Going Postal

I'm so glad we have Blogger. The only good that comes from this story is the fact that it's a great story to begin our blog with. Blake and I fought over the right to write it. I got to the computer first.

It began with a smashing idea: let's pick up the kids from school and go to the AZ Science Center museum for the afternoon. We'll be home before dinner and with our year pass, it will be a nice free activity that the kids will enjoy. In our zest to make this work we neglected a few poignant considerations:

Traffic: It's Super Bowl weekend. The Super Bowl is here. Also a major golf tournament, the FBR Open was in full swing.
Naptime for Dutch Baby: The old she'll-sleep-in-the-car fallback didn't fly.
Carsickness: Butterly Girl gets carsick. I thought I could head this off with snacks and water bottles, but the stop and go (mostly stop) from the heavy traffic didn't help.
Location: Apparently you turn LEFT off the 1-10, not right.
Closing time at the museum: Never assume.

Since we rarely take our kids out to go anywhere we are not used to keeping these things in mind. You could probably guess how things turned out: the girls cried and/or complained the entire two hours we inched our way there. Our wrong turn delayed us at least a half-hour longer, and our delight at FINALLY reaching our destination was quickly dashed when the receptionist told us they were closing in ten minutes. We drove for 2 hours to see the giant dinosaur outside the building.

To solidify our misery, Dutch Baby left her sippy cup in the museum during her 10-minute visit inside and she was poopy. We forgot to ask for validation and had to pay $2 for parking. And we had to make our way home in what was now full-blown rush hour traffic. We ate Subway at Blake's office and went home, 5 1/2 hours after departure. We could have driven to Vegas.

I see other people take their kids out for adventures. I know it can be done. I admire those people. For now we'll just stay put in our cabana.