End of Summer

The kids started school on Monday. We tried to live up the weekend a little bit.

Friday night we took the kids to the Children's Museum of Phoenix. Every first Friday night of the month the museum opens to the public for free. We thought it would be a great way to end the summer.

Wrong.

If you haven't been to a Children's Museum before, let me describe it to you in two words: Over-glorified Playground.

Now, that may sound fun to some people, but when you have several children you're trying to keep under control in a crowd as big as your former town in Montana, it gets a bit overwhelming.

It started out with an interesting set up to get us in the door. We had to wait in line for half an hour to be given a number. Then we waited another 45 minutes or so for our number to be called. We had no idea we would end up waiting like that. Now we know.

About five minutes after entering the museum we heard a little girl screaming bloody murder. She was over by the elevator. I quickly counted our brood (there were five kids because we brought our nephew Brett) and they were all safe. Josh ran to the elevator and found that the girl's foot had gotten caught in the doors. He pulled the door apart while another man got the girls' foot out. I was so relieved that Josh could help save this little girl, but the screaming had unhinged all of us, after waiting so long to get in, and we all had a raincloud over our heads for a while.

It was fun to be with the kids (for the most part) but the museum itself was a bummer. I'd much rather pay to have an annual membership to a Science and Natural History Museum. We loved the one in Denver. We actually went three or four times, even though we lived four hours away from it.

So Monday morning the kids took off for school, gone for the entire day. Ahh.... Josh and I went to a movie to celebrate!

The kids were happy and excited. Josh and I have been walking them to the bus stop, which is in the neighborhood but about a 7 minute walk away. We've waited with them and then taken Millie on a walk around the neighborhood as the new daily routine. It's been really nice.

I love that the kids are enjoying school and also love the walks I've gotten to have with Josh and Millie. The quiet day hasn't had a chance to settle yet because I've been too busy with other things, but I'm sure the shock of quiet will hit me soon enough.