Two Adventures

I'm losing my marbles, seriously! They're rolling everywhere!

One of our friends from North Cackalacky is coming up to Philadelphia for training and we're going to meet her for lunch. Note the verb tense of that sentence as contrasted with the fact that the following pictures were taken at a hotel (the functionally swanky downtown Marriott, actually). Right. Our friend will be here in September.

So, until I got a phone call from her to set me straight, my crazies played around and were adorably, inappropriately loud and rambunctious at the hotel. Appropriate for kids who are starving, not for the situation. Luckily 1) We were already downtown to drop off my sister after her too-short visit and 2) The Reading Terminal which happens to be My Favorite Place Ever is located half a block away. Yummy lunch, cheap cheap parking and whatever. When else do kids get to run down a row of luggage racks and play with touch-screen info centers? Lifetime memories right there.

 

Now the missed lunch date thing wouldn't have been so horribly embarrassing for me had it not come on the heels of one mess of a morning trying to figure out our new healthcare arrangement. I'd called to make well kid appointments for everyone in July...back when Paul was still active duty and we had no choice but to be seen at the base located precisely 34 miles away (the limit is 35 miles). We still have Tricare coverage for six months, which is awesome, but I did not have the information that our level of coverage changed when he left active duty. Naturally, the base doesn't see the other level. And they wouldn't take the general POA I had to switch coverage....you'd need the medical POA which has of course expired because who would have thought we'd ever need THAT again? 

Also we got lost. And it was a monsoon outside with flash flood warnings everywhere. So anyway, there was that! It was a mess, I tell you. But my sister made her bus and the skies cleared and the girls took pretty good naps, after which we hit the pool(s) where Katie ate and drank everything I packed, the girls made (and proceeded to win a pool noodle/water gun fight with) a new friend, and Paul joined us at the pool(s) after his own crazy day.

 

 

Then today! SWEET MERCY it was perfect outside! It hovered between 70-74 with this bright blue sky with big fluffy ridiculous white clouds. It was ostentatious, really, just too much. So after Carly's fun art class and the little girls' crazy story time at the library, we had lunch and went to the arboretum in Philly. I love, love, love that place. It's SO beautiful! We wandered the grounds finding these awesome wooden bug sculptures, the girls jumped in the creek and in the scary nets way up in the air, and we just soaked up as much of the day as possible. Sometimes I just need some trees, do you know what I mean? It sounds weird, but it's true. Paul's the same way with the beach.

 

(When Katie has had enough, she will just lay on the ground. Sometimes there is crying and throwing things involved, sometimes not. It's pretty cute.)