Let's Make a Deal

Alex called after school on Friday to say that he was at a friend's house for his birthday party which happened to be a sleepover and could I bring his sleeping bag and his pillow and anything else he might need ,but please don't bring anything embarrassing. I said I would have to talk to the mom of the friend to verify that he actually was invited to an actual birthday party and forget the sleepover because he had to get up early on Saturday and be a decent person. He called later to beg to spend the night because I am the same person who tells the dog I will absolutely not feed her from the table and then slips her a piece of meat if she begs long enough and because Alex knows I am this person. So I said he could spend the night but he would have to promise not only to be a decent person, but to have a positive enthusiastic attitude about the trip to Yellowstone on Saturday. He spent the night, but as with most middle school overnighters there was no sleep involved. So he slept the whole way to Yellowstone. See him not in the welcome to Yellowstone picture?

When we got to the mudpots, I decided to call in my favor and made him get out of the car. Here is the video from the mudpots. Listen carefully and you can hear the Princess comment on his wonderful attitude.

(The Princess swears she has told me how to work with my video, but evidently I am hopeless. Just touch your right ear to your right shoulder and press the play button...)

He did perk after I reminded him of our little deal. That is him playing in the geyser steam.

And here he is propped up along the road with the rest of us--in the quintessential Yellowstone family picture. Are we making memories, or what?