DAY 19 – Valentine’s Day Kite Flying!
We woke up this morning with an almost-empty propane tank. Since we had to move the RV anyway (to the propane filling station), we decided it was a good time to clean house. I have no idea how the boys manage to get their toys scattered to every corner of the RV. The nice thing about RVing is…the house is so small that cleaning it goes lickety split! We got everything done, pulled in the slides, pulled up the jacks, and drove the 1/10th of a mile to fill up. We also picked up three packages at the office that Ali had shipped to us. One was some medicine (easier than getting refills transferred temporarily), one was a box of Valentine’s Day gifts for Max and Mason, and the last was a box of gifts for me and Richard! Very cool!
When we got back to our spot, we put the slides back out, put the jacks back down, and got ourselves hooked back up to electricity, water, sewer and cable. Then, the boys finally got to open their Valentine’s Day bags. Mason likes his “Cars” book the best. It has buttons that make (really loud and annoying) brake-screeching and horn sounds (what was I thinking?!). Max liked his kite the best (from Ali) and Richard REALLY liked his box of books.
We are planning to attend Burning Man in 2011. I bought Richard several books about it. He spent most of yesterday afternoon reading them. I can’t wait to read them, too! We’d love to hear from anybody else who has or plans to attend Burning Man!
I got candy and a romantic magnetic frame. Richard had even pulled out the printer and hooked it up to print a picture of us to put on it!
We didn’t want to fight the VDay crowds at dinnertime so we went for a late lunch / early dinner (linner) and the meal was outstanding, second only to the service. The older kids have been giving me a hard time about Mason’s hair being so long (he doesn’t want to cut it and I think he’s adorable anyway). There was another boy at the restaurant with hair longer than Mason’s. I took his picture to send it to the older kids. Heh…
Anyway, I noticed during lunch that Richard looked a bit red. He’d been in the direct sunlight when he was working outside the RV.
He’s not supposed to be in the sun between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. because it can cause him to get vasculitis that can then last for months, and necessitate Prednisone.
Think of it as sort of a sun allergy. We kinda forgot about the 10 to 3 rule because in Bangor, during the winter, we’re not outside this time of year anyway. The boys wanted to fly their kites in the afternoon after lunch but I wouldn’t let Richard go back out into the sun. He was happy to sit in the RV and read his books anyway.
I took the boys to the beach with their new kites from Ali and the wind was just about perfect. Not too strong but blowing almost steady. We unfurled the kites and let them go and it was SO MUCH FUN! Even Mason was able to hold on and make it fly. It was his very first kite-flying experience. The kites did some loop-de-loops on occasion, much to the delight of the boys. The surf was very calm, it was bright and sunny, and there was almost nobody else on the beach. Best of all, it was warm enough to take off my winter coat!
After awhile, a seagull walked up to Max and started squawking at him. Max got a huge kick out of that. It never got close enough to touch but it was definitely yelling at Max. He finally stopped laughing and said, “What’s he want, Mom?”
I replied, “He’s asking if you have any Cheetos in your pocket.”
That set off another chain of giggles for Max and Mason. Other seagulls came nearby, too, even though we weren’t feeding them anything. I pointed out the juveniles vs. the adults and told the boys we’d come back out tomorrow with the bird field guide so we
can read exactly what type they are, what they eat, how they live, etc. There was one tiny bird out there that walked very, very fast and, when he walked, his head moved rapidly front to back. The boys thought he was hilarious, too. After awhile, Max showed the squawking seagull that his pockets were empty and he seemed to give up and flew away.
I let Max bury himself in the sand. I sent a picture of it to Richard with a note that said, “Your turn for laundry!”
When the sun started to set, we went back to the campground. After bathing the boys (tons of sand!!), we watched movies while the boys played and we had a small, light snack for dinner. We were still full from our big lunch and from all the Valentine’s Day chocolate. What a GREAT Valentine’s Day!!!
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