On Friday, my parents and sister and Damon left for Moab to go camping. We were up in the air about whether or not to go and mom had worked until 7:00 at night almost every day last week, so she came over to visit Friday morning before leaving for Moab. While I got Cecilia down for a nap, mom and Francesca went to run a couple of errands. Cecilia slept and I worked on the puppets I'm making for her birthday puppet show. I have less than two weeks left, so I think I'm on track. If I can finish the puppets this week then I can do a practice run sometime next week. But I digress . . . so mom and Francesca never came back. When Cecilia woke up, I called mom and she had taken Francesca up to the house, so Cecilia and I jumped in the car and went up to the house.
There was lots of commotion with everyone getting ready to go and it was obvious that Francesca thought she was going. I took her away from the last minute action and broke the news to her that we would be leaving for Moab the following day. She burst into tears and screamed and hollered until my mom came over. Long story short, Francesca decided she could take a night away with no mommy or daddy and loaded herself into her car seat in Grandpa's truck. My dad was nervous and kept asking me, "Are you SURE she'll be okay?" and I assured him she would, as long as he stopped saying stuff like that (so as not to place doubt in her little head.)
I thought Cecilia would miss Francesca and be asking constantly where she was, but she knew, "Chacka camping in MO-AB." Cecilia had a blast being the only child. She actually got to talk (she had a chance to get a word in edgewise.) It makes me realize how much Francesca talks non-stop.
When we finally made it to Moab on Saturday, Francesca was glowing. She had been outside all day and she looked so happy. She had been baking cakes and cookies and soups in the sand with her cardboard 12-pack boxes set up as ovens with sand toys and kitchen spoons. At one point, Damon dumped one of her bowls out and she said, "Damon! You're wasting my batter." She slept in Granny and Grandpa's camper, in between them and said that "Grandpa is like sleeping with a big teddy bear." We really, really, really need to do that about every other weekend. We say that every time we go camping, then we just get bogged down in the everyday humdrum, but we really need to make the effort to get away more often.
Our friend John came, too. John rolls his own American Spirit cigarettes and Francesca was curious about what he was doing. John took his time and explained about cigarettes and addiction and Francesca listened intently. When he was finished talking about it, Francesca said frankly, "I think I'm addicted to toys." My dad said he about split a gut laughing.
So - whens the next camping trip? Anyone up for next weekend??? It wasn't too cold at night and the days were so nice and warm. I had on shorts and tank top both days. It was gorgeous. We camp out Mineral Bottom Road and there isn't really anyone out there. Next time, we want to spend more time at Slickrock, but I think we'll still camp in the same area. It just feels very remote. If we go next weekend, we just have to be back before 4pm on Sunday because I've finally promised to volunteer for Obama. Argh. Hopefully I can twist some friends' arms to go with me? Peeps? Peeps? I have hope for a Nov. 4th win, but with McCain's recent statement "guaranteeing a win on election day," and his unprecedented plans for a very private election night party consisting only of his staff and some volunteers, planning to make his victory speech via satellite . . . I'm afraid the fix is in. Something is rotten in McNasty Town.
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