Day 1457. Tammy had somewhat of a rough night because of her stuffy nose and cough and woke up crying quite a few times. Everyone was up around 7 am this morning, and Randy took them downstairs for breakfast, while I started packing everything. I had a student at 8:30 and sat down to teach, while everyone else was downstairs. It then turned out that our lesson was supposed to be at 8 am; it was my mistake, and she did not want to start it as late as it was. So I went downstairs to also eat something for breakfast. We finished packing everything up and said good-bye to our friends. Before we left, we took some pictures together.
We were able to leave at 9:45 on our 3 hour-drive south. However, it ended up being nearly 4 hours, with a potty break as well as a stop to fill up the car with gas. Just after 1:30 we arrived at our friend's house in Atascadero. She had a dog in a crate that the kids really wanted to pet, but they had to wait until after lunch. Our friend had cooked a meal, and so we sat down to eat it. After the meal she let the dog out, much to the kids' delight. Sammy was the most happy and stayed close to the dog all day, asking for him, when we were not together. Emmy was fearful as usual, at least to start with. She also has cats and one was sleeping in the house, so they got to see it and pet it - until it ran away.
It was nap time for them, and my friend's friends had agreed to put us up for the night. At 2:40 pm we left to drive the 10 minutes to their house. They were very nice and showed us around. We were gonna have a whole house to ourselves. I put the kids straight to bed and lay down with them, while Randy was unloading the car. It was a little challenging at first, but then they finally all fell asleep, all next to each other in a big bed. I then went to our bedroom across the hall and lay down there for my own nap.
By about 4:45 they were all awake, and so we got ready to leave the house and go to the nearby park, where our friend was gonna meet up with us, so the kids could play at the playground. We got there just before 5:30 and started walking to the playground to meet up with her. We passed by a war memorial, and a passerby asked if she could take a picture for us. Then we continue on and found the really nice playground as well as our friend. Sammy had been asking for the dog the whole time and was really happy to see that she had brought him along. He then just petted him for the longest time, while Randy talked to our friend.
The kids really enjoyed the playground, and enjoyed the double swings. There was a big seat on one end, and a simple, normal seat on the other. I sat on that seat and swung the kids sitting on the other really high. They also did a lot of climbing on all the equipment there.
More and more people were coming with chairs and sitting down near where a local band had sat up. Our kids were a little curious and checked it out. There was a little lake there, and Randy took the boys there to look at the ducks. After nearly 2 hours at the park, and with the sun starting to go down, we decided it was time to leave. Together we parked to the parking lot, where we said our good-byes. Around 7:20pm we drove off.
We needed to go to a grocery store to buy a few things, including something to eat for dinner. We put Sammy into the kid seat in the cart, then the other two also wanted to sit inside. We spent about half an hour at the store buying what we needed. Then we drove back to the house to eat. It was 8 pm by the time we got there, and they were pretty hungry. I quickly put the food into the microwave, then we sat down to eat it. They all ate pretty decent amounts, then we had dessert. Once done it was time for a shower, then their pj's, and they insisted on a bedtime story. And so it got pretty late. I couldn't believe they were still all awake at 9:30 pm! I finally walked away, going into our bedroom opposite theirs and starting to work on the computer. Tammy has been having a rough night again, coughing, and joined us in our big bed around midnight. No it's 1 am, and I keep fighting against my eyes falling shut.
