Adventures of My Traveling Circus

Recently my mom and I became motivated to get motivated. It makes sense, atleast in our minds it does. The first thing on our agenda was to start walking, daily. Now for most people that may seem simple. Well we're not most people. We enjoy short people, and at the moment we have 8 of them between the two of us. And on most days 10 because we watch two of my brother's kids. Now this "simple" walk just became a bit more complicated, didn't it? BUT, as I said, we were motivated so we figured, as Savannah likes to say, "We got this!".
Last Wednesday was the first day... and for reasons not completely understood, was not our last. We decided to walk down Gyle Rd, which was mistake number 1. It is a main road these days. Back when I was a kid my brothers and I could ride our bikes down that road to our grandma's house and not see a single car. But not now; now it's practically a highway. And people driving today are less polite, pay less attention, or have less common sense, pick any one. Not only did cars NOT even bother to drift away from us even slightly (with a completely empty other lane), my mom and I agreed that one semi seemed to actually veer closer to the shoulder that we were occupying. Additionally, the shoulder is less of a shoulder and more of a, hmm, how do you say... debris littered, pot-hole infested, ankle-twisting death trap. At any rate, we spent the 30 minutes it took to get all 5 kids that we had situated. Now this walk almost ended before it began when my mom and I gave ourselves sideaches by laughing at our attempt to hang poor Abby on the front of me in a glorified window treatment called a Moby Wrap.

I promise it wasn't as bad as it looks.

We then got my foster baby, Livvy on the left, and mom's foster baby, Miss Layla on the right, situated in their horse and carriage. Although a smidgen squished, likely prime seats compared to Miss Abigail's noose.

Livvy and Malayha enjoying the view from their plush seats.

Three down, two more to go-Johanna and Josiah. She was quite enthusiastic, during the prep stage of this walk, to be a big helper and push her brother in the umbrella stroller. That lasted tooooo... approximately the end of the driveway. Can't say I blame the poor little 20 lb 4-year-old. Her "little" brother weighs more than her, and the wheels on an umbrella stroller? Lets just say they were designed for a mall and not the moutainous terrain we were about to attempt to conquer. So, as my mom was pushing the other stroller with our two 6-month olds in it, that left me with hands free to push him. Well theoretically hands free. Abby would beg to differ. I'm pretty sure a couple of her squeals were code for, "Please... put... hands... under... hanging... bottom... getting... dizzy... blurry... bright light.... can't breath...". Additionally (yes, it gets better), I'm 5' 8 1/2"- I'm preeeety sure that umbrella strollers are designed for individuals approximately 5' 6" or shorter, cause the handles were a good 2 inches lower than a comfortable reach for me. Which meant I was slightly bent forward, which did NOTHING for a) my fat rolls, and b) Abby's choke hold issues. So after a stride or two I tried a different angle. I walked to the left of the stroller using my right hand and the left handle to push the stroller. This provided less than optimum steering control, BUT it was better than the alternative. And every short while, once my hand would go numb from trying to steer the cute little bugger who insisted on tossing his sippy cup everytime he was finished instead of just leaving it in his lap (which you can't blame the guy when my mom is right behind him saying thank-you to him as either her or Johanna are picking it up ... MOM!), I would ask Johanna to please push it for a second. Wellllll, after she ended up going off-roading (more than a few times) I would assume the position and take back over.

Johanna getting back onto the shoulder from an upclose and personal visit with the ditch.

Although the possible outcomes of this fiasco were many, we made it!! Safely!! Successfully walked our small zoo of children a little over a mile and a half. The next day we walked the river trail... and THAT'S a whole nother blog in and of itself!! It involves the picking of "bamboo" by Addie (which I'm fairly certain is not native to Northern California), and the discovery of meal-worms who are possibly claustrophobic according to Savannah, a close call had by Dion regarding a side-of-the-trail frantic potty stop, and Abigail who had a MUCH better seat this time around.
p.s. We welcome any and ALL donations for the purchase of a treadmill. ;)