Our trip to Tama
It seems that all I do is apologize for not writing more frequently. So here we go again. One of the reasons for my delay is that I’ve been a bit discouraged to write recently. I’ve received some feedback about my writing. Negative feedback. Frankly, the feedback has made me question whether I should continue to write and maintain the site at all. Seriously.
You’re reading this so I guess it’s clear that I’m gonna continue, but seriously, if you don’t like reading it, stop.
One of the things that I’ve failed to talk about in recent weeks was our first trip to the zoo. A few weeks ago, Angela told me that we were gonna pack up the van and make a trip to the Minnesota Zoo. I quickly developed a very bad attitude. I still maintain that outside of Meredith, these kids don’t know the difference between the park a block from our house and a really big frigging zoo, but his was one of those moments where I just needed to say, “Yes Dear.” Just so there isn’t any confusion, I’ll admit, I was disgruntled. We arrived at the zoo late, so Angela’s plans were messed up and it caused some friction between us. Although we had a bad start and the day was very warm and muggy, it actually ended up to be a very good day. Thank you Wendy, Jill and Becky. We couldn’t have done it without you! I’m still trying to figure out the photos. I have a couple already posted and you can see them here, but I’m having some technical issues preventing me from posting more.
Tonight is our first night at home in over a week. A week ago, this past Friday, I packed up the BAV to take the family to Angela’s hometown of Tama, IA for the first time. Our first road trip provided us with some good experience to plan this trip. Prior to the evening meal and also while the kids were eating, I loaded everything up in the van. The plan was to put the kids in the van as soon as they were in the jammies and ready to go. Unfortunately, as I stuffed the last package in and shut the back door, the package squished up against the electronic lock and locked all of the doors. The BAV was running and everything was packed, including Angela’s purse which contained the only spare set of keys. 45 minutes and $65 later, we headed out the driveway. Oh yeah, the garage door opener quit working so that led to another “discussion” before we left town.
Angela drove. She felt that because of the boot she continues to wear for her broken leg, she wouldn’t be able to negotiate her way around the van should the kids need help during the drive. So while she drove, I pulled out the computer so that I could clean up some photos from the zoo and write a blog post. The kids quickly went to sleep and I got to work. A little while later, we came to an unexpected stop and I looked up to see a ROAD CLOSED sign. The bridge was out on Hwy 58 in Zumbrota and Angela missed the detour. I asked what happened and asked why she didn’t take the detour. She told me that she didn’t see it. She turned the BAV around and we backtracked. At the point of the detour, there were two giant road signs on each side of the road with flashing orange lights and giant arrows pointing us in the direction that we should have taken. I asked her to stop and asked again about why she didn’t take the detour. She told me that she didn’t see the signs. She was too busy watching the road and for deer. My dad says it was my fault and I had a bad moment earlier in the evening with the keys so I dropped it. However, I did quit working on the computer and started paying attention to the road. A few hours later, around 1 am, we pulled in to the driveway in Tama. After we got the kids to bed, I walked in the house with a handful of stuff and a stink just slammed me in the face. Initially I thought Maggie, our dog, had an accident after the long drive, but what I’ve come to find out is that Maggie literally scared the shit out of one of the cats. So here’s the cherry on top…Angela didn’t see the pile on the rug under the kitchen table and stepped in it and managed to track it all over the room. The smell was just horrible. We joked during the week that Murphy’s Law should be renamed Tille’s Law.
The week did get better. I held a fantasy football draft on Saturday morning from Angela’s parents house. Angela and I had dinner with the some friends on Tuesday night. On Thursday, Angela got to spend the entire day shopping with her sister Morgan. We also got to see Angela’s other sister Katie for a couple days. It was really good to see both of them. On Friday, Angela and I went to Iowa City to do a little shopping to buy the kids some Hawkeye gear and on Saturday morning, we went back. Angela and I went to the Iowa Hawkeye football game. How bout those Hawkeyes!!! We had a really good time and enjoyed the big win. I just can’t get over how much I enjoy Saturday’s in the fall, especially in Iowa City. This is really my favorite time of the year.
On Sunday night we made the trip back home. It was much more uneventful. Thank you so much to all of the family and friends that helped out during our trip to Tama. Without your help, we wouldn’t have had the freedom to do the things that we got out of the house to do. Thank you so much Dave and Becky. Becky, please take a break for a few days. You deserve it.
In my next post, I’ll be writing about the kids’ developments and some very major changes that we’ll be taking on as a family.
Until then…