Amber Alert love

Wow…has it really over a month since I’ve last posted to this blog? That’s pretty pathetic, even for my standards. But! I do have an excuse! Not necessarily a good one, but an excuse none-the-less. My in-laws were in town.

Clever readers that you are, you probably already figured out that if Husband is a displaced Englishman, my in-laws are not locals either. So, when they pop in for a visit, they really are coming to stay. It’s a feast or famine situation—we’ll go for three months with little more than a weekly e-mail or phone call, then all of the sudden have three generations living under the same roof for three straight weeks. It’s crazy, but it is what it is.

Needless to say, when this set of grandparents is in town, little more can be scheduled into the kids’—and my own—agenda. (Ahem…including blogging.) We are all about maxing out every waking minute with bonding. Parks. Playgrounds. Museums. Walks. Beach trips. Even skiing. It’s a veritable cornucopia of family fun time.

On one particular day during this last visit, Grandma and Grandad offered to take the kids—all three—to the zoo. “Fabulous!” I thought. “I’ll be off to get my much-neglected hair cut while my kids demand train rides, corn dogs and gawking at displaced wild animals.” Overwhelmed with the thrill of my sudden ‘me time,’ I overlooked outlining the rest of the day’s schedule with my in-laws. In my defense, the zoo opens at 10 am and even with a full day there, I still figured that they would make it back before 4:30pm (in time for the boys’ karate class) without having to be asked. Yet, when 3:30pm…then 4pm…then 4:30pm rolled around, and there was no sign of the adventurers, I got a little worried. And a little more miffed. Did I really have to establish a curfew? With grandparents?

Apparently I did.

Somewhere between 4:30 and 5pm the troop collapsed back through the front door, tired, happy and having had a great time. But, excuse me, where had they been and why hadn’t they called? I smile through my irritation, knowing it comes from a warm and loving place. But next time I think I’ll micro-chip everyone. And I’ll add a pedicure to my own itinerary, too.