The Harrowing/Heartwarming Parent Moment of the Week

The boys and I tried something new this week. Amtrack has good prices for train tickets on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. So the three boys and I caught the train at 6:05 am in Leavenworth and rode it to Seattle where we spent two days and one night with Grandma Judy. Well, the train was actually an hour and 45 minutes late, so we had time to eat some muffins, catch a cicada, read a bit from Inkspell to the boys, and pick up some volcanic rock that was lying beside the tracks and pack it into our backpacks before the train came. But the Lord provided a way to let Grandma Judy and the Hunky Hubby know that we were OK and would be late. One of our camp counselors from years ago, Zucchini, was also riding the train and we were able to use his cell phone. Once there we walked to McDonalds and the park to use up some energy. This time Grandma Judy bought two packets of sidewalk chalk and it took the boys an entire 60 minutes to color all the chalk away. They assigned a color to each of their four chickens and then drew bugs all up and down the sidewalk for each of those chickens to eat. They also drew the chickens, in their assigned colors of course. We watched a Godzilla movie, even though it was scary for Grandma Judy, and ate pulled pork and ice cream sandwiches and wrestled on the stairs. Although we actually had to run for the train on the way home, there was a Mariners game, we still had a great time and got lots of reading done on the trainride for the summer reading program!