"A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again"*

Nan had left and things seemed even quieter than they normally do. Deafeningly quiet. It was time for an adventure to take everyone's mind off the fact that we were feeling a bit lonely here on the prairies. But something we hadn't done before. Something exciting and different . . . but not too far away since we had to be back for lunch. Then Supermom remembers a big lake just moments down the road. Yes, that's right. A lake. Ducks Unlimited flooded this vast stretch of prairie to create a bird sanctuary. A friend told me there were dozens of species of birds, including pelicans. We had briefly driven by this area but hadn't really explored. Now seemed like the perfect time. Bird-watching isn't up there on my list of favourite pastimes but it sounded like a unique outing. So we threw some things in a bag - sunscreen, hats, bug repellent, books, Piggy, "Baby Ee ee" (Rosie's stuffed monkey), "Baby"(Rosie's doll), diapers, wipes, snacks, the cover of the "Annie" soundtrack (don't even ask), kleenex, more books, Tylenol (for me - and by the looks of this list, are you surprised?) and then we were off.

It began as a fun adventure. We chatted along the way in the car about lakes and birds and bumpy roads and cows. Rosie piped in a few times with her ideas about animals and she got really excited when a plane flew overhead ("Bop's plane" she always says). At last we turned down a grid road which seemed to go nowhere. Just when I was about to turn around, we came over the crest of a hill and there it was - the biggest body of water I have seen in this area of the world. It was very exhilerating.

Brook and Rosie led the way down to the the water, anticipating fun of some kind

It was a long walk so there was time for a few pictures

This is it!

The girls posed for me, though it was so windy that Brook needed to hold her hat

Soon after we made the lengthy walk down to the water, I realised that it was really smelly. Really. And really grungy. Really. Then my job became making sure Rosie didn't swim in or drink this disgusting water. Brooklyn became statuesque, frozen to the spot by her fear of the filth surrounding her. She mentioned numerous times in the span of about two minutes that she smelled something funny and she didn't think it was Rosie. Then she decided she wouldn't go any further. So I chased Rosie, keeping her from the water, eventually resigned to carrying her kicking and screaming back to the car (we had been there for five minutes tops) while Brookie cried - no screamed - for me to come and carry her. We all were less than chipper on the slow walk back to the car through the grunge, the dry, prickly grass (this also got a rise out of Brooklyn as it scratched her legs), the broken beer bottles ("No, Rosie. Don't touch that, Honey."). Finally we all piled into the car, I scarfed down a couple of Tylenol and took a few moments to go to my "happy place" which looked nothing like this stupid lake. Brookie and Rosie calmed down when I passed out a snack or two and sat in relative silence until Brookie asked, "Mommy, where are the birds?" That's right. We didn't see one.

~Mandy

*This title is borrowed from a fantastic essay by David Foster Wallace. It just fit so pefectly, I couldn't resist.