mini-vaca

Velo-dude, Pinky, Curly & I went to the beautiful resort destination of the Quad Cities (southern IA-IL border) for Memorial Day. Big series of bike races, a pretty fun event that we used to hit just about every year. (before kids, that is)

Plan was to leave Friday evening right after work. Well, Friday morning I took a short but violent spill on the stairs at my house, full cup of coffee in hand, and hit the back of my head hard on the stairs. Pretty sure I had a minor concussion, finally felt mostly back to normal on Sunday.

Saturday in Burlington IA, the Snake Alley criterium, my favorite to watch. Velo-dude had a pretty good day, although he wasn't entirely satisfied with it. Spent some time with my boys down by the Mississippi River in the afternoon, here's a pic of them with my favorite Mississippi bridge behind them (truth be told, I haven't seen that many of them, but I still think this would be one of my favorites if I had). Curly is soaking wet due to a romp in the fountain that didn't make it into the picture.

Sunday race was at a truly beautiful park in Muscatine IA. Got to spend some good outdoor time with the boys, if only the city pool in the middle of the park hadn't been tempting us on the hot sunny day, only to be closed. Velo-dude had a migraine, but managed to finish his race, a small victory of sorts. Decided to take a break from fast food on Sunday night, so we sat ourselves down to a decent meal at a well-known chain I'll call...BananaBees. Velo-dude had been eyeing a table tent with a picture of a "mile high pie" on it, and we decided without much thought to order one for the table, with 4 forks. Velo-dude, Pinky, and Curly all dug in, and then I took a bite and immediately froze, recognizing the taste of peanut butter in my mouth. Stopped Curly, who suffers from a significant peanut allergy, from taking any more, and immediately confirmed with server that yes, it contained peanut butter, then talked Curly through it, making sure he was not feeling any danger signs. His eyes were as wide as can be, the poor little guy was FREAKED, as well he should have been. We completely lucked out...the pie truly was a mile high, and his fork never made it to the lower levels where the pb was found. Once we were certain he was not having a reaction, we ordered him a pb-free dessert of his own, and he calmed down. I am still appalled with myself for not having checked first. It is SO rare for us to go out to a sit-down meal, and rarer yet for us to order a dessert. But I am confident that this will put me back on my toes. Was also appalled to note that the epi-pen I had so carefully packed was back in the hotel room, not in my purse, at the time. It must suck to be my kid.

Monday's race venue was not great for the boys. Would have enjoyed watching more racing myself, but we ended up putting up some chairs and reading (or video-gaming if you're Curly) for a few hours. Drove home through lots of rain, got home around 10 pm, not too bad. I'm glad we went, but probably won't do that again for a while. Velo-dude would have more fun with his racer friends anyway, I tell myself.

Reading...I am getting into the habit of reading some of the same things Pinky is reading. It started with the Lightning Thief series earlier this spring, and I actually got into them, I always did have a thing for Greek mythology. But this weekend I couldn't find the book I had started, so I picked up another book Pinky had, and I must say it sucked. "Found". Terrible ending, only sucks you into the next in the series, really cheesy plot at the end, ugh. I read the whole thing Monday at the race and in the car. At least it's a quick read. I have the 4th in the mythology series waiting for me upstairs though, think I'd better go do that before I start studying in earnest again. Also started My Sister's Keeper, but I may have to put that one on hold for a while. I wish I could read guilt-free, instead of feeling like I should be studying all the time.