Turkey Creek

I may not be able to blame the hectic nature of our weekends on Brian any longer. This weeked he was flying in Keesler, and so I was left all to my own devices. After work, I picked Jax up from preschool and Riley up from school, then had just enough time to get them into the car and drive to the beach for an hour or so to play in the sand before sunset. Then we went out for sushi afterwards. The waitress was a little astonished that I ordered 3 pots of green tea - one for each of us - and even more astonished when Jax polished his tea off all by himself (it’s a little bitter). Then she brought Riley’s sushi out to her, and when she returned with the rest of our dinner, Riley had eaten every bit of raw fish on her plate and was trying to talk Jax out of his order of sushi also. All in all, the kids did very well, and I didn’t even have to run laps around the table to catch Jax. Then on Saturday I had a long run scheduled, and the babysitter showed up at 6am. I was supposed to run 20 miles, but wound up underestimating the loop we ran, and so finished the 20 miles... about 2.5 miles from home. Hence, I ran 22.5 miles. It was a good run, though.

After arriving back at home I piled all the kids in the car to drive the babysitter home, and figured, the kids and I would just head over to the coffee shop after we dropped the babysitter off. I still hadn’t showered after the long run - but no one will be getting that close anyway. Once at the coffee shop, I had everyone settled with muffins and green tea (don’t tell Jackson that green tea it isn’t coffee - he’s determine that I should only order coffee for him). We were just about finished up when Hilary called to say she was heading over for a nature walk on Turkey Creek with the kids. Since it was supposed to rain, and I didn’t relish the thought of spending the entire rest of the day cooped up with the kids, I jumped at the chance. I corralled everyone back into the car and raced home just planning on changing clothes, but then thought better of it and grabbed a quick shower before heading over to Turkey Creek. It’s a lovely walk - about 1.5 miles round trip, all on boardwalk. The kids have a blast looking for knotholes, fish and mud, and run back and forth enough to really wear themselves out. Unfortunately, we were exactly halfway done when the rain started, so everyone got drenched racing the 3/4 mile back to the car (Jax had given up on doing any actual walking by that point, and so I had to run while toting him, the camera and the gear bag - since even a short jaunt with kids seems to require a surprising amount of preparation - and yet I still forgot the umbrella).

I finally made it back home and managed to get everyone (including myself) to fall asleep for a nap.