Beauty in the Moments

Last weekend I was in the land of the Big Easy; drinking, eating, laughing and playing This weekend, I'm back in the whirlwind of my normal life. I'm not going to lie. It was really nice not living the normal life for one weekend. But, nothing lasts forever.

On Friday at 5pm, instead of celebrating the end of the work week with a cocktail, Alex, Eva, Layla and I started the drive out to Troy, MO. Eva had a Girl Scout camp scheduled for the entire weekend and was beyond excited for her trip away. Going anywhere on a Friday night during rush hour is a joke. Heading westbound on highway 70 is a nightmare. I could see that we were in for an indefinite standstill and made a last minute decision to exit on to 79.  This is the route we take to go out to Cuivre River in the summer.  I didn’t know exactly how to get to the Girl Scout camp via this route but I figured with my stellar sense of direction and my GPS, I would find it.  Even if it took us longer to get there, it was one thousand times better than sitting on the highway.

It turns out we went down some back country roads that provided us with a beautiful landscape as the sun went down. 

Once Eva was safely off at camp, Alex, Layla and I started the journey back home.  Alex and I were starving and I was fantasizing about a big juicy steak and a baked potato.  I had a couple of places in mind that were amazing steak houses and kid friendly for a late Friday evening, but as we got closer to home I realized I did not want to be out in public.  And I’m pretty sure none of us were dressed as Friday night fancy.  I decided I’d just swing by the grocery store and pick up a few steaks and potatoes and cook them up when we got home.  Then I realize the clock was inching closer and closer to 8 pm. I no longer wanted to cook anything at all and was pretty sure I could eat my own hand.  Fancy food did not matter any more so I deterred the question to the boy.  I’m hungry.  Pick dinner.  McDonald’s it was.

Layla went to sleep pretty quickly after we got home, which is surprising for her.  Later I would come to realize that the early bedtime would only result in her being up and at ‘em at 2am.  But, Alex and I enjoyed our few hours by watching a really creepy movie, “Possession.”  It was rate PG-13 so I didn’t think it would be too bad, but we were both freaked out.  Alex asked to sleep in my bed with me that night and since Grace was going to be home late from Six Flags, I agreed.  It could have been because I was a little frightened, too, but I’m going to say I did it for the boy.  However, I didn’t get much more than a few hours of shut eye in my bed before I was back up with Layla.  I woke early the next morning on the couch with a neck ache.

Saturday evening, Grace was going out…again.  She had accepted an invitation to CBC’s homecoming and her “date” was picking her up and bringing her home.  She looked lovely as always and I pondered just how it was possible I would be old enough for her to be going to a boy’s homecoming.

Alex played in a night soccer game.  It was cold and Layla slept the entire time which meant another late night for me with a non-sleeping three year old.  His team played really well defensively the first half.  The second half, they gave up 5 goals.  Alex had made plans to stay the night at a teammates house after the game and to go to Church with them in the morning.  Layla and I went home and were soon joined by Grace gushing about the super cute, popular boy that talked to her several times and had their pictures taken together at the dance.  This boy was not her date.  Oh boy, what does my future hold in regards to her dating! 

Sunday morning, I got up early, told the girls I’d be back in the afternoon, poured a cup of pumpkin spice coffee and headed back out to the Girl Scout camp.  Eva had requested that I come out early so that I could go canoeing with her.  I took the back country roads again because the beauty in the fall was something I deserved to see if I was going to be up this early.

I got to camp early and got to help clean….because I hadn’t done enough of that at my house all weekend.  Then we hiked to the lake.  This view made my entire weekend.