Hip and Cool.

Yesterday I did something Hip and Cool.

Yes, me.

(Erin.)

I went to a concert with some girlfriends.



Good price, huh? Military special for Memorial Day.
It was quite fun, and the girl can sang.

There were four of us that attended the concert together, and between us we are the owners and operators of 6 children and 1 fetus.
We thought we would go to a concert, get a night away from the kids, and feel young again.

Well. We accomplished two of our goals.

We realized that you can't un-age yourself just by attending a concert. We were initially hit with that realization as we were walking through the parking lot and found ourselves discussing the merits of minivans.
By nature, minivans (while practical), are neither Hip nor Cool.

(Unless you can channel your inner swagger.)

Then we started to notice the group of girls walking in ahead of us.
They were sporting jeggings, and pulling them off quite nicely.

Did you know of these things? They are denim leggings, or, the skinniest skinny jean known to mankind.

The four of us will probably never wear jeggings. Because we are mothers. And therefore in all likelihood cannot pull it off.

But, I still have to say that we were somewhat Hip and Cool by the simple fact that we were out. On the town. After dark.

Despite the fact that we all recognized that our bodies are not used to being out past midnight.

Who am I kidding? My body is not used to being out past 8pm.

It doesn't happen often. I shall relish it.

Do you know what is not so Hip and Cool?
Unintentionally taking a spill on a sand dune.

Allow me to share a little story with you.
The other day, we went out to the nearby Bruneau Sand Dunes.

They are an oddity of nature, as great piles of sand have no rightful place in Idaho.

Yet they exist, and entice the locals to come out with their children and sleds, and enjoy the scenery.
The dune we were perched atop was quite steep.
The picture doesn't quite do it justice.

We had a hard time lugging, pushing, and carrying the children up to the top because it was so steep.

We played at the peak for a while, and then prepared to let the kids sled back down to the bottom.

Alex and our friend's little girl were all set to go down together.
We had been watching folks sled down, and they weren't going very fast. So we felt comfortable letting Alex and Reese (who is not quite 2 years old) go down together.

Well.
Those other people must not have been going very fast because they were a good deal heavier than our sled of small girls.

Alex and Reese went fast.
Very fast.

So fast, that I decided that I should chase after them and do my best to grab the sled and slow them down.

I failed.

And Laura, waiting at the bottom, caught a bit of that on film.

It is a very short video clip because Laura had to stop filming to try to save their lives.
I shall break it down for you:
1) You will see Josh at the top of the hill in a black shirt. He is the one who gave the girls a good, strong push, and that is where their ride initiated.
2) When the video starts, I am already in full pursuit of the runaway sled.
3) When it becomes obvious that I cannot catch them, I try for a dive.
4) It does not work.
5) Check out how fast that sled is going!
6) Listen for Alex's shrieks
7) Take note of the voices of the surrounding strangers yelling "Catch Them!"
8) No one was able to catch them.
9) They came to a smooth stop and no one was injured.
10) Reese got up and toddled away, quite proud of herself.
11) Alex cried for the next 10 minutes.



After watching the clip, I figured out that my little roll on the dune is why piles of sand fell out of my bra that night when I changed into my jammies.



Me, tumbling in the dune: Not Hip. Not Cool.
And, for the second time, I am out of the running for Mother of the Year.