T's on the Move

Darin and Nathan having Lunch at Ken's Work- That was a big day for the boys. First, at breakfast Ken didn't approve of Nathan's shirt he was wearing that day. I didn't either since it was old and slightly holey and too big for him. Not quite appropriate to wear to Ken's office. So he asked Nathan to change. Nathan didn't have any nicer clean shirts left. So, I took him to JC Penney's at a mall off the freeway. It took Nathan 45 minutes to pick out a shirt to buy. He was so cute though. First he was picking only button-up shirts with the collar and everything just like the shirts Ken used to wear at NI. I couldn't understand it at first, and finally he told me he wanted a shirt just like his Dad, and how his Dad would like that. So I talked him out of that and he moved on to polo shirts. And I had to talk him about that too, Ken just wears t-shirts now, nice fitted ones that show off his muscles:-) Finally Nathan picked a shirt. Here's a picture of the shirt.

I took the boys to get haircuts too, they needed it pretty bad. And since we were at JCP I decided to use their salon. It took FOREVER. Nearly 2 hours. They did each boy separately, I don't really know why since they had plenty of stylists free. They did a good job. But they main thing was that I (meaning me and whatever 3 kids I had at the moment) were pretty much on display for all of the stylists and customers walking by. The waiting area was right next to the women's dressing rooms and was out in the open. Everybody was super nice, and admiring us, but it felt like we were the circus attraction or the entertainment. They couldn't believe they were all mine (I only got that like 10 times a day during our trip, seriously people I'm not the nanny!), or they thought the girls were so cute (like I could disagree), or they were amazed by how Darin/Nathan played with Rose (again I can't disagree, they are great big brothers). Everyone would just stare and felt obligated to make a comment. All of the kids were beyond wonderful, even for my expectations of them, like they were out-of-this world wonderful. Which I was so thankful for because I seriously felt like I was on display.

Anyway, so the boys were all prepared to have lunch with their Dad. When I get to Ken's work, I call him and he came down to pick up the boys (Rose and Ginger had fallen asleep, and honestly I just craved a little bit of quiet time at that point in our trip, so I ate my lunch in the car by myself, I didn't even turn on my ipod, I know it's a miracle!). Anyway, so Ken comes out into the courtyard and the boys are so excited so I let them hop out and run to him. And boy did they run across the courtyard; they were racing each other and hopping over things, balancing on the curbing, and totally yelling out to their Dad. Of course everyone walking through the courtyard just stares. And the boys got to meet a few of Ken's co-workers outside. It was just funny to see people look shocked to see kids. They went up and ate in Ken's office, they were very impressed because it is the "library" for the developers. Basically a glorified office with bookcases, the whole trip Ken worked in there because his cube got filled with someone who actually works on-site. And a few guys stopped in and talked to the boys. They really liked Ken's admin because she told them that she wished her Dad was there, so he could take her out to lunch. They loved that an adult was pretty jealous of them. And of course Nathan showed off his shirt to his dad.

It was really good for Darin and Nathan to see Ken's work. Later that night before we picked up Ken we were eating our snacks and drinking Shirley Temples at the Manager's Reception at the hotel and the boys said "It's too bad Dad has to work, he doesn't get to have snacks like us." They were so sad and serious about it, keep in mind this is the 10th day of us being there and we would always go to the Manager's Reception before picking Ken up from work, and they had never seemed sympathetic for him before. Anyway, I said, "Ohhh, you should not feel very sorry for your Dad. He gets whatever snacks he wants." And then just looked at me like I was mean, and so I said, "Didn't he show you his Break Room?" Darin said, "What's a Break Room?" Ken hadn't shown them anything. So the next day, Friday, he took them up to his office again and showed them the break room. They've got it good there, they have everything in that room. Any kind of drink, from bottled water, sodas, juice, coffees, hot chocolate, milk, energy drinks, pretty much anything drinkable. They have Breakfast items like cereals, muffins, breakfast bars, bagels, fresh fruit not just apples and bananas, like nice sliced fruit like pineapple, kiwi, melons. They have munchy things like crackers, cookies, nuts, chips, even biscotti (Ken learned he liked those). And then candy, specifically they were amazed by the tubs and tubs of licorice. I was too because it was really fresh. He let them each take something. Darin wanted to try the biscotti and was eating it in the car. Rose saw it and wanted to taste, so he let her. She ended up gobbling up the whole thing (it was about 2 inches wide by a foot long). It was cute, thankfully Ken had another one that Darin could have. Anyway, so I ask the boys if they still felt sorry for their Dad, and they yelled NO!