The Ups and Downs of Outings

Seeing as the weather was often quite wet or plans of venturing out where somewhat destroyed. One, day though, we decided the weather was nice so we needed to get these kids (and moms!) out of the house. We took 30 minute, or so, drive to the Old Faithful of California. It's a small geyser that also has lots of sheep and goats (and supposedly lamas, but there were none to be seen). We were surprised to find a number of adults just sitting around the geyser. We felt a little bad, okay not really, for interrupting their solitude with our six children. It was funny to watch their expressions as the water shot up and out of the ground. Most liked it, some didn't. You can't please everyone!
We took a short drive, when we left, through Calistoga. They have lots of fun shops and restaurants down their main street, at the end of which was a fun little Sushi place (more on that later). We continued our way home, it really is a pretty drive and pretty place to live. Lots and lots of green (something I'm missing here in Kansas).
We deemed this one a successful outing!
With success, though, also comes failure. Our less successful outing came in the form of a walk around the block. We thought we were being good moms', again getting our kids out of the house. It started to backfire when we got kicked off the golf course by the Lady Golf Marshall with a cozy blanket wrapped around her legs snug in her golf cart. So, sure, it's probably not the best idea to be on the golf cart trail but is walking down the sidewalkless street with 6 kids any safer? She claimed there were many golfers out (we saw not-a-one) took our names and our parents names (sorry mom and dad you've been blacklisted!) and sent us on our way. This started to further down the path of backfiring when whining ensued and Miss Things' diaper was a little loaded down, she kept grabbing the back of her pants to pull it up. It kept me laughing but wasn't that comfortable for her (I'm guessing). Finally I took noisy Little Miss out of the stroller and carried her the rest of the way so Miss Thing could sit. We finally made it home, seriously thinking twice about ever leaving the house with 6 kids again!