The Penns Visit

Our Bismarck friends spent the weekend visiting while my friend Siri and her husband Jeremiah ran in the half marathon.  It was an action packed weekend for all 8 kids in the house.  The weather was a bit dismal at times, but for the most part it did not slow us down at all.  On Friday morning we spent some time at the very foggy and chilly rocky beach, hopping over rocks and throwing things into Lake Superior.  The boys built things with rocks.  The resident toddler splashed in the little puddles.  Squirmy wiggled around on my back.

My kidlets wait all year for the Whippersnapper race, and it was really fun for them to have lots of friends along this year.  It was also fun for me to hang out at the finish line, because there were so many of us there always seemed to be someone I was waiting for coming down the course.  Jeremiah stayed at home with the sleeping little people.  Siri started out the kids at the front of the race, making sure they got to the right heat at the right time.  I collected all the kids at the finish line.

The Banana was first.  Siri said she was a bit reluctant to go by herself, but when the race started she tore down the course, leaving the little girl she was holding hands with in the dust “because she was just going so slow, Mama.”  When I gathered her up at the finish line she said, “I was running so fast, so very fast that I could hardly feel my feet touching the ground.”

Micah wasn’t sure what the point of this race was, but look at how much fun he seems to be having.

Later that afternoon, when the babies were awake and on the move and all the big kids were refreshed with a snack and the to-be grown up runners had finished hydrating for a bit, we took a short hike to a waterfall at Lester park and did a bit of wading and splashing around in the creek pool.  All the kids explored, climbed a few rocks, discovered some crayfish lurking underwater on the bottom rocks, and some of them “fully submerged.”  There was a fly fisherman nearby who I’m sure really wished we’d leave already, but we splashed around until the resident toddler had a diaper issue.

Previous to having a diaper issue, that resident toddler had a LOT of fun throwing rocks in the water.  It was so much fun that sometimes she needed to sit down to do the job right.

Upon arriving home, Mr. SP removed his sandal only to find a most ENORMOUS leech on the bottom of his foot.  Clearly it had been feasting a bit.  It was nearly three inches long and had a diameter at least as big as my thumb.  He was more than a bit distraught.  Hysterical might be a better choice of word.  It WAS kind of disgusting.  I’ve never really been a fan of leeches, but I calmly pulled that guy off him with a washcloth and then placed it outside on the picnic table for any kid who wanted to examine it to get a closer look.  Later that night I couldn’t resist a bit of research about leeches, and I ended up learning quite a few things I didn’t already know.  There’s nothing like a leech to add a bit of drama to the evening.

On Saturday when the runners were off celebrating, Dr. Peds and I took all 8 kids up to the alpine coaster.  We all had so much fun that we went down twice.  The first time I rode with Mr. SP.  The second time I rode with The Banana.  I cannot contain myself on a roller coaster type of ride.  I have to do some screaming and some shrieking of “Yikes” when things get twisty.  Mr. SP said I was more fun to ride with than Dr. Peds because I was exciting.  The Banana said, “Mama, you sure do yell ‘Yikes’ a lot.  I think I’m really much braver than you.  I’m not screaming anything at all.”  I asked the other bigger kids if they screamed going down.  They looked at me like I was nuts and said they did not scream.  Josiah said, “I didn’t scream at all.  I just quietly enjoyed the ride.”

In between all the excursions out of the house (there were also a few trips to the park) was much playing.  There were several times when the kids organized themselves into a band and played piano with percussion orchestration.  There were light saber battles, games to be played, and lots of books to read.  They read by themselves.  They read things together.  YaYa and Signe spent a chunk of time on the deck with the bird call book listening to bird calls and analyzing them.  There were marshmallows to toast, and Jeremiah read everyone a storybook on his new ipad.  

Squirmy wasn’t quite sure what to think of his stroller companion.  She liked bonking him to see what kinds of sounds he would make.  When he didn’t want to wear his hat, she decided she did.  He didn’t care for that either.

When they left Sunday morning our house felt empty.  I kept waiting for more kids to fill up the room I was in.  It was so fun to watch all the kids playing together so well.  I remembered when all the biggest kids were babies and I used to wonder if they’d like each playing with each other in ten years.  It turns out they do.