The Sublime and the Ridiculous

 At church Sunday, Tziporah sneezed so hard, snot went airborne.  I hate to be so graphic, but now you know why I was going to take her home instead of nursery.  I think she did it on purpose, based on her feelings about nursery.  When Ptolemy saw Tziporah escaping, he said, "Let's not stay at church.  Let's go to Billy Blanco's and stay in Park City allll night."  The kid loves any sort of adventure.  What can I say?  Sometimes his ideas are just better than mine, and minutes later, I was on my way up the canyon with the boys and the sneezer.  Scott laughed; he had spent the night before in Park City and fully condoned our bad behavior.  In the whole scheme of things, church is great, but one Sunday afternoon at Billy Blanco's is going to live on in our memories after all the numberless Sunday afternoons at church have faded into one.  Sometimes you just really need to get a fake tattoo on your arm and dine al fresco with two dozen Harley riders in Jeremy Ranch.

 And sometimes you need to sing along with Pink Floyd.  "Hey!  Teachers!  Leave those kids alone!"  Ptolemy picks up on lyrics quickly, funny boy.

 "The Ranch," ice cream, books, pajamas.  Heaven.

 And back at it in our same outfits the next day.  Less packing.  At 11 pm, I didn't have to try to hard to convince Freestone that we should sleep in and go to the zoo instead of wake up at 6 to make it to school on time.  At the zoo, Freestone tried to act jaded.  "River otters?  I saw a river otter in the Seine, remember that?  What would be really cool is if this zoo had semi-aquatic, long-haired elephant shrews."  When I told him that no such animal exists, he retorted, "Duh.  Why do you think it would be so cool?"  Freestone is hilarious.  If it seems like he says funny stuff, it's because he is constantly talking, so some of what come out is bound to be funny.

 Checked in on Nana on the way home and took a pizza.

 Nana supplied the orange sticks.

 It was a peaceful, serene, relaxing, wonderful 18 hours, our mini getaway.

  And then this happened.  Six 5th graders and me on the way to the ballroom dance rehearsal after school on Monday.  Unbelievable chaos in one small car.  Girls screaming, Freestone making videos, Ben fabricating a spear out of duct tape.  Yes, Ben was out of town for the spear-making, so he had a bare stick and no time to lose.  I walked into the school office and fairly shouted, "Tape!  Who has tape?  Any kind of tape!!"  Without even hesitating, our principal, Mr. Volmar, dove into a drawer and tossed me a roll of duct tape.  I am really going to miss him next year, and I wish he didn't have to be transferred.

 Quick stop at home to grab a dinner for a girl who forgot hers, and we were on the road, duct tape and all.

 The kids were pretty darn impressive for a group of elementary school kids who only practice a couple mornings a week!

 And the costuming was really cool.  Freestone had a ton of clothing items and props to keep track of, along with his dinner.  (The kids were there for several hours.)

 Grandma and Grandpa were excited to be back at their alma mater, Ogden High School.  The renovated auditorium is beautiful, and sure brought back memories!  Something about Bruce making out with a girl?...;)

 After the gig, Scott took Freestone to Lucky Slice pizza to celebrate, then Free came home and fried up an egg for Don Carlos.  This dog has a chef.  Several, in fact.  But that's another story.