First Family Trip

"We don't inherit the world from our parents. We borrow it from our children."

-Fijian Proverb

The first ford family field trip of the new year started with flair.  All Thursday I felt like a kid waiting for christmas. Well, maybe like a grown up

 waiting for vacation fun to begin.  I forced x to go

 to school despite his same feelings of excitement and some play ground bullie

s who got ahold of him the day before.  

Yes, I said it, bullies.

 Big ones according to x, from the second grade that push

and hit. 

X will not entertain telling the teacher so we devised a covert ops plan to get them in trouble. He'll go into stealth mode and lure them to where the teacher can see what they're doing. He won't retaliate. He won't tattle. He'll expose them.

Yesterday he pretended he had "wall time" to stay away from them. I suggested he take his good friends and play close to the teachers but on the day in question his friends were absent or "on the wall." 

I'm sure we all know what

 the wall is. I don't get to hear what his friends did to get there.

 So I puttered yesterday, anxiously, cleaning and making pottery anticipating the trip.   I packed the travel essentials. 

I am a health care travel pro.

I packed the first thing you should invest in for travel: a garmin, sirius satellite radio (second thing or an IPOD full of good tunes), x's nintendo DS along with Lots of activity books and cameras for both of us, of course. 

Alongside packing for the

 travel, I need my mountains of meds. I keep daily meds in a basket. I've also kept them in jewelry organizers and travel toiletry bags so I can pick up and go on a moments notice with some organization. My favorite travel organizer is $19.99 from LLBean and can be laundered if something spills.

 PRN or as needed meds go in my purse (ever wonder why I tote such a gigantic bag around). 

I compartmentalize my drops and lotions for my GVHD symptoms into different bags. Wristlette size works great. 

By keeping everything in portable containers it's easy to pack for a trip or for a family member to grab your meds for review in an emergency.

 Hoping in the car I immediately snapped off the handle to the garmin so it flopped lifelessly around the car.

 Oops. 

I got x from school, and we headed to the bank where he proceeded to take souvenir money out of his savings acct. 

I was so proud watching him fill out the slip, do the math to make sure he had enough and intyeract with the cashier. He's such a little grown up. 

He chattered all the way to nelson where the garmin suddenly decided to drop us, cold, next to a cemetary and tell us we were at steph's house, my cousin and travel buddy with her son Dylan. 

A emergency call to steph got us through the woods and on our way to chuck-e-cheese for 6pm. 

I thought I was being cool I thought I'd suprise x with chuck e cheese. No such luck. He saw the coupons printed and knew it was on.

Chuck-E-Cheese is his favorite place in the whole world. He has tried to have his birthday party there every year since he turned four.

This year I'm hoping for a change.

We met Heather and family at the play area for dinner and games. It was fun watching Pierce, who is 2.5 years, keeping up with his big, cool, older cousin.

The boys were so good with him.

Later at Heather's house where we spent the night, the three spent hours together playing in Pierce's room. We have such a great group of little men.

What really surprised us

 though was how nurturing X and D were to Heather's three month old Preston.

X asked to see his "cute baby feet" and proceeded to talk with Dylan about how adorable babies were while rubbing P's back and snuggling him.

That never would have happened a generation ago.

I know this age has its downfalls, but it has also opened the door so boys can be expressive nurturers and caretakers.

The big event was going to

 The Boston Museum of Science. I ditched out for my appointment so I missed the intial portion, but I made it to the museum in time to eat our picnic lunch in front of the big windows on the bay.

The boys were so excited they ran from exhibit to exhibit, playing with everything and chattering excitedly.

They were not interested in my technical information.

Somewhere along the line I've turned into my dad with forcing knowledge upon the kids.

I always hated when he did that.

Luck was with us. A grant made all omni shows for the day FREE. We saw something on the Coral Reefs, which are among the world's best hope for finding cures to new diseases but are severally threatened by overfishing.

It's estimated that reefs will disappear in thirty years if practices continue as they are, erasing any possibility of new

 medications and life saving treatments that can be derived from them.

Just FYI.

X managed to spend $29.79 at the gift shop on his rock collection and a mechanical arm he's been eyeing since he was four. HE insisted on spending as much of the $30.00 he had budgeted as possible. 

He is one good spender.

Those were the highlights of the trip. I'm so glad I can participate in life again.

Next week, my girls and their families from college are coming for Winter Carnival weekend. I can't wait. I am finally looking forward with happiness and anticipation again.