Outings

We went to shadow cliffs today. It was WONDERFUL! It was not crowded at all. The kids stayed in the water for four straight hours. I took Emma and Kora with us. Livy and Kora were like 2 peas in a pod building sand castles. I wish i had had a camera to capture how cute they were from playing in the sand together, sitting on their towel sharing food and holding each other's hand in the water. Markus, Zack, Brooke and Emma played in the water the ENTIRE time. (and brooke's face got sunburned for the first time this summer....it is really red. I feel so bad.) Jackson slept for a couple hours and was again the best baby even when he wasn't sleeping. And Kori and I just hung out and talked! The weather was awesome, not too hot, not too cold!! Man, I love days like that.

After we dropped off Emma and Kora at their homes I headed to the post office to send some packages I had been trying to send. I had actually been to the post office three days in a row to try to send them, but becasue of kid mishaps and cutting it too close to the time before it closed, i was unsuccessful. So i was determined to get them off today. And I did, but for the five minutes we were there the kids were crazy. hanging on doors. trying to open doors that were locked. crying about wanting to color on all the papers...man oh man, it was crazy. On my way out, this sweet black lady looks at me -as I was trying to cajole Livy from having to try and close the door that is closing automatically (slowly) with the handicap button that was pressed, calling to Brooke not to run across the street and then telling her not to tease her sister (after she comes back from the street and instantly starts tugging and teasing LIvy) all the while trying to hold this tank of a baby who is wiggling so much in my arms with a wallet and keys in the other hand- and she says, "Can you just imagine, my mom had four girls. Wow I don't know how she did it." I smiled and tried to chuckle. AH.

I don't know why I agreed, but brooke was begging to go to the library, so we headed over to the library. Now let me just preface, that I have kind of boy-cotted the main library for a while because I feel like my kids get so excited and run everywhere and it always seems that we have a mishap of somesort, and most of all-all the ladies that I have come into contact there are totally rude. So we always go to the niles library. Lyla is so nice, it is one room and they always help you with things. The downfall is that it is only open on tuesdays and today was wednesday.

As soon as we walked into the doors Brooke starts running and livy starts yelling after her that she wants to win and is crying about it. This is in the entry way of all stone and this curved/circular ceiling that echoes so bad! (If I was smart i would've grabbed the girls and headed out-but I want to promote reading... and the girls were excited about getting new DVDs). I try to jog after the livy and grab her hand and try to cover her mouth to get her to stop screaming and call after brooke to come back immediately. I have a little talk to them about absolutely NO RUNNING in the library. And then Livy needs to go to the bathroom. (and i was too lazy to get the stroller out of the car.great. holding jackson, while helping livy go to the bathroom. no wonder why my back is killing.) we finally finish in the bathroom, but only after brooke left the restroom and i had to leave livy yelling on the toilet to tell her to come back and after we had to dry our hands with every single air dryer.
We go through the doors to the front desk and livy finds a "hiding place" between the middle desk and the glass doors and insists that i come back to look at it (again stone floors and a 2 year old with a loud voice.) I finally give her the reassurance that it is a cool hiding place and start going again. We head to the childrens area down a long hall and of course the girls start running to the dvd collection. After 5 minutes of fighting over which 5 dvds they are taking home-I make an executive decision of which movies we will take home(which of course neither one is happy about). We get to the book area pick out a few books, of course with some fight that they both want 5 more books and both of them want to hold jackson at the same time and both of them want to carry the dvds....of course, never in a library voice.
We start back down the long hallway to check out, and of course livy starts running. Brooke is calling after her that we aren't supposed to run, but livy doesn't listen and goes past the check out desk and calling to brooke that she is going to win (they both are always wanting to be first to everything lately.) Brooke seizes the oppurtunity to really "win" and turns and starts to run out the "in" entrance. I am balancing jackson and 10 books trying to think of how to gets brookes attention to not go out the entrance with th e dvds in her hand we haven't checked out yet (all i need is the alarms going off) and get livy to come back from down the wrong hallway in the split second that Brooke slips. Hands go flailing, shoe goes flying, you hear dvds crashing. I am just cringing inside hoping Brooke isn't hurt too bad, but really hoping that she doesn't start her blood curdling, dramatic scream...I calmly set my books down on the counter go over and help brooke up (after a nice man has already started collecting all the dvds and a nice librarian (imagine that one) is trying to help her up.) I give her a hug and try to press her face into my stomach a little bit because she hasn't taken much of a breath from the crying and I am still on the cringing awaiting her scream. Thankfully the cry isn't too loud. I check to make sure she is okay, thank the man for the dvds, scan quickly for where Livy has gone and then not-so-nicely ask brooke what i told her at the very beginning of the trip into the library...NO RUNNING! We walk around the middle desk to where i left the books. Livy thankfully follows. And start checking out books. Brooke has stopped crying (thankfully she didn't get too hurt-becasue it looked pretty bad when she went down.), but now her and livy are arguing over who gets to put the books and dvds under the scanner and pushing each other to stand on the stool. And of course they are speaking in the soft library tones, right. :) And all the while jackson is just taking it all in, man he is a great kid-but my back is killing me and my arm is ready to fall off from how heavy he is by this point.
After a few times helping me with the check out process, I yip at livy and brooke to step back and let me finish. I am just wanting to get out of there so quickly. Well as soon as Livy stepped away from the desk, I wanted to retract that last statement. She starts calling to brooke to come to her hiding place she found on the way in and then gets distracted as she walks through the sensors by how cool they look , to her they are the perfect ladders and trys climbing up them. Ahh-again, I yip at her to get down. And immediately brooke sticks her arm out and hits Livy and says "you're it." ARE YOU KIDDING ME? and livy starts running. I yell at them to stop (at least this yell is a soft yell.) and try to quickly finish the check out process. And wouldn't you know it as I walk through those sensors balancing jackson on one hip, 10 books in the other and trying to put my library card back in my pocket...that dang alarm goes off. I have to tell brooke and livy to come back, because they have already RUN out the doors. The lady rescans them, quickly-thankfully. And we finally head out the door. And of course livy runs out the door and starts running the opposite direction.
We finally get to the car- and I give them the worst lecture about how we will never get to go back to the library again. Poor Brooke is almost in tears, I think she still was a little hurt from the fall, and needed a little extra love from me when I picked her up-but didn't get it and is now feeling bad about not following the rules (she is my rule follower) and of course livy is totally oblivious to the fact that I am ticked at her. Brooke sadly tells me that she wishes daddy were here and i answer back in a short-sarcastic voice, "Me, too." Livy asks for some snack and I snap back with a NO. And now we have a screamer in the car. Jackson, all the while is just chilin' (and breaking my back).
We get in the car and we are not even to the first stop light and Brooke is asleep. Now I feel really bad because I realize she is so exhausted. And Livy is still crying, but she can't remember why....

But I reminded myself that Shadow cliffs was a great day. The post office and library outings were only an hour of that day.