Moose

Friday night Mark had a going away party to attend after work, so I decided to take the kids to the Skyline Drive In for dinner.

The Skyline is an old school diner that sits at the the crest of a 20 mile stretch of road that winds through the hills west of Portland.

The winding road is quite charming in the daylight, but at night in the rain it can feel a bit scary, but the long and treacherous drive was not going to put me off my mission to kill as much time outside of the house as possible, before bed, so off we went- Maxwell, Freyja, Rolf and a tiny stuffed moose, named Moose.

When we finally arrived, it appeared that half of Portland had the same idea of what would be a good idea for dinner!  The tiny place was jam packed with families and rowdy teenagers taking up all the seats at the counter.

So we waited, and waited, and waited, which is never a good idea with Freyja.

She is impatient and a little wild, not a good combo in close quarters.

By the time we were seated, it was 7:00pm, and we were all starving!

We speed ordered and Rolf and Maxwell got started with milkshake, Freyja refused, insisting that the only thing she would eat was a hotdog, with no catchup, and NO bun.

While Rolf and Max enjoyed the milkshakes, Miss F. harassed the waitstaff each time they passed, demanding to know where her naked hotdog was.

I pretended not to notice.

Eventually we got the hotdog, the coleslaw and the split pea soup for which the place is known for and finished our meal, only to discover that they only take cash, which meant a much more meager tip than I had interned,  particularly considering the cranky five year old's relentless tongue lashing of the waiter.

We left to take out lives in our hands driving through the twists and turns back to the  flat safety of SE.

Right as we were about to cross the Ross Island Bridge, Freyja lets out a scream!

MOOSE! 

MOOOOOOOOSE! 

We forgot MOOSE!   

I cannot sleep without Moose!

I assured her that we could call and pick moose up the next day, but she was not convinced and screamed the rest of the way home.  

When we got home I started to phone the restaurant to ask after Moose's safety, but hardly had I picked up the phone book when Freyja  screams from the bathroom

There is water pouring out of the potty!!!!

and there was indeed a flood of water pouring out of the potty, filling the bathroom and working it's way into the kitchen.  

I waded in, turned off the valve behind the toilet, plunged and got the water to stop, got Rolf to put Freyja to bed, and spend the next two hours mopping, disinfecting and doing laundry (since it took every towel in the place to sop up the water). 

I was very tired and went to bed, around midnight, only to be awakened a half hour later by Mark coming home. 

At six the next morning Freyja wakes me up to remind me that we have to go and get Moose. 

So she and I sneak off and let everyone else sleep.  

The diner is open for breakfast, so we were able to get the moose without incident. 

As we drove away Freyja asked me to turn the rearview mirror so I could see greet & see Moose.  I told her that I couldn't because I needed to watch the road, and that I would greet Moose when I got home. 

Now you've hurt his feelings Mommy, he doesn't want to talk to you!