Flying Glasses and a walkabout Panzer...

This morning we all woke up with one goal in mind.

Get out of the house!!

So, we got up, got clean and got dressed and made our way to Panzer. Our long day out started with meeting up with Megan and her kids, Alora and Ethan at the bowling alley. The kids played together in the little play areas until around lunch time, whenever their little bellies and ours began to make very loud and distracting noises. After having a bite to eat we all headed off base for a nice relaxing walk on the bike paths around Panzer. Or so we thought...

To begin with, Alora and Rhys ran off ahead of us, and stayed ahead of us the entire time. They would race off together until we called to them, and sometimes even after. Apparently stubborness is a genetic trait after all. During the process of sprinting ahead of us, Rhys' loose trousers would occasionally drop to his ankles. While the act itself was hilarious, Rhys couldn't quite get up the run the same as before. What was our solution? A pink belt. Yes, a *pink* belt. Megan just happened to have a belt that belonged to Alora and offered to let Rhys use it.

I, of course, was against any such thing. As it turned out, I was the one that put it on him. Below is a picture of me, shamefully hiding my face as my son has this girly accessory applied to him. As you can see Rhys didn't look to happy about it either. Thankfully, his jacket covered it so the many German walkers and bicyclers that we passed didn't have anything to snicker about. Em and Megan snickered for them.

Now, traveling with four kids and three adults in the woods, in the cold is no easy task. There were plenty of breaks for watering, feeding and much ingesting of sugar. During one of these stops a stroller decided to roll off on its own. Unfortunately, Ethan was in it at the time! We were able to grab that naughty stroller before it made off too far with him though. Ethan thought it was hilarious.

During our walk, we passed quite a few walks and runners. It turns out the path has some health related gear on it, including some balance beams and a pair of pull up bars. As we passed the pull up bars, Em and I professed our inability to do a pull up. Megan on the other hand began bragging about the fact that using her legs, she could spin around in circles on the bar. Em and I both kinda looked at each other for a moment questioningly, and Megan took off to show us what she was talking about.

After a few attempts to "mount" the bar (which was funny in itself), she finally assumed the pose that would start what would be a ten minute ordeal. As she began to spin, I wondered how fast a German ambulance could arrive where we were. She span, she screamed, she laughed and then stopped. After stopping, she gasped and announced to us that her glasses were gone! Apparently through the process of spinning her glasses were launched from her face, into the air, and eventually found their way back to earth to be lost on the expansive bed of dry leaves that covered the whole forest. After a few minutes of frantic searching and Rhys having one of his famous screaming tantrums, we eventually found the wayward glasses. While Megan was laughing about losing them, she seemed quite relieved to have them back.

After that fiasco, we decided to make the arduous journey back to Panzer. The trip back wasn't nearly as exciting as the trip out. The kids were all tired from all the running they did and we were all tired from carrying/pushing the tired kids. In the end, we all made it back home, safe and sound.

All in all, today was interesting, fun and scary all at once. I think we all enjoyed the trip and look forward to doing it again. Well, most of it anyway.

I just have two things left to say:

1) No children/strollers/glasses were harmed during the making of this day/blog.

2) Megan, you owe me 35 dollars for fixing your dishwasher. :)