Oh the fun we had...

So today we got the great idea to get out of the house. Now this is a big thing for me. I rarely get out of my pajamas lately, so for me to look good enough to leave the house is a big ordeal. Well not an ordeal, just more work then I'm used to putting into getting ready lately. Without Hubby around, there just doesn't seem to be any point to waisting all that makeup. Ok, so we left the house and where did we go you might ask, well we went to hike to a castle. I had done this with Hubby before, but he had driven, so I was a little not so sure of where we were supposed to go to get to the hiking trail. I plugged in the town I thought it was in into my GPS and off we went. This is after I filled my mostly flat front tire up with air. I am so proud of myself, it was the first time I have ever filled up a car tire with air, the tire didn't explode, so it was a good experience for me. My brother checked the remaining three so I was able to get back in the car, but I was beaming that I had done it by myself!! I even checked the owners manual first to see how many PSI's I needed so I didn't blow the tire up. Ok, I've gotten off track, where were we... Oh yeah, so we head off to the castle hiking trail town and it takes FOREVER to get there. Then when we are within a mile of the town I see a sign for the castle and decide to ditch the GPS's wonderful guidance and venture out on my own. I follow the signs only to be directed back up the mountain I have just come down!! Still not sure, I continue up the mountain with my brother in the car behind me. At this point it is lunch time for my four kids and his one and we are not even to the castle let alone the restaurant inside the castle that we have to hike to. Finally I find a parking lot with a sign that says it's the parking lot for the hikers to the castle we want to see, but it is NOT the one that I had gone to with Hubby, so at this point I'm just praying that it does in deed lead to the castle. So we get all the kids unloaded from the car, all bundled up and on our way. The kids are doing great! It was all down hill... the whole way to the castle... to the very closed castle. Yeah, I forgot to check before leaving if the castle was actually open this time of year. Come to find out, it's not. Now we had to break it to the kids. My niece was ok with this, since she seems to be terrified of castles, and even large houses, yeah... I'm not sure why. By my children on the other hand, they were a little miffed. It might have been it was now one o'clock and they still hadn't eaten lunch; because they have never enjoyed a castle when we have actually gotten in to see them before. But anyway, now we had to hike up that oh so great "all the way here it was down hill" mountain. So up we started with three crying boys. My oldest was sad b/c his dad wasn't there, and he wanted to see the castle... yeah right! The first part was true, but there is no way he wanted to see that castle. The youngest were crying b/c they wanted water and food. Now if you know my youngest then you know that when they want water then they want it NOW and they will let you know until they get it that they want it. So the sooner you get it for them the happier your life is. But this was not possible seeing as how we were at the bottom of this large hill and the car was at the top. Thus began what I like to refer to as "Trudging through Europe." Our family doesn't gallivant, or meander, we trudge. We do a lot, but we usually do it dragging at least two kids behind us. I drug two crying little bumbles up a mountain, with one sad Minny Me trailing way behind. Only the threats of not getting any food for the day made him hurry up. (That is a huge motivator for Minny Me) By the grace of God we finally made it to the top of the mountain, we all survived.