I Didn't Know You Could Swim at Mt. St. Helens?!?

When a friend asked me if we wanted to accompany her and her 5 punkins to Mt. St. Helens, I quietly, whispered, "okay". We then agreed not to speak of it until the night before we were to leave.

So, last night, 10 p.m. said friend called and asked if we were still on. We agreed to wait until the morning to decide. Not that we're last minute people or anything!!

8:45, friend called and said it's a go from her end. I couldn't think of a reason not to go besides work so I woke up the kids and we hurriedly dressed, packed only junk food and headed out.

Now, when friend and I decide to do something we're aware of the stresses involved in getting out of the house and managing 10 punkins with varying personalities. We have an unspoken agreement to not cause each other stress and just go with the flow.

This time around it was her invite so my job was to say all the right things that would make the trip stress-free!!

I called her 5 minutes from her house and she headed out. "Just go down the hill, turn right and meet me at Fred Meyers." she said. I went down the hill, turned right and got on a freeway.

I called her back. "Okay. I've pulled off the freeway. I'm at a Fred Meyers. Is it the same one you're at?"

"No."

"Okay. You come to this one."

"Sure thing."

When she got there, we exchanged kids. I took all the boys, except her youngest punkin, and she took S and her girls.

When we were about 15 minutes from Mt. St. Helens, we saw the Road Closed Ahead sign. Okeedokee!!

We discussed Plan B. We didn't really have a Plan B, but she made one up. I listened, smiled appropriately and assured her, "I'm right behind you. You drive. I follow."

We arrived at Plan B which turned out to be quite hot, dry and full of ants, flying ants, crawling ants, lots of ants. We ate quickly and discussed a Plan C. Didn't really have that either, but, I listened, smiled appropriately and assured her, "I'm right behind you. You drive. I follow."

Plan C turned out to be quite fun. Plan C involved a lake which had a swimming area. "Do your kids have extra clothes?"

"Three of them do."

"Cool. Three of mine do too. The others, they can drip dry."

The kids were swimming, playing on logs, having a grand time. "So, would you like to hear the conversation I had with all the boys while driving here?"

"Sure."

"Well, we discussed marriage and how your son doesn't want to get married because of his dad's adultery. Then, your son explained to my M how boys go through feelings about girls. 'Sometimes, it's (lowers voice), no, then, it changes to yes, then back to, (lowers even more) no, then it's yes, then, well maybe, then, YESYESYES (pumping arms).' I explained that right now M is at the no stage and everyone else is between the yes and YES YES YES stage. We all died laughing."

"Then we discussed girls/sex/their feelings on girls/hormones/girls checking them out/them checking girls out/marriage/relationships/infidelity/hormones/what's normal at their ages and, finally when they started tossing cookie pieces at one another due to their embarrassment, I decided the conversation was over and turned up the music really loud so no one could hear each other talk. You know I don't back away from any conversation about hormones/sex, etc, but I decided that while their curiosity wasn't quite satisfied, their embarrassment was enough.......until next time. And, I know there will be a next time and assured them that eventually they would actually be able to talk about sexuality without being embarrassed."

"So," I asked, "What did you and the girls talk about?"

She started laughing and replied, "Waterfalls and how pretty they are."

Clearly she missed out.

There were so many times the boys and I were laughing so hard living this thing we call life.