My Two Sons

 Friday

 Whenever Tolly sees an animal - a horse or a deer - he says, "EH-phant!"

 Saturday

Ptolemy "helping."

Xanthe has been telling everyone she sees that she is going out of town and won't be here because she will be at the cabin on a daddy-daughter trip.  It's true, Scott, Ryan and Jeremy took their girls to the cabin for the weekend to spend some time with grandpa and each other.  That left me with my two boys, a '95 Cadillac de Ville and limitless possibilities for the whole weekend.  Friday after the girls left, we went and collected our free fireworks.  Scott's office lets the nearby firework stand advertise on their property, and in exchange, they give us a big box of fireworks.  Freestone walked around with the firework woman and chose his favorites.  He was in HEAVEN!  We could have ended our weekend right there and he would have thought it was a success.

But the fun continued!  The boys and I got ice cream cones, drove through Panda and Redbox and went home for an evening of movies and take-out.  Guess what?  Movies are a lot more relaxing when you don't have a half-dozen kids commentating.  I even stayed up late and watched my own movie after the boys went to sleep, which never happens when you have teens at home who don't go to bed.

Saturday morning, we arrived at the Bowman's breakfast early.  Bill walked down and met us, and then we were off to the zoo.  We're used to the zoo on winter weekdays when nobody else is there.  This time, the crowds were wild!  We did a lap around the place, hit the elephants, the greenhouse and Grandmother's House in the Asian Highlands, and we were outta there.  We loved the new dinosaurs that follow you with their eyes, roar and spray water.  The zoo always makes me feel like I'm on vacation.

A weekend fling has to include junk food, so we hit McDonald's for Freestone's favorite, a "McDouble plain," and spent the afternoon napping (Pt), playing video games (Free) and reorganizing Ari's room and closets and doing laundry (me).  I had all but forgotten what is was like to get something done without a million interruptions.  Around what would have been bedtime, it was so beautiful outside that I threw the boys in the car to enjoy an hour of summer at the pool.  It was our good fortune that the Scheullers were there to play with.  It was the perfect summer evening, the kind I dream about in January when the snow is falling and it's dark all the time.

This morning was more summer perfection.  I sat on the back porch looking at the mountains, being thankful for the early summer light, until Free woke up.  Freestone is making bacon and eggs now and we're basking in our last few hours of being a three-person family before the crowd comes back with their stories of adventure and excitement.   We miss the girls, but more than that, we need Daddy to light the fireworks tomorrow night!