Today was “outing day.” If the kids have been getting all their chores done during the week, then we take some time on Friday to go and do something out of the ordinary just for fun. Today we started with a drive to Dragon’s Keep to pick up Howard. We went out to dinner at Chuck-a-rama. It was pricey, but I can’t teach kids how to behave in a restaurant if we never go to one. They love getting to pick whatever they want to eat. They especially love that they can pick lots of desserts.
After dinner the kids weren’t quite ready to go home yet. I was considering taking them to the Museum of Art at BYU, but I wasn’t sure when it closed for the day. On a whim I drove to the BYU Botanical Gardens instead. It was the right choice. The kids loved the duck pond. Another family gave us the last of their bread so my kids got to feed ducks. They even got to feed three little ducklings. The pond also had four turtles and some fish. The kids loved it. After awhile we went on a walk along the trail through the gardens. The kids loved that as well. They kept running ahead and exclaiming over every cool thing they found. A stream! A flower! A rock wall! Stairs! A bridge! Tennis balls! A Bird! We took a break at the top of the trail and went inside the Maeser building for a bathroom. I still love that building. I think it is my favorite building on the campus. The kids liked it too. Their voices automatically hushed with reverence. Then we wended our way back down the trail to the duck pond. I could tell that the kids were wearing out. They stopped running so far ahead and the steady stream of exclamations dwindled to a trickle.
At the base of the trail we again paused to enjoy the duck pond. A group of people had a dog there. I found it fascinating that wherever the dog went all the ducks in the pond would begin swimming toward the dog. It was almost as if they were prepared to attack the potential predator. There were probably 20 ducks out there and it was fascinating to watch this little fleet swim and maneuver. The dog was paying no attention to the ducks. He was having fun with sticks and people.
Then it was time to go home. All the kids climbed into the car tired and happy. Gleek had a fistful of duck feathers which she sorted and described out loud during the trip home. Kiki kept talking about how she’d like to come back and just sit and draw or read. She kept asking me if I had come there often when I was a student at BYU. I did, but not often. I always meant to go, but life keeps getting busy. Link asked if maybe we could buy a house near that pond because he’d like to live close to it. Patches was too tired for commentary.
It was a good outing. We need to go back there again some time.