Friday, September 30, 2011

chapter six: bugs and lemonade


When we got back from the country on Sunday, Danny took a big honkin' nap. He fell asleep in the car and didn't wake when we brought him inside. His afternoon nap ended at 8:00 pm. Lovely. He was still awake at 3:00 Monday morning. Oh, vacationing with the little people. How I love it so!

Cate stayed up way too late on Sunday too. At one point I was in bed asleep and she brought me a plastic tea cup filled with water. That's a fun way to be woken up. She asked me if I wanted a drink. I asked her where she got the water. Her reply, "From the white thing." My first thought was that she fished out some water from the toilet. Gross, but I wouldn't put it past her. It's water that she can reach. I'm not sure if she can turn on Grama Bama's faucets.

I asked her which white thing, the sink or the toilet. To my relief she said sink. Then I made her dump out the water and get back in bed. Good times.

Monday morning we took a little drive with Grandpa up to his office on campus.



There's lots of bugs to look at in Grandpa's office.

Ginormous cockroaches.



We got to watch Grandpa feed them some carrot slices.

Nobody wanted to pet the cockroaches. Thank goodness.



Grandpa brought out more bugs for us to look at. Dead ones this time.



Guess who got 100% on her bug collection in 7th grade science.

That would be me.

I helped my dad catch all the bugs. He didn't just give me ones he already had. Honest. He mostly did all the pinning and labeling though. He did make me look up in the book and figure out the bug names. Then he typed the names for the teeny tiny labels. Oh, mine was a beautiful bug collection. I almost wish I'd saved it. Or at least taken a picture of it.

I hope Grandpa is somewhere close by when my kids have bug collections to turn in.



Danny posed on the front steps of Grandpa's building. He's such a good sport. He even smiled for me.



We left Grandpa with his bugs and took a walk up the street. It was hot. It was humid. Really really humid. Oh, and it was closing in on lunch time. All that added up to a few tired and grouchy people on that short walk. Next time we visit it will not be in the summer.

Dan got a good workout lugging Cate up the road. I can't remember now (since this trip happened almost two months ago) but I probably toted Danny on my hip the whole way.

Dan and Cate posed in front of Samford Hall.



A little posing with me and the kids in front of the sign.

Guess who was the tiredest and grouchiest.

Not me this time.



A little Heisman pose by Dan.

Poor little Cate.



We walked a little further up the road to pose in front of the sad, dying oak tree.

That's why Danny and Dan are making sad faces. I'm not sure what Cate's doing.



We crossed the street for some much needed lemonade and air conditioning!



I love Cate's sour face reaction to the lemonade.



It was yummy lemonade. I should know. I ended up drinking most of it because they thought it was sour...even after we dumped sugar in it.



We sat on the bench outside to wait for Grandpa to pick us up. I told Dan to take a picture of me and Cate. I had no idea that huge mural was behind us though. I wondered why Dan was scooted so far back. Now I know.



A little closer and you can tell that lemonade is still sour.



Yikes. Too close.



It was a fun morning.

Cate had so much fun she decided to start looking for a place to stay there permanently.




p.s. You can buy a scarf that looks like a roll of toilet paper. If that seems weird to you, you're probably not from Auburn. If that's the case, read this and then you'll be in the know.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Such great pictures! Although, I'm more partial to the lemonade as opposed to the bugs.

Unknown said...

Excellent post. But I have a few comments:

1. If all 4 of us did not get 100% on our bug collections in Jr High then we have a problem. I know I did. I'm pretty sure it was the rhinoceros beetle that no doubt was not collected in Auburn. But it's A for effort, right?

2. How wonderful that all of us have pics of our children with those sweet, huge, disgusting hissing cockroaches?

3. The photos on the steps of Funchess Hall would only have been topped by photos on the inner stairs in front of the big stuffed bear & swordfish hanging from the walls that gave me nightmares for years. Smart parenting move not making the kids pose there.

4. Any picture of kids w/ parents in front of Samford Hall or the Auburn sign or Toomer's Oaks is precious, regardless of facial expressions, bodily discomfort due to heat & exhaustion, or what have you. War Eagle!

5. The lemonade is sour. But come on - it's made with lemons! I too enjoy Catiebug's sourface expression. Wish I could have been there to enjoy Auburn with the kids!

6. If Cate gets an apartment in Auburn I'm moving in with her.

and finally

7. I posted a link recently about those cool toilet paper-ish scarfs on my facebook page and I'm pretty sure some amazing mother has already ordered me one for my birthday. Woohoo!!!!!!!!

Awesome post as usual sis. Even better since you showed all the highlights of the loveliest village on the plains. Great job. And give kisses to those cranky kids of yours from Auntie Jenny!!