Our Adventure. Or Elephants and Emergency Rooms

I had a bright idea yesterday. I thought it would be a fantastic idea to take Kate and Ben and anyone else I could rope into going with us to the Gateway to see the Circus Elephant Parade. It's always around noon on the day the circus starts, so this will be the last time Kate will not be in school at noon. (Sad, isn't it? Why do they have to grow up so quickly?)

I convinced Christina, Will & Ezra and Kate's playdates Eliza and Briana to join us. But first, we had to have some lunch.

So I fed all the darling little people (and Christina and me, too.) But uh-oh, because by the time we were done eating, we were in serious jeopardy of missing the parade. (I hate I-80 construction. It has fouled up my travel plans too many times.)

When we were driving past the Gateway in search of parking spaces, a friend called to let me know the elephants were passing her at that moment. We were stuck at a stoplight, and what do you know, the elephant parade turned in front of us. I opened the van door, shooed out the kids and told them to climb the ES Arena stairs so they could see better.

You must understand, this is a Typical Kerri Event. I have grand ideas, generally spur of the moment, and not always plausible. I think I can fit in more than I actually can. I rush to try to accomplish what I think is still, just maybe, if I'm lucky, possible. And way too often, I'm given moments of grace like this one. The kids got to see the elephants. I even took Ben out of the carseat and he sat in my lap, happily making elephant-like noises. We didn't have to fight any crowds to find a spot on the sidewalk. Kind of win win, in a lame way.




Briana's mom happened to be at the parade, too, and offered us all passes to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. Fun! We had a wonderful time. Except for the clowns terrifying one of our group. And of course, the unfortunate incident invoving Ben's chin and an exhibit that landed me at Primary Children's Medical Center for three hours.

And I'm not actually being sarcastic. We really had a wonderful time, even poor little wounded Ben. Can you tell he's going to get 8 stitches in a couple of hours in the following pictures? I bet you can't even tell which pictures were taken BEFORE he was shoved into the garden area and which were taken AFTER.

(Before...)


(And after...)




So it was a pretty good day. Except for having my baby sedated and stitched. But I must say, I am utterly grateful for the fantastic staff at PCMC. Every unfortunate time I've had to be there, I've been super-impressed with their kindness and professionalism. And every time I've had to be there, I've been grateful for my children's good health. We are very blessed.