Monday Madness

Actually, today has been relatively calm - the madness occurred Friday, Saturday and Sunday! 

Thursday night at 11pm, I was about to go to bed when my phone rang. It was my friend H, whose beloved grandfather had passed away earlier in the week; I knew she and her husband had to drive two hours to a nearby city for his funeral on Friday, and when she told me her babysitter had cancelled at the last minute, I told her to bring the kids to my house in the morning and we would party all day.  And we did!  It was a bit chaotic, as I imagine all households with four kids ages five and under are from time to time, but overall we had a great (if exhausting) day.

On Saturday, we packed up our van and drove to Tallulah Gorge to go camping with H and her family.  It wasn't tent camping, though this campground has great facilities if you are a camping wimp like me (I need showers!  And toilets that flush!) - she had rented a small cabin that turned out to be just the right size for our two families.  H and her husband slept in one of the small bedrooms, and my husband and I slept in the other; all four kids camped out in the loft upstairs, and though I'm not sure any of them got a decent amount of sleep, they had a fantastic time!  There was a river running through the camp, and some fabulous rocks for them to climb on, and bunches of tadpoles - plus a campfire and marshmallows after dinner. 

H's husband taking the kids for a walk by the river.

 The next day, after H and her husband cooked an enormous breakfast for all of us, we went back down to the river to let the kids play for a while longer.  We debated hiking the gorge, but decided that should wait until the kids are old enough to know we aren't going to carry them if they start whining.  Around lunchtime, we headed home.

Today I'm playing catch-up - tons of laundry, grocery shopping, school, and a few other things I didn't get done on Friday.  Maybe one of these days I'll get around to giving my house the thorough cleaning it truly needs...