I took advantage yesterday of our school district's snow day by finally taking the kids on a surprise trip to go snowtubing in the Poconos. We had a blast. They kept trying to guess where I was taking them but couldn't get it and it was killing them. The mystery of it all was aided by the fact that I had pre-packed (without them seeing me do it) snowsuits, boots, gloves and hats into the back of the car. When we were about 1/2 hour from our destination, James spotted a billboard with a picture of someone snowtubing, so he finally guessed it.
It was awesome. We spent about three hours sledding down the hill in singles, doubles, and every combination of chains you can think of. Afterwards we warmed up by the fire with some hot chocolate, then headed home, stopping off at Perkins, where the kids consumed gigantic portions of breakfast food for dinner.
The only problem was that Veezy, my VZ Navigator GPS system on my phone, decided to take me a different way home than the way up, and then abruptly quit talking to me partway home. So we got a little lost and it took longer to get home than it did to get up there. To the tune of four hours door to door, including the dinner stop.
Translation: a carful of tired kids with a case of the Backseat Boredoms. The batteries on their various electronic devices all conspired to die at the same time. I had packed a few movies, but no one could seem to agree on which one to watch, or whether to watch any at all. There was bickering galore by the kids and wailing and gnashing of teeth by yours truly. Finally, within about ten minutes of home, a few of them decided to play the Silent Game. Brilliant, I thought. Why didn't I come up with that myself hours ago? However, about a minute into the game, Daniel started going, "PaCHAW. Pa CHAW." Everyone told him he lost but he maintained that he was allowed to do that b/c it wasn't talking. And so of course a heated debate ensued, discussing the Silent Game Rules.
The irony of the fact that the Silent Game was the cause of so much noise seemed to be lost on the kids.
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