Ahhhh....Spring Break

We are on Spring Break here. What does this mean in my household? Well, it means that college boy is home and so are other two kiddos from school.

What? We aren't off skiing in Colorado? Basking on a beach? Dancing on a cruise ship? No!! We will be breaking ground on the money pit, ooops, I mean Dream House as soon as next week.

Spring Break this week means kids staying up late and then sleeping in. It means spending lots of money at the grocery store due to the fact that they eat nonstop. And so do their friends. The other night I cooked 3 lbs of taco meat, had over two college age, four teens, one 8 year old and three adults for dinner. No leftovers. I filled up on Tequizas.

So, yesterday I gathered up the two younger boys (tried to take the college one but he wouldn't get out of bed and hey, he's 19), two of the dogs and packed a lovely picnic and we headed to a large State Park about an hour north of us. The weather was perfect. We paid our way in and acquired a map. We found the hiking trail and started out. After about 4.5 minutes of walking the younger one starts in:

Thing 2: I have to go to the bathroom.
Me: Well, you'll have to wait.
Thing 2: I'll just do it right here.
Thing 1: You idiot!
Me: Its a public park and its against the law to just go peeing anywhere you feel like! (not to mention we had already passed a few people so were hardly alone!)

Walk about 4 minutes more.

Thing 2: I can't hold it.
Me: Good Lord, then Thing 1, go watch that way and Thing 2 duck behind that tree!

Disaster averted.
We walk and walk and walk. Thing 2 starts making noises about being hungry, when will we be finished and he's tired. Thing 1 keeps telling him to shut up.

Here they are mid-walk. Don't they look like they are having a fun time? Thing 2 has discovered the joy of making bunny ears and I suddenly have lots of pictures like this. I do believe the next picture would have shown Thing 1 punching Thing 2 in an effort to demonstrate his appreciation.

We walked another 25 minutes or so and suddenly I could feel something in my pant leg. It felt like something long and thin, like maybe a piece of grass and I tried to shake it out but nothing. I couldn't roll my pant leg up enough to get to it and as I kept walking it kept moving up and was now on the back of my thigh. Cold sweat begins to break out as I an envisioning the critter that could possibly be in my pants.

Me: Thing 1, hold this dog for me! (I am doubled over at this point, holding the thing between my fingers on the back of my jeans.
Thing 1: What are you doing?
Me: I am going to have to pull my pants down!
Thing 2: Oh! Yuck! You're pulling your pants down right here? (covers eyes in panic)
Me: There is something going up the leg of my pants and I have got to get it out.
Thing 1: (grabs dog and starts moving away)
Me: (look around, no one is coming, pull pants down) Look, its a big pine needle! Why did you move away from me anyway?
Thing 1: Because I knew you would freak out and yell at me to come and get whatever it was and I was getting ready to run.

WHAT? ME - FREAK OUT??? Ahhh, there was that time with the spider that obviously left a little scar tissue on my kids. Hey! Having something potentially alive, crawling up your pant leg is more than enough reason to FREAK OUT.

Our little hiking trail took us an HOUR to finish. I was carrying Kipper (the tiny dog) and thought I was going to have to carry Thing 2 also. The whining was pretty bad by the time we made it back to our car and picnic lunch.

Luckily, our delectable egg salad sandwiches were the perfect ending to a long hike. Tomorrow we will be heading to the younger brother's house in Big D. Then we can at least say we went SOMEWHERE on Spring Break.