Today I carried my 25 lb. son – plus however much his backpack carrier weighs – on my back for hours. Fucken hours. Uphill, for half of it. First was a hike at Fort Worden. Probably only about 3 miles total, but uphill and at a brisk pace. CK and I hiked about twice as long as the other mamas because we (foolishly) split off ahead with Nels and my friend Abbi’s baby girl Rosemary (by “baby” I mean six weeks old). Our split-up was mostly due to potty false-alarms from Abbi’s toddler – so she and the girls (her own and my Siouxsie) were bringing up the rear and we barged on ahead. I won’t go into detail on the many ensuing wrong turns, misfortunes and final, tearful reunions except to quote Homer Simpson: “Let us never speak of the shortcut again”.
I have also determined that if you *are* going to split up, it’s best to keep families together and NOT to make off with a wee infink, even if it is that of a good friend. It would have been a shame if we’d had to leave her to be raised by wolves. ‘Nuff said.
Anyway, I had to bust ass from the hike to get to the dentists’. My hygienist heard my story (I was ten minutes late but felt I had extenuating circumstances) then laughed and said, “Well that sounds like quite a trip! Now it’s time to have a little water and relax.” I’m thinking, “You’re about to stick a 12-inch needle in my face. I’ll relax AFTER that’s over.”
This afternoon my girl chose a beach trip over a nap, so a beach trip is indeed what we did. Hauled blankets, water, food out to (beautiful!) beach space. Sprayed my children in the eyes with sunscreen (accidentally!) as I chased them down before they got horribly burned by evil UV rays (which they did, anyway). More time with Nels in the pack, happy as a fat-assed little clam. A clam that grabs and pulls my hair. For their benefit I (carefully) caught a jellyfish and a tiny burgundy crab. We avoided the huge, dead, hollow eye-socket rotting crab by the pier [shudder!]. Packed up and came home, cooked dinner, got sand out of EVERYTHING. Kids to bed.
So – my body is balking at the idea of doing even ONE MORE thing tonight. But, of course, I also feel great. Funny how exercise can do that.