Should we dress them in straightjackets?

"Should we dress them in straightjackets?" I ask my husband. "Do you think our hosts will notice?" I wonder with a smirk. "Are you sure you want to go?" checks my husband. "They invited all of us," I reply. "I guess we should review the rules." This is a teachable moment. We remind Child #3 that he must sit at the table and not wiggle. My husband adds, "No scratching your armpits. No touching your private parts." And for the two oldest, "No burping." Remember, this is a house of boys. The kids are in peels of laughter. We are all laughing. This is a real family. And they live with demented parents. There is no hope for them.

We arrive at our gracious hosts: Arlene and Bryce Geres. Arlene is a principal at Old Yale Road and one of my buddies. They are having us for lunch at their place in Mesa. They are brave. Fortunately, we are saved by the iPads. She has three. It keeps the three youngest busy while the rest of us visit and trade travel stories. Lunch is fabulous with my favourite--asparagus, then burgers all around, and huge bowls of salad. Bryce is a great chef. 

Child #3 is sitting on a chair with wheels. This is the wiggle boy. He discovers it rolls. Back & forth. I give head signals. Doesn't work. He stills rolls. He is smiling and having fun. Husband gives him cue. Child is oblivious. We carry on conversation and ignore child. I wonder who that child belongs to? Our hosts are kind to our children. We pack away ice cream sandwiches for dessert. We did not go over the rules well enough. Child #3 eats nothing but asks for a second dessert. I'm mortified but hosts are generous and pass seconds out to all the boys. 

We leave Mesa in a rainstorm that soon turns into snow. We pass several car accidents. I remind husband to go slower. I hang on to chicken bar. We arrive at Sedona in the dark. Sixteen year old must now go running with me in the snow. We tramp out in minus 2 degree weather. Not enough of a bootcamp. I make husband go for a walk with me. The snow-draped trees and cacti are quite magnificent. We have a fireplace in our room.  It feels like Christmas.

By Mom.

Snowing In Phoenix?

Sunday, March 18th.
Today, I decided to have a change from my usual breakfast. Waffles. Then, we left the hotel to go back to Sedona, on the way back there we went to stop at a friend of Mom's. In the car, our parents lectured us about etiquette: sit down, be quiet, no burping, no scratching your armpits... Till my Mom panicked because she had no flowers to give. Uh, oh... Fortunately there was a store nearby. We found the retirement home and as we pulled up to the drive my Mom realized she knew nothing about Mr. Geres. We males reassured her and helped her out: he's a male, he has a winter home in Phoenix, he's married, he's retired... We had delicious hamburgers and ice cream sandwiches and we visited till the rain and hail poured down so hard that we couldn't hear each other. When we left we drove down the newly created river and onto the road. On the drive, it was snowing extremely hard. However, we made it to Sedona safely. Mom and my oldest brother went for a walk and had a snowball fight (Mom won).

Ethan