To Grandmothers house we go

Megan had a pretty fun week. She chatted amiably with Pax.

She went to try out a free open house kind of thing at Skyview Gymnastics (our local Mount Airy gymnasium). Mom found out about this place from one of Megan's social outreach things. Megan approaches everyone she sees and shows off at them until they adore her or run away. In this case she made a friend at moms gym so mom got talking to the dad of this friend and found out about the gymnasium thing.

Megan loved  it so much that we are going to try her out on some group lessons for 'grasshoppers' (4 year old basically).

On Mommy Megan day I was feeling pretty bad with stomach cramps and a sinus headache so we stayed home and lay on the couch and talked. Megan asked me lots of things. At this point she asked me to explain how babies really got out of mommies.

Apparently this is my flash back face.

The turtle continues to thrive. She is bigger and enjoying her food and sunning herself in the water.

I am going to fill much more of the tank with water and give her a perch to sun herself on instead. She is a mostly aquatic turtle so its more water that is required.

On Friday night when I got home from work this was on my pillow. It is from Kiernan and it says: "Dear Mom. I hope you have a good rest of the night. Love Kiernan"

You will not be surprised to know that this melted me.

On Saturday morning we left for a trip to Brcey VA to see my grandparents.

I have been wanting to go down there for so long and was excited a full 2 weeks in advance that we were going to go.

It takes about 20 minutes to get to VA and then another 3 or 4 hours to get to their place.

Still we celebrated our arrival in that state by taking stupid pictures and eating road snacks.

This rest area had some really unfortunate toilet set ups but some great vending machines.Overall I would have preferred toilets with better door fixtures and more efficient flushing but the vending machines were arrestingly interesting.

One had medicine and snacks and t-shirts and hats and car chargers. Many took Apple Pay and David was able to wow us by getting a sandwich by waving his phone around.

That was cool.

After another 3ish hours we got to my grandparents place and had hugs and hot dogs and catch up visiting.

Once we were done eating my Grandfather took us out onto lake Gaston.

The kids were all kinds of excited.

I was also all kinds of excited.

Despite the fact that I have been to their place a number of times since they got it, I have never been out on the boat.

Typically of my grandmothers organizational skills, all life jackets were found ready to hand and of appropriate weight requirements.

It was a beautiful sunny day and we felt like we were in another world.

We have had so much cold and rain and keep-your-head-down-commitment keeping that being down their felt like a mini Florida vacation (this per Megan).

I took lots of silly selfies and sang sea songs.

Kiernan photobombed and Megan was transfixed by the lake and the speed and the newness of it all.

Once we got back to the house we put Megan down for a nap.

Kiernan went out fishing with his Great Grandpa Rumford.

He got a few pointers.

E Voila his first fish. He named it Kyle.

He was very pleased.

I told him before this trip that if he wanted to eat what he caught then he could do so.

He really wanted to eat a fish caught by him, the fisherman.

This one was too small but Grandma fixed up some catfish that evening to go along with all the vegetarian food she had already prepared for us.

The kids both had some.

Megan liked it fairly well and Kiernan loved it.

I am very mixed about the whole thing.

I am vegetarian on purpose and some of that purpose is to avoid pain or death to other living things.

On the other hand I know how limiting being a vegetarian kid can be.

I know that each person has to find their own right thing and I know that Kiernan is old enough to think about this stuff.

I told him that I don't like sport hunting and I don't like sport fishing.

I told him that if he fishes he should probably eat the fish or give it to someone who wants to eat it.

He was good with that and I am please to have had the discussion.

He had a bit of an existential thing going that evening.

He asked what he was now (probably he meant now that he has eaten fish) I said he was a pescetarian and that amused the heck out of him and out of Megan and got an especially bit laugh out of my grandfather.

The whole thing was very light hearted and my particular musings on what it means to let my children eat fish or meat did not enter into it at all.

I have been thinking about it a good bit ever since though.

After dinner we took the kids back to the hotel to put them to bed. David was still feeling pretty sick and had a fever so he stayed with them and slept while I went back to squeeze a little extra family time out of the day.

The next morning we returned for a pancake breakfast and some goofing around.

We knew we had to get an early start back because the traffic between Richmond and Fredericksburg is horrid but we lingered over cool stories.

We learned about and heard playing the Victrola in the living room.

The kids did a little more fishing off the dock, from the boat no less.

I soaked up sun and familial warmth.

Then we took the obligatory family photo and headed off into the indeed horrid traffic, and home.

I am so glad we went.

I had such a good time.