The adventure today was a visit to the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge. They are set up for classroom instruction (including chairs reserved for teachers and chaperones). But the exhibits catch enough interest that the kids are constantly in danger of learning something. Everybody had a good time. We’ll finish up with some swimming, reading, packing, and maybe a video. The flight back leaves at 8:15 tomorrow morning. We’ll be having breakfast on the secure side of the airport.

There’s no pics, so here’s some vignettes.

I usually go to Men’s club Monday mornings, where bagels are available for breakfast while we solve the problems of the world. Danita held breakfast until I had left for Men’s club and served Eggo waffles with ice cream. She told the kids, “Don’t tell Grandpop”. (Actually, I hatched the plan.) By dinner time Elizabeth couldn’t stand it any longer, and told me. Danita and I had fun with that. It was a nice way to offer a special treat, while offering a reason for doing it only once. A side effect was that Elizabeth became very alert to my location during breakfast. For example, when I took the recycles out Thursday morning, she asked Danita if I would be gone long.

This morning, I took the kids and a frisbee to “Snowden Lake” (our joke name for the storm water management pond). It has a large grassy area that’s shaded in the mornings. The kids were doing an extraordinarily good job of throwing, until somebody got a little too rambunctious and threw the green frisbee into the brush. How does one find a green frisbee in the green brush? I don’t know, because that’s when my alarm went off, warning me I had exactly 5 minutes to log into Southwest and get my boarding pass. (If you want 3 seats in a row on Southwest, you need a boarding pass with a low number.) I sounded the klaxon and had the kids running to the house. I was taking up the rear, to pick up shoes that literally fell of Bryon’s feet. I got logged in a minute before show time. Oh, well, it was a free frisbee, swag from some Columbia event.

There are some things I forgot about having kids around. For example, they are very good at turning lights on. Turning them off seems to be much more difficult. They are perfectly willing to leave them on until the bulbs burn out.

Monday afternoon, when we were filling time we thought was filled, I offered the kids the opportunity to solve a puzzle on my tablet. Since then, I get at least two requests a day for more screen time to work on the puzzle. I’m an anxious traveler and like to arrive at the airport early. We’ll have lots of time to kill at the airport tomorrow morning. I’m saving the interest for then.

Joke from Bryon: “Grandpop, what’s the difference between eggs in the store and elephants in the jungle”?

Me: “I don’t know”.

Bryon: “Nanna, I hope you don’t send Grandpop out for eggs.” (Actually, she did. I did not come home with elephants.)