The Gold Standard

We left for the mountains this morning over an hour after our targeted departure time.   I dislike being late but some of the reason was my fault.   It was one of those mornings when nothing goes your way but we made the best of things and left as soon as we could.  One of the problems was my car wasn't charged to 100%

This was odd because I'd set it to charge the prior day with my husband using the Tesla phone app.   My husband figured out the problem—I had charged his car instead of mine.   It's not good to let a car sit at full charge as it degrades the battery quickly.   We needed to burn some range miles off my husband's car and the fastest way to do that was to drive around a bit.  

My husband took care of the rest of our issues at the house while I drove to Starbucks to get the children kids drinks, the dog a puppcchino, and me a chai latte.  I drove the entire way there and back with the heat on high for the sole purpose of draining the battery more quickly. 

We arrived for a late lunch at my parent's house after two excited children got to greet their long lost COVID-19 grandparents.   The dog (who has never been here before) is equally pleased to have a new yard to investigate and the added attention of two of her favorite people. 

After lunch, my children wanted to play and have been doing a lot of creative play with and without Mimi. One of the most exciting things for their play is some guns my father made years ago in Steampunk fashion.  The guns are all different (and of course non-functional) with creative names like the first one in the pictures below, named “The Gold Standard”.

There are several more on the floor below the ones my father mounted.   My son loves them all. 

The Big Boy Update:  We were eating out on the deck for lunch after arriving.   The children were done eating but I told them we were having family time and they needed to stay outside until we were all done.  They were good for a while but then it started to rain and my son wanted to know if, "staying outside" included going downstairs and out into the rain.   Both he and his sister wanted to go run and romp in the rain that had just started.   We released them to the wilds of the mountain and the rain.   The couldn't have possibly been happier in that moment. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter brought a blanket to the mountains that's her new favorite.  It's old and something I sewed close to twenty years ago.   She likes to climb inside via the one-foot opening I never sewed up when I turned the material into a makeshift blanket.   She managed to get completely cocooned while keeping her seatbelt on in the car.