Walks with the grandparents

Sunday afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa wanted to see where the kids go to school, but Zander was too tired to go and Rebecca decided to start packing for Paris.  So Callie, Griffin, Grandma, Grandpa and I headed out instead.  Callie was really excited to show the hillside in front of her school, so we detoured through the woods on top of the train tunnel.  A neighborhood kid followed us in, disturbingly close on our heels, but I ignored him and soon he took another branch of the trail.  It’s a bit of a stretch to call these 2 acres woods, since they’re really just abandoned land in a steep gully that surrounds train tracks, but it’s still a fun way to kill half an hour with the kids.  The entire parcel is surrounded by fences, anywhere from 6 feet tall to 30 feet near the soccer fields.  We get access in a secret spot where the fence is broken, and it is a bit of a treacherous path in spots, with up to 50 foot drops if we were to fall.  Anyway, Callie proceeds to tell us that her school class comes in here some times—WHAT???  I always felt a bit nervous taking my 3 kids, but 20 or more?  Are they crazy?  Then I began to hear a muffled “help” and my short-term auditory memory pulled out what I’d been misunderstanding before—a series of “au secours” cries for the last 5 minutes.  I couldn’t help but think that perhaps the kid that had followed us in was dangling from a tree branch over the gully or something…  Well, it turns out this was just a prank, but I was so mad I told the kid to go home, and escorted him out of the area.  We showed Grandma and Grandpa the playground at Callie’s school and then at Zander’s school and on the way home Grandpa carried Callie.

Monday evening was our last chance to take Grandma and Grandpa out to the ruins of Mont Faucon.  I actually haven’t ever driven to the spot before and got lost a couple of times… and then I found out, upon arrival, that we’re not even allowed to drive all the way down the trail—we’re supposed to do a 90 minute hike.  We decided to go for it, and it was a fun, easy trip.  Still, I didn’t take pictures of anything but these amazing, huge, escargots.