The "Valley". That's where we go shopping, that's were Steven's house is, and that's where we get to go to Chuckie Cheeses. That is what the "Valley" of the sun means to our little Crew. To Mom (that rarely steps out of her cubicle) the "valley" takes on a whole new meaning.....it is her release from the norm, a break from the 4 walls that contain all my insanity (even though I load some of it up into little car seats). We spent last weekend making memories. Jason had meetings Friday so that left me with our two precious little trouble makers to do some shopping on our own. 1st stop Old Navy....we were done within 5 minutes of hitting the store ( I will spare you ALL the details BUT it involves 2 little boys, a stack of t-shirts nicely folded and a mannequin). Stop #2, Target. I took a little breath from our first incident of the day and said a little prayer pleading the remainder of the day wouldn't be spent cleaning up after little 'spills' my boys could conjure up and marched my way on into the store. Success....2hrs later (with everything I was looking for plus two happy little monsters that managed to still have smiles on their faces) we were out of there in perfect timing to pick up Big J and catch a bite to eat. Dinner may have not been as successful as our Target experience BUT at least I had the 'law' with me this time around to tame our wild beasts. Little Mr. JCrew, our little Wii champ, proclaimed he had finished his food and was ready to go play "rolling ball". Even though it was late we couldn't resist his pleas of wanting to go bowling. Crew's 1st bowling experience was endearing. Jason & I were on our toes all night....making sure he wouldn't throw it down another lane, throw it behind him, and keep him from running down the lane to make his ball go faster....while in the mean time passing Trip back in forth to one another taking shifts handling our bowling addict. Needless to say we all slept well that night and slept in the next morning. Day 2 we did our usual shopping run...Sam's Club, Costco, mall shopping. Somewhat uneventful besides the little temper tantrums that boys pull when they don't want to look at the "girl shopping stuff". Later that afternoon we did another Whiting first. We took our little monsters to the D-Backs game. Needless to say it was interesting. Crew was in ahhh of everything around him (for about the first 10 minutes) and Trip loved clapping along with the crowd when the D-Backs made a good play. All interest in the game was lost when Crew realized his neighbor next to him had a HUGE ice-cream cone and he had to have one. So we bargained a deal with Crew that IF he would sit still until the teams changed sides we would take him for a walk around the park! Teams changed sides and we were out of there. I think he had a better time walking around looking at all the vender's than watching the game. We went into the team shop to look for a hat (souvenir from the game) and showed Crew a D-Backs hat. He tells us "But mom, I got a hat see!?! I don't need a 'D' hat! My 'B' (Boston) hat is cooler, its like dads." And it was cooler so we left it at that. Two rambunctious little boys were ready to get out of there and ready for bed! It was nice going back to Aunt Claudia's, always so welcoming and comfortable, not to mention our boys love being there. Jason and I got our guys to bed and plopped down on the couch when Aunt Claudia & Jason's Dad (who was in the Valley for the weekend too) struck up a deal w/ us. She needed potatoes for Sunday, Ed needed a sugar fix, and we got an evening out to ourselves (minus a little grocery & dessert run). Thank you, thank you, thank you....we needed that. The next morning was busy, getting up, getting ready, packing our suitcase, double checking to make sure we got everything, and cleaning up our messes so we are welcome back when we come again. My least favorite part of getting away...coming back to my cubicle of insanity. Thank goodness for a husband who works here, there, and everywhere...and likes the company of his chaotic little family while traveling.
