It was a busy week in our household. On Tuesday we got to see Dallas jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Usually we do not get to hang out on the drop zone, this was a special family jump. It would have been more special if we had gotten to jump too but the Army has some silly rules agains that sort of thing.

Instead we saw this.

Dallas is in there somewhere. See if you can pick him out.

I couldn’t either, but it was still fun to watch.

The aircraft made another pass that was almost too close for comfort, but the twinkies loved it.

It was an excellent day.

Today I got to go on a date with one of my favorite guys, John.

We had lunch at a little sandwich place near a soccer store because he wanted some new shoes. If you don’t know about our soccer experiences, you can read all about them here.

On the way in I saw this bumper sticker.

No, I did not see Sarah Palin, but this may have been her car.

Unfortunately the soccer shop was no longer in business. This was ok with John because he hates shopping. Instead, we Googled the shoes and ordered them over lunch. I love the internet. John loves not having to actually go shopping and, “talk to salesmen and stuff.”

I had a reuben, because I always have the reuben. As a reuben connoisseur I have to say that Marty’s New York Bagel Deli in Anchorage makes one that is in my top 5.

After lunch and “shopping” I took John to see Cars 2. By Cars I mean Hangover. Don’t judge, Dallas had already let him see the first one, so what difference does it make?

The twins are away this week for the rural part of the rural exchange program. I heard from Taryn, she is doing fine. She ate some kind of fish egg salad. She was not impressed, but I give her points for trying. John has not made contact. This is no surprise.

Anyway, we took the twinkies on a walk around the university here in Anchorage. We saw that there was a lake that had a few geo caches around it, so it was a perfect adventure. The boys love going out “treasure hunting.” It also gets all of us out of the house which greatly reduces the risk of homicides.

We set off with our GPS and our boots, it is still pretty muddy here. Shortly after we began walking we realized that the place was teeming with unleashed dogs. We did not bring our stupid dog. I’m not a fan of people who let their dogs run off leash. I find it annoying when they run up to me or my children and scare or otherwise annoy us. There is also the risk that an off-leash dog will spook a moose, causing big problems. (I’m not crazy, one did this a couple of weeks ago and the moose kicked a little kid getting off of the school bus!) The dogs all seemed friendly though, so today was not so bad.

Pretty soon Dallas noticed a sign which said that this path was actually a designated “off-leash” area. Like I said, we did not bring the stupid dog. Not having a dog made us look kind of weird. It’s like when you see the random creep at the playground and you ask where his kid is and he says, “I don’t have one.”

We’re d0gaphiles.

The dogs kept running up to Reese & Jackson both; scaring and delighting them. Apparently there is a rule that I was not aware of prior to this walk. The smaller and more harmless looking the dog, the more one should scream and cry. Good times.

I tried to keep the troops moving by handing out a little treat. Before we left I grabbed two fun size snickers and put them in my pocket. When the twinkies started to run out of gas I said, “do you want a treat?” I unwrapped and handed them the little candy bars, fully expecting a big hug and a #1 Mom pin.

Instead, Reese ran to the edge of the lake and threw his candy. It landed a few feet in on top of the ice. I asked him why he did that and he said, “it’s for the dogs.”

There were a few dogs playing on the ice ON THE OTHER SIDE of the lake. They did not notice his chocolate. He was crestfallen. I told him the candy wasn’t for the dogs, it was for him. To this he asked, “well can I have it?”

“No, it’s in the lake.”

Tears.

Pouting.

Stomping.

So much for #1 Mom. As it turns out, in his little brain the word ‘treat’ is meant only for dogs. I was instructed to use the word ‘snack’ in the future. Thanks for the grammar lesson kiddo.