It's been an exhausting week. Back from vacation last Friday, I spent the weekend grocery shopping, cleaning and doing laundry. Then, Ben and Alek were in different camps, on different schedules in different parts of Cary all last week. It wasn't originally planned that way, but Ben's original climbing camp which was located next to Alek's football camp was cancelled, so Ben spent a week at the gym's climbing camp instead. Then, work for me and Gary was really hectic an filled with out-of-normal-work-hour-meetings, AND bookclub was at my house on Thursday night while Gary was at an anniversary dinner for a co-worker, so we had to get a sitter. How odd, to have a sitter in the house when I was home, but it worked out great because it was Andrew (back from college) and they boys all played Rock Band and went out for Chik-fil-a and to the pool. Then Weds, Ben (there's not rock climbing camp on weds so the kids can rest) was invited by his friend Evan (the rock-climbing friend Evan, not the neighborhood friend Evan) to go to the beach for his birthday for the day. Ben had a great time, and I hear he was well-behaved.
So, after all that on Friday afternoon, while getting ready to go the gym for my normal workout, I had a mini-breakdown, facing a two-foot deep pile of freshly laundered clothes that needed folding. So, I stayed home from the gym to fold laundry. Gross, I know. But, I'm glad I got it all folded, because Saturday was a busy one ...
Up at 6:30 to prepare and pack for the day. Gary and Alek left for the ball game at 8:15; Ben and I followed at 8:30. Alek had a great game, and got the game ball - HURRAY! He was so happy. Then Gary went home to mow, and the boys and I went to Holly Springs to a tie-dye extravaganza where we tie-died four t-shirts. It was great fun. Lunch at Wendy's on our way to friend Evan's house, for his birthday party. Dropped off Ben and Alek where they went to see Night at the Museum then back to Evan's neighborhood pool for a party. I went to a movie all by myself - great way to spend the afternoon, then picked them back up and headed home. Back home around 5, Gary and Alek left at 6 for the Railhawks game (soccer) and Ben and I left around 6:15 for the Cirque de la Symphony.
They Symphony was wonderful - circus performers were great, music was fantastic, and the night was beautiful. But, the place was crazy! So many people! Much more crowded than the other two had been. But, our friends the Parkers found us and had saved us a place to sit. Lovely evening, good friend, great music. We left during the last piece, because the traffic was so bad getting in and we wanted to get home quickly. We arrived just after Gary and Alek got home and we all went to bed.
This morning (well, it's afternoon now) I just can't wake up. Have been reading, drinking water, and snoozing all day. Still in my pj's, but after this week, I feel I deserve it.
Hopefully next week will be a little more calm, but with the boys both home all week, it could go either way.
Happy Fourth of July everyone!
Alek and Ben on the praying mantis in the park ...
And Alek on the praying mantis in the park ...
Our first stop was to the new giraffe feeding deck. It was free yesterday, because you could only look out at them, not feed them. They have one adult female, and five babies. The five babies all were aquired from other facilities, and are not related to each other. When we got there, the ostriches, zebras and giraffes were all up at the new feeding deck, so we got to see them all up close.
One baby came over, and the zoo keeper lured her in with a bunch of leaves on a pole. She came in close, so the zoo keeper gave Ben and Alek each a branch to hold out to her. Note that the zoo feeding deck was built to the height of an adult zebra, so the 6 foot tall baby just came up to the bottom of the deck. She ate Ben & Alek's leaves! The deck was just completed last week, and they are training the giraffes to come up to eat, so Ben and Alek were the first kids to get to feed the giraffes! It was totally cool.
