Last weekend, Steve wanted to go visit some friends of ours down in the Valley, but because my head had been aching all week, I figured it might be better for me not to travel. Solution? Steve took Jack and Maggie, and I had a special "sleepover" with Clark.
I was a little nervous when Steve sent me this picture only an hour after leaving of his flat tire...
But after a quick change with the spare (and two VERY patient children, apparently) and a stop at Big-O, they were back on their way to the Valley, where they had what looked like an epic water-balloon fight.
Apparently, Maggie wasn't too impressed with the whole "get people wet" thing, so she just sat in the safe zone, holding her purple water balloon the entire time. Hey, whatever works!
Jack, on the other hand, apparently jumped right in!
After that much energy, they had a movie day with all of the kids (who, surprisingly, fit!). This is also around the point when Steve texted to let me know that Maggie had peed her pants all over the Montierths' living room.
The only response I could come up with? "Well, at least they have tile!"
Up here on the mountain, I was totally prepped to make the day awesome for Clark, especially to ensure that he didn't feel left out because Maggie and Jack got to go on a trip.
I went to a temple session that morning, then came home and said, "All right, little guy--what do you want to do?!"
"Ummmm...." he looked around. "Can we play Tinker Toys?"
I was surprised-- "Sure! We can do that!" I grabbed several pillows so I'd be able to sit on our floor, and we played Tinker Toys until Clark started acting bored.
"Okay!" I got enthusiastic. "Now what do you want to do?"
His face brightened up. "Can we play Life?"
"Life? The board game?" He nodded. "Sure, we can do that!"
So we played Life for a while (with the special 4-year-old rules Clark tended to make up on the spot), after which I let him play PBS kids (an app on my phone) while I took a nap for a bit....he ended up doing the same, and after nap time, my dad called to let us know that my cousin, Dustin, his wife, Brittany, and their two kids were in town and wanted to go to Tom's Pond to do some fishing and swimming.
"Clark! Wanna go fishing?" I asked enthusiastically.
"YES!!!"
We met everybody at Tom's Pond (Brittany and Dustin's kids, Elliot and Gibson, apparently like the skinny dipping version of swimming better than swimsuits), and I sat on the beach and talked to the grown-ups while the kids played in the water. It was blissful!
Told you--Gibson wasn't a fan of the idea of wearing a swimsuit the whole time...
We hung out for a while, and as we began to pack up, Clark came out and started to get excited about the idea of fishing. My brother, Abe, had been fishing the entire time with no luck, so I asked him if he would be willing to let Clark hold his fishing pole while we got all of our stuff put back in the car. He willingly agreed, I snapped a picture, and thought, "Good! Kept up my end of the bargain--he can hold the pole for 5 minutes or so and it'll count as fishing!"
Two minutes later, Abe started shouting: "He caught one!!!" I watched them reel in a bass, and laughed till my sides hurt at the idea of Abe fishing all that time with no luck, when Clark caught a fish in two minutes after putting a hook in the water.
"Abe--what were you using for bait?" I asked curiously.
"Uh....nothing..." he muttered sheepishly.
"You were fishing with a bare hook?" I was incredulous.
"Yeah...."
I laughed. "Well, apparently having a little bait on the hook makes a big difference!"
Clark would agree. Elliot was fascinated and kept trying to touch the fish:
And approximately two seconds after I took this picture, the fish flopped so hard that it worked its way off the hook and onto the dock, where it flopped itself back into the water.
Clark was initially disappointed, but I just told him that the fish had been too small to eat, so we'll try to catch it next time we go and see if it's gotten any bigger. That helped to staunch the disappointment.
After the pond was my cousin's Eagle Court of Honor, which (true Flake style) was followed up by a big dinner in the cultural hall of the church. During that time, the younger cousins figured out that McKay makes a pretty good jungle gym:
And lest you think this is a lot of kids, this wasn't even half of the family!
By this time, Clark was getting pretty tired. I had promised him ice cream (he earned ice cream for not sucking his thumb for two weeks straight), so we went to Bashas' and got him some birthday cake flavored ice cream, which he then proceeded to lick at about a rate of once per minute while it melted all over his hands...
But he enjoyed talking to my mom and I. And I could tell that he felt really special getting some time with just him. This whole divide-and-conquer thing really works, I can tell ya! By that night, he was exhausted, so I let him have a "sleepover" on the floor in my room, where he straightaway proceeded to break his no-sucking-his-thumb-for-two-weeks record... but because he looked so sweet, I couldn't really mind.
Meanwhile, at the Monteirths', Steve said that Jack and Maggie went to sleep pretty easily, as well.
Do you remember being able to comfortably and contentedly sleep on the ground? My kids actually seem to prefer it!
It never ceases to amaze me how well behaved my kids tend to be when they're not all together. It really doesn't matter what combination they are in--take one out of the mix, and the other two will get along swimmingly. Put all three together, and...well, it's cats and dogs.
But--I sure wouldn't trade a single one of 'em!
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