Yesterday I went to work for two hours like a good girl. <sigh> The things I’ll do to keep getting a paycheck. I went directly to Costco to pick up a few items and then to Whole Foods to finish my grocery shopping for dinner. Last night’s meal was a slight deviation from my recent careful food choices. (By slight, I mean major!)
The brother has to work today and is celebrating Mother’s Day with his wife’s parents. As such, my Colorado based family got together last night to honor my mom. And Mom is a perfectly good reason to throw caution to the wind! She loves it, so I made Filet de Chateaubriand with all the trimmings. My brother and his wife brought apple pie and ice cream for dessert. Dinner was a hit! And yes, that’s a picture of Mom explaining the finer points of baseball to me when I was five years old–I’m pretty sure it’s my favorite picture of the two of us. My mom is the bestest!
And speaking of not-so-careful food choices:
After Saundra finished giving me the driving tour of Concord and Lexington, we met Mark and their boys at Bedford Farms Ice Cream. Holy Moly. Incredible. In fact, “incredible” may be inadequate to properly describe this place. They make their own ice cream (I do, too… just not in those quantities) and it rocks! And the serving sizes are out of control. Eric and Trey each have their own banana split. Their Easter baskets had gift cards so all three boys were allowed to get whatever they wanted. Mark ordered nothing. We were all standing in line and when the banana splits came through the window, I looked at him and asked if he was batting cleanup. “Oh yeah, Dad’s batting cleanup,” was the response. The ‘kiddie size’ is bigger than a ‘large’ at most ice cream parlors. It was incredibly good, though!
Todd, their oldest, opted for a seat in the tree to eat his ice cream. At one point he dropped his spoon and took to licking the ice cream like it was on a cone. His dad finally noticed and rescued him. Mark grabbed the ice cream so Todd could retrieve the fallen spoon, toss it in the trash barrel, and scamper off for a new spoon.
Everyone got different flavors and everyone was happy. The weather was outstanding so we just sat on the benches and enjoyed our dessert. It was relaxing to just keep chitchatting with Mark and Saundra. A friend of theirs met us at Bedford Farms as well. Her husband is deployed and her kids are in college so she’s by herself for a while. Mark was deployed for almost a year and Saundra said Sunday nights (which this was) were the most difficult because everyone would be out as a family and the loneliness of being a temporary single mom would hit. As such, she’s been extra sensitive to the plight of other deployment widows and has tried her best to make them feel included.
Once the boys had eaten their fill of ice cream, they all took to the tree. Trey was content to just sit on a branch while Todd and Eric began an impromptu contest to see who could shimmy the furthest down the branch. The contestant than swung his body and let go, trying to jump and land the furthest out. They went so far as to find a marker to signify the distance. As you can see, Monkey #1 is in process while Monkey #2 watches. Monkey #2 (Eric) ended up winning this day. And the entire time, Trey sat on his branch and just watched his big brothers.
The boys, ages 6, 8, and 10 (for the day), are great kids. Mark and Saundra should be very proud of their boys. Polite, intelligent, mannerly.
After the contest ended, Eric took Trey’s spot in the tree and dangled. I assume he was contemplating–and solving–the world’s problems. Either that or contemplating his last night as an eight-year-old. Turns out Eric’s birthday is two days after mine, something I did not know. I was there for his ninth birthday… more news to follow.
After wandering to and fro in Concord and Lexington and then landing here at Bedford Farms, I can see why Mark, Saundra, and the boys have loved being stationed here (Mark’s in the United States Air Force). Plus, the close proximity to Boston makes it easy to head into the city to catch a sporting event (like baseball) or go to the symphony (like the Boston Pops Orchestra) or a concert. I wouldn’t want to face the Boston drivers more often than is absolutely necessary, but I could suck it up and do it for a special event. Concord and Lexington are absolutely charming. They feel quite small townish, but you’re twenty minutes from the big city. To me, that’s ideal.
