Six Flags, etc.

Saturday we went with Jeremy's family to Six Flags over New England, which is in Hartford about an hour from where we live. Remarkably enough, I never went on a single roller coaster the whole day, and I still had a really fun time. I did get to ride the Cold Spaghetti Ferris Wheel, the something-or-other Helicopters, and the Airplane ride with Reuben. The best part of the day was spent in the water park. They have a playground + water set up in the children's area, but Reuben didn't much care for the playground part, he was fully entertained just running around in the surrounding shallow pool, occasionally throwing himself down face first in the water.

Last week I manged to finish Reuben's quilt (quil-o actually, it folds up into a pocket on the back and becomes a pillow), and I'm a third of the way through making Anna's. I had really wanted to make each of my kids some sort of baby blanket, and finally hit on the idea of making a lap size blanket that can double as a pillow. Hopefully it'll be something they can use for years to come, particularly on road trips and camping trips. I'm using the simplest quilt design known to woman, and it's actually gone pretty quickly. I should have Anna's done in a week or less, now that I've got the bugs worked out of the pattern.

Over the weekend Jeremy's unit was helping with a mass Iraqi Police recruiting mission for the stations they're working with. I forget how many people they processed, including security screening and all that, but the first day alone they processed 200, so I'm thinking it was somewhere between 400-600 by the time it was all over. Those made for some long days, not that they have many short days under normal circumstances of course.

Monday Jeremy had me send him some shaving gel and body wash that the base store was out of, and as soon as I got back from the post office he remembered that he needed razor blades too. Tuesday I didn't have a babysitter available, so it was off to get the razor blades and mail them (with some homemade cookies this time) with two small children in tow. Shopping for the razor blades was simple enough, Reuben in the stroller and Anna in the arm that wasn't pushing the stroller. Our post office was built in the 1800s, beautiful building, but no handicap/stroller ramp. To make matters worse, I don't parallel park too well, so I ended up parking a block away, and then discovered Reuben had fallen asleep. So I was carrying him in one arm, and Anna in her car seat in the other, with the package sitting on top of her for a full city block, plus a full flight of stairs. Reuben weighs around 25 pounds, and Anna in the car seat seemed to weigh about the same, though how that's possible I don't know. On the way back to the car I was pretty sure I was going to collapse right there on the sidewalk before I made it to the car, but I guess all those years of canoeing and the grace of God made up the difference. That's the last time I attempt another trip to the post office with two kids though. ;)