that point Noah wandered into the living room and Malachi stood between Noah and Justice and yelled, “No!” He put both hands on Noah’s chest and pushed him to make sure Noah couldn’t get to Justice. We got pictures of the two boys together and I am still surprised the camera did not explode trying to hold the cuteness of it all.
Around Saturday I started coughing deep in my chest. By Sunday I was a mess. I was horribly over-tired and my cough was hurting my chest and throat. I took a nap and then we went to my sister Elizabeth’s house. I didn’t really wake up until sometime after dinner when Seth and Crystal took the children home to put the to bed. They were going to come back and then we were all going to watch a movie. While they were gone I curled up on Tom and Elizabeth’s sofa and tried not to cough. After she cleaned up from dinner Bebeth came in and fussed over me. She brought me Vick’s vapor rub, some zinc cough drops and kept making me tea. She sent Olympia, her daughter wo’s about five, to get me a tissue box and then we sat and Tom showed me a really sad episode of an Anime show they both really like. I don’t know the characters well enough to know why it was really sad when one of them died, but when his daughter is standing at his grave demanding to know why they’re burying her daddy I was almost in tears. Bebeth said she can’t stand that part, but Tom had this really evil look on his face as if he was pleased I felt so bad about it. I have really weird brothers-in-law. Seth and Crystal came back and we stayed up to about one in the morning watching a movie and talking. And by the end of the evening most of the cold had been purged from my system.
Adiel had heard I was feeling really tired and sick and so the next day she brought me breakfast in bed. I was curled on the floor thinking about how nice it was to be so quiet and how maybe I should get up now when there’s a knock at the door and in comes my sister with a tray. She even had a little bowl of sugar for my tea. I thought it was very sweet.
Monday we went on a picnic and I must say I was surprised it went so well. I find with picnics that I don’t often expect to have a lot of fun, but this one was a blast. There was a fountain for the kids to play in which was an experience all its own. The three older kids have figured out this water thing and have figured out that they love it. They just jumped right in and had a ball. The younger kids however haven’t quite decided what they think about this water thing. Lily stood next to Adiel or Josh depending on which one was further away from the water at the time. Noah would run and splash and then run back to me and grab my hand. He would stand with me with just his feet in the water for a while and then he would run away again and splash and then he would run back. Malachi just stood. He held onto Adiel’s hand with his feet in the water and sucked his thumb. At one point Adiel had to go take care of something so she let go of Malachi’s hand and he just kept it in the air until I held it. Ever now and then he would bend down and splash his hand in the water, chuckle and then he would stand back up and put his thumb back in his mouth. After the fountain we played basketball. Now, when I say we ‘played’ basketball I mean we each took turns throwing the ball in the general direction of the basket. Everybody who wanted could take a turn so Seth would shoot a basket and then we’d give to ball to Noah who would throw it as hard as he could and then it would be Crystal’s turn, then Lily’s. I’m sure we looked ridiculous with five grownups cheering after each small child threw the ball no where near the basket, but you know I don’t care. After lunch we watched Seth and Josh play. It was a truly funny sight because Seth is about a head taller than Josh and about one and a half Joshes wide. Josh would block and Seth would just reach over or around him. I have no idea who’s side I was one. I just cheered when I felt like it.
Monday and Tuesday nights we played Polaris. The story we played out is nothing at all like any other Polaris I have played. We usually play Polaris with lots of angst and sadness with a heavy emphasis on symbolism and effect. When I tell you that Josh made a character that was a LemmingMaster please understand that this is not a criticism. The entire story was about a massive scrum for power that happened on patrol. We had duels between people sliding down a mountainside and a battle with exploding lemmings. Seth keeps saying how our Polaris sessions are usually all talking and personal actions and how sometimes he just wants a good brawl. He was simply tickled about the amounts of brawls we had in the two nights we played. Adiel said Polaris is probably the best role-playing game she’s played and I know Josh had a lot of fun. It was a fine success.
We spent Wednesday night finishing a movie we had started on Friday and then we just sat talking. The conversation would wind down and someone would realize how late it was and then someone else would start a new conversation. It was a lovely time of quiet and bonding. When we finally went to bed it was almost one o’clock. One in the morning seemed to be the magic number on this trip. The next morning we were all tired, but I am glad we stayed up.
We are taking today to recover from the trip. There will be tomorrow and Sunday and then life begins again in earnest. We’ll be packing, cleaning and then just normal chores on top of that. I feel better equipped to pick my life up now that I put it down for a while. I went to someone else’s house and swept her floors instead of mine and washed her dishes instead of mine. Altogether I spent twenty-eight hours in a van with five children while they kept giving me their garbage and the younger two kept crying and fussing and yet I feel refreshed. I had a vacation right when I felt like I needed one. And now I don’t feel quite so oppressed by my life and I can jump into it again with joy.
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