We didn't go to Vermont this weekend. We decided that for one night worth of camping, doing the whole packing, fight with kids, haul the dogs thing was just too much. Saturday was just stellar and beautiful... so we decided to go Geocaching. And that's when things got ugly.
Jessica, as many of you know, despises the activity of geocaching. She hates ANYthing that requires movement. She hates anything if it does not involve reading, listening to music, or watching TV. She moans and complains each and every time we take her out. This time was no exception, and she decided to turn up the defiance by about 50%. She went nuts. She refused to get out of the car. I took her MP3 player and told her she could have it back after we were finished geocaching. She said she didn't care. She fought, cried, freaked out and generally ruined the day. We were sitting on the side of the road, dogs on leashes... geoff 500 feet up the trail waiting. And she wouldn't come.
We begged, we pleaded, we dangled carrots in front of her obstinant donkey nose. She wasn't budging. So we decided if she wasn't going to enjoy the outside in a pastoral relaxing way, she was going to enjoy it in a back breaking yard work labor way. And we brought her home, and put her to work.
She weeded the garden. She weeded the driveway. She mowed the lawn. She walked up and down our street picking up trash and filling a bag (including 2 dead turtles and a dead frog). She did an exceptionally good job. And we told her that we anticipated that we'd be out until 8pm, so she wasn't allowed into the house until 8pm. After she did all the work while Doug and I sat and watched, we had a talk. "Next time you think being outside taking a walk is difficult and no fun, we've got a wood pile that needs consolodated, and a fire pit that needs rebuilt. Those will be your next tasks."
Sunday she went willingly with us on our geocaching, although she did start complaining after the first long hike. We did three of them, the weather wasn't nearly as nice as Saturday, but all told, we all got the exercise we needed and our yard looks spectacular.
Today Geoff gets to take the bus to cub scout camp, so I'm greatly looking forward to getting to the office early for a change. I have a lot of work to catch up on at the office, so I need to get the nose to the grindstone as it were. A week from right now we'll be waking up at my parents and heading off to western PA. I'm finding that really hard to believe.
Oh -- and I got the New Harry Potter Book. I have read over 500 pages of it and will probably finish it tonight. I am not enjoying it as much as the past books because I feel she's simply setting the stage for the unbelievable and tremendous final book in the series... I have a lot of thoughts on the tone of the book and what is going on with the story as well but I'll keep my mouth shut until I'm done and others have read.
On that note.
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