ADVENTURES FOR TWO KIDS

Four of the last five days involved me parenting only three of the little Ws.  It never ceases to amaze me how much family and household dynamics change when one person is gone, regardless of which person it is.  It's neither better nor worse, just different.  

Anyway, let me tell you about who was gone and what they were doing. 

Silas was gone for three days. A friend of his invited him along for an annual "man-cation" he and his dad take, so I dropped him off at the friend's house on Monday morning for a trip to central Oregon. He camped, went fishing, made a bunch of survival bracelets, skipped rocks over in the river in the booming metropolis of Spray, looked for fossils in ... wait for it ... Fossil, hiked the Painted Hills, looked for petrified wood, ate at a couple restaurants, found cool rocks, discovered evidence of an unofficial shooting range, checked out emus, cougars, peacocks, antelope, and other critters, and stopped at the Bonneville Dam Museum.  We picked up a super happy and slightly tired kid from Bible study on Wednesday night.  

Devon was gone for one day.  One of the church grandmas asked if she could have him for a day, so Tim dropped him off on his way to a basketball tournament Friday morning.  He drank a strawberries and cream frappucino from Starbucks, watched Monsters University at the theater, ate at a couple restaurants, watched a bit of the Beavers playing in the College World Series on TV, saw a couple hot air balloons, played on an iPad, watched Storm Chasers, successfully hid from the church grandpa when he came home, and went swimming.  We had a very happy and slightly tired kid delivered to our home about eleven hours after he left.