What was I thinking?

I had a great weekend. It was busier than my normal ones. I seemed to be constantly coming or going somewhere. I had the opportunity to babysit Emma and Tanner Sat. night and for some reason I decided that we should go out as well. This is not my normal thought pattern. Usually I am all about a nice quiet (ha, ha) evening at home with the children, but for some reason I deviated from the norm and decided we should have a night out too. So the big plan was to get some kids meals, go to the school playground, get some ice cream, head back home for baths and bed. I think that sounded pretty easy, well thought out and manageable. Little did I know that the whole evening would turn out just a little different.
I always over do it. And to remain consistent with this particular weakness I got too much food. Well, I was uncertain what they really would eat, so I got a little of everything. Which in the end proved not only wasteful but somewhat of a blessing.
So on to the playground. We parked a little ways off, at the library. Emma immediately started insisting that she didn't want to go to the library and that she DID want to carry her chocolate milk. Upon hitting the pavement Tanner took off in the wrong direction, toward the sprinklers and wide open spaces while I tried my best to balance the too many bags of food I had purchased. Luckily, Tanner stopped short when he hit the sprinklers and re-routed his escape in the only direction available which happened to be towards me. I grabbed his hand which he protested to - loudly. We were going to make it to the playground, I could see it just ahead. The gate was locked. I couldn't figure out how to open it. Defeat...
So now I had to get the food and two hungry and greatly disappointed darlings back in the car and find some place else. My memory clicked on and I remembered that someone had told me about a really nice playground at Muskegon State Park. That sounded terrific. Beach and playground. How could I go wrong?
In the ten minutes it took to get there Tanner fell asleep. So Emma and I had a pleasant talk as she insisted that she should be drinking her chocolate milk NOW. What a cruel Grandma I turned out to be, taking it back.
There was no playground at the park, but hey, I got my sticker for the season. (Although I don't know if I really want to go there without a playground.) but we found lovely picnic tables right in the parking lot. There were a couple of trees that were shading the parking spaces to our right, close enough.
I got everything set up. Emma was in heaven with the milk. She wasn't interested in anything else. Thank heaven I didn't show her the toys, she wouldn't have wanted the milk. I woke up a sleepy Tanner and he literally dove into the food. Well the blessing of having too much food was that I had a nice variety. Chicken nuggets...no, french fries (greasy and now cold)...yes - a couple, yogurt...yum. Then Emma was determined to eat the yogurt by herself. Oh course I didn't want to be an over protective, stifling kind of grandma... independence was a good thing. Two seconds later she had somehow turned the yogurt upside down and now it was all on the dirty table. I did not have enough napkins to clean it up and clean up Emma so I chose to clean up Emma (who was looking at her hand like it was diseased and not at all pleasant.) My last hope was the dish of mandarin oranges...a big hit. Tanner squirmed from my lap as I cleaned up Emma. In less than one milliliter of a second his head came up from somewhere down below and he was spitting up sand. His face was covered and his mouth was enjoying a serving size large enough to fill a sippy cup. I got him back on my lap, brushed off the sand as best as I could and before I could take any more steps of recovery, his hands were in the sticky orange juice and gobbling up all the oranges he could. Yuck! I still had my sense of humor and it was pretty funny. We made quite a picture. Then boom! Emma had slipped on the yogurt. She had it all down her arms and it had kerplopped all down my side and all over my shorts. Now we did have a serious problem. I knew I did not have enough napkins to come close to cleaning up this mess. Tanner started his screaming in earnest as I struggled to reason with Emma that we could just wash her off in the lake. Ahh the lake. It was what seemed miles away from us. Tanner wanted the birds. He was screaming and pointing to the birds. Emma needed attention and Tanner was in need of de-sanding.
This is getting pretty lengthy and there is more to tell...oh no...it doesn't stop there. (I'll save part two of this story for another blog.) We made it across the dessert sands to the shore of Lake MI and I got them washed off. Emma's diaper was sagging happily as she pranced along. Tanner skirted the water as much as he could and was not happy about the face wash. But then as I was trailing off behind them, trying to make sure the mishaps did not continue, I looked down and there in the sand were these two sets of footprints. One of a tiny little boy and one of a slightly bigger little girl. I looked behind me to see my own set intertwined with theirs. I stopped to watch them for a moment and soak it all in.
Tanner was pointing to Emma and doing his little grunts. Emma was trying to keep far ahead of him, being the big, independent girl that she is. I yelled for her to stop. I told her I thought Tanner wanted her. She stopped and then Tanner toddled up to her and gave her a hug, a big wet sandy hug around the middle. Emma giggled, happy with the attention. Tanner looked up at her rather expectantly. I wondered what he was thinking. Emma ran a little further and then stopped. She turned to face her little brother as he tried to keep up. Then she flung her arms around him and gave him the most sincere hug and laughed.
What was I thinking to take these two on a date of their own, all by myself? I was thinking exactly what I should be thinking, how lucky I am. What a memory, what a blessing...